Venetian merchant and traveller whose accounts, shaped into a book with Rustichello da Pisa after his return, became an influential and sometimes contested European description of Asia.
Marco Polo travelled with his father Niccolò and uncle Maffeo from Venice through the eastern Mediterranean, Iran, Central Asia, and the Mongol-ruled Silk Road networks to Kublai Khan’s court. Years later, the Polos accompanied Kököchin’s maritime escort from China toward Persia and continued home to Venice.
Sources and further reading
The Travels of Marco Polo, Library of Congress. Digitized circa-1350 manuscript and catalogue essay covering the 1271–75 outward journey, years at the Mongol court, 1292–95 return, and the account’s mixture of travel report, hearsay, and legend.
Polo, Marco, Encyclopaedia Iranica. Scholarly biography, textual history, Iranian itinerary, Kököchin mission, departure from Quanzhou, and return through the Persian Gulf and Tabriz.
A Venetian Vignette One Hundred Years after Marco Polo, The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Museum scholarship on the Polo family, the 1271 departure, Acre and Ayas, their papal mission, Kublai Khan’s court, and the surviving manuscript tradition.