"Marco Polo" by Paul Vidal de La Blache is a historical account and biographical study written in the late 19th century. It examines the famed Venetian’s travels through Asia within the broader setting of the 13th‑century Mongol world, explaining how his narrative was composed and situating it among earlier European missions that opened channels between Europe and the Far East.The opening of the work recounts Marco Polo’s dramatic return to Venice in exotic attire, the astonishment he and his relatives provoked, the origin of his nickname “Messer Milione,” and the wealth he revealed, before addressing doubts about his stories and the truth they contained. It then explains how his tales became a book, dictated in a Genoese prison to Rustichello of Pisa, notably in French, and quickly diffused in multiple versions. Shifting to context, the narrative sketches Soldaia (Sudak) as a Black Sea entrepôt and outlines the Mongol Empire’s structure and secure routes, which encouraged contact and fueled hopes (and myths) like Prester John. A substantial section summarizes the Franciscan Guillaume de Rubrouck’s journey from Soldaia across the steppes to Sartaq, Batu on the Volga, and finally to the Great Khan near Karakorum, highlighting nomad life, court ceremonials, and the cosmopolitan town where a Parisian goldsmith built a famous mechanical “tree.” The focus then turns to Nicolo and Maffeo Polo: their move from Constantinople to Soldaia, travels with the Volga Mongols to Sarai and Bo…
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