The Travels Of Marco Polo A Venetian In The Thirteenth Century

The Venetian adventurer Marco Polo traveled from Europe to Asia in the late thirteenth century, as immortalised in his seminal work of travel literature. It describes Polo’s assorted travels throughout Asia and his experiences in the sumptuous court of Kublai Khan. Composed at a time when very little was known about the Far East, Polo’s account opened new vistas to the European mind, allowing Western horizons to expand. His description of Japan set a definite goal for Christopher Columbus in his journey of 1492, while Polo’s detailed discoveries of spices encouraged Western merchants to seek new sources and break trading monopolies. The wealth of geographic information recorded by Polo was widely used in the late fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, fuelling an era of great European discoveries. Delphi’s Medieval Library provides eReaders with rare and precious works of the Middle Ages, with noted English translations and the original texts. This eBook presents Marco Polo’s complete text, with illustrations, an informative introduction and the usual Delphi bonus material. (Version 1) * Beautifully illustrated with images relating to Polo's life and adventures * Features the complete extant works of Marco Polo, in both English translation and Giovanni Battista Ramusio’s original Italian text * The complete Yule-Cordier 1903 translation, with hundreds of illustrations and footnotes * Concise introduction to the text * Superior formatting * Easily locate the sections you want to read with individual contents tables * Features four bonus biographies — discover Polo's medieval world CONTENTS: The Translation Brief Introduction to Marco Polo The Travels of Marco Polo (c. 1300) The Original Text The Italian Text The Biographies Marco Polo (1832) by James Augustus St. John Sir Marco Polo, the Venetian, and His Travels in Asia (1893) by W. H. Davenport Adams Marco Polo (1904) by John H. Haaren Marco Polo (1911) by Henry Yule and Charles Raymond Beazley

The Travels of Marco Polo is a 13th-century travelogue written down by Rustichello da Pisa from stories told by Italian explorer Marco Polo, describing Polo's travels through Asia between 1271 and 1295, and his experiences at the court of Kublai Khan. 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.