Marco Polo’s account of his journey to Asia is one of the most well-known texts to come out of the Middle Ages. This book explores the people, places, and wonders that Polo described in his writings.
Excerpt:
At first glance, one could scarcely imagine a better candidate for a series on medieval lives than Marco Polo (1254–1324). Few figures from the European Middle Ages have greater name recognition today. This is all the more remarkable since he was neither a king, like Charlemagne or William the Conqueror; nor a holy figure, like St Francis of Assisi or Joan of Arc; nor a literary giant, like Dante or Chaucer. Rather, he came from a family of Venetian merchants who lived at an extraordinary moment when the Mongol conquests of Chinggis Khan and his descendants had created the conditions for trans-Asian communication and exchange on a scale unprecedented in world history. Leaving home at age seventeen in the company of his father, Niccolò, and his uncle, Maffeo, Marco travelled to the court of the Great Khan Qubilai (Chinggis’s grandson), whose favour the elder Polos had earned on a previous visit, when Marco was still a boy. Attracting Qubilai’s attention through his gift for languages and his knack for recounting captivating tales about far-flung places, Marco spent his twenties and thirties in the service of the Great Khan. Finally, in the early 1290s, the three Polos were included in Qubilai’s embassy to his great-nephew, the Ilkhan of Persia. From there, they made their way back home, reaching Venice in 1295, some 24 years after Marco, now aged about 41, had originally left.
Who is this book for?
Thankfully, this book is not another biography of Marco Polo. Instead, the author focuses on what the Venetian traveler wrote about—whether it’s the city of Quinsai (modern-day Hangzhou) or the pepper trade—explaining both what Polo reported and what else we now know about these topics. It will be useful for those seeking to learn more about the Global Middle Ages and will offer new insights to readers already familiar with Marco Polo’s (near-)original account.
The Author
Sharon Kinoshita is a professor of medieval literature at the University of California – Santa Cruz. It is apt that among her research interests you can find Marco Polo and the Global Middle Ages.
Marco Polo and His World
By Sharon Kinoshita
Reaktion Books
ISBN: 978 1 78914 937 1
Marco Polo’s account of his journey to Asia is one of the most well-known texts to come out of the Middle Ages. This book explores the people, places, and wonders that Polo described in his writings.
Excerpt:
At first glance, one could scarcely imagine a better candidate for a series on medieval lives than Marco Polo (1254–1324). Few figures from the European Middle Ages have greater name recognition today. This is all the more remarkable since he was neither a king, like Charlemagne or William the Conqueror; nor a holy figure, like St Francis of Assisi or Joan of Arc; nor a literary giant, like Dante or Chaucer. Rather, he came from a family of Venetian merchants who lived at an extraordinary moment when the Mongol conquests of Chinggis Khan and his descendants had created the conditions for trans-Asian communication and exchange on a scale unprecedented in world history. Leaving home at age seventeen in the company of his father, Niccolò, and his uncle, Maffeo, Marco travelled to the court of the Great Khan Qubilai (Chinggis’s grandson), whose favour the elder Polos had earned on a previous visit, when Marco was still a boy. Attracting Qubilai’s attention through his gift for languages and his knack for recounting captivating tales about far-flung places, Marco spent his twenties and thirties in the service of the Great Khan. Finally, in the early 1290s, the three Polos were included in Qubilai’s embassy to his great-nephew, the Ilkhan of Persia. From there, they made their way back home, reaching Venice in 1295, some 24 years after Marco, now aged about 41, had originally left.
Who is this book for?
Thankfully, this book is not another biography of Marco Polo. Instead, the author focuses on what the Venetian traveler wrote about—whether it’s the city of Quinsai (modern-day Hangzhou) or the pepper trade—explaining both what Polo reported and what else we now know about these topics. It will be useful for those seeking to learn more about the Global Middle Ages and will offer new insights to readers already familiar with Marco Polo’s (near-)original account.
The Author
Sharon Kinoshita is a professor of medieval literature at the University of California – Santa Cruz. It is apt that among her research interests you can find Marco Polo and the Global Middle Ages.
You can learn more about this book from the publisher’s website.
You can buy this book on Amazon.com | Amazon.ca | Amazon.co.uk
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