For we confess that a critical reader may have some
justification in asking what evidence there is that Marco Polo ever fought
at Curzola, and ever was carried a prisoner to Genoa from that unfortunate
action?
A learned Frenchman, whom we shall have to quote freely in the immediately
ensuing pages, does not venture to be more precise in reference to the
meeting of Polo and Rusticiano than to say of the latter: "In 1298, being
in durance in the Prison of Genoa, he there became acquainted with Marco
Polo, whom the Genoese had deprived of his liberty from motives equally
unknown."[28]
To those who have no relish for biographies that round the meagre skeleton
of authentic facts with a plump padding of what might have been, this
sentence of Paulin Paris is quite refreshing in its stern limitation to
positive knowledge. And certainly no contemporary authority has yet been
found for the capture of our Traveller at Curzola. Still I think that the
fact is beyond reasonable doubt.
Ramusio's biographical notices certainly contain many errors of detail;
and some, such as the many years' interval which he sets between the
Battle of Curzola and Marco's return, are errors which a very little
trouble would have enabled him to eschew. But still it does seem
reasonable to believe that the main fact of Marco's command of a galley at
Curzola, and capture there, was derived from a genuine tradition, if not
from documents.