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Marco Polo

 
Who2 Biography: Marco Polo, Adventurer / Explorer
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Marco Polo
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  • Born: 1254 (?)
  • Birthplace: Venice, Italy
  • Died: 1324 (?) (natural causes)
  • Best Known As: The exotic traveler who "discovered" the Orient

As a teenager, Marco Polo traveled to China (then known as Cathay) with his father and uncle. The trio spent 20 years at the court of Kublai Khan -- this at a time when few Europeans had ever visited that country. Polo eventually returned to Venice and collected the stories of his travels into a book, Il Milione (also known as The Travels of Marco Polo), which was widely read and is the basis of his lasting fame. Polo is now remembered as the man who introduced Europeans to the Orient, and his name is synonymous with exotic travel. Some historians have claimed that Polo made parts of his story up, if not the whole thing, but this has never been proved.

The old legend that Polo introduced pasta to Italy is almost certainly not true.

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Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: Marco Polo
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Marco Polo, title page of the first printed edition of The Travels of Marco Polo, 1477.
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Marco Polo, title page of the first printed edition of The Travels of Marco Polo, 1477. (credit: Courtesy of the Columbia University Libraries, New York)
(born c. 1254, Venice [Italy] — died Jan. 8, 1324, Venice) Venetian merchant and traveler who journeyed from Europe to Asia (1271 – 95). Born into a Venetian merchant family, he joined his father and uncle on a journey to China, traveling along the Silk Road and reaching the court of Kublai Khan c. 1274. The Polos remained in China for about 17 years, and the Mongol emperor sent Marco on several fact-finding missions to distant lands. Marco may also have governed the city of Yangzhou (1282 – 87). The Polos returned to Venice in 1295, after sailing from eastern China to Persia and then journeying overland through Turkey. Captured by the Genoese soon after his return, Marco was imprisoned along with a writer, Rustichello, who helped him to write the tale of his travels. The book, Il milione, was an instant success, though most medieval readers considered it an extravagant romance rather than a true story.

For more information on Marco Polo, visit Britannica.com.

Biography: Marco Polo
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The Venetian traveler and writer Marco Polo (ca. 1254-ca. 1324) left Venice for Cathay, or China, in 1271, spent 17 years in Kublai Khan's realm, andreturned to Venice in 1295. His account of his travels is one of the most important travel documents ever written.

The scion of a noble family of Venetian merchants, Marco Polo began his long experience with Cathay through the adventures of his father, Niccolo, and his uncle, Maffeo Polo, partners in a trading operation at a time when Venice was the world leader in foreign commerce. Marco's trip to China was preceded by the prolonged odyssey of his father and uncle all the way to Peking and back. In China they were well received by the recently established Mongol prince Kublai Khan in 1266. The Polos impressed Kublai Khan with their intelligence and their familiarity with the world. For these reasons he retained their services for several years. In 1269 he sent them to Rome as his envoys with a request that the Pope send 100 Europeans to share their knowledge with him.

The Polos' mission received little attention in Rome, but in 1271 the Polo brothers, in search of further profit and adventure, set out to return to China. It was this second trip that provided the occasion for the 17-year-old Marco Polo to make his debut as a world traveler. The return to China, over land and sea, desert and mountain, took slightly more than 3 years.

Despite the failure of their mission to Rome, the Khan welcomed the Venetians back and again took them into his service. He became increasingly impressed with the youngest Polo, who, like his father and uncle, demonstrated not only his ability in travel but also his facility for the Mongol language and for using his remarkable powers of observation.

Under the benevolence of Kublai Khan, the Polos initiated widespread trading ventures within his domain. While on these business trips around the empire Marco Polo first demonstrated his perceptiveness and his ability to relate what he saw in clear, understandable terms. His reports, which formed the basis of his famous account of his travels, contained information on local customs, business conditions, and events. It was in these reports that he displayed his talent as a detached and accurate observer. Kublai Khan read and used these reports to keep abreast of developments within his empire.

All three of the European visitors were maintained as envoys and advisers. Marco was used on several extended missions that sent him traveling over much of China and even beyond. By his own account he skirted the edge of Tibet and northern Burma. This business-diplomatic relationship between the Polos and Kublai Khan lasted more than 16 years, during which Marco served as the Khan's personal representative in the city of Yangchow.

Although the Polos enjoyed the profits of their enterprise, they began to long to return to Venice to enjoy them. They were detained primarily because of the unwillingness of Kublai Khan to release them from his service. Their chance to return to Europe came in 1292, when they were sent on a diplomatic mission, first to Persia and then to Rome. The assignment represented the Khan's way of releasing them from their obligations to him. In Persia they were to arrange a dynastic marriage between one of the Khan's regional rulers and a Mongol princess. They were detained in Persia for nearly a year when the prince died and a new marriage had to be arranged. From the Persian court, the Venetians continued their journey home, arriving in 1295, after an absence of nearly a quarter century.

Marco Polo did not return to Asia again. He entered the service of Venice in its war against the rival city-state of Genoa. In 1298 Marco served as a gentleman-commander of a galley in the Venetian navy. In September 1298 he was captured and imprisoned in Genoa. His fame as an adventurer had preceded him, and he was treated with courtesy and leniency. He was released within a year. Little is known of Marco Polo's life after his return to Venice. He apparently returned to private life and business until his death about 1324.

During his captivity in Genoa, Marco Polo dictated the story of his travels. The man he told his story to was a fellow prisoner named Rusticiano, a Pisan who wrote in the romantic style of 13th-century literature. A combination of Marco Polo's gift of observation and the literary style of Rusticiano emerged in the final version of Marco Polo's travels. The book included Marco Polo's personal recollections as well as stories related to him by others.

In his book, which was translated into most languages, Marco left a wealth of information. His cartographical information has proved remarkably accurate when tested by modern methods. His observations about customs and local characteristics have also been verified by subsequent research.

Further Reading

Ronald Catham translated The Travels of Marco Polo (1958). The standard biography is Henry Hersch Hart, Venetian Adventurer: Being an Account of the Life and Times and of the Book of Messer Marco Polo (1942), updated and reissued as Marco Polo: Venetian Adventurer (1967). Other works on Polo include Maurice Collis, Marco Polo (1960), and Hildegard Blunck, Marco Polo: The Great Adventurer (1966).

German Literature Companion: Marco Polo
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Marco Polo (1254-1324), a Venetian, travelled in the Far East between 1271 and 1295, and dictated his Travels in 1298-9, while in Genoese captivity. A German version, Das puch des edeln Ritters vn Landfahrers Marcho polo (1477) was among the earliest German printed books.

 
Columbia Encyclopedia: Marco Polo
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Polo, Marco (mär'kō pō'lō), 1254?-1324?, Venetian traveler in China. His father, Niccolò Polo, and his uncle, Maffeo Polo, had made (1253-60) a trading expedition to Constantinople. A war blocked their return, and they journeyed eastward to reach Kublai Khan's eastern capital at Kaifeng in 1266. They returned to Venice in 1269, and in 1271 they left with young Marco for Kublai's court. The party reached Cambuluc (modern Beijing) in 1275. Marco Polo became a favorite of the khan, who employed him as an adviser and a tax assessor, sending him on business to central and N China, SE Asia, and India. For three years he apparently governed a Chinese city (Yangzhou). In 1292 the travelers, acting as escort for a Mongol princess who was to wed the khan of Persia, left Kublai's realm; they were back in Venice by 1295. Marco Polo soon joined Venetian forces fighting Genoa and was taken prisoner (1298) following Venice's loss in the Battle of Curzola. During his two-year captivity, aided by notes and reports written while he was in the East and by his fellow-prisoner and co-author Rustichello of Pisa, he dictated an account of his travels.

The prologue of the work tells of Polo's life. The remainder of the book describes places he had visited and heard of and recounts the customs of the inhabitants. Polo made reference to much of Asia, including the Arab world, Persia, Japan, Sumatra, and the Andaman Islands, and to E Africa as far south as Zanzibar. He told of paper currency, asbestos, coal, and other phenomena virtually unknown in Europe. Polo was wonderstruck at Asian splendors and was sometimes credulous of exaggerated accounts, but scholars agree that his accurate reports of the events he witnessed and people he met are of great value. During the Renaissance it was the chief-almost the sole-Western source of information on the East, and until the late 19th cent. there was no other European material on many parts of central Asia. Of the annotated translations of his book the most useful is that by Sir Henry Yule (3d ed. 1903).

Bibliography

See studies by M. S. Collis (1960), H. H. Hart (1967), C. A. Burland (1970), J. Larner (1999), and L. Bergreen (2007).

History Dictionary: Polo, Marco
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An Italian explorer of the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries; one of the first Europeans to travel across Asia. He visited the court of Kublai Khan (see “Kubla Khan” under “Literature in English”), the Mongol ruler of China, and became a government official in China. His account of his travels was distributed after his return to Italy.

Wikipedia: Marco Polo
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This article is about the trader and explorer. For other uses, see Marco Polo (disambiguation).
Marco Polo

Portrait of Marco Polo[Note 1]
Born c. 1254
Venice, Venetian Republic
Died January 8, 1324 (aged 69)
Venice, Venetian Republic
Resting place Church of San Lorenzo
45°15′41″N 12°12′15″E / 45.2613°N 12.2043°E / 45.2613; 12.2043
Nationality Venetian (Italian)
Occupation Merchant, Explorer
Known for The Travels of Marco Polo
Spouse(s) Danta Badoer
Children Fantina, Bellela, and Moretta
Parents Mother: Unknown
Father: Niccolò Polo

Marco Polo (English pronunciation: /ˈmɑrkoʊ ˈpoʊloʊ/  ( listen); Italian pronunciation: [ˈmarko ˈpɔːlo]) (c. 1254 – January 8, 1324) was a merchant from the Venetian Republic who wrote Il Milione, which introduced Europeans to Central Asia and China. He learned about trading whilst his father and uncle, Niccolò and Maffeo, voyaged through Asia and met Kublai Khan. In 1269, they returned to Venice to meet Marco for the first time. The three of them embarked on an epic journey to Asia, returning after 24 years to find Venice at war with Genoa; Marco was imprisoned, and dictated his stories to a cellmate. He was released in 1299, became a wealthy merchant, married and had 3 children. He died in 1324, and was buried in San Lorenzo.

Il Milione was translated, embellished, copied by hand and adapted; there is no authoritative version. It documents his father's journey to meet the Kublai Khan, who asked them to become ambassadors, and communicate with the pope. This led to Marco's quest, through Acre, into China and to the Mongol court. Marco wrote of his extensive travels throughout Asia on behalf of the Khan, and their eventual return after 15,000 miles (24,140 km) and 24 years of adventures.

Their pioneering journey inspired Columbus and others. Marco Polo's other legacies include Venice Marco Polo Airport, the Marco Polo sheep, and several books and films. He also had an influence on European cartography, leading to the introduction of the Fra Mauro map.

Contents

Life

From childhood through to Genoese captivity

See also: Niccolò and Maffeo Polo

The exact time and place of Marco Polo's birth are unknown, and current theories are mostly conjectural. However, the most quoted specific date is somewhere "around 1254",[Note 2] and it is generally accepted that Marco Polo was born in the Venetian Republic. While the exact birthplace is unknown, most biographers point towards Venice itself as Marco Polo's home town.[Note 3][1] His father Niccolò was a merchant who traded with the Middle East, becoming wealthy and achieving great prestige.[2][3] Niccolò and his brother Maffeo set off on a trading voyage, before Marco was born.[3] In 1260, Niccolò and Maffeo were residing in Constantinople when they foresaw a political change; they liquidated their assets into jewels and moved away.[2] According to The Travels of Marco Polo, they passed through much of Asia, and met with the Kublai Khan.[4] Meanwhile, Marco Polo's mother died, and he was raised by an aunt and uncle.[3] Polo was well educated, and learned merchant subjects including foreign currency, appraising, and the handling of cargo ships,[3] although he learned little or no Latin.[2]

Map of the journey

In 1269, Niccolò and Maffeo returned to Venice, meeting Marco for the first time. In 1271, Marco Polo (at seventeen years of age), his father, and his uncle set off for Asia on the series of adventures that were later documented in Marco's book. They returned to Venice in 1295, 24 years later, with many riches and treasures. They had travelled almost 15,000 miles (24,140 km).[3]

Upon their return, Venice was at war with Genoa, and Marco Polo was taken prisoner. He spent the few months of his imprisonment dictating a detailed account of his travels to fellow inmate, Rustichello da Pisa,[3] who incorporated tales of his own as well as other collected anecdotes and current affairs from China. The book became known as The Travels of Marco Polo, and depicts the Polos' journeys throughout Asia, giving Europeans their first comprehensive look into the inner workings of the Far East, including China, India, and Japan.[5] Marco Polo was finally released from captivity in August 1299,[3] and returned home to Venice, where his father and uncle had purchased a large house in the central quarter named contrada San Giovanni Crisostomo. The company continued its activities and Marco soon became a wealthy merchant. Polo financed other expeditions, but never left Venice again. In 1300, he married Donata Badoer, the daughter of Vitale Badoer, a merchant.[6] They had three daughters, called Fantina, Bellela and Moreta.[7]

Death

The San Lorenzo di Venezia church building in the sestiere of Castello of Venice, where Polo is buried. The photo was taken after the church was rebuilt.

In 1323, Polo was confined to bed, due to illness. On January 8, 1324, despite physicians' efforts to treat him, Polo was on his deathbed. To write and certify the will, his family requested Giovanni Giustiniani, a priest of San Procolo. His wife, Donata, and his three daughters were appointed by him as co-executrices. The church was entitled by law to a portion of his estate; he approved of this and ordered that a further sum be paid to the convent of San Lorenzo, the place where he wished to be buried.[8] He also set free a "Tartar slave" who may have accompanied him from Asia.[9]

He divided up the rest of his assets, including several properties, between individuals, religious institutions, and every guild and fraternity to which he belonged. He also wrote-off multiple debts including 300 lire that his sister-in-law owed him, and others for the convent of San Giovanni, San Paolo of the Order of Preachers, and a cleric named Friar Benvenuto. He ordered 220 soldi be paid to Giovanni Giustiniani for his work as a notary and his prayers.[8] The will, which was not signed by Polo, but was validated by then relevant "signum manus" rule, by which the testator only had to touch the document to make it abide to the rule of law,[10] was dated January 9, 1324. Due to the Venetian law stating that the day ends at sunset, the exact date of Marco Polo's death cannot be determined, but it was between the sunsets of January 8 and 9, 1324.[8]

The Travels of Marco Polo

Further information: The Travels of Marco Polo
A miniature from Il Milione.

An authoritative version of Marco Polo's book does not exist, and the early manuscripts differ significantly. The published versions of his book either rely on single scripts, blend multiple versions together or add notes to clarify, for example in the English translation by Henry Yule. Another English translation by A.C. Moule and Paul Pelliot, published in 1938, is based on the Latin manuscript which was found in the library of the Cathedral of Toledo in 1932, and is 50% longer than other versions.[11] Approximately 150 variants in various languages are known to exist, and without the availability of a printing press many errors were made during copying and translation, resulting in many discrepancies.[12]

Stories

A page from Il Milione, originally published during Polo's lifetime.

The book starts with a preface about his father and uncle traveling to Bolghar where Prince Berke Khan lived. A year later, they went to Ukek [13] and continued to Bukhara. There, an envoy from Levant invited them to meet Kublai Khan, who had never met Europeans.[14] In 1266, they reached the seat of the Kublai Khan at Dadu, present day Beijing, China. Khan received the brothers with hospitality and asked them many questions regarding the European legal and political system.[15] He also inquired about the Pope and Church in Rome.[16] After the brothers answered the questions he tasked them with delivering a letter to the Pope, requesting 100 Christians acquainted with the Seven Arts (grammar, rhetoric, logic, geometry, arithmetic, music and astronomy). Kublai Khan requested that an envoy bring him back oil of the lamp in Jerusalem.[17] The long sede vacante between the death of Pope Clement IV in 1268 and the election of his successor delayed the Polos in fulfilling Khan's request. They followed the suggestion of Theobald Visconti, then papal legate for the realm of Egypt, and returned to Venice in 1269 or 1270 to await the nomination of the new Pope, which allowed Marco to see his father for the first time, at the age of fifteen or sixteen.[18]

Polo in costume.

In 1271, Niccolò, Maffeo and Marco Polo embarked on their voyage to fulfill Khan's request. They sailed to Acre, and then rode on camels to the Persian port of Hormuz. They wanted to sail to China, but the ships there were not seaworthy, so they continued overland until reaching Khan's summer palace in Shangdu, near present-day Zhangjiakou. Three and one-half years after leaving Venice, when Marco was about 21 years old, Khan welcomed the Polos into his palace.[3] The exact date of their arrival is unknown, but scholars estimate it to be between 1271 and 1275.[Note 4] On reaching the Mongol court, the Polos presented the sacred oil from Jerusalem and the papal letters to their patron.[2]

Marco knew four languages, and the family had accumulated a great deal of knowledge and experience that was useful to Khan. It is possible that he became a government official;[3] he wrote about many imperial visits to China's southern and eastern provinces, the far south and Burma.[19]

Kublai Khan declined the Polos' requests to leave China. They became worried about returning home safely, believing that if Khan died, his enemies might turn against them because of their close involvement with the ruler. In 1292, Khan's great-nephew, then ruler of Persia, sent representatives to China in search of a potential wife, and they asked the Polos to accompany them, so they were permitted to return to Persia with the wedding party — which left that same year from Zaitun in southern China on a fleet of 14 junks. The party sailed to the port of Singapore, travelled north to Sumatra and around the southern tip of India, eventually crossing the Arabian Sea to Hormuz. The two-years voyage was a perilous one - of the six hundred people (not including the crew) in the convoy only eighteen had survived (including all three Polos)[20]. The Polos left the wedding party after reaching Hormuz and travelled overland to the port of Trebizond on the Black Sea, the present day Trabzon.[3]

Legacy

Further exploration

Handwritten notes by Christopher Columbus on a Latin edition of Polo's book.
See also: Age of Discovery

Other less well-known European explorers had already travelled to China, such as Giovanni da Pian del Carpine, but Polo's book meant that their journey was the first to be widely known. Christopher Columbus was inspired enough by Polo's description of the Far East to visit those lands for himself; a copy of the book was among his belongings, with handwritten annotations.[21] Bento de Góis, inspired by Polo's writings of a Christian kingdom in the east, travelled 4,000 miles (6,437 km) in three years across Central Asia. He never found the kingdom, but ended his travels at the Great Wall of China in 1605, proving that Cathay was what Matteo Ricci called "China".[22]

Commemoration

The Marco Polo sheep, a subspecies of Ovis aries, is named after the explorer,[23] who described it during his crossing of Pamir (ancient Mount Imeon) in 1271.[Note 5] In 1851, a three-masted Clipper built in Saint John, New Brunswick also took his name; the Marco Polo was the first ship to sail around the world in under six months.[24] The airport in Venice is named Venice Marco Polo Airport,[25] and the frequent flyer program of Hong Kong flag carrier Cathay Pacific is known as the "Marco Polo Club".[26] The Travels of Marco Polo are fictionalised in Brian Oswald Donn-Byrne's Messer Marco Polo and Gary Jennings' 1984 novel The Journeyer. Polo also appears as the pivotal character in Italo Calvino's novel Invisible Cities. The 1982 television miniseries, Marco Polo, directed by Giuliano Montaldo and depicting Polo's travels, won two Emmy Awards and was nominated for six more.[27] Marco Polo also appears as a Great Explorer in the 2008 strategy video game Civilization Revolution.[28]

Cartography

The Fra Mauro map, published c. 1450 by the Venetian monk Fra Mauro.

Marco Polo's travels may have had some influence on the development of European cartography, ultimately leading to the European voyages of exploration a century later.[29] The 1453 Fra Mauro map was said by Giovanni Battista 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 Camaldolese monastery of San Michele di 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.
—Giovanni Battista Ramusio[29]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ The exact source is unknown, but the portrait originated from a 16th century painting in the Gallery of Monsignor Badia in Rome. Inscription: Marcus Polus venetus totius orbis et Indie peregrator primus. It appears in the Nordisk familjebok Berg 1915, p. 1261
  2. ^ Many sources state this date; Britannica 2002, p. 571 states, "born in or around 1254. (This date, like nearly all the others concerning major events in his life, is conjectural.)"
  3. ^ Some sources (e.g. Burgan 2002, p. 7) suggest that Polo was born in Korčula, an island in Dalmatia, now Croatia. The Korcula info website states, "Polo is reputed to have been born in Korcula itself, although evidence to support this thesis is at best sketchy." A "Birthpace of Marco Polo" exists on the island (website).
  4. ^ Drogön Chögyal Phagpa, a Tibetan monk and confidant of Kublai Khan, mentions in his diaries that in 1271 a foreign friend of Kublai Khan visits — quite possibly one of the elder Polos or even Marco Polo himself, although, no name was given. If this is not the case, a more likely date for their arrival is 1275 (or 1274, according to the research of Japanese scholar Matsuo Otagi).(Britannica 2002, p. 571)
  5. ^ Yule & Cordier 1923, ch.18 states, "Then there are sheep here as big as asses; and their tails are so large and fat, that one tail shall weigh some 30 lb. They are fine fat beasts, and afford capital mutton."

References

  1. ^ Bergreen 2007, p. 25
  2. ^ a b c d Brittanica 2002, p. 571
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Parker 2004, pp. 648–649
  4. ^ Yule & Cordier 1923, ch.1–9
  5. ^ Bram 1983
  6. ^ Bergreen 2007, p. 532
  7. ^ Power 2007, p. 87
  8. ^ a b c Bergreen 2007, pp. 339-342
  9. ^ Britannica 2002, p. 573
  10. ^ Biblioteca Marciana, the institute that holds Polo's original copy of his testament. http://marciana.venezia.sbn.it/admin/filemanager/file/UserFiles/File/testamento-polo.txt
  11. ^ Bergreen 2007, pp. 367-368
  12. ^ Edwards, p. 1
  13. ^ Yule & Cordier 1923, ch. 2
  14. ^ Yule & Cordier 1923, ch. 3
  15. ^ Yule & Cordier 1923, ch. 5
  16. ^ Yule & Cordier 1923, ch. 6
  17. ^ Yule & Cordier 1923, ch. 7
  18. ^ Yule & Cordier 1923, ch. 9
  19. ^ W. Marsden (2004), Thomas Wright, ed. (PDF), The Travels pf Marco Polo, The Venetian (1298), http://web.soas.ac.uk/burma/pdf/Polo.pdf, retrieved 2009-07-14 
  20. ^ Boyle, J. A. (1971). Marco Polo and his Description of the World. History Today. Vol. 21, No. 11. [1]
  21. ^ Landström 1967, p. 27
  22. ^ Winchester 2008, p. 264
  23. ^ Bergreen 2007, p. 74
  24. ^ Lubbock 2008, p. 86
  25. ^ Brennan, D. (2009-02-01), Lost in Venice, WalesOnline, http://www.walesonline.co.uk/travel/travel-news/2009/02/01/lost-in-venice-91466-22826493/, retrieved 2009-07-15 
  26. ^ Cathay Pacific Airways, The Marco Polo Club, Cathay Pacific Airways Limited, http://www.cathayforbusiness.com/freqfly/marcopoloclub.asp, retrieved 2009-07-13 
  27. ^ Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, http://www.emmys.org/awards/awardsearch.php, retrieved 2009-07-06  (Searching for "Marco Polo", and year 1982)
  28. ^ Civilization Revolution: Great People "CivFanatics" Retrieved on 4th September 2009
  29. ^ a b Falchetta 2006, p. 592

Bibliography

Further reading

  • Daftary, Farhad (1994), The Assassin legends: myths of the Ismaʻilis (2 ed.), I.B. Tauris, pp. 213, ISBN 9781850437055 
  • Hart, H. Henry (1948), Marco Polo, Venetian Adventurer, Kessinger Publishing 
  • Otfinoski, Steven (2003), Marco Polo: to China and back, New York: Benchmark Books, ISBN 0761414800 

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Who2 Biography. Copyright © 1998-2008 by Who2, LLC. All rights reserved. See the Marco Polo biography from Who2.  Read more
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History Dictionary. The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Edited by E.D. Hirsch, Jr., Joseph F. Kett, and James Trefil. Copyright © 2002 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin. All rights reserved.  Read more
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