Marco Polo

Marco Polo (c.1254–1324), Venetian traveler who was famous for his overland journey to the court of Kublai Khan in Peking, his seventeen years in China in the Great Khan's service, and his sea voyage to Persia on his way home. Marco was his forename, but he is not normally referred to only by his surname. His father Nicolo had made an overland journey to Cambaluc (Peking) with Nicolo's brother Maffeo. The two brothers had returned to Venice in 1269, bringing letters from the Great Khan to the pope requesting the dispatch of a body of educated men to teach Christianity and the liberal arts.

After a delay of two years owing to an interregnum following the death of Pope Clement IV, the two brothers set out again with a reply from Pope Gregory X, though without teachers. With them they took the young Marco and arrived at the Khan's court in September 1275. The Great Khan was much taken with Marco, who decided to learn the many languages of the nationalities subject to the Mongol emperor. Kublai employed him in the public service in the course of which he travelled widely throughout the empire and, for three years, was governor of the city of Yangchow.

When the Polos had been in China more than ten years they became anxious to return home with the great wealth they had acquired. Kublai was unwilling to let them go, however, and it was not until their request was reinforced by the pleas of envoys from the Mongol king of Persia, the grandson of Kublai's brother Hulagu, that he relented. The envoys had arrived to escort back to Persia a Mongol bride for their master. Owing to the perils of the overland route, their journey was to be made by sea, and they begged that the Polos, particularly Marco, who had recently visited the Indies, might accompany them to give them the benefit of the Polos's experience. Reluctantly, the Khan consented and, at the beginning of 1292, the expedition, comprising some 600 sailors and courtiers in fourteen ships, sailed from Zaitun (Changchow). This fleet touched at what is now Vietnam before arriving at Sumatra, where the ships were delayed for some months waiting for the seasonal shift of the monsoon winds. It then made its way past the Nicobar Islands before reaching Ceylon, and it then followed the west coast of India and southern Persia before arriving at Hormuz more than two years after its departure. These adventures did much to inspire later generations of navigators, as did Marco Polo's written descriptions of what he had heard and seen during his time in China.

The Polos travelled on overland to Venice where they arrived towards the end of 1295. Three years later a maritime war between Genoa and Venice culminated in the great galley battle of Curzola in which the former was completely victorious and more than 60 Venetian galleys were destroyed. One of these had been commanded by Marco Polo who became one of the 7,000 prisoners carried off to Genoa. There he was imprisoned for nearly a year during which he dictated the material for the book which described his experiences. Little is known of Marco Polo's history following his release. His will, now in St Mark's Library, Venice, was made on 9 January 1324 and it is almost certain that he died the same year.

Bibliography

The Travels of Marco Polo, trans. R. Latham (1958).
Olschki, L. , Marco Polo's Asia (1960).