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Marco Polo
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{{Short description|Venetian merchant (1254–1324)}}{{About|the trader and explorer}}{{pp-semi-indef}}{{pp-move}}{{Good article}}{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2022}}{{Use British English|date=August 2016}}- the content below is remote from Wikipedia
- it has been imported raw for GetWiki
| factoids | |
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- Niccolò Polo{edih}
Life
File:Memorials to Marco Polo - Casa Polo - Memorial plaque.jpg|thumb|200px|Commemorative plaque on the site of Casa Polo in Venice, part of the Teatro MalibranTeatro Malibran(File:VENEZIA MILION.JPG|thumb|200px|, Venice, next to Polo's house, is named after the nickname of Polo, )Family origin
Marco Polo was born around 1254 in Venice,{{Harvnb|Bergreen|2007|p=25}} (online copy pp. 24–25)ENCYCLOPEDIA, Pòlo, Marco, Treccani, Istituto Treccani, Viaggiatore veneziano (Venezia o Curzola 1254 - Venezia 1324), it,weblink 17 October 2023, ENCYCLOPEDIA, Polo, Marco, Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, 2015, Gullino, Giuseppe, Istituto Treccani, 84, it,weblink Nacque a Venezia nel 1254. Suo padre, Nicolò di Andrea, del quale non si conosce la data di nascita, esercitò per lungo tempo la mercatura a Costantinopoli, assieme al fratello Matteo. Risiedeva, in Venezia, probabilmente nella contrada di San Severo; non è noto il nome della moglie., 17 October 2023, but the exact date and place of birth are archivally unknown.{{sfn|Wood|1998|pp=111–l113}}WEB,weblink Marco Polo | Biography, Travels, & Influence, Encyclopedia Britannica, 4 January 2024, {{Citation|last=Hinds|first=Kathryn|title=Venice and Its Merchant Empire|year=2002|place=New York}}{{sfn|Puljiz-Å ostik|2015|pp=5–6}}JOURNAL, Marko Polo – Svjetski Putnik, Marco Polo – The World Traveler,weblink Ivan, Peklić, MetodiÄki Ogledi, 17, 1–2, 2011, 50, hr, The "Travels of Marco Polo" contains some basic information concerning Marco Polo's Venetian family and his birth in Venice; the book states that Marco's father, the travelling merchant Niccolò Polo, returned to visit his family in his hometown of Venice around 1269 and there found out that his wife, whom he had left pregnant, had died and left a 15-year-old son named Marco.Benedetto, L. F. (2014). The Travels of Marco Polo. Taylor & Francis. p. 8.In contrast to the general consensus, there are theories suggesting that Marco Polo's birthplace was the island of KorÄulaENCYCLOPEDIA, Polo, Marco, Enciclopedia dell' Arte Medievale, 1998, Chiappori, M.G., Istituto Treccani, nato nella città lagunare o a Curzola, in Dalmazia, nel 1254 e morto a Venezia nel 1324, it,weblink 17 October 2023, ENCYCLOPEDIA, Polo, Marco, Dizionario di Storia, 2011, Istituto Treccani, Venezia o Curzola 1254-Venezia 1324, it,weblink 17 October 2023, {{sfn|Bergreen|2007|p=24}}{{sfn|Brook|2010|p=24}} or Constantinople{{sfn|Puljiz-Å ostik|2015|p=14}} but such hypotheses failed to gain acceptance among most scholars and have been countered by other studies.{{sfn|Puljiz-Å ostik|2015|p=5}}JOURNAL, The curious case of Marco Polo from KorÄula: An example of invented tradition, Journal of Marine and Island Cultures, 2, 20–28, 10.1016/j.imic.2013.05.001, 2013, Orlić, Olga, free, There has also been dispute as to whether the Polo family is of Venetian origin because their exact origin is also unknown.{{sfn|Wood|1998|pp=111–113}} There existed at least two families of the same surname in Venice, one in the San Geremia district, and another in the San Giovanni Grisostomo where was Marco's family house (he is mentioned in 1323 as WEB,weblink Un nuovo tassello della vita di Marco Polo: inedito ritrovato all'Archivio, A new piece of Marco Polo's life: unpublished text found in the Archive, it, Ca' Foscari University of Venice, 18 November 2019, ), and their members and coat of arms are often mistaken in the sources.{{sfn|Wood|1998|pp=112–113}} Some Venetian sources of the 15th and 16th centuries considered that the family Polo was of Dalmatian origin.{{refn|group="nb"|In the old Venetian chronicles, manuscripts and genealogies seemingly is known and mentioned only one Polo family, specifically from San Geremia.{{sfn|Moule|Pelliot|1938|pp=20}} According to 14th-century chronicle Venetiarum historia vulgo Petro Iustiniano Iustiniani filio adiudicata they were immigrants to Venice with uncertain origin; mid-15th century chronicle Cronaca di Venezia fino al 1446 alongside family's coat of arms is stated that in old times came from Dalmatia ("antigamente vene de dalmatia"); another mid-15th century document stating the same "veneron antigamente de dalmatia"; Marino Sanuto the Younger in the 16th century claimed Dalmatian origin; Marco Barbaro in Genealogie Patrizie (1566) claims they arrived in 1033 to Venice from Å ibenik; two 1600 manuscripts stating they "ueneno de dalmatia", "uene de Dalmatia" and so on.{{sfn|Moule|Pelliot|1938|pp=17–20}}{{sfn|Puljiz-Å ostik|2015|pp=9–11}}}}{{sfn|Wood|1998|pp=112}}{{sfn|Puljiz-Å ostik|2015|pp=5–16}}BOOK, Dizionario Storico-Portatile Di Tutte Le Venete Patrizie Famiglie, Historical Dictionary Of All-Portable Venetian Patrician Families,weblink Giuseppe, Bettinelli, Venice, 1780, 126, it, Polo. Vennero dalla Dalmazia. Un f. Nicolò, e Marco fuo Figliuolo, celebrattiffimi viagiatori..., Placido Zurla in the early 19th century noted that in the historical sources there is a lack of any specific mention related to Polo's family,BOOK, Zurla, Placido, Placido Zurla, 1818, Di Marco Polo e degli altri viaggiatori veneziani più illustri, 1,weblink it, Venice, Presso Gio. Giacomo Fuchs, 42–43, while Niccolò Tommaseo in the mid-19th century considered Dalmatian origin of the family.BOOK, Tommaseo, Niccolò, Niccolò Tommaseo, 1857, Bellezza e civiltà , o delle arti del bello sensibile, studii,weblink it, Florence, Felice Le Monnier, 324, Some scholars such as Alvise Zorzi argue Venetian origin and that it can be traced up to the 10th century.{{refn|group="nb"|The surname Polo can be traced in Venice up to 971. In the 11-12th century is recorded in Chioggia, in the 12th century in Torcello, Equileo, Lido Maggiore, Rialto while within Venice also lived in districts of San Trovaso, San Felice, San Geremia and San Leonardo.{{Harvnb|Yule|Cordier|1923|pp=14|loc=ch. 3}}{{sfn|Puljiz-Å ostik|2015|pp=6}}}}WEB,weblink Marco Polo, homo adriaticus in spite of everything, Vale, Giovanni, 28 August 2023, Osservatorio Balcani e Caucaso Transeuropa, OBCT, 17 October 2023, Today, however, the debate is alive. On the Italian side, scholars such as Alvise Zorzi, author among other things of a biography of the explorer, argue that "there is no doubt that Marco Polo was Venetian, his family had been Venetian since the 10th century"., According to another disputed theory their origin and Polo's birthplace was on the island of KorÄula,{{sfn|Wood|1998|pp=112}} which is influenced by Ramusio's account about Polo's capture during the Battle of Curzola (1298).{{sfn|Puljiz-Å ostik|2015|p=8}}According to some sources, in 1168, his great-uncle, Marco Polo "the Elder", borrowed money and commanded a ship in Constantinople,{{sfn|Bergreen|2007|p=25}}BOOK, Marco Polo,weblink Milton, Rugoff, New Word City, 2015, 978-1-61230-838-8, and his grandfather Andrea Polo of the parish of San Felice had three sons Maffeo, yet another Marco, and the traveller's father Niccolò.{{sfn|Bergreen|2007|p=25}} This genealogy and information, also probably confusing separate Polo families, created by Giovanni Battista Ramusio in Navigationi et Viaggi (1559), is not universally accepted as there is no additional evidence to support it.{{sfn|Wood|1998|pp=112–113}}{{sfn|Puljiz-Å ostik|2015|p=5}}{{sfn|Moule|Pelliot|1938|pp=15–16}}JOURNAL, Putopisac Marko Polo, Travel writer Marco Polo,weblink AnÄ‘elko, PaveÅ¡ković, GodiÅ¡njak PoljiÄkog Dekanata "Poljica", 23, 1998, 38–66, The date of birth of Polo's father Niccolò and the name of Polo's mother are unknown.Nickname
He was nicknamed during his lifetime (which in Italian literally means 'Million'). In fact, the Italian title of his book was , which means "The Book of Marco Polo, nicknamed '{{'"}}. According to the 15th-century humanist Giovanni Battista Ramusio, his fellow citizens awarded him this nickname when he came back to Venice because he kept on saying that Kublai Khan's wealth was counted in millions. More precisely, he was nicknamed (Mr Marco Millions).Giovan Battista Ramusion, Delle navigationi et viaggi Vol. II, Giunti, Venezia, 1574.However, since also his father Niccolò was nicknamed ,Marco Polo, Il Milione, Istituto Geografico DeAgostini, 1965, p.22 19th-century philologist Luigi Foscolo Benedetto was persuaded that was a shortened version of , and that this nickname was used to distinguish Niccolò's and Marco's branch from other Polo families.Benedetto, L. F.: Marco Polo, il Milione, Firenze, 1928 in Marco Polo, Il Milione, Istituto Geografico DeAgostini, 1965, p.22 (Ranieri Allulli, MARCO POLO E IL LIBRO DELLE MERAVIGLIE – Dialogo in tre tempi del giornalista Qualunquelli Junior e dell'astrologo Barbaverde, Milano, Mondadori, 1954, p.26)Early life and Asian travel
{{See also|Niccolò and Maffeo Polo|Europeans in Medieval China}}File:Marco Polo Mosaic from Palazzo Tursi.jpg|thumb|upright|left|Mosaic of Marco Polo displayed in the Palazzo Doria-Tursi, GenoaGenoaHis father, Niccolò Polo, a merchant, traded with the Near East, becoming wealthy and achieving great prestige.{{Harvnb|Parker|2004|pp=648–49}} Niccolò and his brother Maffeo set off on a trading voyage before Marco's birth.Italiani nel sistema solare di Michele T. Mazzucato In 1260,According to Marco Polo's biographer Alvise Zorzi, Niccolò and Maffeo had decided to leave Constantinople after the fall of the Latin Empire of Constantinople, therefore, after 1261. BOOK, La Repubblica del Leone. Storia di Venezia, The Lion's Republic. History of Venice, Zorzi, Alvise, Bompiani, Milan, 2001, 156, 88-452-9136-7, it, Niccolò and Maffeo, while residing in Constantinople, then the capital of the Latin Empire, foresaw a political change; they liquidated their assets into jewels and moved away.{{Harvnb|Britannica|2002|p=571}} According to The Travels of Marco Polo, they passed through much of Asia, and met with Kublai Khan, a Mongol ruler and founder of the Yuan dynasty.{{Harvnb|Yule|Cordier|1923|loc=ch.1–9}} Almost nothing is known about the childhood of Marco Polo until he was fifteen years old, except that he probably spent part of his childhood in Venice.{{sfn|Bergreen|2007|p=36}}{{sfn|Puljiz-Šostik|2015|p=24}} Meanwhile, Marco Polo's mother died, and an aunt and uncle raised him. He received a good education, learning mercantile subjects including foreign currency, appraising, and the handling of cargo ships; he learned little or no Latin. His father later married Floradise Polo (née Trevisan).In 1269, Niccolò and Maffeo returned to their families in Venice, meeting young Marco for the first time.{{sfn|Bergreen|2007|p=36}} In 1271, during the rule of Doge Lorenzo Tiepolo, Marco Polo (at seventeen years of age), his father, and his uncle set off for Asia on the series of adventures that Marco later documented in his book.{{sfn|Bergreen|2007|p=37}}File:Caravane Marco Polo.jpg|thumb|A close up of the Catalan Atlas depicting Marco Polo travelling to the East during the Pax MongolicaPax MongolicaThey sailed to Acre and later rode on their camels to the Persian port Hormuz. During the first stages of the journey, they stayed for a few months in Acre and were able to speak with Archdeacon Tedaldo Visconti of Piacenza. The Polo family, on that occasion, had expressed their regret at the long lack of a pope, because on their previous trip to China they had received a letter from Kublai Khan to the Pope, and had thus had to leave for China disappointed. During the trip, however, they received news that after 33 months of vacation, finally, the Conclave had elected the new Pope and that he was exactly the archdeacon of Acre. The three of them hurried to return to the Holy Land, where the new Pope entrusted them with letters for the "Great Khan", inviting him to send his emissaries to Rome. To give more weight to this mission he sent with the Polos, as his legates, two Dominican fathers, Guglielmo of Tripoli and Nicola of Piacenza.WEB,weblink GREGORIO X, beato in "Enciclopedia dei Papi", www.treccani.it, They continued overland until they arrived at Kublai Khan's palace in Shangdu, China (then known as Cathay). By this time, Marco was 21 years old.WEB,weblink Marco Polo, Total History, 29 November 2013, Impressed by Marco's intelligence and humility, Kublai appointed him to serve as his foreign emissary to India and Burma. He was sent on many diplomatic missions throughout his empire and in Southeast Asia, (such as in present-day Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Vietnam), but also entertained the Khan with stories and observations about the lands he saw. As part of this appointment, Marco travelled extensively inside China, living in the emperor's lands for 17 years.Kublai initially refused several times to let the Polos return to Europe, as he appreciated their company and they became useful to him.BOOK, Zannos, Susan, The Life and Times of Marco Polo,weblink Mitchell Lane Publishers, 978-1-61228-907-6, March 2005, However, around 1291, he finally granted permission, entrusting the Polos with his last duty: accompany the Mongol princess Kököchin, who was to become the consort of Arghun Khan, in Persia. After leaving the princess, the Polos travelled overland to Constantinople. They later decided to return to their home.They returned to Venice in 1295, after 24 years, with many riches and treasures. They had travelled almost {{convert|15000|mi|km|-3}}.Genoese captivity and later life
(File:Marco Polo portrait.jpg|thumb|upright|16th-century portrait of Marco Polo)Marco Polo returned to Venice in 1295 with his fortune converted into gemstones. At this time, Venice was at war with the Republic of Genoa.Nicol 1992, p. 219 Polo armed a galley equipped with a trebuchetYule, The Travels of Marco Polo, London, 1870: reprinted by Dover, New York, 1983. to join the war. He was probably caught by Genoans in a skirmish in 1296, off the Anatolian coast between Adana and the Gulf of AlexandrettaAccording to fr. Jacopo d'Aqui, Chronica mundi libri imaginis (and not during the battle of Curzola (September 1298), off the Dalmatian coast,{{sfn|Puljiz-Šostik|2015|pp=28–36}} a claim which is due to a later tradition (16th century) recorded by Giovanni Battista RamusioPolo, Marco; Latham, Ronald (translator) (1958). The Travels of Marco Polo, p. 16. New York: Penguin Books. {{ISBN|0-14-044057-7}}.{{sfn|Puljiz-Šostik|2015|pp=8, 12, 28–36}}).He spent several months of his imprisonment dictating a detailed account of his travels to a fellow inmate, Rustichello da Pisa, who incorporated tales of his own as well as other collected anecdotes and current affairs from China. The book soon spread throughout Europe in manuscript form, and became known as The Travels of Marco Polo (Italian title: Il Milione, lit. "The Million", deriving from Polo's nickname "Milione". Original title in Franco-Italian : Livres des Merveilles du Monde). It depicts the Polos' journeys throughout Asia, giving Europeans their first comprehensive look into the inner workings of the Far East, including China, India, and Japan.{{Harvnb|Bram|1983}}Polo was finally released from captivity in August 1299, and returned home to Venice, where his father and uncle in the meantime had purchased a large palazzo in the zone named contrada San Giovanni Crisostomo (Corte del Milion).{{sfn|Bergreen|2007|p=332}} For such a venture, the Polo family probably invested profits from trading, and even many gemstones they brought from the East.{{sfn|Bergreen|2007|p=332}} The company continued its activities and Marco soon became a wealthy merchant. Marco and his uncle Maffeo financed other expeditions, but likely never left Venetian provinces, nor returned to the Silk Road and Asia.{{sfn|Bergreen|2007|p=333}} Sometime before 1300, his father Niccolò died.{{sfn|Bergreen|2007|p=333}} In 1300, he married Donata Badoèr, the daughter of Vitale Badoèr, a merchant.{{sfn|Bergreen|2007|pp=332–33}} They had three daughters, Fantina (married Marco Bragadin), Bellela (married Bertuccio Querini), and Moreta.{{sfn|Bergreen|2007|p=333, 338}}{{Harvnb|Power|2007|p=87}} In 2022 was found that Polo first had a daughter Agnese (b. 1295/1299 - d. 1319) from a partnership or marriage which ended before 1300.WEB,weblink[news]=11938&tx_news_pi1[controller]=News&tx_news_pi1[action]=detail, Agnese, the unknown daughter of Marco Polo, it, Ca' Foscari University of Venice, 7 February 2022, Pietro d'Abano philosopher, doctor and astrologer based in Padua, reports having spoken with Marco Polo about what he had observed in the vault of the sky during his travels. Marco told him that during his return trip to the South China Sea, he had spotted what he describes in a drawing as a star "shaped like a sack" (in Latin: ut sacco) with a big tail (magna habens caudam), most likely a comet. Astronomers agree that there were no comets sighted in Europe at the end of the thirteenth century, but there are records about a comet sighted in China and Indonesia in 1293.WEB,weblink Jensen, Jørgen. "The World's most diligent observer." Asiatische Studien 51.3 (1997): 719–728., Interestingly, this circumstance does not appear in Polo's book of Travels. Peter D'Abano kept the drawing in his volume "Conciliator Differentiarum, quæ inter Philosophos et Medicos Versantur". Marco Polo gave Pietro other astronomical observations he made in the Southern Hemisphere, and also a description of the Sumatran rhinoceros, which are collected in the Conciliator.In 1305 he is mentioned in a Venetian document among local sea captains regarding the payment of taxes. His relation with a certain Marco Polo, who in 1300 was mentioned with riots against the aristocratic government, and escaped the death penalty, as well as riots from 1310 led by Bajamonte Tiepolo and Marco Querini, among whose rebels were Jacobello and Francesco Polo from another family branch, is unclear. Polo is clearly mentioned again after 1305 in Maffeo's testament from 1309 to 1310, in a 1319 document according to which he became owner of some estates of his deceased father, and in 1321, when he bought part of the family property of his wife Donata.Death
File:Chiesa di San Lorenzo.jpg|thumb|San Lorenzo church in the sestiere of Castello (VeniceVeniceIn 1323, Polo was confined to bed, due to illness.{{sfn|Bergreen|2007|p=339}} On 8 January 1324, despite physicians' efforts to treat him, Polo was on his deathbed.{{sfn|Bergreen|2007|p=340}} To write and certify the will, his family requested Giovanni Giustiniani, a priest of San Procolo. His wife, Donata, and his three daughters were appointed by him as co-executrices.{{sfn|Bergreen|2007|p=340}} The church was entitled by law to a portion of his estate; he approved of this and ordered that a further sum be paid to the convent of San Lorenzo, the place where he wished to be buried.{{sfn|Bergreen|2007|p=340}} He also set free Peter, a Tartar servant, who may have accompanied him from Asia,{{Harvnb|Britannica|2002|p=573}} and to whom Polo bequeathed 100 lire of Venetian denari.{{sfn|Bergreen|2007|p=341}}He divided up the rest of his assets, including several properties, among individuals, religious institutions, and every guild and fraternity to which he belonged.{{sfn|Bergreen|2007|p=340}} He also wrote off multiple debts including 300 lire that his sister-in-law owed him, and others for the convent of San Giovanni, San Paolo of the Order of Preachers, and a cleric named Friar Benvenuto.{{sfn|Bergreen|2007|p=340}} He ordered 220 soldi be paid to Giovanni Giustiniani for his work as a notary and his prayers.{{sfn|Bergreen|2007|pp=340–41}}The will was not signed by Polo, but was validated by the then-relevant "signum manus" rule, by which the testator had only to touch the document to make it legally valid.{{sfn|Bergreen|2007|p=341}}Biblioteca Marciana, the institute that holds Polo's original copy of his testament. Venezia.sbn.it {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101206135126weblink |date=6 December 2010 }} Due to the Venetian law stating that the day ends at sunset, the exact date of Marco Polo's death cannot be determined, but according to some scholars it was between the sunsets of 8 and 9 January 1324.{{sfn|Bergreen|2007|p=342}} Biblioteca Marciana, which holds the original copy of his testament, dates the testament on 9 January 1323, and gives the date of his death at some time in June 1324.The Travels of Marco Polo
{{further|Franco-Mongol alliance|Byzantine-Mongol alliance}}{{multiple imageNarrative
(File:MarcoPoloStatueInHangzhou.JPG|thumb|upright=0.65|left|Statue of Marco Polo in Hangzhou, China)The book opens with a preface describing his father and uncle travelling to Bolghar where Prince Berke Khan lived. A year later, they went to Ukek{{Harvnb|Yule|Cordier|1923|loc=ch. 2}} and continued to Bukhara. There, an envoy from the Levant invited them to meet Kublai Khan, who had never met Europeans.{{Harvnb|Yule|Cordier|1923|loc=ch. 3}} In 1266, they reached the seat of Kublai Khan at Dadu, present-day Beijing, China. Kublai received the brothers with hospitality and asked them many questions regarding the European legal and political system.{{Harvnb|Yule|Cordier|1923|loc=ch. 5}} He also inquired about the Pope and Church in Rome.{{Harvnb|Yule|Cordier|1923|loc=ch. 6}} After the brothers answered the questions he tasked them with delivering a letter to the Pope, requesting 100 Christians acquainted with the Seven Arts (grammar, rhetoric, logic, geometry, arithmetic, music and astronomy). Kublai Khan requested also that an envoy bring him back oil of the lamp in Jerusalem.{{Harvnb|Yule|Cordier|1923|loc=ch. 7}} The long sede vacante between the death of Pope Clement IV in 1268 and the election of his successor delayed the Polos in fulfilling Kublai's request. They followed the suggestion of Theobald Visconti, then papal legate for the realm of Egypt, and returned to Venice in 1269 or 1270 to await the nomination of the new Pope, which allowed Marco to see his father for the first time, at the age of fifteen or sixteen.{{Harvnb|Yule|Cordier|1923|loc=ch. 9}}File:Kublai Khan meeting Marco Polo.png|thumb|Polo meeting Kublai KhanKublai KhanIn 1271, Niccolò, Maffeo and Marco Polo embarked on their voyage to fulfil Kublai's request. They sailed to Acre, and then rode on camels to the Persian port of Hormuz. The Polos wanted to sail straight into China, but the ships there were not seaworthy, so they continued overland through the Silk Road, until reaching Kublai's summer palace in Shangdu, near present-day Zhangjiakou. In one instance during their trip, the Polos joined a caravan of travelling merchants whom they crossed paths with. Unfortunately, the party was soon attacked by bandits, who used the cover of a sandstorm to ambush them. The Polos managed to fight and escape through a nearby town, but many members of the caravan were killed or enslaved.Zelenyj, Alexander, Marco Polo: Overland to China, Crabtree Publishing Company (2005) Chapter: Along the Silk Road. {{ISBN|978-0-7787-2453-7}} Three and a half years after leaving Venice, when Marco was about 21 years old, the Polos were welcomed by Kublai into his palace. The exact date of their arrival is unknown, but scholars estimate it to be between 1271 and 1275.{{refn|group="nb"|Drogön Chögyal Phagpa, a Tibetan monk and confidant of Kublai Khan, mentions in his diaries that in 1271 a foreign friend of Kublai Khan visits—quite possibly one of the elder Polos or even Marco Polo himself, although, no name was given. If this is not the case, a more likely date for their arrival is 1275 (or 1274, according to the research of Japanese scholar Matsuo Otagi).({{Harvnb|Britannica|2002|p=571}})}} On reaching the Yuan court, the Polos presented the sacred oil from Jerusalem and the papal letters to their patron.Marco knew four languages, and the family had accumulated a great deal of knowledge and experience that was useful to Kublai. It is possible that he became a government official; he wrote about many imperial visits to China's southern and eastern provinces, the far south and Burma.{{citation|url=http://web.soas.ac.uk/burma/pdf/Polo.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090219141709weblink|archive-date=19 February 2009|title=The Travels of Marco Polo, The Venetian (1298)|access-date=21 February 2013|author=W. Marsden|editor=Thomas Wright|year=2004}} They were highly respected and sought after in the Mongolian court, and so Kublai Khan decided to decline the Polos' requests to leave China. They became worried about returning home safely, believing that if Kublai died, his enemies might turn against them because of their close involvement with the ruler. In 1292, Kublai's great-nephew, then ruler of Persia, sent representatives to China in search of a potential wife, and they asked the Polos to accompany them, so they were permitted to return to Persia with the wedding party—which left that same year from Zaitun in southern China on a fleet of 14 junks. The party sailed to the port of Singapore,{{Harvnb|Yule|Cordier|1923|loc=vol. 3 ch. 8|p=281}} travelled north to Sumatra,{{Harvnb|Yule|Cordier|1923|loc=vol. 3 ch. 9|p=286}} and around the southern tip of India,{{Harvnb|Yule|Cordier|1923|loc=vol. 3 ch. 21|p=373}} eventually crossing the Arabian Sea to Hormuz. The two-year voyage was a perilous one—of the six hundred people (not including the crew) in the convoy only eighteen had survived (including all three Polos).Boyle, J.A. (1971). Marco Polo and his Description of the World. History Today. Vol. 21, No. 11. Historyoftoday.com The Polos left the wedding party after reaching Hormuz and travelled overland to the port of Trebizond on the Black Sea, the present-day Trabzon.(File:Marco Polo, Il Milione, Chapter CXXIII and CXXIV Cropped.jpg|thumb|upright|A page from Il Milione, from a manuscript believed to date between 1298 and 1299)Role of Rustichello
The British scholar Ronald Latham has pointed out that The Book of Marvels was, in fact, a collaboration written in 1298–1299 between Polo and a professional writer of romances, Rustichello of Pisa.Latham, Ronald "Introduction" pp. 7–20 from The Travels of Marco Polo, London: Folio Society, 1958 p. 11. It is believed that Polo related his memoirs orally to Rustichello da Pisa while both were prisoners of the Genova Republic. Rustichello wrote Devisement du Monde in Franco-Venetian language, which was a literary-only language widespread in northern Italy between the subalpine belt and the lower Po between the 13th and 15th centuries.WEB,weblink Frammento del "Milione" di Marco Polo – RIALFrI, www.rialfri.eu, Latham also argued that Rustichello may have glamorised Polo's accounts, and added fantastic and romantic elements that made the book a bestseller. The Italian scholar Luigi Foscolo Benedetto had previously demonstrated that the book was written in the same "leisurely, conversational style" that characterised Rustichello's other works, and that some passages in the book were taken verbatim or with minimal modifications from other writings by Rustichello. For example, the opening introduction in The Book of Marvels to "emperors and kings, dukes and marquises" was lifted straight out of an Arthurian romance Rustichello had written several years earlier, and the account of the second meeting between Polo and Kublai Khan at the latter's court is almost the same as that of the arrival of Tristan at the court of King Arthur at Camelot in that same book.Latham, Ronald "Introduction" pp. 7–20 from The Travels of Marco Polo, London: Folio Society, 1958 pp. 11–12. Latham believed that many elements of the book, such as legends of the Middle East and mentions of exotic marvels, might have been the work of Rustichello, who was giving what medieval European readers expected to find in a travel book.Latham, Ronald "Introduction" pp. 7–20 from The Travels of Marco Polo, London: Folio Society, 1958 p. 12.Role of the Dominican Order
Apparently, from the very beginning, Marco's story aroused contrasting reactions, as it was received by some with a certain disbelief. The Dominican father Francesco Pipino was the author of a translation into Latin, Iter Marci Pauli Veneti in 1302, just a few years after Marco's return to Venice. Francesco Pipino solemnly affirmed the truthfulness of the book and defined Marco as a "prudent, honoured and faithful man".[Rinaldo Fulin, Archivio Veneto, 1924, p. 255]In his writings, the Dominican brother Jacopo d'Acqui explains why his contemporaries were sceptical about the content of the book. He also relates that before dying, Marco Polo insisted that "he had told only a half of the things he had seen".According to some recent research of the Italian scholar Antonio Montefusco, the very close relationship that Marco Polo cultivated with members of the Dominican Order in Venice suggests that local fathers collaborated with him for a Latin version of the book, which means that Rustichello's text was translated into Latin for a precise will of the Order.Since Dominican fathers had among their missions that of evangelizing foreign peoples (cf. the role of Dominican missionaries in ChinaWEB,weblink Apologia de'padri domenicani missionarii della China, o pvro risposta al libro del P. Le Tellier ... intitolato "difesa de nuovi Cristiani" ..., Natalis, Alexandre, 13 July 1699, Heredi di Cornelio d'Egmond, Google Books, and in the IndiesWEB,weblink Galleria de'Sommi Pontefici, patriarchi, arcivescovi, e vescovi dell'ordine de'Predicatori. Divisata con cinque cronologie. Tomo primo 2.. Pubblicato ... da Fr. Gio. Michele Cavalieri da Bergamo, maestro nella sagra teologia dello stesso Ordine, ... Con un catalogo de'cardinali Domenicani, e con cinque indici copiosissimi ... ne : Giovanni Michele m. 1701 Cavalieri : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming, Internet Archive, 1696, ), it is reasonable to think that they considered Marco's book as a trustworthy piece of information for missions in the East. The diplomatic communications between Pope Innocent IV and Pope Gregory X with the MongolsPeter Jackson, The Mongols and the West: 1221–1410 (New York: Routledge 2014), especially pp. 167–196. B. Roberg, "Die Tartaren auf dem 2. Konzil von Lyon 1274," Annuarium historiae conciliarum 5 (1973), 241–302. were probably another reason for this endorsement. At the time, there was open discussion of a possible Christian-Mongol alliance with an anti-Islamic function.Jean Richard, Histoire des Croisades (Paris: Fayard 1996), p.465 In fact, a Mongol delegate was solemnly baptised at the Second Council of Lyon. At the council, Pope Gregory X promulgated a new Crusade to start in 1278 in liaison with the Mongols."1274: Promulgation of a Crusade, in liaison with the Mongols", Jean Richard, "Histoire des Croisades", p.502/French, p. 487/EnglishAuthenticity and veracity
(File:BNF Fr2810 f136v Frontispice Grant Kaan de Cathay.jpeg|thumb|left|upright|Kublai Khan's court, from the French "Livre des merveilles")Since its publication, some have viewed the book with skepticism. Some in the Middle Ages regarded the book simply as a romance or fable, due largely to the sharp difference of its descriptions of a sophisticated civilisation in China to other early accounts by Giovanni da Pian del Carpine and William of Rubruck, who portrayed the Mongols as 'barbarians' who appeared to belong to 'some other world'.WEB,weblink Marco Polo Was in China: New Evidence from Currencies, Salts and Revenues, Na Chang, Reviews in History, Doubts have also been raised in later centuries about Marco Polo's narrative of his travels in China, for example for his failure to mention the Great Wall of China, and in particular the difficulties in identifying many of the place names he usedBOOK,weblink Marco Polo's China: A Venetian in the Realm of Khubilai Khan, Stephen G., Haw, 1, Routledge, 978-1-134-27542-7, 2006, (the great majority, however, have since been identified).BOOK,weblink Marco Polo's China: A Venetian in the Realm of Khubilai Khan, Stephen G., Haw, 83–123, Routledge, 978-1-134-27542-7, 2006, Many have questioned whether he had visited the places he mentioned in his itinerary, whether he had appropriated the accounts of his father and uncle or other travellers, and some doubted whether he even reached China, or that if he did, perhaps never went beyond Khanbaliq (Beijing).It has, however, been pointed out that Polo's accounts of China are more accurate and detailed than other travellers' accounts of the period. Polo had at times refuted the 'marvellous' fables and legends given in other European accounts, and despite some exaggerations and errors, Polo's accounts have relatively few of the descriptions of irrational marvels. In many cases of descriptions of events where he was not present (mostly given in the first part before he reached China, such as mentions of Christian miracles), he made a clear distinction that they are what he had heard rather than what he had seen. It is also largely free of the gross errors found in other accounts such as those given by the Moroccan traveller Ibn Battuta who had confused the Yellow River with the Grand Canal and other waterways, and believed that porcelain was made from coal.BOOK,weblink Marco Polo's China: A Venetian in the Realm of Khubilai Khan, Stephen G., Haw, 66–67, Routledge, 978-1-134-27542-7, 2006, Modern studies have further shown that details given in Marco Polo's book, such as the currencies used, salt productions and revenues, are accurate and unique. Such detailed descriptions are not found in other non-Chinese sources, and their accuracy is supported by archaeological evidence as well as Chinese records compiled after Polo had left China. His accounts are therefore unlikely to have been obtained second hand. Other accounts have also been verified; for example, when visiting Zhenjiang in Jiangsu, China, Marco Polo noted that a large number of Christian churches had been built there. His claim is confirmed by a Chinese text of the 14th century explaining how a Sogdian named Mar-Sargis from Samarkand founded six Nestorian Christian churches there in addition to one in Hangzhou during the second half of the 13th century.Emmerick, R.E. (2003) "Iranian Settlement East of the Pamirs", in Ehsan Yarshater, The Cambridge History of Iran, Vol III: The Seleucid, Parthian, and Sasanian Periods, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 275. His story of the princess Kököchin sent from China to Persia to marry the Īl-khÄn is also confirmed by independent sources in both Persia and China.Scholarly analyses
File:LetterInnocenceToTartarKingAndPeople a.jpg|thumb|upright=0.75|Text of the letter of Pope Innocent IV "to the ruler and people of the Tartars", brought to Güyüg Khan by John de CarpiniJohn de CarpiniFile:Guyuk khan's Stamp 1246.jpg|thumb|upright=0.75|Seal of Güyük Khan using the classical Mongolian script, as found in a letter sent to the Roman Pope Innocent IVPope Innocent IVFile:LetterArghunToNicholasIV1290VaticanArchives.jpg|thumb|upright=0.75|Letter from Arghun, Khan of the Mongol Ilkhanate, to Pope Nicholas IVPope Nicholas IVFile:GhazanSeal1302LetterToBonifaceVIII.JPG|thumb|upright=0.75|Seal of the Mongol ruler Ghazan in a 1302 letter to Pope Boniface VIII, with an inscription in Chinese seal scriptseal scriptExplaining omissions
Sceptics have long wondered whether Marco Polo wrote his book based on hearsay, with some pointing to omissions about noteworthy practices and structures of China as well as the lack of details on some places in his book. While Polo describes paper money and the burning of coal, he fails to mention the Great Wall of China, tea, Chinese characters, chopsticks, or footbinding.Frances Wood, Did Marco Polo Go to China? (London: Secker & Warburg; Boulder, Colorado: Westview, 1995). His failure to note the presence of the Great Wall of China was first raised in the middle of the seventeenth century, and in the middle of the eighteenth century, it was suggested that he had never reached China. Later scholars such as John W. Haeger argued that Marco Polo might not have visited Southern China, in view of the lack of details in his description of southern Chinese cities compared to northern ones, while Herbert Franke also raised the possibility that Marco Polo had not been to China at all, and wondered if he had based his accounts on Persian sources, in view of his use of Persian expressions.JOURNAL, 23497510, Marco Polo in China? Problems with Internal Evidence, John W., Haeger, Bulletin of Sung and Yüan Studies, 14, 14, 1978, 22–30, JOURNAL, 23881433, Sino-Western Contacts Under the Mongol Empire, Herbert, Franke, Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, 6, 1966, 49–72, This is taken further by Frances Wood who claimed in her 1995 book Did Marco Polo Go to China? that at best Polo never went farther east than Persia (modern Iran), and that there is nothing in The Book of Marvels about China that could not have been obtained by reading Persian books.Morgan, D.O. "Marco Polo in China—Or Not" 221–225 from The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, Volume 6, Issue # 2 July 1996 p. 222. Wood maintains that it is more probable that Polo went only to Constantinople (modern Istanbul, Turkey) and some of the Italian merchant colonies around the Black Sea, picking hearsay from those travellers who had been farther east.Supporters of Polo's basic accuracy countered on the points raised by sceptics such as footbinding and the Great Wall of China. Historian Stephen G. Haw argued that the Great Walls were built to keep out northern invaders, whereas the ruling dynasty during Marco Polo's visit were those very northern invaders. They note that the Great Wall familiar to us today is a Ming structure built some two centuries after Marco Polo's travels; and that the Mongol rulers whom Polo served controlled territories both north and south of today's wall, and would have had no reasons to maintain any fortifications that might have remained there from the earlier dynasties.{{citation |first=Stephen G. |last=Haw |publisher=Psychology Press |year=2006|isbn=978-0-415-34850-8 |title=Marco Polo's China: a Venetian in the realm of Khubilai Khan |series=Volume 3 of Routledge studies in the early history of Asia |url=weblink |pages=52–57}} Other Europeans who travelled to Khanbaliq during the Yuan dynasty, such as Giovanni de' Marignolli and Odoric of Pordenone, said nothing about the wall either. The Muslim traveller Ibn Battuta, who asked about the wall when he visited China during the Yuan dynasty, could find no one who either had seen it or knew of anyone who had seen it, suggesting that while ruins of the wall constructed in the earlier periods might have existed, they were not significant or noteworthy at that time.Haw also argued that footbinding was not common even among Chinese during Polo's time and almost unknown among the Mongols. While the Italian missionary Odoric of Pordenone who visited Yuan China mentioned footbinding (it is however unclear whether he was merely relaying something he had heard as his description is inaccurate),BOOK,weblink Women and the Family in Chinese History, Patricia, Ebrey, 196, Routledge, 978-1-134-44293-5, 2003, no other foreign visitors to Yuan China mentioned the practice, perhaps an indication that the footbinding was not widespread or was not practised in an extreme form at that time.BOOK,weblink Marco Polo's China: A Venetian in the Realm of Khubilai Khan, Stephen G., Haw, 55–56, Routledge, 978-1-134-27542-7, 2006, Marco Polo himself noted (in the Toledo manuscript) the dainty walk of Chinese women who took very short steps. It has also been noted by other scholars that many of the things not mentioned by Marco Polo such as tea and chopsticks were not mentioned by other travellers either.WEB, de Rachewiltz, Igor, Igor de Rachewiltz, F. Wood's Did Marco Polo Go To China? A Critical Appraisal by I. de Rachewiltz,weblink 20 August 2022, The Australian National University, Haw also pointed out that despite the few omissions, Marco Polo's account is more extensive, more accurate and more detailed than those of other foreign travellers to China in this period.BOOK,weblink Marco Polo's China: A Venetian in the Realm of Khubilai Khan, Stephen G., Haw, 65–66, Routledge, 978-1-134-27542-7, 22 November 2006, Marco Polo even observed Chinese nautical inventions such as the watertight compartments of bulkhead partitions in Chinese ships, knowledge of which he was keen to share with his fellow Venetians.BOOK,weblink registration, Western Power in Asia: Its Slow Rise and Swift Fall, 1415–1999, Arthur, Cotterell, 9, John Wiley & Sons, 978-0-470-82489-4, 4 August 2011, In addition to Haw, other scholars have argued in favour of the established view that Polo was in China, in response to Wood's book. The book has been criticized by figures including Igor de Rachewiltz (translator and annotator of The Secret History of the Mongols) and Morris Rossabi (author of Kublai Khan: his life and times).WEB,weblink Mongols in World History | Asia for Educators, afe.easia.columbia.edu, The historian David Morgan points out basic errors made in Wood's book such as confusing the Liao dynasty with the Jin dynasty, and he found no compelling evidence in the book that would convince him that Marco Polo did not go to China.JOURNAL, 25183182, Morgan, D. O., Marco Polo in China-Or Not" 221–225, The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 6, 2, July 1996, 224, 10.1017/S1356186300007203, 154625708, Haw also argues in his book Marco Polo's China that Marco's account is much more correct and accurate than has often been supposed and that it is extremely unlikely that he could have obtained all the information in his book from secondhand sources.WEB,weblink Marco Polo's China: A Venetian in the Realm of Khubilai Khan, CRC Press, Haw also criticizes Wood's approach to finding mention of Marco Polo in Chinese texts by contending that contemporaneous Europeans had little regard for using surnames and that a direct Chinese transliteration of the name "Marco" ignores the possibility of his taking on a Chinese or even Mongol name with no similarity to his Latin name.Stephen G. Haw (2006), Marco Polo's China: a Venetian in the Realm of Kublai Khan, London and New York: Routledge, p. 173, {{ISBN|0-415-34850-1}}.Also in reply to Wood, Jørgen Jensen recalled the meeting of Marco Polo and Pietro d'Abano in the late 13th century. During this meeting, Marco gave to Pietro details of the astronomical observations he had made on his journey. These observations are compatible with Marco's stay in China, Sumatra and the South China SeaJ. Jensen, "The World's most diligent observer." Asiatische Studien 51.3 (1997): 719–728 and are recorded in Pietro's book Conciliator Differentiarum, but not in Marco's Book of Travels.Reviewing Haw's book, Peter Jackson (author of The Mongols and the West) has said that Haw "must surely now have settled the controversy surrounding the historicity of Polo's visit to China".JOURNAL,weblink Stephen G. Haw: Marco Polo's China. A Venetian in the Realm of Khubilai Khan. (Routledge Studies in the Early History of Asia.) vii, 214 pp. London and New York: Routledge, 2006. £65. ISBN 0 415 34850 1., Peter, Jackson, 13 June 2007, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, 70, 2, 438–440, Cambridge Core, 10.1017/S0041977X07000651, Igor de Rachewiltz's review, which refutes Wood's points, concludes with a strongly-worded condemnation: "I regret to say that F. W.'s book falls short of the standard of scholarship that one would expect in a work of this kind. Her book can only be described as deceptive, both in relation to the author and to the public at large. Questions are posed that, in the majority of cases, have already been answered satisfactorily ... her attempt is unprofessional; she is poorly equipped in the basic tools of the trade, i.e., adequate linguistic competence and research methodology ... and her major arguments cannot withstand close scrutiny. Her conclusion fails to consider all the evidence supporting Marco Polo's credibility."Igor de Rachewiltz, "Marco Polo Went to China," Zentralasiatische Studien 27 (1997), pp. 34–92.Allegations of exaggeration
File:Statue of Marco Polo.jpg|thumb|upright|Bust of Marco Polo in the garden of Villa Borghese in RomeRomeSome scholars believe that Marco Polo exaggerated his importance in China. The British historian David Morgan thought that Polo had likely exaggerated and lied about his status in China, while Ronald Latham believed that such exaggerations were embellishments by his ghostwriter Rustichello da Pisa.{{BlockquoteErrors
A number of errors in Marco Polo's account have been noted: for example, he described the bridge later known as Marco Polo Bridge as having twenty-four arches instead of eleven or thirteen. He also said that city wall of Khanbaliq had twelve gates when it had only eleven.Stephen G. Haw (2006), Marco Polo's China: a Venetian in the Realm of Kublai Khan, London & New York: Routledge, p. 73, {{ISBN|0-415-34850-1}}. Archaeologists have also pointed out that Polo may have mixed up the details from the two attempted invasions of Japan by Kublai Khan in 1274 and 1281. Polo wrote of five-masted ships, when archaeological excavations found that the ships, in fact, had only three masts.NEWS,weblinkweblink 11 January 2022, subscription, live, Explorer Marco Polo 'never actually went to China, The Daily Telegraph, 9 August 2011, {{cbignore}}Appropriation
Historian Frances Wood accused Marco Polo of taking other people's accounts in his book, retelling other stories as his own, or basing his accounts on Persian guidebooks or other lost sources. For example, Sinologist Francis Woodman Cleaves noted that Polo's account of the voyage of the princess Kököchin from China to Persia to marry the Īl-khÄn in 1293 has been confirmed by a passage in the 15th-century Chinese work Yongle Encyclopedia and by the Persian historian Rashid-al-Din Hamadani in his work Jami' al-tawarikh. However, neither of these accounts mentions Polo or indeed any European as part of the bridal party,JOURNAL, 2718743, Francis Woodman Cleaves, A Chinese Source Bearing on Marco Polo's Departure from China and a Persian Source on his Arrival in Persia, Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, 36, 1976, 181–203, 10.2307/2718743, and Wood used the lack of mention of Polo in these works as an example of Polo's "retelling of a well-known tale". David O. Morgan, in Polo's defence, noted that even the princess herself was not mentioned in the Chinese source and that it would have been surprising if Polo had been mentioned by Rashid-al-Din. Historian Igor de Rachewiltz strongly criticised Wood's arguments in his review of her book.Igor de Rachewiltz, "Marco Polo Went to China," Zentralasiatische Studien 27 (1997), pp. 34–92 Rachewiltz argued that Marco Polo's account, in fact, allows the Persian and Chinese sources to be reconciled – by relaying the information that two of the three envoys sent (mentioned in the Chinese source and whose names accord with those given by Polo) had died during the voyage, it explains why only the third who survived, Coja/Khoja, was mentioned by Rashìd al-Dìn. Polo had therefore completed the story by providing information not found in either source. He also noted that the only Persian source that mentions the princess was not completed until 1310–11, therefore Marco Polo could not have learned the information from any Persian book. According to de Rachewiltz, the concordance of Polo's detailed account of the princess with other independent sources that gave only incomplete information is proof of the veracity of Polo's story and his presence in China.Assessments
Morgan writes that since much of what The Book of Marvels has to say about China is "demonstrably correct", any claim that Polo did not go to China "creates far more problems than it solves", therefore the "balance of probabilities" strongly suggests that Polo really did go to China, even if he exaggerated somewhat his importance in China.Morgan, D.O. "Marco Polo in China—Or Not" 221–225 from The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, Volume 6, Issue # 2 July 1996 pages 225. Haw dismisses the various anachronistic criticisms of Polo's accounts that started in the 17th century, and highlights Polo's accuracy in great part of his accounts, for example on features of the landscape such as the Grand Canal of China.Stephen G. Haw (2006), Marco Polo's China: a Venetian in the Realm of Kublai Khan, London & New York: Routledge, pp. 1–2, {{ISBN|0-415-34850-1}}. "If Marco was a liar," Haw writes, "then he must have been an implausibly meticulous one."Stephen G. Haw (2006), Marco Polo's China: a Venetian in the Realm of Kublai Khan, London & New York: Routledge, pp. 2–3, {{ISBN|0-415-34850-1}}.In 2012, the University of Tübingen Sinologist and historian Hans Ulrich Vogel released a detailed analysis of Polo's description of currencies, salt production and revenues, and argued that the evidence supports his presence in China because he included details which he could not have otherwise known.BOOK, Hans Ulrich Vogel,weblink Marco Polo Was in China: New Evidence from Currencies, Salts and Revenues, Brill, 2012, 978-90-04-23193-1, NEWS,weblink Marco Polo was not a swindler – he really did go to China, University of Tübingen, Alpha Galileo, 16 April 2012, 3 May 2012,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20120503104150weblink">weblink 3 May 2012, dead, mdy-all, Vogel noted that no other Western, Arab, or Persian sources have given such accurate and unique details about the currencies of China, for example, the shape and size of the paper, the use of seals, the various denominations of paper money as well as variations in currency usage in different regions of China, such as the use of cowry shells in Yunnan, details supported by archaeological evidence and Chinese sources compiled long after the Polos had left China.WEB,weblink Marco Polo Did Go to China, New Research Shows (and the History of Paper), 31 July 2013, The New Observer, 25 October 2016, 4 February 2017,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20170204134202weblink">weblink dead, His accounts of salt production and revenues from the salt monopoly are also accurate, and accord with Chinese documents of the Yuan era.WEB,weblink Marco Polo was not a swindler: He really did go to China, Science Daily, Economic historian Mark Elvin, in his preface to Vogel's 2013 monograph, concludes that Vogel "demonstrates by specific example after specific example the ultimately overwhelming probability of the broad authenticity" of Polo's account. Many problems were caused by the oral transmission of the original text and the proliferation of significantly different hand-copied manuscripts. For instance, did Polo exert "political authority" (seignora) in Yangzhou or merely "sojourn" (sejourna) there? Elvin concludes that "those who doubted, although mistaken, were not always being casual or foolish", but "the case as a whole had now been closed": the book is, "in essence, authentic, and, when used with care, in broad terms to be trusted as a serious though obviously not always final, witness."BOOK, Hans Ulrich Vogel,weblink Marco Polo Was in China: New Evidence from Currencies, Salts and Revenues, Brill, 2012, 978-90-04-23193-1, xix,Legacy
Further exploration
{{See also|Age of Discovery|Europeans in Medieval China|Chronology of European exploration of Asia|Jorge Ãlvares|Rafael Perestrello}}File:ColombusNotesToMarcoPolo.jpg|thumb|Handwritten notes by Christopher ColumbusChristopher ColumbusFile:FraMauroDetailedMapInverted.jpg|thumb|The Fra Mauro map, published {{circa|1450}} by the Venetian monk Fra MauroFra MauroOther lesser-known European explorers had already travelled to China, such as Giovanni da Pian del Carpine, but Polo's book meant that his journey was the first to be widely known. Christopher Columbus was inspired enough by Polo's description of the Far East to want to visit those lands for himself; a copy of the book was among his belongings, with handwritten annotations. Bento de Góis, inspired by Polo's writings of a Christian kingdom in the east, travelled {{convert|4000|mi|km}} in three years across Central Asia. He never found the kingdom but ended his travels at the Great Wall of China in 1605, proving that Cathay was what Matteo Ricci (1552–1610) called "China".{{Harvnb|Winchester|2008|p=264}}Cartography
Marco Polo's travels may have had some influence on the development of European cartography, ultimately leading to the European voyages of exploration a century later.{{Harvnb|Falchetta|2006|p=592}} The 1453 Fra Mauro map was said by Giovanni Battista Ramusio (disputed by historian/cartographer Piero Falchetta, in whose work the quote appears) to have been partially based on the one brought from Cathay by Marco Polo: {{Blockquote|That fine illuminated world map on parchment, which can still be seen in a large cabinet alongside the choir of their monastery [the Camaldolese monastery of San Michele di Murano] was by one of the brothers of the monastery, who took great delight in the study of cosmography, diligently drawn and copied from a most beautiful and very old nautical map and a world map that had been brought from Cathay by the most honourable Messer Marco Polo and his father.|Giovanni Battista Ramusio|title=|source=}}Though Marco Polo never produced a map that illustrated his journey, his family drew several maps to the Far East based on the traveller's accounts. These collections of maps were signed by Polo's three daughters, Fantina, Bellela and Moreta.WEB,weblink Did Marco Polo Visit Alaska?, Klein, Christopher, History, 30 September 2014, Not only did it contain maps of his journey, but also sea routes to Japan, Siberia's Kamchatka Peninsula, the Bering Strait and even to the coastlines of Alaska, centuries before the rediscovery of the Americas by Europeans.Pasta myth
There is a legend about Marco Polo importing pasta from China; however, it is actually a popular misconception,WEB,weblink National Pasta Association,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20120320211605weblink">weblink 20 March 2012, dead, article FAQs section "Who "invented" pasta?"; "The story that it was Marco Polo who imported noodles to Italy and thereby gave birth to the country's pasta culture is the most pervasive myth in the history of Italian food." (Dickie 2008, p. 48). originating with the Macaroni Journal, published by a food industry association with the goal of promoting the use of pasta in the United States.S. Serventi, F. Sabban La pasta. Storia e cultura di un cibo universale, VII. Economica Laterza 2004 Marco Polo describes in his book a food similar to "lasagna", but he uses a term with which he was already familiar. In fact, pasta had already been invented in Italy a long time before Marco Polo's travels to Asia.BOOK, Pasta: The Story of a Universal Food, Serventi, Silvano, 2002, Columbia University Press, Antony, Shugaar, 978-0-231-12442-3, New York, 10, Françoise, Sabban,weblink According to the newsletter of the National Macaroni Manufacturers Association and food writer Jeffrey Steingarten,BOOK, Jeffrey Steingarten, The Man Who Ate Everything,weblink 1998, Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 978-0-375-70202-0, 260, the durum wheat was introduced by Arabs from Libya, during their rule over Sicily in the late 9th century, thus predating Marco Polo's travels by about four centuries. Steingarten also mentioned that Jane Grigson believed the Marco Polo story to have originated in the 1920s or 30s in an advertisement for a Canadian spaghetti company.Commemoration
(File:Lire 1000 (Marco Polo) - Front.jpg|thumb|Italian banknote issued in 1982, portraying Marco Polo)The Marco Polo sheep, a subspecies of Ovis ammon, is named after the explorer,{{Harvnb|Bergreen|2007|p=74}} who described it during his crossing of Pamir (ancient Mount Imeon) in 1271.{{refn|group="nb"|{{Harvnb|Yule|Cordier|1923|loc=ch.18}} states, "Then there are sheep here as big as asses; and their tails are so large and fat, that one tail shall weigh some 30 lb. They are fine fat beasts, and afford capital mutton."}}In 1851, a three-masted clipper built in Saint John, New Brunswick also took his name; the Marco Polo was the first ship to sail around the world in under six months.{{Harvnb|Lubbock|2008|p=86}}The airport in Venice is named Venice Marco Polo Airport.{{citation|last=Brennan |first=D. |title=Lost in Venice |publisher=WalesOnline |date=1 February 2009 |url=http://www.walesonline.co.uk/travel/travel-news/2009/02/01/lost-in-venice-91466-22826493/ |access-date=15 July 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090830062732weblink |archive-date=30 August 2009 }}The frequent flyer programme of Hong Kong flag carrier Cathay Pacific is known as the "Marco Polo Club".{{Citation|url=http://www.cathayforbusiness.com/freqfly/marcopoloclub.asp|title=The Marco Polo Club|publisher=Cathay Pacific Airways Limited|author=Cathay Pacific Airways|access-date=13 July 2009|year=2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120825165330weblink|archive-date=25 August 2012|url-status=dead}}Croatian state-owned shipping company's (Jadrolinija) ship connecting Split with Ancona in Italy is named after Marco Polo.WEB,weblink Marko Polo, Jadrolinija, 2 June 2020,Arts, entertainment, and media
Film
- The Adventures of Marco Polo (1938), directed by Archie Mayo
- Marco Polo (1961)
- Marco the Magnificent (1965)
- Marco (1973), directed by Seymour Robbie
- Marco Polo (馬哥波羅) (1975), directed by Chang Cheh
- Marco Polo Junior Versus the Red Dragon (1972), Australian animated film by Eric PorterWEB,weblink Stock Photo – THE RED RED DRAGON, (aka MARCO POLO JR., aka MARCO POLO JUNIOR VERSUS THE RED DRAGON), US poster, 1972, Limited, Alamy, Alamy, en, 29 January 2020,
Games
- The game "Marco Polo" is a form of tag played in a swimming poolBOOK, Bittarello, Maria Beatrice, Encyclopedia of Play in Today's Society, Rodney P. Carlisle, SAGE, 2009, Marco Polo, 978-1-4129-6670-2,weblink JOURNAL, Jeffrey, Phillip, Mike Blackstock, Matthias Finke, Anthony Tang, Rodger Lea, Meghan Deutscher, Kento Miyaoku, Chasing the Fugitive on Campus: Designing a Location-based Game for Collaborative Play, Proceedings of CGSA 2006 Symposium,weblink or on land, with slightly modified rules.
- Polo appears as a Great Explorer in the strategy video game Civilization Revolution (2008).WEB,weblink Civilization Revolution: Great People, CivFanatics, 4 September 2009, dead,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20110317031836weblink">weblink 17 March 2011,
- Marco Polo's 1292 voyage from China is used as a backdrop for the plot of (Uncharted 2: Among Thieves) (2009), where Nathan Drake (the protagonist) searches for the Cintamani Stone, which was from the fabled city of Shambhala.WEB,weblink Uncharted 2: Among Thieves,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20110906110334weblink">weblink 6 September 2011, dead,
- A board game 'The Voyages of Marco Polo' plays over a map of Eurasia, with multiple routes to 'recreate' Polo's journey.WEB,weblink The Voyages of Marco Polo, Z-Man Games
Literature
The travels of Marco Polo are fictionalised in a number works, such as:- Brian Oswald Donn-Byrne's Messer Marco Polo (1921)BOOK, Messer Marco Polo, 1921, Donn-Byrne, Brian Oswald,weblink
- Italo Calvino's novel Invisible Cities (1972), in which Polo appears as a pivotal character.
- Gary Jennings' novel The Journeyer (1984)
- Avram Davidson's novel (written with Grania Davis) Marco Polo and the Sleeping Beauty (1988), a serio-comic fantasy with Polo as the protagonist.
- James Rollins' (James RollinsSIGMA Force Book 4: The Judas Strain (2007)|SIGMA Force Book 4: The Judas Strain) (2007), in which facts about Polo's travels and conjecture about secrets he kept are interleaved with modern-day action.
Television
- In the 1964 serial Marco Polo of the television series Doctor Who, Polo was portrayed by Mark Eden.
- The television miniseries, Marco Polo (1982), featuring Ken Marshall, Burt Lancaster and Ruocheng Ying, and directed by Giuliano Montaldo, depicts Polo's travels. It won two Emmy Awards, and was nominated for six more.{{Citation|title=Academy of Television Arts & Sciences |url=http://www.emmys.org/awards/awardsearch.php |access-date=6 July 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080330160256weblink |archive-date=30 March 2008 }} (Searching for "Marco Polo", and year 1982)WEB,weblink IMDb TV miniseries, Marco Polo, 1982,
- The television film, Marco Polo (2007), starring Brian Dennehy as Kublai Khan, and Ian Somerhalder as Marco, portrays Marco Polo being left alone in China while his uncle and father return to Venice, to be reunited with him many years later.WEB,weblink IMDb TV miniseries, Marco Polo, 2007,
- In the Footsteps of Marco Polo (2009) is a PBS documentary about two friends (Denis Belliveau and Francis O'Donnell) who conceived of the ultimate road trip to retrace Marco Polo's journey from Venice to China via land and sea.NEWS,weblink WLIW.org, In the footsteps of Marco Polo (PBS), 2009, 26 February 2010, 2 September 2010,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20100902072531weblink">weblink dead,
- In Search of Marco Polo (2013), a Croatian documentary miniseries written and directed by Miro Branković.
- Marco Polo (2014–2016) is a Netflix television drama series about Marco Polo's early years in the court of Kublai Khan created by John Fusco.NEWS, Netflix's 'Marco Polo' Sets December Premiere Date,weblink 28 August 2014, Deadline Hollywood, 28 August 2014, NEWS,weblink 'Marco Polo' Canceled at Netflix After Two Seasons, The Hollywood Reporter, 13 December 2016, 12 December 2016, Goldberg, Lesley,
See also
- Chinese expeditions to the Sinhala Kingdom
- Chronology of European exploration of Asia
- John of Montecorvino, Catholic Italian missionary to China
- Rabban Bar Sauma, Uyghur Nestorian Christian monk from Zhongdu (Khanbaliq, modern Beijing) who led a Mongol diplomatic mission to medieval European monarchs and the pope, visiting Greece, Italy, and France
- Katarina Vilioni (d. 1342), an Italian woman whose tombstone was found in Yangzhou, China
Notes
{{Reflist|group="nb"}}Citations
{{Reflist}}Bibliography
- Marco Polo, Marci Poli Veneti de Regionibus Orientalibus, Simon Grynaeus Johannes Huttichius, Novus Orbis Regionum ac Insularum Veteribus Incognitarum, Basel, 1532, pp. 350–418.
- {{CathEncy|wstitle=Marco Polo}}
- {{Citation |contribution=Marco Polo |year=1915 |title=Nordisk familjebok |edition=Uggleupplagan |language=sv |contribution-url=https://runeberg.org/nfca/0687.html |ref=CITEREFBerg1915|title-link=Nordisk familjebok }}
- {{citation|last1=Yule|first1=Henry|author-link1=Henry Yule|last2=Cordier|first2=Henri|author-link2=Henri Cordier|title=The Travels Of Marco Polo|publisher=Dover Publications|location=Mineola|year=1923|isbn=978-0-486-27586-4|url=https://archive.org/details/travelsofmarcopo00polo_0}}
- BOOK, Moule, Arthur Christopher, Pelliot, Paul, Paul Pelliot, 1938, Marco Polo: The Description of the World, Routledge, George Routledge & Sons Limited, London, 1,weblink
- {hide}Citation|last=Landström|first=Björn |title=Columbus: the story of Don Cristóbal Colón, Admiral of the Ocean
- {{citation|last1=Bram|first1=Leon L.|first2=Phillips|last2=Robert S.|first3=Norma H.|last3=Dickey|title=Funk & Wagnalls New Encyclopedia
- {{Citation | last=Nicol | first=Donald M. | title=Byzantium and Venice: a study in diplomatic and cultural relations | year=1992| publisher=Cambridge University Press | isbn=978-0-521-42894-1}}
- {{citation|last=Wood|first=Frances|author-link=Frances Wood|title=Did Marco Polo Go To China?|publisher=Westview Press|year=1998|isbn=978-0-8133-8999-8 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yMRVjwNIqW0C&q=Did+Marco+Polo+Go+to+China%3F}}
- {{Citation|title=The New Encyclopædia Britannica Macropedia|edition=15|publisher=Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc|isbn=978-0-85229-787-2|contribution=Marco Polo|volume=9|year=2002|ref=CITEREFBritannica2002}}
- {{citation|last=Parker|first=John|author-link=John Parker (author)|contribution=Marco Polo|location=United States|title=The World Book Encyclopedia|publisher=World Book, Inc.|year=2004|volume=15|edition=illustrated|isbn=978-0-7166-0104-3|title-link=World Book Encyclopedia}}
- Olivier Weber, Le grand festin de l'Orient; Robert Laffont, 2004
- {{citation|last=Edwards|first=Mike|title= Marco Polo, Part 1|publisher=National Geographic Society|location=Washington, D.C.|year=2005|url=http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0105/feature1/index.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080205054538weblink|url-status=dead|archive-date=5 February 2008|ref=CITEREFEdwards}}
- {{citation | last = Falchetta | first = Piero | author-link = Piero Falchetta | title = Fra Mauro's World Map | location = Turnhout | publisher=Brepols | year = 2006 | isbn = 978-2-503-51726-1}}
- {{citation|last1=McKay|first1=John|last2=Hill|first2=Bennet|last3=Buckler|first3=John|title=A History of Western Society|edition=Eighth|year=2006|publisher=Houghton Mifflin Company|isbn=978-0-618-52266-8|page=506}}
- {{citation|last=Bergreen|first=Laurence|author-link=Laurence Bergreen|title=Marco Polo: From Venice to Xanadu|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=x-PZdFbG6dEC|year=2007|publisher=Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group|isbn=978-0-307-26769-6}}
- {{citation|last=Power|first=Eileen Edna |title=Medieval People|publisher=BiblioBazaar|year=2007|isbn=978-1-4264-6777-6}}
- {{citation|last=Winchester|first=Simon|author-link=Simon Winchester|title=The Man Who Loved China: Joseph Needham and the Making of a Masterpiece|location=New York|publisher=HarperCollins|year=2008|isbn=978-0-06-088459-8|url=https://archive.org/details/manwholovedchina00simo_0}}
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- {{Citation | last=Brook | first=Timothy | author-link = Timothy Brook | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=b80ePdTYWXoC&q=Marco+Polo+Korcula&pg=PA24 | title=The Troubled Empire: China in the Yuan and Ming Dynasties | year=2010 | publisher=Harvard University Press | isbn=978-0-674-04602-3}}
- Marco Polo. (2010). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 2010-08-28, from Encyclopædia Britannica Online: Marco Polo | Biography, Travels, & Influence {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150508185508weblink |date=8 May 2015 }}
- {{citation|title=Marco Polo i njegov Le Divisiment dou monde (Opis svijeta): fikcija i fakcija u književnoj historiografiji|trans-title=Marco Polo and his Description of the world: fact and fiction in the history of literature|url=http://bib.irb.hr/prikazi-rad?lang=en&rad=753305|first=Željana|last=Puljiz-Šostik|publisher=Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb|location=Zagreb|year=2015|language=hr}}
Further reading
- BOOK,weblink The Travels of Marco Polo, Marco Polo, Marsden, William, 1918, J.M. Dent & Sons, London, 461,
- BOOK, Hart, H. Henry, Henry Hart (author), Marco Polo, Venetian Adventurer, Kessinger Publishing, 1948,
- BOOK, In Xanadu,weblink registration, Dalrymple, William, 1989, William Dalrymple (historian),
- BOOK, Daftary, Farhad, The Assassin legends: myths of the Ismaʻilis, 2, I.B. Tauris, 1994, 213, 978-1-85043-705-5,
- BOOK, Otfinoski, Steven, Marco Polo: to China and back, 2003, Benchmark Books, New York, 978-0-7614-1480-3,
- BOOK, Polo, Marco, Rustichello of Pisa, The Travels of Marco Polo – Volume 1,weblink Project Gutenberg, 1 January 2004, 2 April 2011,
- BOOK, Polo, Marco, Rustichello of Pisa, The Travels of Marco Polo – Volume 2,weblink Project Gutenberg, 1 May 2004, 2 April 2011,
- Olivier Weber, Sur les routes de la soie (On the Silk Roads) (with Reza), Hoëbeke, 2007
- BOOK, Daughter of Xanadu, Yang, Dori Jones, Dori Jones Yang, Delacorte Press Books for Young Readers, 2011, 978-0-385-73923-8,weblink (Young Adult novel)
- EB1911, Polo, Marco, 22, Henry, Yule, Henry Yule, Charles Raymond, Beazley, Raymond Beazley, 7–11, 1,
External links
{{Commons category|Marco Polo}}{{wikisource author}}{{Wikivoyage|On the trail of Marco Polo}}- {{curlie|Society/History/By_Topic/Exploration/Explorers/Polo,_Marco/|Marco Polo}}
- weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20170428114043weblink">Marco Polo on IMDb
- Marco Polo's house in Venice, near the church of San Giovanni Grisostomo
- weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20080103144538weblink">National Geographic Marco Polo: Journey from Venice to China
- {{Gutenberg author |id=3613| name=Marco Polo}}
- {{Internet Archive author |sname=Marco Polo}}
- {{Librivox author |id=6353}}
- Marco Polo's Orient Film on the material culture of areas along Polo's route using objects from the collections of the Glasgow Museums
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