Marco Polo's Silk Road: The Art of the Journey - An Italian at the Court of Kublai Khan
by: N/A

Hardcover. Watkins, reprint, 2011, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 272 pages. Marco Polo (c.1254-1324) was a Christian merchant from the Venetian Republic who learned about trading while his father and uncle were absent on an extended journey through Asia, which culminated in a visit with the great khan Kublai. In 1269 the brothers returned to Venice and met Marco for the first time. The three of them then embarked on a new journey to Asia and the court of the khan, returning after more than two decades to find Venice at war. Marco was imprisoned in Genoa, whereupon he dictated his romantic-sounding stories to a cellmate. The popularity of his account is a rare example of a success in publishing before the age of printing. Introduction by John Masefield.