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Dromo's Den
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[Up] [Dromo's Den] Marco Polo Biography POLO, Marco (c.1254–1324). The most celebrated traveler of the Middle Ages. He belonged to a noble Venettial family. His father, Nicolo Polo, and his uncle, Maffeo Polo, went about 1249 to the Crimea and from there journeyed to Cathay or China. Here they were received by the famous Kublai Khan (q.v.), returning home in 1269. When they set out again for the East, in 1271, Marco Polo, who had been born during his father's absence, went with them. The three travelers crossed western Asia and Tartary and reached China and the Great Khan in 1275. They were received with great honors, and young Marco received various high offices; at one time he administered a whole province for three years. The three Europeans finally became restless in this distant land, and, though the Khan was unwilling to allow them to depart, they at last obtained permission to accompany an embassy to Persia. From there they journeyed to Venice, reaching their native city in 1295. Marco Polo commanded a vessel in a war against Genoa in 1298, was taken prisoner, and was not released until the following year. Meanwhile he dictated in French an account of his journey to Rustichello of Pisa, who entitled the work The Book of Marco Polo. It was translated almost immediately from the French text of Rustichello into many other languages. For centuries it comprised all the knowledge Europe possessed of the extreme East, and though Marco Polo was at one time accused of exaggeration in many particulars, subsequent travels have proved the accuracy of his observations. Little is known of Polo's history after he left the Genoese prison, beyond the fact that a wife and three daughters survived him. Consult: C. R. Beazley, Dawn of Modern Geography, vol. iii (Oxford, 1906) ; the best edition of his work is that of Sir Henry Yule, The Book of Sir Marco Polo (3d ed., 2 vols.. New York, 1903). Among the many other editions in English may be mentioned the one in the Bohn Library, edited by Thomas Wright (London, 1904). An edition called Travels of Marco Polo, translated by William Marsden, is to be had in the Everyman's Library (New York, 1908). The New International Encyclopaedia Vol. XIX. (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1920) 8-9. |