[MR] History Blog: Marco Polo's Missing Daughter and Wills

[Garth Groff and Sally Sanford]

Noble Friends,

Today the History Blog reported on a bombshell that just exploded all over
Italian history. It is a story worthy of a prime-time soap opera like
Dynasty or Falcon Crest.

In the Venice State Archives, researchers found a will written by/for a
daughter of Marco Polo, a daughter completely unknown to history. Agnese
Calbo's 1319 will names *her father*, Marco Polo, as an executor. There is
no extant record of Agnese's birth, and her mother is not mentioned in the
will. It is possible that Agnese was born out of wedlock before his
marriage to Donata Badoer in 1300, or might have been from a liaison with
an unknown woman.

The Blog post goes on to talk about legal problems relating to Marco Polo's
own estate. In 1366, his eldest daughter, Fantina Bragadin, sued her late
husband's family to recover treasure and valuables she inherited from her
father that were not considered marital property. Her husband, Marco
Bragadin (branded "the snake" by the Blog's author) had illegally
appropriated all Fantina's wealth, and then willed it to his own equally
slithering relatives. Eventually, the court ruled in Fantina's favor, and
she won back her inheritance from her powerful in-laws.

Today the History Blog dishes the dirt on the rich and famous in a big way
at http://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/63313 .

Yours Aye,


Lord Mungo Napier, Laird of Mallard Lodge  🦆