ABSTRACT

Marco Polo's book purports to be the work of a middle-aged Venetian male, writing at the end of the thirteenth century. There exists a women's Marco Polo legend, of indeterminate date but allegedly based on stories told by Marco Polo to his daughters. It begins with a specially-tailored variant of the opening refrain: Sinore prinzipesse duchesse marche contesse e tute le femene a cui plexere de saver de reame dela femene. Attempts to trace a Venetian theme in Polo's book might put some weight, but not a lot, on Polo's choice of coin types. Least helpful in this respect is his measure of gold. The Venetians attributed the Greeks' successful recovery of the city in 1261 to the intrigues of their commercial rival, Genoa, a less populous city but one which was probably as rich or richer overall. It became a principal aim of Genoese policy to reduce the Venetian presence on the Black Sea and to curb the power of Venice everywhere.