Marco Polo is born September 15th 1254 with Korčula, island of coast Dalmatian (Croatia), which then forms part of the republic of Venice, and died in Venice the January 8th 1324. Left with his father and his uncle, patricians and tradesmen passed to the service of Large Mongolian Khan, it reached China (1275) where it remained during 17 years (1274 - 1291). Employed as investigator-messenger by the Mongolian Emperor Kūbilaï which completed the conquest of the China, settled with Beijing, and in 1271, took a dynastic title with the Chinese manner: that of the Yuan without becoming truly a Chinese emperor. Marco Polo was in charge of various missions by Kūbilaï Khan, both in China and in countries of the Indian Ocean. Of return to Venice, it fought Gènes, which did it captive, then dictated a description of the States of Kūbilaï ( Livre of Marco Polo ). This work brought to Europe the first documentation, as well geographical as ethnographic, on the countries and the people of Asia. Called Lord Milione because of the richnesses which it had reported, it died in Venice where it is buried in the church San Lorenzo.

Born in the absence of his/her father, Niccolo Sports shirt, Marco Polo has 15 years when this one and its uncle, Matteo Polo, return from a long voyage to Central Asia where they met the Mongolian Emperor Kubilaï Khan, small son of Gengis Khan. They are carrying a message of sympathy to the pope. During two years, the two brothers, Niccolo and Matteo, will await the election of new sovereign pontiff.

In 1271, they set out again of Venice to turn over to China and the Marco young person accompanies them. He is twenty years old when he is received with his parents at the very sumptuous Mongolian court. Initially seems it sent in legation with his/her uncle in the frontier town of Ganzhou, at the western end of the great wall, where it makes his classes, he becomes then a investigator-messenger of the imperial palace suzerain of China, Iran and Russia. For this reason it will achieve various missions for large the khaân, both in China and in the Indian Ocean (see functions of M.  Sports shirt).

Towards the end of the reign of Kūbilaï Khan, M.  Sports shirt and its parents obtain the right to turn over in their country. In 1291 or 1292 they embarks bound for Iran, where they accompany a princess promised with the ilkhan by Iran. Then it goes to the court of the emperor of China Kubilai Khan. In its return voyage to Venice in 1292, it makes stopover with Perlak in the north of the island of Sumatra (in current the Indonesia).

Returned in Venice in 1295 with an invaluable stone fortune, M.  Sports shirt makes arm a galère equipped with a pierrière, in order to take part in the combat that Venice carries out then against Genoa. At the time of a battle on sea, it is made prisoner (either in 1296, off Turkey, between Adana and the gulf of Alexandrette, or in September 1298, with broad of Curzola or Korčula on the Croatian coast). It dictates its famous book in the prison of Genoa. After its release, he marries Donata Badoer and will have three girls. Undoubtedly it was, like patrician, member of the Large Council of Venice, but one is unaware of which role it played in creation in 1310 of the Conseil of the Ten (not very ordinary institution secret which resembles Tchoû-semi-Yuan, the safety advice of Kūbilaï). M.  Sports shirt lived in Venice in the Casa Sports shirt , district of Cannaregio, family home destroyed by a fire in 1598 (the Malibran theater was built in 1677 on its foundations).

In homage to their more famous fellow-citizen, the Venetian ones baptized of its name their international airport, and the Italian tickets of 1000 Lire S carried its effigy a long time.

the Book of Marco Polo

Appeared in 1298, the book which returned M.  Universally famous sports shirt is one of the first important works in modern European prose, and very first the still known one of the general public.

Language

The book was written under the dictation of M.  Sports shirt by Rustichello of Pisa, author celebrated in England for his compilations of courtly romances. The count Baldelli Boni showed in 1827 that this text had been written in French, in fact a kind of Sabir, pisan disguised in French, with a strange orthography. The correct French setting is made in 1307 in Venice by Cepoy (sent by Charles de Valois, brother of Philippe Beautiful the). This version which is most sober incorporates many author's proofs.

Meanwhile the manuscript left the prison of Genoa had been transcribed in all the Italian dialects and in Latin. It was a kind of edition wild, “  in a few months, all Italy was pleine  ”. Each copyist put it in his dialect, by interpolating additions of more or less sure oral source sometimes. More than 120 old copies were conservées : one in the pidgin of Rustichello, 16 in French of Cepoy, 18 into Venetian, 17 in Tuscan, more than 70 in Latin.

The example of black hens of CH. 154 watch how the pidgin of Rustichello is copied on Italian, and what made then Cepoy to make of correct French   of it;:

“  Gelines which does not have null feathers but have hair and are all noires  ” (Cepoy, 1307).
“  Galine qe do not have warp ends my have peaus as spoils and are all noire  ” (Rustichello, 1298).
“  Galine che not ano pena my ano pello is unemployed spoils it and sound system tute negre  ” (Venetian).

Titles of the book

the Book of Marco Polo is the original title of work, thus M.  Sports shirt indicated it. '' Devisement '' or Description of the World , the Book of the Wonders , the Book of the Million Wonders of the World are titles due to the former copyists, just like the subtitles of the chapters.

It Milione was the pleasant nickname given to M.  Sports shirt by its fellow-citizens, because of the fortune which it had reported of China, and because of extraordinary dimensions of what it told.

Contained book

The Book of Marco Polo could be entitled the Livre of Kūbilaï Khān because it describes, not the history of Marco, but the empire of its owner, the most powerful emperor of the History of the world. When the book evokes Russia, the Central Asia, Iran, Afghanistan, it is that Kūbilaï was the suzerain of these grounds. When he speaks about Japan (which he names Cypango ), of Vietnam, of Burma, it is that Kūbilaï Khān sent armies to it. When he tells the Sri Lanka, the India of the south and to Madagascar, it is that Kūbilaï Khān dispatched emissary there to obtain their tender. When it describes the coasts of the Indian Ocean, of India, of Arabia and Africa, it is that the goods of China reached that point.

Kūbilaï Khān is the subject, the center and the unit of the book. All that M.  Sports shirt reports has direction only by him. Its book is as a digest of the stories as he told him, because he had known to allure it by his talents of observer and narrator.

The book comprises a prolog and four parts. The prolog tells the first voyage of Nicolo and Matteo Polo, his/her father and uncle (1255 - 1269), then the voyage whom they achieved together (1271 - 1295).

The first part describes the East until Chine : Turkey, Arménie, Georgia (ch.  19-22)   ; Iraq and Iran (ch.  23-42)   ; Afghanistan, Cashmere, the Himalayas and Turkestan (ch.  43-51)   ; west of China and the Gobi Desert (ch.  52-61)   ; Mongolia and history of the Mongols (ch.  62-74).

The second part described Kūbilaï Khān, its government and Beijing (ch.  75-103)   ; the route of Beijing to the Thailand, the Tibet, the Yunnan, the Burma, the Tonkin (ch.  104-129)   ; finally China of the south, the Song empire, Hangzhou (ch.  130-156). At the end, an analysis of the immense revenues from taxes of Kūbilaï Khān makes include/understand the base of its power (ch.  152).

The third part describes the China Sea and the Indien  Ocean;: Japan, Sumatra, Indonesia (ch.  157-166)   ; Ceylon and India (ch.  167-182)   ; Indian Ocean to Madagascar (ch.  183-192).

The fourth part comprises historical fragments, which tell especially the fratricidal wars between Mongols and make include/understand the origin of their fall (ch.  193-200).

Projecting chapters

The book is presented in the form of a collection of beautiful stories and " merveilles" (with the direction ancien : astonishing, surprising, even alarming). But its screen is low continuous of accurate informations, much more, exact and erudite that the lightness of the accounts and its simple language do not let it suppose.

- Xiangfan (ch.  145), which reveals the role of the Polo parents in the introduction of the Pierrière S which delivered the Song empire to the Mongols, and suggests that Kūbilaï could want to make career with their son (see parents Polo).

- Evaluation of the revenues from taxes of the province of Hangzhou (ch.  152), as the most astronomical figure of the book (23 tons gold annually for only salt) is checked exactly by annals and shows that M.  Sports shirt does not invent stories.

- Chapter posthume  ; boats and naval trade (ch.  156, 157,177).

- Relay of horses, roads and speed of transport (ch.  97 and 99).

- Tyrannie : massacre tens of thousands of people to the burial of each large khaân before Kūbilaï Khān (ch.  68, confirmed by Ohsson and Pétis of the Cross)   ; repression terrible (ch.  133 and 149)   ; apparatus omnipresent militaro-police officer in the cities and permanent curfew in Beijing (ch.  84, 85), soldiers on each of the 12.000 bridges of Hangzhou (151).

- History of the ismaéliens assassins (ch.  40-42), first terrorist State. In Iran also, plunderings of the Karaonas , which attack even the Sports shirt and the Mongolian princess (ch.  35 and 18).

Marco Polo?? Truth or Forgery??

M.  Sports shirt joue : “  who did not see it could not the croire  ” is a leitmotiv of its book, incredible but true is its receipt. However it is doubtful that it was accommodated with skepticism on its return by the patricians of Venise : the Republic had the means of knowing that he did not invent stories. In the same way Génois which made him write its report (which they needed for their forwardings), and the brother of king de France who dispatched to obtain copy from it.

History told by Ramusio.

First words of the foreword of the edition of 1307 sont : “  To know pure the vérité  ” and it insiste : “  We will give the things seen for sights, and heard for heard, so that our book is right and true, without no lie. Each one which will hear or read this book will have to believe it, because all is véritable  there; ”. On its bed of death, with its confessor, it réitère : “  I did not write half of what I have vu  ”. We know today that it is true. It had only too many extraordinary materials, it did not need to add some.

Many authors (especially English, and P. Pelliot) claimed to show that M.  Sports shirt invents stories but the analysis of their demonstrations leaves dreamer. Baudelaire said that “  the accounts of Marco Polo, of which one wrongly made fun, like few other old travellers, were checked by the scientists and deserve our créance  ”. The mark of the truth is in the text itself, in the coherence of the sequence of the ideas, the precision of the details, the constancy from the point of view of the adviser of State.

Functions of Mr. Polo in China

With the service of Kūbilaï, M.  Sports shirt depended not on the government nor of the Chinese administration, but of the palate of the emperor, the Mongolian suzerain, the khaân. He was not civil servant but man of the emperor. Here functions that its book mentionne :

- Introduction in China of the holy oil of Jerusalem with his/her parents.
- Legation with his/her uncle in the frontier town of Ganzhou, at the western end of the great wall (ch.  61).
- Nomination under Lord (ch.  16).
- Seigniory on Yangzhou, area then attached to the central capacity (ch.  143).
- Tax inspectorate (ch.  152).
- “  Envoy in the areas of the west… well four months of road towards the occident  ” (ch.  104).
- Embassies in the Indian Ocean (ch.  17).
- Escort of a princess in Iran, and charges with messages in the States d' Europe (ch.  18).
- Lastly, at the time of a coup d'etat in Beijing in 1282, the book says that it was on the spot.

Here what official annals of the Yuan  dynasty say;:

- In 1277, “  Sports shirt named Investigator-private Envoyé-adjoint
- In 1282, the shortly after the assassination of its Prime Minister Achmat, the emperor “  transported anger went the same day to Chang-tou (its capital of Mongolia) and ordered with Po-lo, private investigator and associated envoy, with Horh-khono-, superintendent of the studies, with the adviser of administration A-li, and others, to take post horses and to go immediately to Beijing to inform the business and to judge the coupables  ”.
- One month later, Kūbilaï Khān having returned in Pékin : “  Died Achmat, the emperor still completely ignoramus of his turpitudes, consulting the investigator-messenger Sports shirt, then learned all the width from its crimes  ” and rehabilitated its Chinese assassins.

These inscriptions correspond exactly to the livre :

- With CH. 16, the calculation of the dates place its nomination like Lord towards 1277; who is the date of the Chinese inscription.
- Its account of the assassination of Achmat in 1282 is longest of the book, most precise and best checked, and proves that it was informed of the parts of the procedure since these details were secret.
- Its accounts often evoke the relays of the official emissary, and all its missions are those of a investigator-messenger (for Kūbilaï Khān an ambassador was not anything else and the seigniory of M.  Sports shirt on Yangzhou implies only that it was the eye of the emperor there).

Functions of the parents Sports shirt

Left Venice before the birth of Marco, Nicolo and Matteo Polo towards 1255 invaluable stones in Constantinople (then under Venetian administration) and in the Crimea buy (where their brother resided), then will sell them at the court khan of Russia, on the Volga, where they remain one year. They push to Bukhara (then capital Persian of Central Asia) where they remain three years. Then a investigator-messenger of Kūbilaï or ilkhan of Iran invites them to be presented to large the khaân, in the capacity as Europeans.

Do they have reaches Beijing when they meet Kūbilaï in 1265 or 1266  ? It is not necessary to suppose it, the businesses of the west were often treated with its residence of summer in Mongolia, Chang-tou. They do not remain a long time because they are charged with two missions :

- Embassy of the Mongolian empire near the pope. When they regain the Mediterranean, the pope has just died and they should wait three years so that a new pope is elected (the longest interregnum of the history of papacy, between Clément IV and Gregoire X). When they they set out again towards Asia (with Marco), in the absence of the hundreds Christian scientists that Kūbilaï required, they carry of the holy oil of Jerusalem which held place of relic of Christ. One can conjecture that the Marco young person carried on him this oil. In any case, when Kūbilaï “  dispatched emissary with their meeting, good forty journées  ” (ch.  13), it was obviously to honor Christ (many subjects of Kūbilaï were Christian syriaques, the women of the descendants of Gengis khaân were it often).

- Military Technology transfer. This mission, revealed by CH. 145 on Xiangfan, undoubtedly made more for the promotion of the Sports shirt in the Yuan empire that the introduction of the symbol of the light of Christ. In 1266, when they arrive, China did not know the pierrières. But in 1273, when Xiangfan falls to the hands from the Mongols after a seat five years, it is thanks to pierrières. “  Then the pierrières were used in each battle with invariable a succès  ”, in particular on the Yangtze river where the Song fleet was anéantie  ; the following year the Song empire goes finally to the Mongols. Here the implication of the parents Sports shirt in this affaire : they proposed the pierrières with Kūbilaï, makes hold beams, and were the messengers dispatched with the ilkan Abaqa, which made requisition the engineers.

- Legation of Matteo Sports shirt with its nephew in the frontier town of Ganzhou (ch.  61).

- Nomination of Matteo Sports shirt to an official employment one year after their return to Venice.

Trading? Adventurer? Traveller?

commercial Traveller , of Venice , silk routes , adventurous  : these commonplaces stick to the character of M.  Sports shirt. But they are projections of the colonial period, of XVIe at the XIXe century. Sent of the emperor, his displacements were missions, with badges of the central palate and often military escort. In Asia, he is not professional merchant, he is to advise of the prince rather than traveller. If it piles up with his parents an invaluable stone treasure, it does not say that it was by the commerce  ; their emoluments and the gifts of Kūbilaï had to be enough to constitute a fortune to them.

If they were often " marchands" , the Venetian patricians were always also officers of active, diplomats, advisers of State (Matteo Polo could have been officer of the expert genious as pierrières).

As for the " voyage" , the route of the book is obviously rebuilt. The foreword the dit : “  there are things which it did not see but that he heard men sûrs  ”. Effective displacements of M.  Sports shirt between 1271 and 1295 seem the suivants :

- An outward journey Venice, Jerusalem, Meshed, Pamir, Singkiang, Inner Mongolia (three years).
- Mission with Ganzhou, the west (“  well a an  ”).
- Mission with Yangzhou, the south (“  three years accomplis  ”).
- Several outward journeys and returns between the three palates of the emperor.
- Perhaps a mission in the south-east of China towards the Yunnan, even the Tibet, the Burma.
- Embassy towards the Vietnam, then the the Indies, by sea (Two years).
- Return by China Sea, Indonesia, then Indian Ocean until Ormuz, gone up of Iran until Tabriz, and from there Trébizonde, Constantinople, Greece and Venice (three years).

See too

Related articles

Other Europeans having met Khan: Anecdote:
  • Marco Polo, the review of voyages of French-speaking voyage

External bonds

  • Marco Polo out of Holy Land
  • Texts on the voyage of Marco Polo
  • a site entirely devoted to Marco Polo

À to read in image mode on the site Gallica:

  • '' the Book of the wonders '' edition J. Girder 1556
  • '' the Book of the wonders '' edition E. Groulleau 1556
  • '' Two voyages in Asia with the XIII {{E}} century '' by Guillaume de Rubruquis and Marco Polo published by Eugene Muller, 1888

Random links:Abyssals zone | Weary (Yrénées-Atlantiques) | Besse-on-insulate | Iridonia | Philippe Baldinucci