The Travels of Marco Polo — Volume 1 by Marco Polo and da Pisa Rusticiano

the immediate family of our Traveller belonged to the _Nobles_ of Venice properly so called, who had seats in the Great Council and were enrolled in the Libro d’Oro. Ramusio indeed styles our Marco _Nobile_ and _Magnifico_, and Rusticiano, the actual scribe of the Traveller’s recollections, calls him “_sajes et noble citaiens de Venece_,” but Ramusio’s accuracy and Rusticiano’s precision were scarcely to be depended on. Very recently, however, since the subject has been discussed with accomplished students of the Venice Archives, proofs have been found establishing Marco’s personal claim to nobility, inasmuch as both in judicial decisions and in official resolutions of the Great Council, he is designated _Nobilis Vir_, a formula which would never have been used in such documents (I am assured) had he not been technically noble.[5] [Sidenote: Marco the Elder.]