His Wife's Christian Name Was
Donata, But Of Her Family We Have As Yet Found No Assurance.
I suspect,
however, that her name may have been Loredano (vide infra, p. 77).
Under 1311 we find a document which is of considerable interest, because
it is the only one yet discovered which exhibits Marco under the aspect of
a practical trader. It is the judgment of the Court of Requests upon a
suit brought by the NOBLE MARCO POLO of the parish of S. Giovanni
Grisostomo against one Paulo Girardo of S. Apollinare. It appears that
Marco had entrusted to the latter as a commission agent for sale, on an
agreement for half profits, a pound and a half of musk, priced at six
lire of grossi (about 22l. 10s. in value of silver) the pound.
Girardo had sold half-a-pound at that rate, and the remaining pound which
he brought back was deficient of a saggio, or, one-sixth of an ounce,
but he had accounted for neither the sale nor the deficiency. Hence Marco
sues him for three lire of Grossi, the price of the half-pound sold, and
for twenty grossi as the value of the saggio. And the Judges cast the
defendant in the amount with costs, and the penalty of imprisonment in the
common gaol of Venice if the amounts were not paid within a suitable
term.[11]
Again in May, 1323, probably within a year of his death, Ser Marco appears
(perhaps only by attorney), before the Doge and his judicial examiners, to
obtain a decision respecting a question touching the rights to certain
stairs and porticoes in contact with his own house property, and that
obtained from his wife, in S. Giovanni Grisostomo.
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