Marco Polo

Marco Polo, a prominent European traveler to China in the thirteenth century, went to China as a young man with his father and uncle to see Emperor Kublai Khan. He spent a considerable amount of time in China working for Kublai Khan, who was so impressed by Polo that he appointed him as the ruler of one of his metropolitan centers.

Under the Chinese leader, he had various high-ranking positions, some of which included acting as his agent, representative, and legislative leader of one of his provinces. He had collected enormous riches, diamonds, and fortunes by the time he returned after 24 years and brought to Venice fascinating tales of Chinese culture.

The Travels of Marco Polo, written by Rustichello da Pisa, is a detailed account of all his travels and meetings with Emperor Kublai Khan in China. He gained notoriety in Venice following the publication of this book, inspiring many people to travel, including Christopher Columbus. Since the early manuscripts of Marco Polo's book differ widely and the reconstruction of the original text is a question of textual criticism, there does not and cannot be an authoritative version of the book. There are reportedly 150 copies total, all in different languages. There are many discrepancies between the various copies since mistakes were regularly made during copying and translation before the printing press was available.