Marco Polo

This week in the lectures we discussed about Marco Polo and we also watched the movie ‘‘The adventures of Marco Polo’’. In the movie, which was created by the prologue and the third chapter of his famous book, he is portrayed as the individual hero. I got the opportunity to learn a few more things about Marco Polo and why his journeys were so important for the modern world. Today I will discuss why he is considered an important and a special character, why he was admired and how his explorations made him well known around the world.

Marco Polo was Venetian and travelled as far as the Mongolian Empire of Kublai khan. He was   liked by Khan, and served the Mongolian Empire as governor and ambassador. At some stage the Emperor allowed Marco Polo to return to Europe and gave him a big fleet. In return he would escort the princess to Persia. This was the big journey that Marco Polo described while he was imprisoned in Genoa. His travels through India, Sri Lanka and Indonesia were dictated by him to his friend ,Rustichello ,who was also in prison. Rustichello was a famous romance writer during the period of the Italian renaissance and this was very helpful for Marco Polo.

His book ‘Travels of Marco Polo’ ,originally written in Franco-Italian, was published all over the world and translated into many languages. His book described many aspects of the Asian culture for example religion, economy politics, agriculture, geography and although it is said that he may be exaggerating about those cultures, it very important. What is perhaps most important about this book in my opinion is the fact that it had a big influence on people who wanted at that time to travel or get to know places they’ve never been and explore the world. It is said that Christopher Columbus himself owned a copy of Marco Polo’s book.

Some support that his book was not reliable and not precise, however, it remained a great record of the geographic exploration of Asia for centuries. Even though...