1. LIRA DEI GROSSI equivalent to nearly 3l. 15s. 0d.
(therefore exceeding by nearly 10s. the value of the Pound sterling of
the period, or Lira di Sterlini, as it was called in the appropriate
Italian phrase).[9]
2. LIRA AI GROSSI ... 3s. 9d.
3. LIRA DEI PICCOLI ... 2s. 4d.
The TORNESE or TORNESEL at Venice was, according to Romanin (III. 343) = 4
Venice deniers: and if these are the deniers of the Lira ai Grossi, the
coin would be worth a little less than 3/4d., and nearly the equivalent
of the denier Tournois, from which it took its name.[10]
* * * * *
The term BEZANT is used by Polo always (I believe) as it is by Joinville,
by Marino Sanudo, and by Pegolotti, for the Egyptian gold dinar, the
intrinsic value of which varied somewhat, but can scarcely be taken at
less than 10s. 6d. or 11s. (See Cathay, pp. 440-441; and see also
J. As. ser. VI. tom. xi. pp. 506-507.) The exchange of Venice money for
the Bezant or Dinar in the Levant varied a good deal (as is shown by
examples in the passage in Cathay just cited), but is always in these
examples a large fraction (1/6 up to 1/3) more than the Zecchin. Hence,
when Joinville gives the equation of St. Lewis's ransom as 1,000,000
bezants or 500,000 livres, I should have supposed these to be livres
Parisis rather than Tournois, as M. de Wailly prefers.
