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This article is about the trader and explorer. For other uses, see Marco Polo (disambiguation)
Marco Polo (
September 15 1254 –
January 9 1324 at earliest but no later than June
1325) was a
Venetian trader and
explorer who gained fame for his worldwide travels, recorded in the book
Il Milione ("The Million" or
The Travels of Marco Polo).
Polo, together with his father Niccolò and his uncle Maffeo, was one of the first Westerners to travel the
Silk Road to
China (which he called
Cathay, after the
Khitan) and visit the
Great Khan of the
Mongol Empire,
Kublai Khan (grandson of
Genghis Khan).
Voyage of Niccolò and Maffeo Polo
The
Polo name originally didn't belong to a family of explorers, but to a family of traders. Marco Polo's father, Niccolò (also Nicolò in
Venetian) and his uncle, Maffeo (also Maffio), were prosperous
merchants who traded with the East. They were partners with a third brother, named Marco
il vecchio (the Elder).
In 1252, Niccolò and Maffeo left
Venice for
Constantinople, where they resided for several years. The two brothers lived in the Venetian quarter of Constantinople, where they enjoyed
political chances and tax relief because of their country's role in establishing the
Latin Empire in the
Fourth Crusade of 1204. But the family judged the political situation of the city precarious, so they decided to transfer their business northeast to
Soldaia, a city in
Crimea, and left Constantinople in 1259. Their decision proved wise. Constantinople was recaptured in 1261 by
Michael Palaeologus, the ruler of the
Empire of Nicaea, who promptly burned the Venetian quarter. Captured Venetian citizens were blinded,
The Tibetan monk and confidant of
Kublai Khan,
Drogön Chögyal Phagpa (1235-1280) mentions in his diaries for 1271 a foreign friend of Kublai Khan, who was quite possibly one of the elder Polos or even Marco Polo, although, unfortunately, no name is given.
The Polos spent the next 17 years in China. Kublai Khan took a liking to Marco, who was an engaging storyteller. They set him on many diplomatic missions throughout his empire. Marco carried out diplomatic assignments but also entertained the khan with interesting stories and observations about the lands he traveled.
Marco reported that apart from entrusting him with diplomatic missions, Kublai Khan also made him governor for three years of the large commercial city of
Yangzhou. An Italian community would actually reside in Yangzhou throughout the 14th century, as documented by the findings of the 1342 tombstone of
Katarina Vilioni.
Return to Europe
According to Marco’s travel account, the Polos asked several times for permission to return to Europe but the Khan appreciated the visitors so much that he wouldn't agree to their departure.
Only in 1291 Kublai entrusted Marco with his last duty, to escort the Mongol princess
Koekecin (
Cocacin in
Il Milione) to her betrothed, the Ilkhan
Arghun. The party traveled by sea, departing from the southern port city of
Quanzhou and sailing to
Sumatra, and then to
Persia, via
Sri Lanka and
India (where his visits included
Mylapore,
Madurai and
Alleppey, which he nicknamed Venice of the East). Marco Polo has been described to utilise the
Northern Silk Road although the possibility of a southern route has been advanced.
In 1293 or 1294 the Polos reached the
Ilkhanate, ruled by
Gaykhatu after the death of Arghun, and left Koekecin with the new Ilkhan. Then they moved to
Trebizond and from that city sailed to Venice. Koekecin would become the principal wife of the Mongol Il-Khan ruler
Ghazan.
In terms of the legacy of Marco Polo's travel to China, it was noteworthy as one of the first European visitors to travel to the East; considerable exposure of China's culture to the European continent resulted. The trip also showed Europeans the value of the
Silk Road in negotiating this travel; however, even though this
trackway was used since the first millennium
BC, the use of the
Silk Road actually declined markedly within about 150 years after Marco Polo's expedition, due to the opening of sea routes.
Il Milione
Marco Polo was later captured in a minor clash of the war between Venice and
Genoa, or in the
naval battle of Curzola, according to a dubious tradition. He spent the few months of his imprisonment, in 1298, dictating to a fellow prisoner,
Rustichello da Pisa, a detailed account of his travels in the then-unknown parts of China.
His book,
Il Milione (the title comes from either "The Million", then considered an extremely large number, or from Polo's family nickname
Emilione), was written in
Old French, a language Polo didn't speak, and entitled
Le divisament dou monde ("The description of the world"). The book was soon translated into many European languages and is known in English as
The Travels of Marco Polo. The original is lost and there are now several often-conflicting versions of the translations. The book became an instant success — quite an achievement at a time when the invention of the printing press was two hundred years away in Europe.
Later life
Marco Polo was finally released from captivity in the summer of 1299, and he returned home to Venice, where his father and uncles had bought a large house in the central quarter named
contrada San Giovanni Crisostomo with the company's profits.
The company continued its activities, and Marco was now a wealthy merchant. While he personally financed other expeditions, he'd never leave Venice again. In 1300, he married Donata Badoer, a woman from an old, respected patrician family. Marco would have three children with her: Fantina, Bellela and Moreta. All of them later married into noble families.
Between 1310 and 1320, he wrote a new version of his book,
Il Milione, in
Italian. The text was lost, but not before a
Franciscan friar, named Francesco Pipino, translated it into
Latin. This Latin version was then translated back into the Italian, creating conflicts between different editions of the book.
Marco Polo died in his home on January 1324, at almost 70 years old. He was buried in the Church of
San Lorenzo.
Historical and cultural impact
Although the Polos were by no means the first Europeans to reach China overland (see, for example,
Giovanni da Pian del Carpine), thanks to Marco's book their trip was the first to be widely known, and the best-documented until then. Marco Polo's description of the Far East and its riches inspired
Christopher Columbus' 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.
The name
Marco Polo was also given to a children's game (
Marco Polo), a story in the
science fiction series
Doctor Who (
Marco Polo) and a three-masted
clipper ship built in Saint John, New Brunswick, in 1851. The fastest ship of her day,
Marco Polo was the first ship to sail around the world in under six months. Several ships of the Italian navy were named
Marco Polo. The airport in
Venice is named
Marco Polo International Airport. See also the
Marcopolo satellites.
The travels of Marco Polo are given an extended
fantasy treatment in the
Irish writer
Brian Oswald Donn-Byrne's
Messer Marco Polo, and in
Gary Jennings' 1984 novel
The Journeyer. He also appears as the pivotal character in
Italo Calvino's novel
Invisible Cities.
Marco Polo also inspired the creation of Marco Volo, a character in the
role-playing game Forgotten Realms.
In 1982,
Giuliano Montaldo directed an ambitious
television miniseries, simply titled "Marco Polo". The Italian financed project starred
Ken Marshall as Marco Polo and guest-starred a handful of
Academy Awards winning actors, like
Denholm Elliott,
F. Murray Abraham,
Anne Bancroft,
John Gielgud,
John Houseman,
Burt Lancaster and also
Tony Lo Bianco and
Leonard Nimoy. The music was scored by the famous Italian music composer
Ennio Morricone. The miniseries won 2
Emmy Awards and was nominated for 6 more.
Marco Polo sheep is named for the explorer, who described the species during his crossing of
Pamir (ancient
Mount Imeon) in 1271..
Cartography
Marco Polo's travels may have had some impact on the development of European cartography, ultimately leading to the
European voyages of exploration a century later. The 1453
Fra Mauro map is said by
Ramusio to have been an improved copy of the one brought from
Cathay by Marco Polo:
» "That fine illuminated world map on
parchment, which can still be seen in a large cabinet alongside the choir of their monastery (The Calmoldese monastery of Santo Michele on Murano) was by one of the brothers of the monastery, who took great delight in the study of
cosmography, diligently drawn and copied from a most beautiful and very old
nautical map and a world map that had been brought from
Cathay by the most honourable Messer Marco Polo and his father." Ramusio v.3.
Controversies
Croatia claims to host the real
birthplace of Marco Polo on the island of
Korčula (the Venetian "Curzola"), in the
Adriatic Sea. The claim is controversial, since most literature usually connected him to Venice in the past. However, since no original document is known to record his birthplace, Venice as his birthplace is somewhat controversial as well.
Some modern historians question the veracity of Marco Polo's account, and wonder whether he really visited the Mongol empire, or whether Marco Polo was simply repeating stories that he'd heard from other traders. Dr. John Critchley has pointed out that Marco Polo's stories tend to give more information about minds of Western Europeans than those in Asia. Doctor Frances Wood has questioned whether or not Marco Polo was even in China. Dr.
Peter Jackson has pointed out several things that a European traveler probably would have mentioned, but did not, and that there's no mention of Marco Polo in Chinese accounts of the period. Jackson also argues that there are several different versions of Polo's book, and questions whether it even represents Polo's account at all, but was instead simply written by a romance writer of the time. Questions have also been raised as to whether Marco Polo, if he did visit China, was genuinely an ambassador, or if he was simply one of the many travelers at the time who claimed to be an ambassador.
Further Information
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