The Travels of Marco Polo: The true story of a 14th-Century bestseller

BBC ^ | 1/8/24 | Anna Bressanin

[Borges]

Filled with wonders, Marco Polo's tales are the first European account of the Silk Road. But, 700 years after the famed Venetian merchant and explorer's death, can they be trusted?

Can a man who claimed to have seen a unicorn in the Indonesian island of Sumatra be trusted? This and other similarly valid questions have cast doubt on the truthfulness of Marco Polo since the 14th Century, when his book The Travels of Marco Polo became a bestseller and was translated into dozens of languages, hand-copied in countless manuscripts and available at any lavish court in Europe.

Polo's tales are the first European account of the Silk Road, and they are full of wonders, spices, gold and precious stones. They also describe extravagant sexual habits as well as intriguing war strategies, making his travelogue a real pleasure to read but also partially "hard to believe", as one particularly scrupulous amanuensis noted on the side of his copy. No need to be sceptical though. Today, 700 years after Polo's death on 8 January 1324, we can say with a certain authority that the famed Venetian merchant, explorer, writer and self-made anthropologist indeed saw a unicorn, or at least, that he didn't lie about it.

[fireman15]

Thanks for posting this... it was a very interesting article!

[Opinionated Blowhard]

Can a man who claimed to have seen a unicorn in the Indonesian island of Sumatra be trusted?

Why not? The BBC trusts men who claim to be able to get pregnant and menstruate.

[Gaffer]

Netflix had/has a series of Marco-related offerings. A long extensive one and a couple of precursors. Really good series.

[Borges]

Laurence Bergreen’s book about Polo is terrific.

[Don W]

Marco Polo's "Unicorn"

[fireman15]

The article said that Marco was apparently describing a rhinoceros. I object to basically all Western historical figures now being villainized. I read recently that statues of Captain Cook have been defaced and torn down along with those of many other historical figures.

[showme_the_Glory]

MARCO!!!!!!

[Verginius Rufus]

Actually there are a couple of narratives by Europeans who went to the Mongol court before Marco Polo so they describe the Silk Road. But they didn’t go to all the other places Polo visited.

[HartleyMBaldwin]

I liked Journeyer by Gary Jennings, a fictionalized account of Polo’s travels.

[threefinger]

Marco Polo was a Venetian. His father was one of the men who created “The Silk Road” to China. Young Marco went to China with his father and when he finally returned home many years later, his tales were so full of what the Venetians reckoned to have been exaggerations (our out-and-out lies), they took to calling him, “Il Milione” (the millions). The neighborhood where he and his family lived became known as “la Piazza dei Milioni” (the plaza of the millions).

In keeping with Polo’s tradition of exaggeration, modern Venice has two plazas known as “la Piazza dei Milioni.”

[SunkenCiv]

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[SunkenCiv]

[SunkenCiv]

[snip] Can a man who claimed to have seen a unicorn in the Indonesian island of Sumatra be trusted? [/snip]

Is everyone at the BBC an asshole?

[Wikipedia] The Sumatran rhinoceros (Dicerorhinus sumatrensis), also known as the Sumatran rhino, hairy rhinoceros or Asian two-horned rhinoceros, is a rare member of the family Rhinocerotidae and one of five extant species of rhinoceros; it is the only extant species of the genus Dicerorhinus. [/Wikipedia]

[SunkenCiv]

Oh, sorry BBC.

[SunkenCiv]

• The Great Wall Of China Is Falling Apart. The Reason? Wind, Rain, And People Stealing Its Bricks! [07/03/2015]
• The Travels of Marco Polo: The true story of a 14th-Century bestseller [01/08/2024]

[Red Badger]

Marco Polo was a Venetian.... But he wasn’t blind.....................