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Marco Polo was the first European to cross the entire continent of Asia and leave a record of what he saw and heard. His autobiography “The Travels of Marco Polo” is probably the most famous travel book in history. It was the basis of the first accurate maps of Asia, and encouraged other explorers such as Christopher Columbus to find new routes to Asia. When on his deathbed, he said, “ I did not tell half of what I saw, because no one would have believed me.” Although subsequent scholars have challenged the accuracy of his comments, Polo’s tales emboldened Europeans to break the Arab monopoly on trade with Asia, stimulating the great age of European voyages, discovery, and conquest of the 15th and 16th century.

 

Marco came from a very shrewd, alert and courageous family that foresaw the political change necessary to open up dialogue with China. His family had strong relations with the Vatican, thereby allowing him to have Papal letters of recommendation to the great Kublai Khan, the powerful Mongol emperor. 

 

In reaching China, the Polo’s encountered Nestorian Christians, Buddhists, Manicheans, Zoroastrians, and Moslems. In an age where travel to the next village could be life threatening, their courage and luck to make these widespread pilgrimage to distant, unknown lands was phenomenal. 

 

During their seventeen year journey, the Polo family served as both Christian ambassadors to the great Kublai Khan, and subsequently represented the later both militarily, administrative toll collecting duties and in foreign relations. Interestingly enough Kublai Khan asked for and received “sacred oil” from Jerusalem and papal letters extolling the virtues of better relationships between the Mongol court and Europe. Kublai Khan gave the Polo family many privileges including gracious quarters at his court. 

 

Upon returning to Venice in 1295, there was a dramatic scene in which their relatives and friends reunited with them after a seventeen-year absence. Understandably, their contemporaries were undecided whether they were seeing apparitions or their long lost compatriots. We have to understand that most people during that period stayed within a fifty-mile radius of their birthplace throughout their life. Legends about the lost Christian kingdom in Africa founded by “King John” were accepted at face value. Thus, tales of distant civilizations electrified the European world. Nevertheless, even during his life and subsequently, the recollections of Marco Polo met skeptical audiences. The book of Marco Polo, called Il Milione tried to convey the million things Marco saw in the Mongol empire, modern day Turkey, and Japan.  Unfortunately, in part because the book was published before the printing press, we have lost the original manuscript and thus in addition to the subsequent changed by Marco Polo there are some 140 different manuscript versions.

 

The contributions of Marco Polo in terms of encouraging contact between widespread civilizations is more important than the accuracy of Marco Polo’s accounts. It is true that he did have a prodigious memory, was a conscientious observer, and a successful official at the cosmopolitan court of the Mongol rulers. In part Marco Polo honestly erred because (1) he retold accounts from other travelers he met during his odyssey, (2) the miscommunication because of language differences, and (3) lastly he enjoyed both listening and embellishes the multitude of tales that were part of his retinue.