The Travels of Marco Polo

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Rustichello da Pisa

Penguin Classics, New York, 1958; originally published in c.1300 in Old French, English

Nonfiction, General

7 x 4.3 inches, paperback, 384 pages

ISBN: 9780140440577

Suggested Retail Price: $15.00

From the Publisher. Marco Polo was the most famous traveller of his time. His voyages began in 1271 with a visit to China, after which he served the Kublai Khan on numerous diplomatic missions. On his return to the West he was made a prisoner of war and met Rustichello of Pisa, with whom he collaborated on this book. The accounts of his travels provide a fascinating glimpse of the different societies he encountered: their religions, customs, ceremonies and way of life; on the spices and silks of the East; on precious gems, exotic vegetation and wild beasts. He tells the story of the holy shoemaker, the wicked caliph and the three kings, among a great many others, evoking a remote and long-vanished world with color and immediacy.

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