The Travels of Marco Polo. The Complete Yule-Cordier Edition. Volume 2

Марко Поло

As many schoolchildren know, Marco Polo (c. 1254-1324) was a Venetian traveler who, with his father and uncle, traveled to the Orient and brought back fabulous stories of exotic lands and people to an unbelieving medieval Europe. The journey lasted 25 years, 17 of which were spent at the court of Kublai Khan, the Chinese emperor. At some point after his return home, Marco Polo was imprisoned by the Genoese, then at war with Venice. It proved to be a fortunate incarceration, for while in prison Marco Polo dictated the story of his travels to a fellow-prisoner, a writer named Rustichello. The book that resulted is one of the greatest books of all time — a vast treasury of valuable observations on the people and geography of the Near East and Asia, with detailed descriptions of cities, customs, crops, animals, and wildlife, laws, political systems, and more.