MARCO POLO: BIOGRAPHY, FACTS, TRAVELS, DEATH - ARTE - 2025

Marco Polo (c. 1254 - 1324) was an Italian merchant and explorer known for his descriptions of Asia and the customs of its people from his travels through the Far East directed at the European public. With the help of Rustichello of Pisa, he was able to compose the accounts, which seemed fantastic to his contemporaries, of his adventures in the Middle and Far East.

It opened a window into the Mongolian and Chinese civilization of the time of Kublai Khan, grandson of the famous warrior Genghis Khan. For a long time it was debated whether what Marco Polo had commented in his work was really the product of his imagination or if it was a true description. Today many of their stories have been confirmed by modern specialists.

Marco Polo - mosaic - by Salviati, via Wikipedia Commons

Probably the main cause of disagreement among his contemporaries was rooted in the fact that he showed Asian culture as superior to European in various aspects, something that was not well seen at the time.

Important data

Marco Polo's journey began in approximately 1271, when the young man was about 17 years old. He set out together with his father and uncle, who on a previous trip had established a good relationship with Kublai Khan.

The young Venetian would not return to his land until 1295, when Genoa was at war with the Republic of Venice. Marco Polo was taken prisoner by the Genoese and in his captivity he met Rustichello, a famous storyteller from Pisa.

The Pisan was in charge of writing the stories that Marco Polo told him and that work went down in history with the name of Il milione, in Spanish translated as The Travels of Marco Polo, or the Book of Wonders.

The work was a total success and it obtained to him the sufficient bottoms to him to return to settle down in its earth. He married a Venetian woman of noble origin and had three daughters.

Before dying he claimed that he had told less than half of what he witnessed in Asia, since otherwise no one would have believed his words.

Biography

Early years

Marco Emilio Polo was born around the year 1254 in the then Republic of Venice. Some consider that his birthplace was in the city of Venice itself, while others have proposed Corzula.

His father was Niccolo Polo and his mother Nicole Anna Defuseh. The origin of the Venetian family was never clarified with proper documentation, as well as its rank in the local aristocracy, if it belonged to it.

What has transpired about the history of the Polo is that both Niccolo and his brother Maffeo dedicated their lives to the most common and profitable job in the city: commerce.

Maffeo and Niccolo Polo went on their first voyage as merchants when Marco was still a baby.

The infant was for a time under the care of his mother, but she died shortly after, so the little one was left in the care of some uncles in Venice.

Family

Some of those who have tried to reconstruct the ancestry of the Italian merchant and explorer have proposed Andrea Polo de San Felice as Marco's grandfather, who also appears to have been a merchant, like his sons: Niccolo, Maffeo and Marco.

However, this version of the Polo genealogy could not be confirmed.

Niccolo Polo's documented residence in Venice was established in San Severo, near St. Mark's Basilica.

Youth

Little else is known about Marco Polo's childhood and early adolescence, as he entered historical records upon his return from his travels in Asia that took him more than 20 years to complete.

When the boy was about 15 years old, he found the wonderful news that his father and uncle were not only alive, but had returned to Venice loaded with riches obtained on their journey to the Far East.

As the young man grew up he was educated in the main areas that a Venetian of his time should be prepared for: everything related to trade, from international currencies to the basics of merchant navigation.

Niccolo Polo's Travels

Upon returning home, Marco Polo's father was kind enough to tell his son the reason that prolonged the duration of his trip by about a decade and a half.

After leaving the Venetian port, the brothers arrived in Constantinople where they stayed for several years. There after the capture carried out in 1204 the Venetians had extensive benefits, a neighborhood and control of part of the port activity.

This was the first commercial settlement of the Polo, but noticing that the political situation appeared to be unfavorable, the brothers left.

Far East

Then, around 1259 the Poles had moved to Soldaia, present-day Sudak, in the Crimea. Just over a year after Niccolo's departure, Constantinople was recaptured by its former leaders and all Venetians in the area were blinded.

After a short period in Soldaia the brothers followed Sarai, where they met members of the Berke Khan court. They later traveled to Bukhara, Uzbekistan, where they settled for three years.

In 1264 they joined an embassy sent by Hulagu to his brother the Yuan Emperor known as Kublai Khan, grandson of Genghis Khan. The destination of his journey became Dadu, present-day Beijing in China.

Mission

The return of Niccolo and Maffeo Polo did not occur because of their desire to return home, but as a task entrusted by Kublai Khan to men: to send a message to the high pontiff established in Rome to request evangelizers to take the Christian word to his kingdom.

Kublai Khan is known to have been one of the most outspoken emperors in the cultural arena. He wanted Europeans to send to their lands not only missionaries but educated people who could reveal to them what their customs were, as well as the arts and sciences.

Evangelism

The Yuan Emperor gave the Poles a letter to the pope requesting missionaries. For both brothers and the men they could get, he gave them a paiza, which was a kind of golden passport that guaranteed immunity and privileges to the bearer.

In 1269, when the Poles arrived in Venice they learned that Pope Clement IV had died and his vacancy was also one of the longest in history.

After a two-year wait, the Venetian merchants decided to return to the court of Kublai Khan empty-handed.

Start of the day

At the beginning of his adventure, Marco Polo was 17 years old, it was then that he insisted to his father that he wanted to leave with him for the Asian continent. He had received enough training and, although he was a bit young for the trip, Niccolo agreed to take him with him.

The first destination of the intrepid merchants was Acre in Israel, where they were made by orders of Kublai Khan with oil from the lamp of the Holy Sepulcher, as well as a couple of missionaries obtained after the appointment of Gregory X.

The Polo family set out with the new evangelizers, but they soon abandoned them to return to the comfort of their lives in Western civilization and avoid the dangers of the journey, which were not few.

Marco Polo Wearing Tartar Costume, by Grevembrock, via Wikimedia Commons.

On their way they came to what Marco called Laiazzo, that is, the city of Ayas, present-day Yumurtalik. They then continued to Erzurum in Turkey and from there they went to Tabriz, in present-day Iran. Finally, they reached Hormuz, where they intended to take a ship to Dadu, capital of the Mongol Empire.

However, they did not consider that the ships that were available were adequate to skirt the coasts of India, so they decided to continue their passage overland, posing many more challenges for the adventurous merchants.

Meeting Kublai Khan

Illustration from the book "The travels of Marco Polo" ("Il milione"), originally written on the basis of the stories of Marco Polo himself (around 1254 - January 8/9, 1324), but later frequently reproduced and translated.

After traversing the harsh desert in Iranian soil, the Polo family decided to temporarily settle in an area that they found quite pleasant, which Marco called Balascian (Badakhshan) in present-day Afghanistan.

The young man was there together with his father and uncle for about a year, it is believed that he could have visited the south in that stay and, even, have arrived in Pakistan or the Hindu Kush.

However, Marco Polo's accounts of this area may have been stories taken from other travelers.

The Silk Road

Marco Polo's caravan

The family continued their way through the Pamir mountain range, after which they managed to reach the Cascar (Kashi), with which they had fully incorporated the road that was known as the Silk Road.

For the moment, his adventures had taken place in lands whose population was predominantly Muslim. That changed in Gansu (Tangut), a region inhabited by followers of Buddhism. Marco Polo and his family continued their journey and in 1275 they reached Shangdu, which was the summer capital of Kublai Khan.

Coincidentally, the emperor was there and Niccolo apologized for not having been able to carry out the task assigned to him. But he had brought with him something that he valued more: his son who offered Kublai Khan as his faithful servant.

Marco Polo in the service of the emperor

Mosaic depicting Marco Polo, at Villa Hanbury, Ventimiglia, Italy. Lotho2

After four years of tireless journeys, Marco's journey was about to begin. He was under Kublai Khan for over 16 years. The Mongol emperor did not trust his national subjects, since he believed that they could change their loyalties by gaining power.

This mistrust of the Khan led him to regularly select foreigners for key positions. The Polo were no exception, it is thought that Niccolo and Maffeo may have served as military advisers or as war technicians for the Mongol army.

Kublai Khan seems to have enjoyed too much the ability and grace that the young Venetian displayed when recounting any eventuality, so he spent a long time listening to the stories of his travels.

Another of the important qualities that Kublai Khan valued in Marco Polo was his facility for languages, it is believed that he spoke at least five oriental languages ​​fluently, a rare talent and extremely useful for an official of the Mongol Empire.

Charges

Among the official positions that Marco Polo held on the orders of Kublai Khan appear to have been that of tax collector, as well as customs supervisor, which was in accordance with the training the boy received in Venice.

Some have proposed that Polo even became governor of a city known as Yangzhou for a period of nearly three years. However, no documents to support this have been found in the records of the time.

Imperial narrator

It is known that the khan used to send Marco Polo on missions to distant lands within his domains in order not only to supervise the state of those places and their institutions, but also for the Venetian to collect information to relate it to the emperor.

In his spare time, the emperor was also fascinated by stories about life in Europe through the vision of Marco Polo. Kublai Khan marveled at this land unknown and exotic to him.

With the passage of time Marco Polo assimilated to that culture. It must be considered that he was immersed in it from his early youth and had already become one of the Mongols.

However, as much as the local culture had permeated him, he was still a foreigner.

Return

Portrait of Marco Polo (1600) from the Gallery of the Monseñar de Badia in Rome.

Some claim that the Polo family's longing to return to European soil was about longing for its people and landscapes. But a greater motive was latent in his reality within the Mongol Empire: the head of the Yuan dynasty, Kublai Khan, was about 80 years old.

The favoritism that the emperor had shown for the three Venetians had earned them many privileges, but at the same time aroused resentment among the natural population of China. The Poles were fully aware of this and tried to request permission to return to Venice.

Despite the motives put forward by the merchants, at every opportunity Kublai Khan had denied them permission to leave his domain. The ruler considered them extremely valuable and did not see it prudent to let go of men so necessary for his plans.

However, an opportunity opened up for the Polo: Princess Kokacin, of the Yuan dynasty and a direct descendant of Genghis Khan, had been promised to marry the Mongol ruler of Persia, present-day Iran, known as Arghun in 1292.

The three merchants offered to escort the princess on the dangerous journey along the coasts of India. Kublai Khan agreed and that was how they were able to get the long-awaited permission to return to their home in Venice.

Last commission from Kublai Khan

Marco Polo together with his father and uncle set out in a fleet of 14 ships. The emperor gave them a large amount of gold, likewise they had exchanged the profits and possessions they had acquired in Asian territory for precious stones, which they sewed into simple clothes.

More than 600 people were within the escort of Princess Kokacín, among her courtiers and the sailors in charge of the fleet.

Return to the west

The starting point was Quanzhou (Zaiton), they made a short stop on the Vietnamese coast known by Marco Polo as Ciamba (Champa).

The dangerous monsoons made travelers pause for six months in Sumatra. They continued the trip and made another stop in Seilan (Sri Lanka), then they touched the coasts of India and finally managed to reach their destination Hormuz.

From there they continued overland to the capital, Khorasan, to find that Arghun, Kokacin's fiancé, had died while the young princess traveled to meet him.

The solution to the problem that arose suddenly was to marry Kokacin to Arghun's son, Mahmud Ghazan.

The Poles followed and left the territory controlled by Kublai Khan behind. Unfortunately in Trebizond they stole much of their wealth, especially the gold that their former lord had given them.

Back in venice

It was the year 1295 when Marco, his father, Niccolo, and his uncle, Maffeo, saw their hometown once again. They knocked on the door of their family's house, to find a stranger who could not believe that they were who they claimed to be, since everyone considered them dead.

Route followed by Marco Polo, the blue lines represent sea travel and the brown ones for land., Via Wikimedia Commons.

Their goods had been sold and their own relatives who soon came to the presence of the Poles also did not believe in the supposed identity of the Poles, who wore worn clothes with which they looked like nothing more than simple beggars.

That night they offered a dinner in which they changed their clothes on different occasions and, finally, they returned to wearing the clothes that made them look poor and ragged, then they opened them to discover in their double bottom a great treasure in precious stones.

That story has been widely disseminated, although it is not known if it really happened and shows great similarities with those referring to Homer, who was not recognized by those close to him in his own city.

Marco's youth had already withered and he still hadn't made a home. Furthermore, it appears that during his absence he had forgotten much of his own mother tongue and that his accent made him appear foreign.

Prison

Marco Polo found on his return that the Republic of Venice was facing Genoa in the War of Curzola, a conflict that took place between 1295 and 1299. Some sources claim that he used a large part of his fortune to buy a galley with trebuchet and join the war.

The versions about his capture offer two possible places where the Genoese took him prisoner: one claims that it was on the coasts of Anatolia in 1296; while others say it was at the Battle of Curzola in 1298.

Rustichello

During his captivity he met Rustichello of Pisa, famous for his pen. Marco Polo's new cellmate had written other works before and upon hearing the stories of the Venetian's travels decided to help him write them.

Rustichello provided a traditional and appropriate structure for Marco Polo's stories that were already rich in detail and seemed fantastic to Western readers. Both poured the 24 years of Polo's travels into the work known as Il milione.

It is believed that Rustichello may have modified some experiences or descriptions of Polo to give the reader greater pleasure at the time of reading.

The success

The text had both admirers and detractors, especially those who considered that there could not be a more advanced society than the European one in so many aspects.

Last years

Upon leaving prison Marco Polo learned that his family had purchased a palazzo, a house that was used for residential as well as commercial purposes.

Palazzi could be purchased by anyone with enough money to pay for it, regardless of whether they were an aristocrat or not.

The new residence of the Polo was located in the San Giovanni Crisostomo contrada. As was common at the time, the ground floor had to serve as a store, especially since the family continued to practice this activity after their return to Venice.

Despite this, the Venetian did not leave the borders of his native republic again in his travels as a merchant and, consequently, he did not see the Silk Road again.

In 1300 Niccolo Polo, Marco's father, died. That same year, when he was 46 years old, the Venetian married Donata Badoèr, with whom he had three daughters named Fantina, Bellela and Moreta.

The other mentions that were made of Marco Polo were:

In the will of his uncle Maffeo Polo in 1309, it later appeared in the records for successor documents related to his father, Niccolo, in 1319. In the purchase of some of Donata's family belongings in 1321 Marco's name was again appreciated. Pole.

Death

Marco Polo passed away on December 8, 1324. His illness began during the last months of the previous year, but he did not recover. The exact reason for his death is unknown, but he was in his early 70s.

An anecdote was spread in which by the time of his last confession the priest in charge of giving him the sacraments asked him once again if his stories had been a lie so that he could ascend to the kingdom of heaven.

However, Marco Polo replied to his confessor that he had not recounted even half of what he witnessed in his adventures, since if he had, no one would have believed a single word.

Will

His wife and three daughters were appointed by Marco Polo to fulfill his last will as executors of his will. He was given the portion corresponding to the church, plus a gift for the priest who was by his side at the time of his death.

The Venetian also bequeathed a portion of his wealth to the convent of San Lorenzo, in whose holy ground he requested that his mortal remains be buried.

He also ordered the release of a Tatar slave named Pedro that he had brought with him from China. In gratitude for his service, he bequeathed him enough capital so that he could settle in the city.

Likewise, he settled some debts that third parties had contracted with him and until the moment of his death they had not been paid.

The document was not signed by Marco Polo due to his delicate state of health, but at the time a law known as "signum manus" was in force, which established the validity of a document with the simple fact that the signatory touched it with his hand.

Marco Polo's travels

The famous work narrates the Venetian's journey from his departure from the Mediterranean shores to the distant Mongol Empire of Kublai Khan.

Although it was not easy, or cheap, to make a copy or a translation in the 14th century, the work spread quickly in the Western world.

None of the original manuscripts of Rustichello da Pisa were preserved, so it is not known how altered the versions known today are. They are thought to have been written in a Franco-Italian language, which was common at that time.

The earliest known copies date back to the mid-16th century and are widely dissimilar to each other, especially as each transcriber and translator added notes and altered certain aspects of the text.

There are more than 150 handwritten copies in different languages ​​of The Travels of Marco Polo, the dates of which date back to the Middle Ages.

Content

Il milione or The Travels of Marco Polo consists of 4 books, the first describes the Middle East and Central Asia, the second is dedicated to the imperial court of Kublai Khan and a sample of the Chinese geography and society of the time.

The third volume deals with matters related to the east coast of the continent, including Japan, Sri Lanka, coastal territories of India and even the east coast of Africa. Finally, the fourth book deals with the recent wars of the Mongolian people.

Style

For some it presented great similarities in style to some primitive travel guides, especially aimed at merchants since they had detailed descriptions of the route and some precautions they had to take along the way.

It also included some features of a diplomatic chronicle, offering in-depth the narration of what happened in the missions entrusted by Kublai Khan to Marco Polo, who was considered a kind of ambassador of the emperor.

In addition, it is very important to highlight his contributions to ethnography, especially because of the way in which he approached the description of an alien society and its customs, so that Europeans, who were not familiar with these concepts, could understand them.

Veracity

At the time when Marco Polo carried out his work together with Rustichello, it was common to read that peoples outside the European culture were barbaric and unfaithful in terms of religion, with customs that were not typical of an advanced society.

Marco Polo's travels show the Mongol Empire as superior to Westerners in a range of aspects that ranged from hygiene to the monetary system, in which advanced concepts such as paper money already existed.

Likewise, the Asians had some scientific knowledge unrelated to the Westerners: gunpowder or the process of creating salt and a fairly advanced urbanism compared to their European counterpart.

Another reason why Chinese or Mongolian society might seem superior during the Yuan Dynasty was because of the cultural and religious tolerance they displayed within their borders.

The Europeans did not agree to show the general public such a representation of foreigners, so they simultaneously attacked Marco Polo, assuring that he was a liar and rewrote part of his texts to give a vision more in line with their status quo..

Claim

However, with the passage of time the Venetian's name was largely cleared by historians who devoted themselves to Asian culture, since many of his stories were confirmed.

Among the fragments of his stories that could be verified, both in Chinese and Persian sources, is that of the wedding of Princess Kokacín with the Mongol ruler of Iran. Despite this, nothing has credited the Venetian company in these records.

It has been said that the fact that the merchant had only told lies could be more difficult to prove than to accept the fact that he was in the places where he himself described in The Travels of Marco Polo.

This is because it narrates with a high degree of specificity certain aspects that had not been described by other Westerners until then.

Mistakes

The text of The Travels of Marco Polo presents some errors that some attribute to poor memory of the traveler, to mixed memories or simply to carelessness or later alterations in the copies of the work.

Those who still think that the Venetian lied about his journey through Asia cling to arguments such as that he did not describe important architectural structures such as the Wall of China.

Errors in dates and places, as well as in the names of some cities are also present in the narration, despite that it should be noted that in Marco Polo's travels there are more than 24 years of journeys with nothing more than his memory as sustenance.

Importance of the Chinese Wall

This detail does not necessarily imply that Marco Polo did not travel to Asia, but that during his stay in the area the Yuan dynasty ruled, who owned dominions to the north and south of those fortifications, so they saw no need to maintain them.

The fragments that have passed into the popular imagination about this structure were those corresponding to the Ming government, erected several years after the fall of the Yuan.

Other contemporary travelers with Marco Polo did not consider it necessary to describe it either, since the Wall of China was not of great relevance then.

Exaggerations

There has been talk about the possible exaggeration of the importance that Marco Polo held within the court of Kublai Khan.

He even said that he had been the governor of an area in China. Although many have investigated in the archives of the Yuan dynasty, no important official or close to the emperor was named Marco Polo.

However, nothing confirms that the Venetian was so called in Asia, or that on the contrary he adopted a local name or nickname.

Likewise, such stories could have been later additions to the original manuscript or, they could even be the work of Rustichello's ornate writing of Marco Polo's experiences.

Influence

Although the members of the Polo family were not the first Europeans to walk the trails of the Silk Road, Marco's stories did have the first in showing the West the customs and geography of that area that was strange to them.

The influence his work had on cartography was seen years after his death. He never made a map, but some of his descendants did and were able to graphically show areas that had never been represented.

This contributed, in addition to the same text, The Travels of Marco Polo, in the so-called “era of discoveries”. At that time the Europeans embarked on great explorations outside their borders and got to know the rest of the globe.

Christopher Columbus carried a copy of Marco Polo's Travels with him and used it as a kind of manual in his attempt to find a sea route to the Asian continent that would allow him to establish trade in a more comfortable way.

This exploration by the Europeans was also driven by the fact that after the collapse of the Mongol Empire, the Silk Road as it was known until then was no longer a safe passage for traders.

Tributes

- Venice airport is named after Marco Polo in commemoration of the native explorer and merchant of his lands.

- Cathay Pacífic airline called its frequent flyer plan “Club Marco Polo”.

- In 1851 a ship was built that was christened Marco Polo, the ship was a clipper, that is to say, a thin and elongated sailing ship that reached great speeds. That boat was the first to get around the circumference of the globe in less than six months.

- The Ovis ammon polii, popularly known as “Marco Polo's ram”, is a species that was described by the Venetian who lived in the Pamir mountains and that for a long time was considered mythological or false by Europeans.

Representations

Movie theater

- The Adventures of Marco Polo (The Adventures of Marco Polo), 1938.

- Marco Polo, 1961.

- Marco the Magnificent (Marco the Magnificent), 1965.

Games

- Civilization Revolution, 2008. Marco Polo appears as a "Great Explorer" within the plot.

- Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, 2009. Marco Polo's journey through Asia serves as a precedent for the journey of the protagonist of the video game.

- The Voyages of Marco Polo, a board game in which the Venetian's itinerary is followed from Europe to Asia.

Literature

In addition to his own work known as The Travels of Marco Polo in Spanish, the story of the merchant and explorer was used by other authors who told his story mixed with fiction, some of these are:

- Messer Marco Polo (1921), Brian Oswald Donn-Byrne.

- Invisible Cities (1972), novel by Italo Calvino.

- The Journeyer (1984), novel by Gary Jennings.

- Marco Polo and the Sleeping Beauty (1988), novel by Avram Davidson and Grania Davis.

- SIGMA Force Book 4: The Judas Strain (2007), James Rollins.

TV

- Marco Polo, 1982. Miniseries directed by Giuliano Montaldo, with Ken Marshall and Ruocheng Ying. Winner of 2 Emmy Awards.

- Marco Polo, 2007. TV movie with Ian Somerhalder and Brian Dennehy.

- In the Footsteps of Marco Polo, 2009. PBS documentary in which they follow the path that Marco Polo traveled from Europe to Asia and his return by sea.

- Marco Polo, 2014 - 2016. John Fusco's original Netflix series portraying the years of the Venetian at the court of the Mongol emperor.

References

1. En.wikipedia.org. (2019). Marco Polo. Available at: en.wikipedia.org.
2. Peters, E. and Maraini, F. (2019). Marco Polo - Biography, Travels, & Influence. Encyclopedia Britannica. Available at: britannica.com.
3. The Reader's Digest Association (1965). Great Lives Great Deeds: A selection of memorable biographies from the Reader's Digest. "Migthy Traveler (Marco Polo)", by Donald Culross Peattie. Internet Archive. Available at: archive.org.
4. History.com Editors (2012). Marco Polo. HISTORY. Available at: history.com.
5. HIDALGO, M. (2017). A merchant from Venice. THE WORLD. Available at: elmundo.es.