A lavishly illustrated tour of the famed adventurer’s globetrotting travels, written by a celebrated translator of Polo’s writings. At the age of seventeen, Marco Polo left his Venetian home on a continent-spanning adventure that lasted for nearly a quarter century. Imprisoned in Genoa five years later, he collaborated with Arthurian romance writer Rustichello of Pisa on a work they called
The Description of the World. That book recounted “all the greatest marvels and great diversities of Greater Armenia, Persia, the Tartars, India, and many other provinces,” a story that made Polo famous for all time.
In
Marco Polo and His World, Sharon Kinoshita brings these marvels to life, describing the myriad commodities, plants, people, and animals that Marco encountered and recorded. Copiously illustrated, this book offers a vibrant introduction to Marco Polo’s astounding adventures.
Sharon Kinoshitais professor of literature at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Her many publications include an annotated translation of Marco Polo’s
Description of the World.
Introduction 1 Marco Polo and His World 2 The Book of the Great Khan 3 The Book of Marvels 4 Animal, Vegetable, Mineral Merchants and their World 5 Portrait Gallery: Marco Polos ContemporariesAfterword References Select Bibliography Acknowledgements Photo Acknowledgements Index
“An excellent general introduction to Marco Polo. . . . Kinoshita provides much-needed elegant and imaginative discussions of historical contexts, in terms of people, places, and activities in different parts of the world in Marco Polo’s time, as a way of bringing Polo and his work to life.”
"InMarco Polo and His World, Sharon Kinoshita offers us at once a single life – that of Marco Polo, merchant, traveler and narrator – and multiple lives, which radiate out like lóe
![Marco Polo and His World [Hardcover]](/itemImage/2/0/5/4/2_6873655.jpg "Marco Polo and His World [Hardcover]")