Marco Polo: From Venice to Xanadu
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Marco Polo: From Venice to Xanadu description
Drawing on original writings and walking in the footsteps of Marco Polo himself, Laurence Bergreen's Marco Polo: From Venice to Xanadu is the most definitive biography of the legendary traveler to date, separating the man from his considerable myth. Look inside Marco Polo (Click on thumbnails to see a larger image):
 |  |  | | Marco Polo: a traditional portrait; Granger | Frontispiece of an early published edition of Marco Polo’s Travels, Nuremberg, Germany, 1477; Granger | Kublai Khan, emperor of the world’s largest land-based empire; Granger |  |  |  | | Marco Polo commanded a Venetian galley similar to this in the Battle of Curzola; Granger | Stone carving on the Marco Polo bridge; Laurence Bergreen | Marco Polo’s vivid and occasionally misinterpreted descriptions of his travels inspired this medieval artist to depict dragons in China; Granger |
Marco Polo timeline (All dates given in the Julian calendar): 1215 - Kublai Khan, the grandson of Genghis Khan and Marco Polo's mentor, is born. 1254 - Marco Polo born in Venice, although one tradition locates his birthplace in the Venetian colony of Dalmatia. 1260 - Kublai Khan becomes leader of the Mongols and in 1271 founds the Yuan ("Origin") Dynasty. 1271 - Young Marco Polo leaves Venice with his father Niccolo and uncle Maffeo, bound for the court of Kublai Khan. 1274 - Kublai Khan oversees a failed Mongol invasion of Japan, as the Mongols, masters of the Steppe, meet their match at sea. 1275 - The three Polos arrive in Shang-du, Kublai Khan's summer palace immortalized by Samuel Taylor Coleridge as Xanadu; Marco begins his years in the service of the Khan. 1276 - 1293 - Marco travels throughout Asia, reaching the coast of India, and possibly Zanzibar, gathering intelligence for Kublai Khan and serving as a tax collector for the Yuan (Mongol) dynasty. 1281 - Kublai Khan's second failed invasion of Japan, a serious blow to his prestige. 1292 - The Polos escort Princess Kokachin to Persia to marry, their last formal service to Kublai Khan before departing. 1294 - Kublai Khan dies, freeing the Polo family, who undertake a dangerous return voyage by sea. 1295 - Marco, his father, and uncle, arrive in Venice after their 24-year absence. They have been away for so long that their fellow Venetians do not recognize them. 1298 - Marco is captured by the Genoese in the Battle of Curzola, according to some accounts, and confined to a cell in Genoa with a romance writer, Rustichello of Pisa, to whom he dictates his adventures in China, his reminiscences of Kublai Khan, his life among the Mongols. 1300 - Safely back in Venice, Marco Polo marries Donata Badoer; the couple has three daughters. 1324 - As manuscript versions of his exploits spread throughout Europe, Marco Polo dies in Venice, claiming that he did not reveal the half of his experiences in his remarkable Travels.
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Marco Polo: From Venice to Xanadu Customer Reviews
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♥♥♥♥♥
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well-written
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| This is a very well written account on the life of Marco Polo and the places he traveled. It chronicles interesting cultural aspects of Arabs, Persians, Tibetans, Mongols, Chinese, Indians and other peoples of Asia. The book discusses Islam, Buddhism, pagan religions, Nestorian Christianity as a mosaic of the spiritual life of the Mongol Empire. It details the process of Mongol conquest and administration of the empire; the failed attempts to conquer Japan and Java. Marco Polo is portrayed as an explorer/adventurer turned greedy businessman, but most importantly a story-teller; not that he was so much a ground-breaker or mythical bringer of macaroni to the Italians-for others traveled East before him. Rather, Marco inspired a fascination with Orientalism (i.e. Kublai Khan by Coleridge); exotica and adventure. He brings East to West and inspires Columbus and Magellan. He brings forward a new dawn in the Medieval World; a much larger, global world of unfathomable diversity. Marco Polo represents the coming Renaissance as an age of discovery. The author juxtaposes the two sides of Marco; part sensualist in his vivid accounts the opulence of Kublai Khan's inner world and the varieties of Asian plants, animals and female beauties; also part spiritualist in his gradual interest and near-tolerance of Buddhism. |
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