The Travels of Marco Polo

This thirteenth-century travel book, taken down in Genoa after Polo's return, records the overland journey of the Venetian merchants Niccolo and Maffeo Polo and Niccolo's son Marco to the Mongol court. Marco serves Kublai Khan and reports on China under Mongol rule: cities, canals, salt and silk revenues, religions, and court ceremony. Chapters also treat neighbouring kingdoms, a rumoured island of Cipangu, and the sea voyage home through South-East Asia and India. The voice mixes merchant notice, imperial gazetteer, and wonder tale. It is a late medieval description of Asia as seen from the Khan's service, not a later explorer's journal.

Quarter bound in black cloth, wood-veneer boards. Maroon coloured page tops. Map endpapers. Dark red slipcase.