Marco Polo (English pronunciation: /ˈmɑrkoʊ ˈpoʊloʊ/ (
listen)) (c. 1254 – January 8, 1324) was a trader and explorer from the Venetian Republic who gained fame for his worldwide travels as recorded in the book Il Milione ("The Million" or The Travels of Marco Polo). Marco, his father Niccolò, and his uncle Maffeo, were some of the first Westerners to travel the Silk Road to China (which Marco referred to as Cathay) and visit Kublai Khan, the founder of the Yuan Dynasty.
Life
Childhood
Marco Polo was born in 1254,[Note 1] in Venice, Italy.[Note 2][1] His father, Niccolò Polo, was a merchant.[2] Niccolò and his brother Maffeo set off on a voyage to east Asia, before Marco was born.[3] They visited China and met Kublai Khan,[2] and they resided in Constantinople for several years.[4][5] Marco Polo's mother died, and he was probably raised by his aunt Flora and other relatives.[6] He was well educated, and learned merchant subjects including foreign currency, appraising, and handling cargo ships.[2]
Voyages
In 1269 Marco Polo's father and uncle returned to Venice.[2] In 1271, Marco Polo, seventeen years old at the time,[2] his father, and his uncle set off to return to Kublai and fulfill his request.[2] First, the Polos sailed to Acre.[2] From there, they rode on camels to the Persian port of Hormuz.[2] They had wanted to sail from Hormuz to China, but the ships there were not seaworthy.[2] They continued on camels until they reached Kublai Khan's summer palace in Shangdu near present day Zhangjiakou, three and one-half years after leaving Venice.[2] Marco Polo would be at about 21 years-old.[2] The Khan welcomed the Polos into his palace.[2] 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, unfortunately, no name was given.[citation needed] 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).[7] On reaching the Mongol court, the Polos were able to present the sacred oil from Jerusalem and the papal letters to their patron.[7]
Marco knew four different languages,[2] and the family had accumulated a great deal of knowledge and experience that was useful to the Khan.[2] Marco was sent on many imperial visits to neighboring areas, both to China's southern and eastern provinces but also to the far south and Burma.[2] It is probable that Marco also became a government official in a Chinese city, Yangzhou, for three years,[2] though it has also been suggested that this was merely the result of a typographical error in translation.[citation needed]
Kublai Khan declined requests from the Polos to leave China,[2] a worrying development for Marco and his family. They became increasingly worried about their own safety to return home, believing that if Kublai Khan were to die before they left China, Kublai's enemies might turn against them, because of their close involvement with the ruler.[2] Fortunately for the Polos, in 1292, Kublai's great-nephew, then ruler of Persia,[2] sent representatives to China in search of a potential wife.[2] Taking up the offer of the representatives, the Polos were allowed to return to Persia with the wedding party,[2] which left that same year from Zaitun in southern China on a fleet of 14 junks.[2]
The party sailed first to the port of Singapore,[2] then travelling north of Sumatra,[2] and around the southern tip of India,[2] eventually crossing the Arabian Sea to Hormuz.[2] There, Marco and his family left the wedding party and traveled overland to the Turkish port of Trebizond (present day Trabzon).[2] In 1295, 24 years after they started their journey, they returned to Venice with many riches and treasures which the Khan had given them.[2] They had probably traveled nearly 15,000 miles (24,100 kilometres).[2]
Captivity
Polo, serving as the gentleman-commander of a gallery in the Venetian navy, was captured during a war with Genoa in 1298, possibly in the naval Battle of Curzola according to a dubious tradition.[8] He spent the few months of his imprisonment dictating a detailed account of his travels in the then-little-known parts of China to a fellow prisoner, Rustichello da Pisa.[8] These stories incorporated tales of his own, as well as other collected anecdotes and current affairs from China, and became know in English as The Travels of Marco Polo. Depicting and detailing Polo's journeys throughout Asia, it gave Europeans their first comprehensive look into the inner workings of China, India, and Japan, among others.[9]
Marco Polo was finally released from captivity in August 1299[10] and 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 soon became a wealthy merchant. Although he personally financed other expeditions, he would never leave Venice again. In 1300, he married Donata Badoer, the daughter of Vitale Badoer, a merchant.[11] Marco would have three children with her: Fantina, Bellela and Moreta.[6] 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.[citation needed]
Death
In 1323 Polo fell ill and confined himself to his bed.[12] On January 8, 1324, despite physicians' efforts to heal him, Polo was on his deathbed.[12] To write and certify his will, his family called for the priest of San Procolo, Giovanni Giustiniani.[12] His wife Donata and three daughters were appointed by him as co-executrices.[12] The church was entitled by law to a portion of his estate; this he approved and ordered that a further sum be paid to the convent of San Lorenzo, the place where he wished to be buried.[12] He divided up the rest of his assets, including multiple properties, between various people, religious institutions, every guild and fraternity to which he belonged.[12] He also wrote-off multiple debts including three hundred 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.[12] He ordered 220 soldi be paid to Giovanni Giustiniani for his work as a notary and his prayers.[12] The document was not, however, actually signed by Marco Polo; this led to speculation that he was so ill that he could not even accomplish the signing of the document.[12] The will was dated as 9 January 1324, though due to the Venetian law stating that the day ends with the sun set, the exact date of Marco Polo's death cannot be determined. It was, however, between sunsets on January 8 and 9, 1324.[12]
The Travels of Marco Polo
Adaption and translation
There is currently no authoritative version of Marco Polo's book.[13] What is left are early manuscripts which are significantly different from one another.[13] There are many early manuscripts but are drastically different from one another.[13] The current versions of his books rely on either single scripts, blend multiple versions together or add notes to clarify like the English translation by Henry Yule.[13] Another English translation by A.C. Moule and Paul Pelliot, published in 1938, is based off the Latin manuscript found in the library of the Cathedral of Toledo in 1932, which is 50% longer than other versions.[13]
About 150 copies in various languages are known to exist,[4] therefore publicizing the book well.[14] Without the luxury of a printing press, during copying and translating many errors were made, and many differences between the various copies.[4]
Stories
In his book, which has become known in English as The Travels of Marco Polo, Marco explains how, after Niccolò and Maffeo Polo travelled ever further east, in 1264 they joined up with an embassy sent by the Ilkhanate ruler Hulagu to his brother Kublai Khan.[15] In 1266, they reached the seat of the Kublai Khan at Dadu, present day Beijing, China.[15] Marco explains that Kublai Khan officially received the Polos and sent them back to Europe in order to deliver a letter to the Pope. The long sede vacante, between the death of Pope Clement IV, in 1268, and the election of a new one, prevented the Polos from fulfilling Kublai's request immediately.[15] Instead, 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, and also allowing Marco to see his father Niccolò for the first time at the age of fifteen or sixteen.[15]
Legacy
Handwritten notes by
Christopher Colombus on the Latin edition of Marco Polo's
Le livre des merveilles.
Further exploration
Although the Polos were by no means the first Europeans to reach China overland (see, for example, Giovanni da Pian del Carpine), thanks to Polo's book their trip was the first to be widely known, and the best-documented journey there of its time. Marco Polo's description of the Far East and its riches inspired Christopher Columbus to try to reach those lands by a western route. A heavily annotated copy of Polo's book was among the belongings of Columbus.[16]
Bento de Góis later traveled through Central Asia in search of Cathay, based on accounts made by Marco Polo of the existence of a Christian kingdom. After 4,000 miles and three years he found no Christian community but ended his journey at the Great Wall of China in 1605 proving that Cathay of Marco Polo was the China of Matteo Ricci.[17]
In popular culture
The travels of Marco Polo are given an extended fantasy treatment in 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. The 1982 television miniseries, "Marco Polo", directed by Giuliano Montaldo, won 2 Emmy Awards and was nominated for 6 more.[18] In 2007, another miniseries titled Marco Polo was released.[19]
Names
Due to Marco Polo's historical impact his name was used to describe multiple subjects. The Marco Polo sheep, a subspecies of sheep, is named for the explorer, who described the species during his crossing of Pamir (ancient Mount Imeon) in 1271.[citation needed] In 1851 a three-masted clipper ship built in Saint John, New Brunswick was also named after Marco Polo. The fastest ship of her day, Marco Polo was the first ship to sail around the world in under six months.[citation needed] The frequent flyer program of Hong Kong flag carrier Cathay Pacific is known as the Marco Polo Club.[citation needed] The airport in Venice is named Venice Marco Polo Airport.
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 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 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.
See also
Notes
- ^ 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.)"
- ^ 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).
References
- ^ Bergreen 2007, p. 25
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac Parker 2004, pp. 648–649
- ^ Brittanica 2002, p. 571
- ^ a b c Edwards, Mike, Marco Polo, Part 1, National Geographic Society, pp. 1, http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0105/feature1/index.html, retrieved on 2009-07-10
- ^ Yule & Cordier 1923, ch. 1
- ^ a b Hart 1948, p. 49
- ^ a b Polo, Marco, 2009, http://library.eb.co.uk/eb/article-5841, retrieved on 2009-07-08
- ^ a b Marco Polo, 12 (2nd ed.), p. 381
- ^ POLO, Marco, World Almanac Education Group, http://www.history.com/encyclopedia.do?articleId=219550, retrieved on 2009-07-09
- ^ Daftary 1994, pp. 213
- ^ Bergreen 2007, pp. 532
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Bergreen 2007, pp. 339-342
- ^ a b c d e Bergreen 2007, pp. 367-368
- ^ McKay, John; Bennet Hill and John Buckler (2006). A History of Western Society (Eighth ed.). Houghton Mifflin Company. p. 506. ISBN 0618522662.
- ^ a b c d Yule & Cordier 1923, ch. 4-9
- ^ Landström 1967, p. 27
- ^ Winchester 2008, p. 264
- ^ Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, http://www.emmys.org/awards/awardsearch.php, retrieved on 2009-07-06
- ^ "Marco Polo (2007) (TV)". http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0813789/. Retrieved on 2009-07-10.
Bibliography
- Bergreen, Laurence (2007), Marco Polo: From Venice to Xanadu, London: Quercus, ISBN 9781847243454
- Burgan, Michael (2002), Marco Polo: Marco Polo and the silk road to China, Compass Point Books, ISBN 9780756501808
- 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
- Landström, Björn (1967), Columbus: the story of Don Cristóbal Colón, Admiral of the Ocean, Macmillan
- "Marco Polo", The New Encyclopædia Britannica Macropedia, 9 (15 ed.), Encyclopaedia Brittanica, Inc, ISBN 0-85229-787-4
- Otfinoski, Steven (2003), Marco Polo: to China and back, New York: Benchmark Books, ISBN 0-7614-1480-0
- Parker, John (2004), "Marco Polo", The World Book Encyclopedia, 15 (illustrated ed.), United States of America: World Book, Inc., ISBN 9780716601043
- Winchester, Simon (2008-05-06), The Man Who Loved China: Joseph Needham and the Making of a Masterpiece, New York: HarperCollins, ISBN 9780060884598
- Yule, Henry; Cordier, Henri (1923), The Travels Of Marco Polo, Plain Label Books, ISBN 9781603036153, http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Travels_of_Marco_Polo
External links
