Arrival there, Messer
Nicolas found that his wife was dead, and that she had left behind her a
son of fifteen years of age, whose name was MARCO; and 'tis of him that
this Book tells.[NOTE 3] The Two Brothers abode at Venice a couple of
years, tarrying until a Pope should be made.
NOTE 1. - The deceased Pope's name is omitted both in the Geog. Text and in
Pauthier's, clearly because neither Rusticiano nor Polo remembered it. It
is supplied correctly in the Crusca Italian as Clement, and in Ramusio
as Clement IV.
It is not clear that Theobald, though generally adopted, is the
ecclesiastic's proper name. It appears in different MSS. as Teald (G.
T.), Ceabo for Teabo (Pauthier), Odoaldo (Crusca), and in the
Riccardian as Thebaldus de Vice-comitibus de Placentia, which
corresponds to Ramusio's version. Most of the ecclesiastical chroniclers
call him Tedaldus, some Thealdus. Tedaldo is a real name, occurring
in Boccaccio. (Day iii. Novel 7.)
NOTE 2. - After the expulsion of the Venetians from Constantinople,
Negropont was the centre of their influence in Romania. On the final
return of the travellers they again take Negropont on their way. [It was
one of the ports on the route from Venice to Constantinople, Tana,
Trebizond.
