The Travels Of Marco Polo Volume 1

Marco Polo almost the first European man to reach the wonderful world of East Asia. The Travels of Marco Polo, is a 13th-century travelogue written down by Rustichello da Pisa from stories told by Marco Polo when they where emprisoned together in Genoa, describing Polo's travels through Asia, Persia, China, and Indonesia between 1276 and 1291 and his experiences became at the court of the Mongol leader Kublai Khan.

Reproduction of the original.

Volume 1 of 2-volume set. One of the greatest books of all time — a vast treasury of invaluable observations on the peoples and geography of the Near East and Asia in the 13th century. Detailed descriptions of cities, customs, laws, crops, animals, political systems, much more. 200 illustrations, 32 maps and site plans.

The amount of appropriate material, and of acquaintance with the mediaeval geography of some parts of Asia, which was acquired during the compilation of a work of kindred character for the Hakluyt Society, [1] could hardly fail to suggest as a fresh labour in the same field the preparation of a new English edition of Marco Polo. Indeed one kindly critic (in the Examiner) laid it upon the writer as a duty to undertake that task. Though at least one respectable English edition has appeared since Marsden's, [2] the latter has continued to be the standard edition, and maintains not only its reputation but its market value. It is indeed the work of a sagacious, learned, and right-minded man, which can never be spoken of otherwise than with respect. But since Marsden published his quarto (1818) vast stores of new knowledge have become available in elucidation both of the contents of Marco Polo's book and of its literary history. The works of writers such as Klaproth, Abel Remusat, D'Avezac, Reinaud, Quatremere, Julien, I. J. Schmidt, Gildemeister, Ritter, Hammer-Purgstall, Erdmann, D'Ohsson, Defremery, Elliot, Erskine, and many more, which throw light directly or incidentally on Marco Polo, have, for the most part, appeared since then. Nor, as regards the literary history of the book, were any just views possible at a time when what may be called the Fontal MSS. (in French) were unpublished and unexamined.