Marco Polo

Marco Polo: see Polo, Marco.

---

Marco Polo 

Born circa 1254 in Venice; died there Jan. 8, 1324. Italian traveler and writer.

Together with his father and uncle, who were Venetian merchants, Marco Polo sailed to southeastern Asia Minor between about 1271 and 1275. From there he traveled by land to Northern China across the Armenian Highland, Mesopotamia, the Iranian Plateau, the Pamirs, and the Kashgar Mountains. Remaining in China in the service of Kublai Khan until 1292, Marco visited various regions of the country. He returned by sea from Southern China via Iran to Venice in 1295. Some sources state that Marco Polo fought in the war with Genoa. Around 1297 he was taken prisoner by the Genoese.

Marco’s colorful accounts of his travels were recorded by Rusticello, another prisoner, in the Venetian dialect, the language of Italian 13th-century prose fiction. The accounts constituted The Book of Marco Polo (1298), a valuable source on the geography, ethnography, and history of Armenia, Georgia, Iran, China, Mongolia, India, Indonesia, and other countries. It also contained popular beliefs, legends, and fairy tales. Translated into other European languages, the book influenced navigators, cartographers, and writers of the 14th to 16th centuries, including Columbus and L. Ariosto.

WORKS

Kniga Marko Polo. Translated from the Old French text, with an introductory article by I. P. Magidovich. Moscow, 1955. (Contains bibliography.)

REFERENCES

Hart, H. Venetsianets Marko Polo. Moscow, 1956. (Translated from English.)
The Book of Sir Marco Polo, the Venetian, 3rd ed., vols. 1–2. London, 1921.

I. P. MAGIDOVICH