Note 663 — Chapter XIV

It is stated by Cinnamis (p. 165) in his life of Manuel Comnenus, that this vessel was built by a private Venetian noble, then sold by the builder to his own republic, and then presented to Manuel. Nicetas adds, that this vessel was in the arsenal at Constantinople in 1172, when the emperor tried to imprison all the Venetians there; and that they took it and made their escape in it, in spite of the fire-ships immediately sent after it. M. Jal (ii. pp. 142-152) has given very interesting extracts on the subject of this great vessel from the treatises of Marino and Filiasi. Smedley shows that the Venetians had owned another enormous ship at the siege of Ancona in 1157, which was called from its magnitude “Il Mondo”—“The World.”—Sketches of Venet. Hist. pp. 63, 64.