The Book of Marvels

When Marco Polo returned to Venice after two decades of traveling in the East, he signed up to join the war between Venice and Genoa. Incarcerated in a Genoese prison, he began talking to a fellow inmate, Rustichello da Pisa, known for writing romances. The result was Il Milione ("The Million"), also known in English as The Book of the Marvels of the World, or simply The Travels of Marco Polo. It offered details of his travels from 1271 to 1295 and his time at the court of Kublai Khan.

His fantastical stories about what he saw drew amazement and skepticism in equal measure. One theory of the title Il Milione is that it was considered to contain a million lies. Modern scholars are willing to accept that he is interpreting to the best of his ability what he truly saw (or was told) in his travels. We cannot be certain what may have been embellished by Rustichello, although it is clear that he re-used some passages from his previous works (mentioned here).

In 1302 it was translated into Latin as Iter Marci Pauli Veneti, "Travels of the Venetian Marco Polo," by Francesco Pipino, a Dominican archivist. He stood behind what was in the book (although he himself had not raveled widely, only going as far as Constantinople several years later). That Latin edition was popular for years; one edition was owned by Christopher Columbus, whose copy with his notes is shown in the illustration.

Recent research suggests that Pipino's translation was not just a pet project: he might have been given the assignment as an official project of the Dominicans. The Dominican Order wished (as did many orders) to convert all folk everywhere to Christianity, and Polo's writing gave them an itinerary.

Recent communications between the popes and the Mongols were not always friendly, but prior to Marco's trip Kublai Khan had requested of Marco's father and uncle that they carry a letter to the pope requesting missionaries to teach about Roman Christianity. This correspondence also gave fuel to the idea that the East was ready for missionary work. There was even talk of a Christian-Mongol alliance against the spread of Islam.

That alliance did not bear fruit, but trade between Europe and Asia was a welcome idea for everyone, and merchants like Marco's father and uncle made lucrative deals. In fact, the elder Polos are often neglected in stories about Marco and his travels, which makes them—Niccolò and Maffeo by name—excellent subjects for this blog. Let's talk about the men responsible for Marco Polo'd fame next time.

Marco and Kublai

Marco Polo was not the first European to visit China—far from it—but he was the first to write a detailed account of his time there. And he had lots of time and opportunity to travel there and get to know different ethnic groups, their customs, and the geography of the far eastern lands.

He wasn't even the first in his family to go to China. His merchant father and uncle had been to the court of Kublai Khan, and took Marco with them on a later trip. Marco was young, but Kublai was very impressed by his personality and his knowledge.

The intellectually curious Kublai was pre-disposed to be accepting of different religions and cultures. In fact, when Marco's father and uncle returned from their first trip to Kublai's court, they brought with them a letter from Kublai to the pope, requesting 100 missionaries and oil from the lamp of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem. (The three did bring oil as requested.)

Kublai Khan appointed Marco to be his foreign emissary, and sent him on trips all over China, as well as to (according to Marco's account) India and Indonesia, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, and Vietnam. In all, he spent 24 years traveling on behalf of Kublai Khan.

When he returned home to Venice, the city was at war with Genoa. Marco joined the fighting, and wound up imprisoned by the Genoese. While there he dictated his "Book of Marvels" to a fellow prisoner, Rustichello da Pisa, a professional romance author.

Rustichello took liberties, and in some places used the same descriptions and passages from his own writing to describe some of Marco's experiences. The description of Marco arriving at Kublai's court matches the description Rustichello used years earlier in an Arthurian romance in which Tristan comes to Arthur's court.

The book created a stir, and debates over its truthfulness. It had a popular supporter, however, in the Dominican Order. Tomorrow I'll explain more about the books's reception and the interest of the Dominicans.

Marco Polo's Co-author

Page from Chapter CXXIII

Everyone is familiar with the story of Marco Polo, who traveled to the Far East, had amazing adventures, and returned home to be put in prison in Genoa because of local wars. In prison, he wrote a book of his travels, telling of things that were marvels to Western Europe.

What most people don't know is that Polo was not in prison alone. A fellow inmate, Rustichello da Pisa, was an author, without whose help what we call The Travels of Marco Polo might never have come to be.

We know little of the 13th century Rustichello. He was a native of Pisa, and might have wound up in a Genoese prison after the 1284 Battle of Meloria. He would have been there a long time when Polo was imprisoned in 1298 after the Battle of Curzola.

Rustichello had previously written a romance, called alternately Compilatione ["The Compilation"] or Roman de Roi Artus ["The Romance of King Arthur"]. It was a French version of a work in the possession of King Edward I of England. Rustichello must have had access to it while Edward passed through Italy in the early 1270s on his way to the Eighth Crusade.

But what was his involvement in Marco Polo's tale? Was he simply the scribe? According to some who read the book and Rustichello's other writings:

Everyone who studies Marco Polo acknowledges that Rustichello’s fiction-writing techniques and habits show up in the book, but critics writing in English tend to stop with a very few observations that are repeated faithfully from one study to another. [source]

He is also likely the reason that the original version was written in French, the language of romance literature, rather than Italian or Latin. The original title was Divisament dou monde ["Description of the world"]; an Italian edition was also called Il Milione ["The Million"}, but we do not know if that was intended to denote a million new things, or a million lies.