follow some lines of mere technicality] I specially and expressly bequeath to my aforesaid Daughters Fantina, Bellela, and Moreta, freely and absolutely, to be divided equally among them.  And I constitute them my heirs as regards all and sundry my property movable and immovable, and as regards all rights and contingencies tacit and expressed, of whatsoever kind as hereinbefore detailed, that belong to me or may fall to me.  Save and except that before division my said daughter Moreta shall receive the same as each of my other daughters hath received for dowry and outfit [here follow many lines of technicalities, ending]

“And if any one shall presume to infringe or violate this Will, may he incur the malediction of God Almighty, and abide bound under the anathema of the 318 Fathers; and farthermore he shall forfeit to my Trustees aforesaid five pounds of gold;[21] and so let this my Testament abide in force.  The signature of the above named Messer Marco Paulo who gave instructions for this deed.

  “* I Peter Grifon, Priest, Witness.

  “* I Humfrey Barberi, Witness.

  “* I John Giustiniani, Priest of S. Proculo, and Notary, have completed
  and authenticated (this testament)."[22]

We do not know, as has been said, how long Marco survived the making of this will, but we know, from a scanty series of documents commencing in June of the following year (1325), that he had then been some time dead.[23]

[Sidenote:  Place of Sepulture.  Professed Portraits of Polo.]

48.  He was buried, no doubt, according to his declared wish, in the Church of S. Lorenzo; and indeed Sansovino bears testimony to the fact in a confused notice of our Traveller.[24] But there does not seem to have been any monument to Marco, though the sarcophagus which had been erected to his father Nicolo, by his own filial care, existed till near the end of the 16th century in the porch or corridor leading to the old Church of S. Lorenzo, and bore the inscription:  “SEPULTURA DOMINI NICOLAI PAULO DE CONTRATA S. IOANNIS GRISOSTEMI.”  The church was renewed from its foundations in 1592, and then, probably, the sarcophagus was cast aside and lost, and with it all certainty as to the position of the tomb.[25]

[Illustration:  Pavement in front of San Lorenzo, Venice.]

[Illustration:  S. Lorenzo as it was in the 15th century]

There is no portrait of Marco Polo in existence with any claim to authenticity.  The quaint figure which we give in the Bibliography, vol. ii. p. 555, extracted from the earliest printed edition of his book, can certainly make no such pretension.  The oldest one after this is probably a picture in the collection of Monsignor Badia at Rome, of which I am now able, by the owner’s courtesy, to give a copy.  It is set down in the catalogue to Titian, but is probably a work of 1600, or thereabouts, to which the aspect and costume belong.  It is inscribed