Tuesday 11/26: The Travels of Marco Polo

Reading assignments: The Travels of Marco Polo, The Road to Cambaluc&The Great Khan Kublai; Ch 34 and Conclusions, from Burland, C. A. The Travels of Marco Polo. Illustrated by Werner Forman, McGraw-Hill, 1970.)

PPT slide deck: The Travels of Marco Polo Download The Travels of Marco Polo and a Marco Polo Activity. Download a Marco Polo Activity.

Recommended: 

Giovanni Boccaccio, Decameron Day 10, Story 3 (and in PDF format)

Calvino, Italo, Invisible Cities (Title Page and Intro) Download Invisible Cities (Title Page and Intro) and Invisible Cities Download Invisible Cities (excerpts). Translated by William Weaver, First edition., Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1974

The Travels of Marco Polo, Volume 1 Links to an external site., Book 1, chapters 1-5; Book 2, chapters 1, 10, 22, 34; Volume 2 Links to an external site., Book 3, chapter 9, 49, 68, 74; Book 4, chapters 1 and 34 (from Polo, Marco, and da Pisa Rusticiano. The Travels of Marco Polo — Volume 1. Project Gutenberg, and Polo, Marco, and da Pisa Rusticiano. The Travels of Marco Polo — Volume 2. Project Gutenberg).

This map illustrates Marco Polo's travels (1271 - 1295), which spanned vast regions of Asia, including the Middle East, Central Asia, and China, where he served at the court of Kublai Khan. Polo journeyed along the Silk Road, encountering diverse cultures, unfamiliar landscapes, and innovations such as paper money, coal burning, and gunpowder. His detailed accounts (collected in Devisement du Monde, Description of the World, later known as Il Milione or The Travels of Marco Polo) of the wealth and grandeur of the Mongol Empire, particularly in China (referred to as Cathay), captivated European audiences for centuries.