A biography of marco polo

Finally, after 17 years in Khan's court, the Polos decided it was time to return to Venice. Their decision was not one that pleased Khan, who'd grown to depend on the men. In the end, he acquiesced to their request with one condition: They escort a Mongol princess to Persia, where she was to marry a Persian prince. Traveling by sea, the Polos left with a caravan of several hundred passengers and sailors.

The journey proved harrowing, and many perished as a result of storms and disease. By the time the group reached Persia's Port of Hormuz, just 18 people, including the princess and the Polos, were still alive. Later, in Turkey, Genoese officials appropriated three-quarters of the family's wealth. After two years of travel, the Polos reached Venice.

They'd been gone for more than two decades, and their return to their native land undoubtedly had its difficulties. Their faces looked unfamiliar to their family and they struggled to speak their native tongue. Just a few years after returning to Venice from China, Polo commanded a ship in a war against the rival city of Genoa. He was eventually captured and sentenced to a Genoese prison, where he met a fellow prisoner and writer named Rustichello.

As the two men became friends, Polo told Rustichello about his time in Asia, what he'd seen, where he'd traveled and what he'd accomplished. The book made Polo a celebrity. It was printed in French, Italian and Latin, becoming the most popular read in Europe. But few readers allowed themselves to believe Polo's tale. They took it to be fiction, the construct of a man with a wild imagination.

Polo, however, stood behind his book, and it influenced later adventurers and merchants. After his release from prison inPolo returned to Venice, where he married, raised three daughters and, for some 25 years, carried on the family business. Polo died at his home in Venice on January 8, As he lay dying, friends and fans of his a biography of marco polo paid him visits, urging him to admit that his book was fiction.

Polo wouldn't relent. In the centuries since his death, Polo has received the recognition that failed to come his way during his lifetime. The two brothers then went to the port city of Soldaia now Sudak, Ukrainewhere they owned a house. Did you know? The Byzantine re-conquest of Constantinople inalong with upheavals in the Mongol Empire, may have blocked their way home.

After spending three years in Bukhara in present-day Uzbekistan, they were encouraged by a Mongolian embassy to visit Kublai Khangrandson of Genghis Khanwho controlled a huge swath of Asia. Kublai quizzed them on European affairs and decided to send them on a goodwill mission to the pope. At the request of Kublai Khan, they secured some holy oil from the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem and then backtracked to Acre to pick up gifts, papal documents and two friars from newly elected Pope Gregory X.

The friars quickly abandoned the expedition, but the Polos continued on, possibly by camel, to the Persian port city of Hormuz. Over the next three years they slowly trekked through deserts, high mountain passes and other rough terrain, meeting people of various religions and cultures along the way. Marco Polo was born in around into a wealthy and cosmopolitan Venetian merchant family.

A biography of marco polo: Marco Polo was a

Inthey left Venice to travel to the Black Sea, moving onwards to central Asia and joining a diplomatic mission to the court of Kublai Khan, the Mongol ruler of China. Khan asked the Polo brothers to return to Europe and persuade the pope to send scholars to explain Christianity to him. They arrived back in Venice in Inthey set off again, accompanied by two missionaries and Marco, and in reached Khan's summer court.

For the next 17 years the Polos lived in the emperor's lands. Other lesser-known European explorers had already travelled to China, such as Giovanni da Pian del Carpinebut Polo's book meant that his journey was the first to be widely known. Christopher Columbus was inspired enough by Polo's description of the Far East to want to visit those lands for himself; a copy of the book was among his belongings, with handwritten annotations.

He never found the kingdom but ended his travels at the Great Wall of China inproving that Cathay was what Matteo Ricci — called "China". Marco Polo's travels may have had some influence on the development of European cartographyultimately leading to the European voyages of exploration a century later. That fine illuminated world map on parchment, which can still be seen in a large cabinet alongside the choir of their monastery [the Camaldolese monastery of San Michele di Murano] was by one of the brothers of the monastery, who took great delight in the study of cosmography, diligently drawn and copied from a most beautiful and very old nautical map and a world map that had been brought from Cathay by the most honourable Messer Marco Polo and his father.

Though Marco Polo never produced a map that illustrated his journey, his family drew several maps of the Far East based on the traveller's accounts.

A biography of marco polo: Venetian merchant and adventurer

These collections of maps were signed by Polo's three daughters, Fantina, Bellela and Moreta. Benjamin B. Olshin a historian who wrote for the University of Chicago Press has been unable to "establish the authenticity" of these maps once owned by Marcian Rossi, an Italian immigrant living in California during the s known for peddaling hoaxes.

These maps have been compared to the Zeno Map hoax. However Olshin made no mention on the improbability they are real. There is a legend about Marco Polo importing pasta from China; however, it is actually a popular misconception[ ] originating with the Macaroni Journalpublished by a food industry association with the goal of promoting the use of pasta in the United States.

Pasta had already been invented in Italy a long time before Marco Polo's travels to Asia. The Marco Polo sheepa subspecies of Ovis ammonis named after the explorer, [ ] who described it during his crossing of Pamir ancient Mount Imeon in Ina three-masted clipper built in Saint John, New Brunswick also took his name; the Marco Polo was the first ship to sail around the world in under six months.

Croatian state-owned shipping company 's Jadrolinija ship connecting Split with Ancona in Italy is named after Marco Polo. Contents move to sidebar hide. Article Talk. Read View source View history. Tools Tools. Download as PDF Printable version. In other projects. Wikimedia Commons Wikiquote Wikisource Wikidata item. Venetian merchant — This article is about the trader and explorer.

For other uses, see Marco Polo disambiguation. VeniceRepublic of Venice. Donata Badoer. Agnese Polo ill. Nickname Milione. Early life and Asian travel. Genoese captivity and later life. The Travels of Marco Polo. Main article: The Travels of Marco Polo. Further information: Franco-Mongol alliance and Byzantine-Mongol alliance. A miniature from Il Milione.

Role of the Dominican Order. Authenticity and veracity. Allegations of exaggeration. Mario Eusebi, p. Arts, entertainment, and media. If this is not the case, a more likely date for their arrival is oraccording to the research of Japanese scholar Matsuo Otagi. Britannicap. They are fine fat beasts, and afford capital mutton. Stubbs, Robert G.

Istituto Geografico DeAgostini in Italian. Archived from the original on 9 June Retrieved 24 August Glick; Steven Livesey; Faith Wallis ISBN Treccani in Italian. Istituto Treccani. Retrieved 17 October Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani in Italian. Nacque a Venezia nel Encyclopedia Britannica. Enciclopedia dell' Arte Medievale in Italian.

Dizionario di Storia in Italian. Journal of Marine and Island Cultures. Bibcode : JMICu IIGiunti, Venezia, Zorzi, Alvise La Repubblica del Leone. Storia di Venezia [ The Lion's Republic. History of Venice ] in Italian. Milan: Bompiani. Marco Polo. New Word City. A Critical Appraisal by I. The Australian National University. Retrieved 20 August Office of Shaanxi Local Chronicles.

Retrieved 13 October The Travels of Marco Polop. New York: Penguin Books.

A biography of marco polo: Marco Polo, Venetian merchant

Ca' Foscari University of Venice in Italian. Retrieved 1 June National Geographic. Archived from the original on 5 February For details, see, A. Retrieved 25 November Translated by John Frampton Second ed. Marco Polo, The Description of the World. Indianapolis: Hackett Press.