View source for The Travels of Marco Polo

{{Short description|13th-century travelogue}}

{{Infobox book
| name             = The Travels of Marco Polo
| title_orig       = Livres des Merveilles du Monde
| image            = Marco Polo - Battle of the King of Burma against the Mongols.jpg
| caption          = A page of ''The Travels of Marco Polo''
| authors          = [[Rustichello da Pisa]] and [[Marco Polo]]
| illustrator      =
| cover_artist     =
| country          = [[Republic of Venice]]
| language         = [[Franco-Venetian]]
| series           =
| subject          =
| genre            = [[Travel literature]]
| publisher        =
| pub_date         = {{circa|1300}}
| english_pub_date =
| media_type       =
| pages            =
| isbn             =
| oclc             =
| dewey            = 915.042
| congress         =
| preceded_by      =
| followed_by      =
}}

'''''The Travels of Marco Polo''''', also known as '''''The Book of the Marvels of the World''''' ({{langx|fr|Livres des Merveilles du Monde}}) and by its [[Italian language|Italian]] name '''{{lang|it|Il Milione}}''' ("The Million"), is a 13th-century travelogue written down by [[Rustichello da Pisa]] from stories told by the Venetian explorer [[Marco Polo]]. It describes Polo's travels through Asia between 1271 and 1295, and his experiences at the court of [[Kublai Khan]].{{sfn|Polo|1958|p=15}}{{sfn|Boulnois|2005}}

The book was written by the [[Romance (heroic literature)|romance]] writer [[Rustichello da Pisa]], who worked from accounts which he had heard from Marco Polo when they were imprisoned together in [[Genoa]].{{sfn|Jackson|1998}} Rustichello wrote it in [[Franco-Venetian]],<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=w-aIY4aBkrUC&q=franco+venetian+language |title=Library of Congress Subject Headings, Volume 2 |access-date=8 January 2020 |archive-date=28 September 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210928012812/https://books.google.at/books?id=w-aIY4aBkrUC&dq=franco+venetian+language&hl=it&source=gbs_navlinks_s |url-status=live |last1=Congress |first1=Library of |year=1993 }}</ref><ref name="Maria Bellonci 2003, p. XI">Maria Bellonci, "Nota introduttiva", Il Milione di Marco Polo, Milano, Oscar Mondadori, 2003, p. xi [Italian]</ref><ref name="rialfri.eu">{{Cite web |url=https://www.rialfri.eu/rialfriWP/rilafri/rialfri-2 |title=Repertorio informatizzato dell'antica letteratura franco-italiana |access-date=20 December 2019 |archive-date=21 October 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191021062517/http://www.rialfri.eu/rialfriWP/rilafri/rialfri-2 |url-status=live }}</ref> a literary language widespread in northern Italy between the subalpine belt and the lower [[Po (river)|Po]] between the 13th and 15th centuries.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.rialfri.eu/rialfriWP/opere/frammento-del-milione-di-marco-polo |title=Fragment of Marco Polo's Il Milione in Franco-Venetian language, University of Padua RIAlFrI Project |access-date=29 April 2020 |archive-date=8 April 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200408080854/https://www.rialfri.eu/rialfriWP/opere/frammento-del-milione-di-marco-polo |url-status=live }}</ref> It was originally known as {{Lang|fr|Livre des Merveilles du Monde}} or {{Lang|fr|Devisement du Monde}} ("'''''Description of the World'''''"). The book was translated into many European languages in Marco Polo's own lifetime, but the original manuscripts are now lost, and their reconstruction is a matter of textual criticism. A total of about 150 copies in various languages are known to exist, including in [[langues d'oïl|Old French]],<ref>^ Marco Polo, Il Milione, Adelphi 2001, {{ISBN|88-459-1032-6}}, Prefazione di Bertolucci Pizzorusso Valeria, pp. x–xxi.</ref> [[Italian language|Tuscan]], two versions in [[Venetian dialect|Venetian]], and two different versions in [[Latin language|Latin]].

From the beginning, there has been incredulity over Polo's sometimes fabulous stories, as well as a [[Marco Polo#Scholarly analyses|scholarly debate]] in recent times.{{sfn|Taylor|2013|pp=595-596}} Some have questioned whether Marco had actually traveled to China or was just repeating stories that he had heard from other travelers.{{sfn|Wood|1996}} Economic historian [[Mark Elvin]] concludes that recent work "demonstrates by specific example the ultimately overwhelming probability of the broad authenticity" of Polo's account, and that 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."{{sfn|Vogel|2013|p=xix}}

==History==
[[File:Travels of Marco Polo.svg|thumb|right|The route Polo describes.]]
[[File:World according to Marco Polo.jpg|thumb|right|The probable view of Marco Polo's own geography (drawn by [[Henry Yule]], 1871).]]
{{further|Niccolò and Maffeo Polo}}
The source of the title {{Lang|it|Il Milione}} is debated. One view is it comes from the Polo family's use of the name ''Emilione'' to distinguish themselves from the numerous other Venetian families bearing the name Polo.<ref>{{lang|it|... volendosi ravvisare nella parola "Milione" la forma ridotta di un diminutivo arcaico "Emilione" che pare sia servito a meglio identificare il nostro Marco distinguendolo per tal modo da tutti i numerosi Marchi della sua famiglia.}} (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)</ref><ref>{{harvtxt|Sofri|2001}} "Il secondo fu che Marco e i suoi usassero, pare, per distinguersi da altri Polo veneziani, il nome di Emilione, che è l' origine prosaica del titolo che si è imposto: Il Milione."</ref> A more common view is that the name refers to medieval reception of the travelog, namely that it was full of "a million" lies.<ref>{{cite book |editor=Carl R. Lindahl |editor2=John McNamara |editor3=John Lindow |title=Medieval Folklore: An Encyclopedia of Myths, Legends, Tales, Beliefs, and Customs |volume=I |location=Santa Barbara |publisher=ABC-CLIO |date=2000|page=368}}</ref>

Modern assessments of the text usually consider it to be the record of an observant rather than imaginative or analytical traveler. [[Marco Polo]] emerges as being curious and tolerant, and devoted to [[Kublai Khan]] and the dynasty that he served for two decades. The book is Polo's account of his travels to China, which he calls [[Cathay]] (north China) and [[Manzi (geography)|Manji]] (south China). The Polo party left Venice in 1271. The journey took three years after which they arrived in Cathay as it was then called and met the grandson of [[Genghis Khan]], Kublai Khan. They left China in late 1290 or early 1291<ref>The date usually given as 1292 was emended in a note by {{harvtxt|Chih-chiu|Yung-chi|1945|p=51}}, reporting that Polo's Chinese companions were recorded as preparing to leave in September 1290.</ref> and were back in Venice in 1295. The tradition is that Polo dictated the book to a [[Romance (heroic literature)|romance]] writer, [[Rustichello da Pisa]], while in prison in [[Genoa]] between 1298 and 1299. Rustichello may have worked up his first Franco-Italian version from Marco's notes. The book was then named {{Lang|fr|Devisement du Monde}} and {{Lang|fr|Livres des Merveilles du Monde}} in French, and {{Lang|la|De Mirabilibus Mundi}} in Latin.{{sfn|Sofri|2001}}

===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.<ref name="Latham pages 7">Latham, Ronald "Introduction" pp. 7–20 from ''The Travels of Marco Polo'', London: Folio Society, 1958 p. 11.</ref> 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 the [[Franco-Venetian]] language.<ref>Maria Bellonci, "Nota introduttiva", Il Milione di Marco Polo, Milano, Oscar Mondadori, 2003, p. xi</ref>

Latham also argued that Rustichello may have glamorised Polo's accounts, and added fantastic and romantic elements that made the book a bestseller.<ref name="Latham pages 7"/> 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 [[Matter of Britain|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.<ref>Latham, Ronald "Introduction" pp. 7–20 from ''The Travels of Marco Polo'', London: Folio Society, 1958 pp. 11–12.</ref> Latham believed that many elements of the book, such as legends of the Middle East and mentions of exotic marvels, may have been the work of Rustichello who was giving what medieval European readers expected to find in a travel book.<ref name="ReferenceA">Latham, Ronald "Introduction" pp. 7–20 from ''The Travels of Marco Polo'', London: Folio Society, 1958 p. 12.</ref>

=== 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 Order|Dominican father]] {{Interlanguage link|Francesco Pipino|it}} was the author of a translation into Latin, {{Lang|la|Iter Marci Pauli Veneti}} in 1302, just a few years after Marco's return to Venice.<ref name="Dutschke-Pipino">{{cite book |last1=Dutschke |first1=Consuelo Wager |title=Francesco Pipino and the manuscripts of Marco Polo's 'Travels' |date=1993 |publisher=[[University of California, Los Angeles]] |url=https://www.proquest.com/openview/046c467c80b894c146471ee226b00d29 |language=en |via=[[ProQuest]] |oclc=494165759}}</ref> Francesco Pipino solemnly affirmed the truthfulness of the book and defined Marco as a "prudent, honoured and faithful man".<ref name="Rinaldo Fulin 1924, p. 255">Rinaldo Fulin, Archivio Veneto, 1924, p. 255</ref> In his writings, the Dominican brother Jacopo d'Acqui explains why his contemporaries were skeptical 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".<ref name="Rinaldo Fulin 1924, p. 255"/>

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.<ref name="unive.it">{{Cite web |url=https://www.unive.it/pag/14024/?tx_news_pi1%5Bnews%5D=8198&cHash=610336475bb16a7a79dfc4295d82d25f |title=UniVenews, 18.11.2019, "Un nuovo tassello della vita di Marco Polo: inedito ritrovato all'Archivio" |work=Università Ca' Foscari Venezia |access-date=27 November 2019 |archive-date=13 July 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200713165936/https://www.unive.it/pag/14024/?tx_news_pi1%5Bnews%5D=8198&cHash=610336475bb16a7a79dfc4295d82d25f |url-status=live }}</ref>

Since Dominican fathers had among their missions that of evangelizing foreign peoples (cf. the role of Dominican missionaries in China<ref name="e7xWAAAAcAAJ">{{Cite web |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=e7xWAAAAcAAJ&q=domenicani+missionari |title=Natalis Alexandre, 1699, Apologia de'padri domenicani missionarii della China |access-date=27 November 2019 |archive-date=22 November 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221122155656/https://books.google.at/books?id=e7xWAAAAcAAJ&dq=domenicani+missionari&hl=it&source=gbs_navlinks_s |url-status=live |last1=Alexandre |first1=Natalis |last2=Alexandre |first2=Noël |year=1699 }}</ref> and in the Indies<ref>[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_Jb6aUU-a0u0C <!-- quote=domenicani missionari. --> Giovanni Michele, 1696 Galleria de'Sommi Pontefici, patriarchi, arcivescovi, e vescovi dell'ordine de'Predicatori, vol. 2, p. 5]</ref>), 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 Mongols<ref>Peter 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.</ref> 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.<ref name=richard-465>Jean Richard, ''Histoire des Croisades'' (Paris: Fayard 1996), p. 465</ref> 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.<ref>"1274: Promulgation of a Crusade, in liaison with the Mongols", Jean Richard, "Histoire des Croisades", p. 502/French, p. 487/English</ref>

==Contents==
''The Travels'' is divided into four books. Book One describes the lands of the Middle East and Central Asia that Marco encountered on his way to China.  Book Two describes China and the court of Kublai Khan. Book Three describes some of the coastal regions of the East: [[Japan]], [[India]], [[Sri Lanka]], [[South-East Asia]], and the east coast of [[Africa]]. Book Four describes some of the then-recent wars among the [[Mongols]] and some of the regions of the far north, like Russia. Polo's writings included descriptions of cannibals and spice-growers.

==Legacy==
{{Expand section|date=October 2023}}
''The Travels'' was a rare popular success in an era before printing.

The impact of Polo's book on [[cartography]] was delayed: the first map in which some names mentioned by Polo appear was in the ''[[Catalan Atlas|Catalan Atlas of Charles V]]'' (1375), which included thirty names in China and a number of other Asian [[toponym]]s.<ref>The exhibition in Venice celebrating the seven hundredth anniversary of Polo's birth ''L'Asia nella Cartographia dell'Occidente'', Tullia Leporini Gasparace, curator, Venice 1955. (unverifiable)</ref> In the mid-fifteenth century the cartographer of Murano, [[Fra Mauro]], meticulously included all of Polo's toponyms in [[Fra Mauro map|his 1450 map of the world]].

A heavily annotated copy of Polo's book was among the belongings of Columbus.<ref>{{cite book |title=The Authentic Letters of Columbus | first=William Eleroy | last=Curtis | author-link=William Eleroy Curtis |url=https://archive.org/stream/authenticletters00colu#page/114/mode/2up |publisher=Field Columbian Museum |place= Chicago, US|access-date=8 May 2018 |page = 115 |year=1895 |via= Internet Archive}}</ref>

==Subsequent versions==
[[File:BNF Fr2810 f1r Frontispice Livre des merveilles.jpeg|thumb|French "Livre des merveilles" front page<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b52000858n/f9.item.image |title=Marco Polo, Le Livre des merveilles p. 9 |access-date=15 January 2021 |archive-date=22 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210122014624/https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b52000858n/f9.item.image |url-status=live }}</ref>]]
[[File:ColombusNotesToMarcoPolo.jpg|thumb|right|Handwritten notes by [[Christopher Columbus]] on the Latin edition of Marco Polo's ''Le livre des merveilles''.]]
Marco Polo was accompanied on his trips by his father and uncle (both of whom had been to China previously), though neither of them published any known works about their journeys. The book was translated into many European languages in Marco Polo's own lifetime, but the original manuscripts are now lost. A total of about 150 copies in various languages are known to exist. During copying and translating many errors were made, so there are many differences between the various copies.{{sfn|Kellogg|2001}}

According to the French philologist [[Philippe Ménard (philologist)|Philippe Ménard]],<ref name="youtube.com">{{Citation|title=Philippe Menard Marco Polo 15 11 07| date=3 January 2019 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-x2cIIHGVU|language=en|access-date=2021-10-13}}</ref> there are six main versions of the book: the version closest to the original, in Franco-Venetian; a version in [[Old French]]; a version in [[Italian language|Tuscan]]; two versions in [[Venetian dialect|Venetian]]; two different versions in [[Latin language|Latin]].

=== Version in Franco-Venetian ===
The oldest surviving Polo manuscript is in [[Franco-Venetian]], which was a literary language which mixed [[Old French]] with the [[Venetian language]], spread in Northern Italy in the 13th century;<ref name="Maria Bellonci 2003, p. XI"/><ref name="rialfri.eu"/><ref>[[Bibliothèque Nationale]] MS. français 1116. For details, see, A.C. Moule and Paul Pelliot, ''Marco Polo:  The Description of the World'' (London, 1938), p. 41.</ref> for Luigi Foscolo Benedetto, this "F" text is the basic original text, which he corrected by comparing it with the somewhat more detailed Italian of Ramusio, together with a Latin manuscript in the [[Biblioteca Ambrosiana]].

=== Version in Old French ===
A version written in Old French, titled {{Lang|fro|Le Livre des merveilles}} (The Book of Marvels).
: This version counts 18 manuscripts, whose most famous is the [[Livre des merveilles (BNF Fr2810)|Code Fr. 2810]].<ref>[http://expositions.bnf.fr/livres/polo/flipbookBnf.swf Scansione Fr. 2810] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220411035927/http://expositions.bnf.fr/livres/polo/flipbookBnf.swf |date=11 April 2022 }}, in expositions.bnf.fr.</ref> Famous for its [[Miniature (illuminated manuscript)|miniatures]], the Code 2810 is in the French National Library. Another Old French Polo manuscript, dating to around 1350, is held by the National Library of Sweden.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Polo |first=Marco |title=The Travels of Marco Polo |website=World Digital Library |access-date=2014-11-25 |date=1350 |language=fro |url=http://www.wdl.org/en/item/14300/ }}</ref> A critical edition of this version was edited in the 2000s by Philippe Ménard.<ref name="youtube.com"/>

=== Version in Tuscan ===
A version in Tuscan (Italian language) titled {{Lang|mis|Navigazione di messer Marco Polo}}<!-- Tuscan --> was written in [[Florence]] by [[Michele Ormanni]]. It is found in the Italian National Library in Florence.
Other early important sources are the manuscript "R" (Ramusio's Italian translation first printed in 1559).

=== Version in Venetian ===
The version in Venetian dialect is full of mistakes and is not considered trustworthy.<ref name="youtube.com"/>

===Versions in Latin===
* One of the early manuscripts, {{Lang|la|Iter Marci Pauli Veneti}}, was a translation into Latin made by the Dominican brother Francesco Pipino in 1302, only three years after Marco's return to Venice.<ref name="Dutschke-Pipino"/><ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www-app.uni-regensburg.de/Fakultaeten/PKGG/Philosophie/Gesch_Phil/alcuin/work.php?id=19817 |title=Iter Marci Pauli Veneti ex Italico Latine versum, von Franciscus Pippinus OP |access-date=27 November 2019 |archive-date=27 September 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210927080234/https://www-app.uni-regensburg.de/Fakultaeten/PKGG/Philosophie/Gesch_Phil/alcuin/work.php?id=19817 |url-status=live }}</ref> This testifies the deep interest the Dominican Order had in the book. According to recent research by the Italian scholar Antonio Montefusco, the very close relationship Marco Polo cultivated with members of the Dominican Order in Venice suggests that Rustichello's text was translated into Latin for a precise will of the Order,<ref name="unive.it"/> which had among its missions that of evangelizing foreign peoples (cf. the role of Dominican missionaries in China<ref name="e7xWAAAAcAAJ"/> and in the Indies<ref>[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_Jb6aUU-a0u0C <!-- quote=domenicani missionari. --> Giovanni Michele, 1696 Galleria de'Sommi Pontefici, patriarchi, arcivescovi, e vescovi dell'ordine de'Predicatori, vol. 2, p. 5]</ref>). This Latin version is conserved by 70 manuscripts.<ref name="youtube.com"/>
* Another Latin version called "Z" is conserved only by one manuscript, which is to be found in [[Toledo, Spain]]. This version contains about 300 small curious additional facts about religion and ethnography in the Far East. Experts wondered whether these additions were from Marco Polo himself.<ref name="youtube.com"/>

=== Critical editions ===
The first attempt to collate manuscripts and provide a critical edition was in a volume of collected travel narratives printed at Venice in 1559.<ref>Its title was ''Secondo volume delle Navigationi et Viaggi nel quale si contengono l'Historia delle cose de' Tartari, et diuversi<!--diuversi is correct--> fatti de loro Imperatori, descritta da M. Marco Polo, Gentilhuomo<!--Gentilhuomo is correct--> di Venezia...''. {{harvtxt|Herriott|1937}} reports the recovery of a 1795 copy of the Ghisi manuscript, clarifying many obscure passages in Ramusio's printed text.</ref>

The editor, Giovan Battista Ramusio, collated manuscripts from the first part of the fourteenth century,<ref>"scritti gia piu di dugento anni (a mio giudico)."</ref> which he considered to be "{{Lang|it|perfettamente corretto}}" ("perfectly correct"). The edition of Benedetto, {{Lang|it|Marco Polo, Il Milione}}, under the patronage of the {{Lang|it|Comitato Geografico Nazionale Italiano|italic=no}} (Florence: Olschki, 1928), collated sixty additional manuscript sources, in addition to some eighty that had been collected by [[Henry Yule]], for his 1871 edition. It was Benedetto who identified Rustichello da Pisa,<ref>"Rusticien" in the French manuscripts.</ref> as the original compiler or [[amanuensis]], and his established text has provided the basis for many modern translations: his own in Italian (1932), and Aldo Ricci's ''The Travels of Marco Polo'' (London, 1931).

The first English translation is the Elizabethan version by [[John Frampton]] published in 1579, ''The most noble and famous travels of Marco Polo'', based on Santaella's Castilian translation of 1503 (the first version in that language).<ref>{{cite web |url=https://archive.org/stream/mostnoblefamoust00polo/mostnoblefamoust00polo_djvu.txt |title=The most noble and famous travels of Marco Polo, together with the travels of Nicoláo de' Conti |website=archive.org |translator=John Frampton |year=1937 |edition=Second}}</ref>

A.C. Moule and Paul Pelliot published a translation under the title ''Description of the World'' that uses manuscript F as its base and attempts to combine the several versions of the text into one continuous narrative while at the same time indicating the source for each section (London, 1938). {{ISBN|4-87187-308-0}}

An introduction to Marco Polo is Leonard Olschki, ''Marco Polo's Asia: An Introduction to His "Description of the World" Called "Il Milione"'', translated by John A. Scott (Berkeley: University of California) 1960; it had its origins in the celebrations of the seven hundredth anniversary of Marco Polo's birth.

==Authenticity and veracity==
[[File:Le livre des merveilles de Marco Polo-pepper.jpg|thumb|Le livre des merveilles, Bibliothèque nationale de France, fr. 2810, Tav. 84r "Qui hae sì gran caldo che a pena vi si puote sofferire (...). Questa gente sono tutti neri, maschi e femmine, e vanno tutti ignudi, se non se tanto ch'egliono ricuoprono loro natura con un panno molto bianco. Costoro non hanno per peccato veruna lussuria"<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b52000858n/f173.item.image |title=Marco Polo, Le Livre des merveilles p. 173 |access-date=27 November 2019 |archive-date=1 October 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211001121200/https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b52000858n/f173.item.image |url-status=live }}</ref>(Translation: "People in a land of extreme heat, barely bearable. They are all dark-skinned, both men and women, and go about nearly naked, covering only their private parts with a white cloth. They see no sin in what might be considered lust.")]]

Since its publication, many have viewed the book with skepticism. Some in the Middle Ages viewed the book simply as a romance or fable, largely because of 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".<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.history.ac.uk/reviews/review/1667#f2 |title=Marco Polo Was in China: New Evidence from Currencies, Salts and Revenues |author=Na Chang |work=Reviews in History }}</ref> 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 a number of things and practices commonly associated with China, such as [[Chinese characters]], tea, chopsticks, and [[footbinding]].<ref>Frances Wood, ''[[Did Marco Polo Go to China?]]'' (London: Secker & Warburg; Boulder, Colorado: Westview, 1995).</ref> In particular, his failure to mention the [[Great Wall of China]] had been noted as early as the middle of the seventeenth century.{{sfn|Haw|2006|p=1}}  In addition, the difficulties in identifying many of the place names he used also raised suspicion about Polo's accounts.{{sfn|Haw|2006|p=1}} Many have questioned whether or not he had visited the places he mentioned in his itinerary, or he had appropriated the accounts of his father and uncle or other travelers, or doubted that he even reached China and that, if he did, perhaps never went beyond [[Khanbaliq]] (Beijing).{{sfn|Haw|2006|p=1}}<ref name="haeger">{{cite journal |jstor=23497510|title= Marco Polo in China? Problems with Internal Evidence |first=John W. |last=Haeger|journal=Bulletin of Sung and Yüan Studies |volume= 14 |date=1978|issue= 14 |pages= 22–30 }}</ref>

Historian [[Stephen G. Haw]] however argued that many of the "omissions" could be explained. For example, none of the other Western travelers to [[Yuan dynasty]] China at that time, such as [[Giovanni de' Marignolli]] and [[Odoric of Pordenone]], mentioned the Great Wall, and that while remnants of the Wall would have existed at that time, it would not have been significant or noteworthy as it had not been maintained for a long time. The Great Walls were built to keep out northern invaders, whereas the ruling dynasty during Marco Polo's visit were those very northern invaders. The Mongol rulers whom Polo served also controlled territories both north and south of today's wall, and would have no reasons to maintain any fortifications that may have remained there from the earlier dynasties. He noted the Great Wall familiar to us today is a [[Ming dynasty|Ming]] structure built some two centuries after Marco Polo's travels.{{sfn|Haw|2006|pp=52–57}} The Muslim traveler [[Ibn Battuta]] did mention the Great Wall, but when he asked about the wall while in China during the Yuan dynasty, he could find no one who had either seen it or knew of anyone who had seen it.{{sfn|Haw|2006|pp=52–57}} Haw also argued that practices such as footbinding were 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 only relaying something he heard as his description is inaccurate),<ref name=ebrey>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iL2AAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA196 |title=Women and the Family in Chinese History |first=Patricia|last= Ebrey |year= 2003 |page=196|publisher=Routledge |isbn= 978-1-134-44293-5 }}</ref> no other foreign visitors to Yuan China mentioned the practice, perhaps an indication that the footbinding was not widespread or was not practiced in an extreme form at that time.{{sfn|Haw|2006|pp=53–56}} Marco Polo himself noted (in the Toledo manuscript) the dainty walk of Chinese women who took very short steps.{{sfn|Haw|2006|pp=52–57}}

It has also been pointed out that Polo's accounts are more accurate and detailed than other accounts of the periods. Polo had at times denied the "marvelous" fables and legends given in other European accounts, and also omitted descriptions of strange races of people then believed to inhabit eastern Asia and given in such accounts. For example, Odoric of Pordenone said that the [[Yangtze]] river flows through the land of pygmies only three [[Span (unit)|spans]] high and gave other fanciful tales, while Giovanni da Pian del Carpine spoke of "wild men, who do not speak at all and have no joints in their legs", monsters who looked like women but whose menfolk were dogs, and other equally fantastic accounts. Despite a few exaggerations and errors, Polo's accounts are relatively free of the descriptions of irrational marvels, and in many cases where present (mostly given in the first part before he reached China), 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 in other accounts such as those given by the Moroccan traveler Ibn Battuta who had confused the [[Yellow River]] with the [[Grand Canal (China)|Grand Canal]] and other waterways, and believed that [[porcelain]] was made from coal.{{sfn|Haw|2006|pp=66–67}}

Many of the details in Polo's accounts have been verified. For example, when visiting [[Zhenjiang]] in [[Jiangsu]], China, Marco Polo noted that a large number of [[Christian church]]es had been built there. His claim is confirmed by a Chinese text of the 14th century explaining how a [[Sogdia]]n named Mar-Sargis from [[Samarkand]] founded six [[Nestorianism|Nestorian Christian churches]] there in addition to one in [[Hangzhou]] during the second half of the 13th century.{{sfn|Emmerick|2003|p=275}} Nestorian Christianity had existed in China since the [[Tang dynasty]] (618–907 AD) when a Persian monk named [[Alopen]] came to the capital Chang'an in 635 to [[Proselytism|proselytize]], as described in a dual Chinese and [[Syriac language]] inscription from Chang'an (modern [[Xi'an]]) dated to the year 781.{{sfn|Emmerick|2003|p=274}}

In 2012, the [[University of Tübingen]] [[Sinology|sinologist]] and historian Hans Ulrich Vogel released a detailed analysis of Polo's description of currencies, [[Salt in Chinese history#Early modern technology|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.<ref name=uot1204>{{cite news | url = http://www.alphagalileo.org/ViewItem.aspx?ItemId=119306&CultureCode=en | title = Marco Polo was not a swindler – he really did go to China | work = [[University of Tübingen]] | publisher = Alpha Galileo | date = 16 April 2012 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120503104150/http://www.alphagalileo.org/ViewItem.aspx?ItemId=119306&CultureCode=en | archive-date = 3 May 2012 }}</ref>{{sfn|Vogel|2013}} 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 shell]]s in Yunnan, details supported by archaeological evidence and Chinese sources compiled long after Polo's had left China.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://newobserveronline.com/marco-polo-did-go-to-china-new-research-shows-and-the-history-of-paper/ |title=Marco Polo Did Go to China, New Research Shows (and the History of Paper) |date=31 July 2013 |work=The New Observer |access-date=31 October 2016 |archive-date=4 February 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170204134202/http://newobserveronline.com/marco-polo-did-go-to-china-new-research-shows-and-the-history-of-paper/ |url-status=dead }}</ref> His accounts of salt production and revenues from the salt monopoly are also accurate, and accord with Chinese documents of the Yuan era.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/04/120416100439.htm |title=Marco Polo was not a swindler: He really did go to China |work=Science Daily }}</ref> 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" ({{Lang|it|seignora}}) in Yangzhou or merely "sojourn" ({{Lang|it|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".{{sfn|Vogel|2013|p=xix}}

==Other travelers==
{{further|Europeans in Medieval China|John of Montecorvino}}
[[File:AyasMarcoPolo.JPG|thumb|300px|City of Ayas visited by Marco Polo in 1271, from ''Le Livre des Merveilles'']]
Although Marco Polo was certainly the most famous, he was not the only nor the first European traveler to the [[Mongol Empire]] who subsequently wrote an [[Travel Literature|account]] of his experiences. Earlier thirteenth-century European travelers who journeyed to the court of the [[Great Khan]] were [[André de Longjumeau]], William of Rubruck and Giovanni da Pian del Carpine with [[Benedykt Polak]]. None of them however reached China itself. Later travelers such as Odoric of Pordenone and Giovanni de' Marignolli reached China during the Yuan dynasty and wrote accounts of their travels.<ref name=ebrey/>{{sfn|Haw|2006|pp=52–57}}

The Moroccan merchant Ibn Battuta traveled through the [[Golden Horde]] and China subsequently in the early-to-mid-14th century. The 14th-century author [[John Mandeville]] wrote an account of journeys in the East, but this was probably based on second-hand information and contains much apocryphal information.

==Footnotes==
{{reflist}}

==Further reading==
[[File:Polo - Delle meravigliose cose del mondo, del MCCCCXCVI adi XIII del mese de iunio - 2325986 Scan00007.tif|thumb|right|''Delle meravigliose cose del mondo'', 1496]]
'''Translations'''
* {{Internet Archive|descriptionofwor01polo|''The description of the world'' (Moule-Pelliot translation)|author=Marco Polo.}}
* {{cite book |last1=Polo |first1=Marco |author-mask=1  |author1-link=Marco Polo |author2-link=William Marsden (orientalist) |last2=Marsden |first2=William |title=The Travels of Marco Polo, a Venetian<!-- , in the Thirteenth Century: Being a Description, by that Early Traveler, of Remarkable Places and Things, in the Eastern Parts of the World --> |date=1818 |publisher=[[William Marsden (orientalist)|William Marsden]]  |oclc=56484937 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JetQAAAAcAAJ |language=en}}{{free access}}
* {{cite book|first=Marco|last=Polo|author-mask=1 |translator=Hugh Murray|title=The Travels of Marco Polo|url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_SypYS7GO6UEC|year=1845|publisher=Harper & Brothers}}
* {{citation |first=Marco|last=Polo |author-mask=1 |translator= Henry Yule | year=1871 | title=The Book of Ser Marco Polo, the Venetian  |volume=  | publisher=John Murray | place=London | url=https://archive.org/stream/bookofsermarcopo01polo}}. [https://archive.org/stream/bookofsermarcopo01polo#page/n7/mode/2up  volume 1], [https://archive.org/stream/bookofsermarcopo02polo#page/n5/mode/2up volume 2], [https://archive.org/stream/bookofsermarcopo02polo#page/476/mode/2up index]
* — (1903), {{Gutenberg|no=10636|name=The Travels of Marco Polo. (Yule-Cordier translation) Volume 1 |bullet=none}}
* — (1903), {{Gutenberg|no=12410|name=The Travels of Marco Polo. (Yule-Cordier translation) Volume 2 |bullet=none}}
* {{citation |first=Marco|last=Polo |author-mask=1 |translator= Henry Yule | year=1903 | title=The Book of Ser Marco Polo, the Venetian, Concerning the Kingdoms and Marvels of the East |volume=1| edition=3rd | publisher=John Murray | place=London | url=https://archive.org/stream/bookofsermarcopo001polo#page/n7/mode/2up }}.  [https://archive.org/stream/bookofsermarcopo001polo#page/n7/mode/2up volume 1], [https://archive.org/stream/bookofsermarcopo002polo#page/n9/mode/2up volume 2], [https://archive.org/stream/bookofsermarcopo002polo#page/606/mode/2up index]
* {{cite book| first=Marco |last=Polo |author-mask=1 |translator=Ronald Latham |title=The Travels|publisher=Penguin Classics|location=London| isbn=978-0-14-044057-7 |date=1958}}
* {{cite book|first=Marco|last=Polo|author-mask=1 |translator=Paul Smethurst|title=The Travels of Marco Polo|publisher=Barnes & Noble, Inc|date=2005|isbn=0-7607-6589-8}}
* – (2016) ''Marco Polo, The Description of the World''. Translated by [[Sharon Kinoshita]]. Indianapolis: Hackett Press, 2016.
* {{cite book |last1=Polo |first1=Marco |author-mask=1 |editor1-last=Blanchard |editor1-first=Joël |editor2-last=Quereuil |editor2-first=Michel |title=Le devisement du monde: version franco-italienne |date=2019 |publisher=Librairie Droz |location=Genève |isbn=978-2-6000-5900-8}}
* [https://engineeringhistoricalmemory.com/MarcoPolo.php The Travels of Marco Polo]. — ''Engineering Historical Memory'' (critical English translation, images, videos)

'''General studies'''
* {{cite book|first=Luce|last=Boulnois|year=2005|title=Silk Road: Monks, Warriors & Merchants|publisher=Odyssey Books & Guides|location=Hong Kong|pages=[https://archive.org/details/silkroad00luce/page/311 311–335]|isbn=962-217-721-2|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/silkroad00luce/page/311}}
* {{citation |last=Gaunt |first=Simon |author-link=Simon Gaunt |title=Marco Polo's 'Le Devisement du Monde'. Narrative Voice, Language and Diversity |location=Cambridge |publisher=D. S. Brewer |series=Gallica  |year=2013 |isbn=978-1-8438-4352-8}}.
* {{citation |last=Haw |first=Stephen G. |title=Marco Polo's China: A Venetian in the Realm of Khubilai Khan |location=London; New York |publisher=Routledge |series=Routledge Studies in the Early History of Asia  |year=2006 |isbn=0-415-34850-1}}.
* {{citation |last=Larner |first=John |title=Marco Polo and the Discovery of the World |location=New Haven |publisher=Yale University Press |year=1999 |isbn=0-300-07971-0}}.
* {{citation |last=Olschki |first=Leonardo |title=Marco Polo's Asia: An Introduction to His "Description of the World" Called "Il Milione" |location=Berkeley |publisher=University of California Press |year=1960 |translator=John A. Scott |oclc=397577}}.
* {{citation |author-last=Taylor |author-first=Scott L. |year=2013 |chapter=''Merveilles du Monde'': Marco Millioni, ''Mirabilia'', and the Medieval Imagination, or the Impact of Genre on European ''Curiositas'' |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=snPnBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA595 |editor-last=Classen |editor-first=Albrecht |title=East Meets West in the Middle Ages and Early Modern Times: Transcultural Experiences in the Premodern World |location=[[Berlin]] and [[Boston]] |publisher=[[De Gruyter]] |series=Fundamentals of Medieval and Early Modern Culture |volume=14 |pages=595–610 |doi=10.1515/9783110321517.595 |isbn=978-3-11-032878-3 |issn=1864-3396}}.
* {{citation |last=Vogel |first=Hans Ulrich |title=Marco Polo Was in China: New Evidence from Currencies, Salts and Revenues |location=Leiden; Boston |publisher=Brill |year=2013 |isbn=978-90-04-23193-1}}.
* {{cite book|first=Francis|last=Wood|year=1996|title=Did Marco Polo Go to China?|publisher=Westview Press|location=Boulder|isbn=978-0-8133-8998-1}}
* {{cite EB1911 |wstitle=Polo, Marco |volume=22 |pages=7–11 |short=1 |first1=Henry |last1=Yule  |first2=Charles Raymond |last2=Beazley |author-link1=Henry Yule}}

'''Dissertations'''
* {{cite book |last1=Dutschke |first1=Consuelo Wager |title=Francesco Pipino and the manuscripts of Marco Polo's 'Travels' |date=1993 |publisher=[[University of California, Los Angeles]] |url=https://www.proquest.com/openview/046c467c80b894c146471ee226b00d29 |language=en |id={{ProQuest|<!-- add ProQuest data here -->}} |oclc=494165759}}

'''Journal articles'''
* {{cite journal|first1=Yang |last1=Chih-chiu|first2=Ho |last2=Yung-chi|title=Marco Polo Quits China|journal=Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies|volume=9|issue=1|date= September 1945 |doi=10.2307/2717993 |page=51|jstor=2717993}}
* {{Citation|author-last=Emmerick |author-first=R.E. |year=2003 |chapter=Iranian Settlement East of the Pamirs |editor-link=Ehsan Yarshater |editor-first=Ehsan |editor-last=Yarshater |title=The Cambridge History of Iran, Vol III: The Seleucid, Parthian, and Sasanian Periods |publisher=Cambridge University Press |doi=10.1017/CHOL9780521200929.009}}.
* {{cite journal|first=Homer |last=Herriott|title=The 'Lost' Toledo Manuscript of Marco Polo|journal=Speculum|volume=12|issue=1 |date=October 1937|pages=456–463|doi=10.2307/2849300|jstor=2849300|s2cid=164177617}}
* {{cite journal|url=https://www.amherst.edu/system/files/Jackson%2520Marco%2520Polo.pdf|doi=10.1017/S0041977X00015779|title=Marco Polo and his 'Travels'|first=Peter|last=Jackson|author-link=Peter Jackson (historian)|journal=Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies|volume=61|issue=1|year=1998|pages=82–101| s2cid=159991305 }}
* {{cite journal |last1=Cruse |first1=Mark |title=Marco Polo in Manuscript: The Travels of the Devisement du monde |journal=Narrative Culture |date=2015 |volume=2 |issue=2 |pages=171–189 |doi=10.13110/narrcult.2.2.0171 |jstor=10.13110/narrcult.2.2.0171  |issn=2169-0235}}

'''Newspaper and web articles'''
* {{cite web|first=Patricia B.|last= Kellogg |title=Did you Know? |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080205054538/http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0105/feature1/index.html | url=http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0105/feature1/index.html |year=2001 |website=National Geographic |archive-date=5 February 2008}}
* {{cite news |last=Sofri |first=Adriano |date=28 December 2001 |website=La Repubblica  |url=http://ricerca.repubblica.it/repubblica/archivio/repubblica/2001/12/28/finalmente-torna-il-favoloso-milione.html |title=Finalmente Torna Il favoloso milione |access-date=27 February 2019|language=it}}

==External links==
{{Commons category|Il milione}}
* [https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=1VyLHz0BoRtqvq9UH5ae2Ie50QN0&hl=en Google map link with Polo's Travels Mapped out (follows the Yule version of the original work)]
* {{librivox book | stitle=The Book of Ser Marco Polo | dtitle=''The Travels of Marco Polo'' | author=Marco Polo}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Travels of Marco Polo, The}}
[[Category:1290s books]]
[[Category:Italian literature]]
[[Category:Medieval literature]]
[[Category:Travel books]]
[[Category:Prison writings]]
[[Category:Marco Polo]]
[[Category:Books about Asia]]
[[Category:Italian non-fiction books]]
[[Category:Geography books]]
[[Category:History books about exploration]]
[[Category:History books about India]]