The Life and Travels of Marco Polo

Marco Polo, and Francisco Maria Esteves Pereira. Marco Polo. Oficinas Gráficas da Biblioteca Nacional, 1922. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/284847985_Marco_Polo

This article gives an overview of the life of Marco Polo. As noted, he was born in 1254 in Venice and died in 1324. He was a trader and an explorer and learned this from his uncle and father, both of whom traveled through Asia and met Kublai Khan. Although he was not the first explorer to travel to China, he was, however, the first to leave a comprehensive account of what he experienced.

This article is a viable source since apart from accounting the life and travels of Marco, it also gives the influence that Marco may have had on European cartography development, in which a century later, resulted in the European voyages of exploration.

Stephen G. Haw

Marco Polo’s China: A Venetian in the realm of Khubilai Khan. Routledge, 2006. https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/9781134275427

This book re-examines the writing of Marco and notes how he did it impressively. This is with regards to disagreements about the travels of Marco Polo to China where various scholars have claimed that Marco never went to China, pointing out some mistakes and omissions in his writing such as his failure to mention the Great Wall among others.

This book is thus an excellent source as it clarifies the itineraries of Marco in China. It also presents a convincing argument about the accuracy, importance, and usefulness of Marco’s work.

Hans Ulrich Vogel. Marco Polo was in China: new evidence from currencies, salts, and revenues. Brill, 2012.

This book examines the description of revenues, currencies, and salts in Yuan China with regards to how these are described in the Travels of Marco Polo. As noted, many of the descriptions of these three aspects are similarly supported by various Chinese sources. The author asserts that no Marco’s contemporaries produced accurate accounts about these aspects of the economy in Yuan China as he did.

This book is, therefore, a viable source since the only way that Marco could have provided such accurate writing about these aspects is if he was there in person.

Bibliography

Haw, Stephen G. Marco Polo’s China: A Venetian in the realm of Khubilai Khan. Routledge, 2006. https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/9781134275427

Polo, Marco, and Francisco Maria Esteves Pereira. Marco Polo. Oficinas Gráficas da Biblioteca Nacional, 1922. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/284847985_Marco_Polo

Vogel, Hans Ulrich. Marco Polo was in China: new evidence from currencies, salts, and revenues. Brill, 2012.