Author(s): Marco Polo; Everyman's Library Staff; Colin Thubron (Introduction by)

History

The Travels of Marco Polo is a descriptive book by a famous merchant and traveler from Venice, Marco Polo.This book saw the light in the beginning of the fourteenth century. An observant and practical Venetian shared with contemporaries his own observations of morals, state institutions and everyday life in China - the country that was almost unknown to Europe of those times, and where Marco Polo had spent 15 years serving a famous Kublai Khan. With the help of this book, a lot of Europeans learned for the first time about Eastern countries, their natural wealth and technical achievements - paper money, typing board, sago palm, compass and bill, as well as coal, location of desired spices. Written in lively and clear language, The Travels of Marco Polo became a resource book for many outstanding travelers of the Age of Discovery, including Christopher Columbus (1451-1506). Eventually, searches for the ways to buy spices avoiding the Arabic trade monopoly led to the redivision of the world and disappearing of many white spots on the map, and The Travels of Marco Polo became one of not many publications that influenced the course of history.