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In 1271 a seventeen-year-old Venetian named Marco Polo set out with his father and uncle for the court of Kublai Khan, and did not come home for twenty-four…
In 1271 a seventeen-year-old Venetian named Marco Polo set out with his father and uncle for the court of Kublai Khan, and did not come home for twenty-four years. His book describes the Silk Road, the palaces of the Mongol emperor, the paper money, the coal that burned like wood, the postal relays and the great city of Hangzhou, as well as India, Persia and the lands of the Indian Ocean.
Context and significance
Marco dictated the book in a Genoese prison in 1298 to a writer of romances named Rustichello, which partly explains its mix of exact detail and wonder. Christopher Columbus carried an annotated copy. Medieval Arab travellers wrote about many of the same places: compare the journey of Ibn Jubayr.
About the author
Marco Polo (1254–1324) was born in Venice into a family of merchants. At seventeen he set out with his father and uncle across Asia to the court of Kublai Khan, where he served the Mongol emperor for many years and travelled on his behalf through China and beyond.
Returning to Venice after twenty-four years away, he was captured in a war with Genoa, and in prison dictated his adventures to a fellow prisoner, producing The Travels of Marco Polo. For centuries it was Europe's main source of knowledge about the East, and it inspired explorers, Columbus among them.