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Introduction The Book Marco's World The Crusades The Mongols The Merchants of Venice The Travels Kublai Khan The Voyage Home Man of a Million Lies? Timeline Bibliography A Note on Religion A Note on the Texts Map of Marco's Journey Links |
Site created by Michael Crouch, © 2001. Introduction 
Imagine that you are a seventeen year old boy. Your mother died in
childbirth and you have never met your father - he left to trade in far
off countries before you were born. You have been brought up by
relatives to be trained and educated in the manner of most well-off
Venetian trading families. You have been taught to read and write,
while arithmetic and book-keeping are like second languages - in short,
you have been taught for a trading life. Now in your late teens, the
father and uncle you have never known are returning home. They have
journeyed further than any other man has been known to, to lands that
most people have never heard of. Whilst away, they had befriended one
of the most powerful men on earth. Now imagine all of this is happening to you nearly 800 hundred years ago. America and Australia are unknown of, while India and China are known only as mysterious, distant lands. In the east, religious wars have broken out intermittently for decades. From the north east, ruthless hordes of Mongol invaders have forged an empire that spans almost all of Asia, India, China, and the Middle East; the largest land empire that the world has ever known, then or now. It is a world, that you, a mere boy, are about to enter. Though you do not know it yet, you will not see your home again for over twenty-five years. And your name is Marco Polo. |