The Travels of Marco Polo

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A page of "The Travels of Marco Polo"

The Travels of Marco Polo is the usual English title of Marco Polo's travel book, Il Milione. The Milione, comes from either The Million, which was a name used to mock the fantastic book, which many claimed was filled with "a million lies", or from Polo's family nickname Emilione. The "million lies" are derived mostly from the fact that many of the things described in his book are described in the hundred, thousands, or millions, and those reading his work were dubious of the large numbers. While none his dissenters could say anything to the contrary, they were doubtful regardless (Polo was reputed to have a habit of exaggerating things). The book is his account of his travels to China, which he calls Cathay (north China) and Manji (south China). Polo dictated the book to a romance writer, Rustichello da Pisa, while in prison in Genoa between 1298–1299.

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, Southeast Asia, and the east coast of Africa. Finally, Book Four describes some of the recent wars among the Mongols and some of the regions of the far north, like Russia.

The Travels was a rare popular success in an era before printing. It was translated into many European languages within Marco Polo's lifetime, but the original manuscripts are now lost.

Marco Polo's description of the Far East and its riches inspired Christopher Columbus's decision to try to reach those lands by a western route. A heavily annotated copy of Polo's book was among the belongings of Columbus.

An interesting thing to note is that Marco Polo took this trip with his uncle and his father (both of whom had been to China previously), neither of them published any known works about their journeys.