Product Description
When, in 1271, Marco Polo set off with his father to travel to Cathay, the age of the great explorers had begun. In the ensuing three centuries, much of the world was explored for the first time. Within a century, men had sailed to the mystical east and sailed across the Atlantic. All this in search of new lands, treasure, spices and tradable commodities. These men brought back new animals, plants and tales of sea serpents, lands of plenty and strange natives. The most important things the first explorers brought back were spices—strange powders, leaves and nuts imbued with mystical powers. They had been traded along the silk road for centuries, each time being sold on for vast amounts of money. There were still islands to be found (including Australia) but the world as we know it today had pretty much been mapped. ... Read more

Product Description
Nel 1298 si trovarono nelle carceri di Genova un mercante veneziano, catturato dai Genovesi nella battaglia di Curzola, che aveva alle spalle lunghi anni di viaggi e soggiorni in Oriente compiuti insieme al padre, e Rustichello da Pisa, un mediocre letterato compilatore di storie cavalleresche in lingua francese. L'incontro fu l'occasione perché Marco raccontasse al compagno di prigionia le sue avventure di viaggio e Rustichello fermasse queste storie sulla carta in lingua francese. Nacque così il Milione, titolo che risulta dall'aferesi di Emilione, soprannome distintivo con cui era nota la famiglia di Marco Polo a Venezia. Al centro della narrazione gli incarichi svolti da Marco in Cina per conto del Gran Khan. L'opera costituisce una ricchissima rassegna dei lontani luoghi dell'Oriente, degli usi e dei costumi di popolazioni di cui l'Europa aveva avuto fino ad allora solo cognizioni favolose. Il testo qui riportato è quello del volgarizzamento toscano del Trecento, basato sul ms. IV, II, 136 della Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Firenze. ... Read more

Product Description
Kubla Khan, emperior of China, has decided that Princess Kokachin is to be the new wife of the Khan of Persia. Her escort on the long journey is to be none other than the great Venetian traveller, Marco Polo. In her diary, Kokachin describes the journey to Zaiton and her perilous sea voyage, beset by storms, disease and pirate attacks. But when eventually she arrives at Hormuz, surprising news awaits her... ... Read more

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FOR USE IN SCHOOLS AND LIBRARIES ONLY. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Graphic Marco Polo
This is a good book about Marco Polo in a graphic format.The graphic format allows my ESOL students to read English at an easy level while learning history.Since many of my students are Chinese, they love Marco Polo and anything else I can provide them about China.I can learn some Chinese from them, and they learn in English.

Fact or fiction?
This book is a good place to start for the young student who is assigned to write a report about Marco Polo. As part of the outstanding Capstone's Graphic History set, the story line jumps to life. The result is a fast-paced, short concise introduction to an interesting controversial(did he exist?)historical figure who explored China. The four chapters present the basics about Marco Polo and the student is guided to research further through suggested internet sites via facthound.com and books like The Life and Times of Marco Polo (Biography from Ancient Civilizations). Through this book the student will be introduced to Kublai Khan and distant China. An interesting explanation of the fantastic creatues Polo saw is presented; the author clarifies how, for example, Polo's descriptions( using primary sources) of unicorns were actually rhinoceroses. One of the shortcomings of this book is that there is not enough emphasis on Chineese culture but rather a shallow view of this great empire is presented. Otherwise it is a good book for the young reader of middle school age. Reluctant readers will find the graphic novel approach entertaining and reading will not be so "boring." Recommended for middle school and community libraries. ... Read more

Product Description
Marco Polo's book "The Description of the World" is one of the classics of medieval literature, describing his epic journey to China and subsequent return to Italy. He has become a cultural icon bridging East and West, his name known by adults and children alike. This is a piece of historical detective work, marking the 700th anniversary of Polo's journey, and questions whether the explorer ever reached the country he so vividly described. Why, within his romantic and detailed account, is there no mention of such fundamental aspects of Chinese life as tea or foot-binding, or even the Great Wall? Did Polo really bring noodles and ice-cream back to Italy? And why is there no record of the Polo family in China itself? ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

You have to admit. . .
Any book that stirs up the kind of response this one has is worth reading. When an author/historian challenges any history that is such an integral part of our catechism s/he's going to get a reaction. Did Marco Polo Go to China? I don't know but it sure is intriguing to go back in time and try to figure it out.

Did Marco Polo go to China? A matter of perspective
As with any book of historical perspective, the reader should take into account the historian's viewpoint, but also what is not said. Indeed history is interpreted through it's interpreters, historians, through facts that they believe to be accurate. There are, however, other viewpoints or perspectives that can be as well supported through facts.
"Did Marco Polo Go to China?" piques the issue and raises some considerable debatable questions on whether one of history's greatests myths is indeed fact and to what level cultural diffusion took place between the east and west during that specific time period.
Please read this book with objectivity and do not consider it to be the answer, as the answer should be found after reading all different viewpoints through a self-exploration process.

Something to think about
Frances Wood provides a semi-revisionist view on the travels of Messer Marco Polo.Wood offers a number of contentions (chopsticks, the Great Wall, cormorant fishing, Chinese writing, paper, tea, foot binding, not being mentioned in Mongolian and Chinese historical records, not learning Chinese, and the who invented ice cream/spaghetti debate) that make it seem highly unlikely that Polo actually went as far east as China.I will list each of Woods main arguments and then offer my own explanation.

Chopsticks:this is a good argument, however, there are many people in Central Asia that use chopsticks.In the Xinjiang Autonomous Region of China for example, most if not all Uighurs use chopsticks when eating noodles and dumplings.Perhaps Polo would have been surprised to see people in Central Asia using chopsticks at first, but by the time he traveled all the way eastward to China he had become accustomed to seeing the use of chopsticks and so this was not such an exciting thing. And what about the Middle East where people eat with their right hand and wipe with their left?Why is'nt this mentioned by Polo?

The Great Wall:another decent argument.However, there is absolutely no way to verify the exact route Polo took and so how can we discern if he ever had the chance to actually see the wall or not? Many travelers have tried to trace his route but none have succeeded. Wood describes the Wall as being made of yellow sand and mud.If you have ever been to China, you will see how well the old original parts of the wall blends in with the countryside.Only now can we really make out the wall with all of its brick renovations/restorations.It would be like someone coming to visit New York City and seeing the Empire State Building.Impressive?Yes.But would that person be so excited about it that they would write about it?Probably not.

Comorant fishing:It's not like all of China fishes with cormorant birds.This is a very specialized brand of fishing in a very small portion of China.It's very possible that Polo never even had a chance to visit this area.

Chinese writing : Woods argues that Polo never mentions anything about Chinese writing/caligraphy. But if Polo was a sycophant of Kublai Khan and Mongolia being the dominant country at the time, there would be no reason for Polo to learn Chinese.But surely he must have learned some Chinese but he just did'nt mention it. Besides, Mongol script is very similar to Arabic script and so again, this would not be anything new to Polo having traveled throughout Persia and the Middle East.

Paper:what is so exciting about paper when the great Khan gives you a golden tablet for unmolested travel back to Venice?

tea:tea was available everywhere in the Middle East and India.Why would this be a revelation?

Foot binding: most Chinese women who had their feet bound were of the upper class.Supposedly done to make women look more sexy, it was in reality more or less a sinister way of not allowing women freedom and the opportunity to cheat on their husbands.If a woman was unhappy in her marriage, there was absolutely no way for her to "walk out" so to speak.Most foot bound women stayed at home inside so Polo may not have had much opportunity to see this practice.

Not being mentioned in historical records:Polo probably exaggerated greatly his importance within the Imperial Court.He was also not the the first European to visit Mongolia/China.And even if he was a high official, was it not more the responsibility of the Mongols to document this as opposed to China as Mongolia was the ruling country?

Who invented Ice Cream and Spaghetti, Italy or China?:I think it is pretty obvious that these two foods originated in Central Asia, if not the Middle East.Woods admits this herself. Having been to Central Asia, it seems to me highly likely or quite possible that these could have originated in West/Central Asia. Dumplings are a regular staple of many within Central Asia.

After 17 years in a foreign land, it would have been very difficult to remember every single thing that Polo saw.Polo himself said that he had not told the half of what he saw.

All in all, this is an excellent book worth reading.Wood says that this is not the ultimate answer or authority on whether Polo actually visited China, but a book to read so that people can think more analytically and critically about Marco Polo.

A very readable book with a number of passages that describe the power and ferocity of the Mongols:"like the reprisal against Burma (1277) when the Muslim general of the Mongol army Nasir al-Din, aware that he was outnumbered , ordered his archers to fire on the two thousand Burmese war elephants, covering them with arrows and causing a frenzied stampede."

A book well worth reading but buy it used!

Worth reading -- but in balance
Marco Polo, whose very name is a byword for travel and adventure, is worth reconsidering;but the case Frances Wood builds against him is primarily negative:Polo didn't mention the Great Wall, or cormorant fishing, orbinding women's feet.All these matters are more than adequately answeredin John Larner's MARCO POLO AND THE DISCOVERY OF THE WORLD, a book Irecommend for balance.The thesis of Marco Polo not going to China iscompelling, and Wood's style is fast-paced and keeps at a high level.Butshe seems to rebut her own argument in some places -- for instance, evenmentioning a name close to "Polo" where Marco was said to havebeen, but dismissing it just as quickly by saying it couldn't have been him(the answer comes in a later chapter, but by the time you reach it, theauthor has made the argument look specious).

Marco Polo may indeedhave exaggerated his own importance.Instead of being ruler of a province,being a major player in the salt business, on the face of it, was probablymore likely his position.But Marco was a businessman brought up in amercantile family.Unlike the author's idea, a seventeen year old in thethirteenth century was not considered a "boy" -- in fact, he wascoming up on half his life expectancy.Even if the "great wall"of that day was the wall we see today (it wasn't, the impressive brickfacade came later), we can hardly expect boyish wonder.

Without positiveevidence, Frances Wood runs across the problem of those who believeShakespeare didn't write his plays, or that he didn't exist.They can onlyargue from negative evidence, and a negative can't be proven.It cannot beproven that, because the Khan of Khans didn't mention a Venetian traveller,that the traveller who says he was there was lying -- although it can maysuggest that he wasn't as important in the Khan's court as he intimates.

This book is only for those who wish to find out all aspects of the Poloproblem.It's not recommended for the general reader, especially one whojust wants to see famous people debunked.Debunking western Europeanfigures is a cottage industry at the turn of the twenty-first century, butin the case the evidence is very thin for the revisionists.

For someonewho wants a good, solid, general overview of Polo and his mystique, checkthe John Larner book.

I disagree with the author
About Frances Wood's Did Marco Polo Go To China?

In 1995 Dr Frances Wood published a book titled Did Marco Polo Go To China?, which became Marco Polo Did Not Go To China in the German version.This book, purporting tounmask Marco Polo as a fraud, has enjoyed considerable attention - which itfully merited as an entertaining piece of light reading.Unfortunately,Wood's argument appears to have been taken at face value in some academiccircles, so much so that a word of warning now seems appropriate: Wood'sstory is neither original, nor is it scholarly. The gist of Wood's argumenthas been commonplace through the ages and, especially, in the 19th century. In its present form it was suggested in a lighthearted way some years agoby the eminent German sinologist Herbert Franke who now categoricallyrejects Wood's thesis.As for the scholarship of Wood's book, it isimpugned on a series of counts, notably in an exhaustive study published in1997 by Igor de Rachewiltz of the Australian National University whereinWood's arguments are discussed one by one, not infrequently on the basis ofdocuments that the author overlooked, or even deliberately ignored asinimical to her story. One case in point shall suffice here to crippleWood's thesis.It concerns the accounts in a 15th century Chineseencyclopaedia (publ. in 1941 by Yang Chih-chiu) and in the Persianhistorian Rashid al-Din's Collection of Histories (discussed by F.W.Cleaves in 1976) of the 1291-3 naval expedition conveying the Mongolprincess Kokecin from China to Persia - of which Marco Polo bears detailedwitness as a participant. It really should be incumbent on authors in DrWood's position, as a matter of intellectual correctness, clearly to signalthe distinction between historical fancy and the reporting of seriousresearch. Canberra, Australia ... Read more

Product Description
A biography of the thirteenth-century Venetian explorer whose book about his travels across Asia and work for Kubla Khan helped to launch the Age of Exploration. ... Read more

Product Description
Recounts the adventures of the Italian merchant during his travels to China, based on Marco Polo's own accounts. ... Read more

Product Description
One of several volumes of classic literature reprinted by "The Folio Society". All of these publications are beautiful hardcover books, protected in a sleeve/slip case. This one has a red sleeve, and the book covers feature red cloth over hardboard covers, with black & gold metallic trim. This is the highly regarded translation of Marco Polo's stories of his travels & exploration around the world. ... Read more

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Recounts the adventures of the thirteenth-century Venetian merchant who travelled in Asia and lived at the court of Kublai Khan. ... Read more

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Brazilian Poetry. Bilingual Edition.
To touch the myth, poetry was lit. Mythopoeia. The essence that penetrates the flesh in absolute silence, ghosts crossing the words, a haunted cloud. Always the surprise, the deepest wound: delirious, passion. Symbol, the pure trip into the invisible. Thereza Christina restarts the traveling myth, Ulysses or Marco Polo; and the eternal love: Penelope or the Blue Princess. Floating energy into a misty dream.
PaperbackEdition: Ibis Libris, Rio de Janeiro, 2008

Poesia brasileira. Edição bilíngue
Para se tocar o mito acendeu-se poesia. Mitopoiésis. Thereza Christina enfrenta a vertigem do mito, acende beleza, oceanos de ouro. Sopra, minuciosa, o fogo mitopoético. O mito: estar a um relâmpago do destino, a um abismo do caos, a uma imagem do irrevelado, a uma estrela do divino.
Edição em papel: Ibis Libris, Rio de Janeiro, 2008 ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Felicidade sem margens
Jornal Rascunho - Março 2009
FELICIDADE SEM MARGENS
Igor Fagundes

À semelhança de quem, repleto de esperas e espantos, parte em viagem (e, encarnados nas águas do livro, decerto - com ele - partimos), acariciamos nosso coração-marinheiro na proa de uma pergunta: "Seremos felizes aonde nos leva?". Fundamental no singrar de qualquer humanidade, tal questão, navegante das palavras que agora transbordamos, nos leva ao horizonte do mais recente poemário bilíngüe (português-inglês) de Thereza Christina Rocque da Motta, Marco Polo & A Princesa Azul. "Entre ilhas nebulosas, mares cheios de peixes, sob tormentas e sol a pino", aqui fazemos eco a "paisagens [que] se mostrem por inteiro" e, nesse sentido, ressoamos logo no princípio - e como princípio de todo o nosso soar - a hesitação paradoxalmente afirmativa da princesa poetizada, "linda como o céu", na medida em que de sua voz nos apropriamos quando, adaptando-a à primeira pessoa do plural, repetimos o verso: "Seremos felizes aonde nos leva?"

Aonde nos leva Marco Polo: a um mundo plural em que toda pessoa a seu lado é primeira e, por esse motivo, se faz título dos poemas inscritos no primeiro bloco da obra: "A odalisca", "A cortesã", "A imperatriz", "A mulher de Ormuz", "A esposa", "A filha" e, claro, "A princesa azul", que, por sua vez, batiza também a segunda e última série do livro-saga. Destarte, note-se, não por acaso, que essas personagens evocadas pela pena de Thereza Christina Motta são femininas e, na qualidade de interlocutoras de Marco Polo, com direito à palavra e a tomar partido no discurso poético, passam de coadjuvantes a protagonistas de algum passageiro-eterno momento do viajante. A leitura da orelha nos serve de âncora: a poeta revela que, por três anos, se dedicou a descobrir e celebrar as mulheres que Marco Polo conheceu: "Quantas mulheres são necessárias para se fazer um grande homem?". Eis mais uma pergunta inquieta a acompanhar-nos na bagagem, junto àquela que, ainda nos mirando, não cansamos de contemplar: "Seremos felizes aonde nos leva?"

Aonde nos levam as mulheres de Marco Polo e/ou de Thereza Christina Motta (não importa, se também delas já somos, por elas abduzidos no transe da leitura): à felicidade de uma "vida nova e inesperada a se descortinar, além"; de uma história nova na qual o feminino receba o peso que merece, e mais ainda a leveza que lhe cabe, sem subjugar-se a uma viciosa invisibilidade concedida e consentida pelas versões oficiais do branco, europeu, masculino. Conforme esclarece a autora, "nas biografias elas não existem, ou se conhecemos seus nomes, desconhecemos o quanto sofreram ou choraram por eles [pelos homens históricos], e muito menos o que disseram". Espraiando-se em uma Thereza que também é Christina, muitas mulheres em uma cantam o homem que valeu por muitos. Com uma espécie de contundência delicada, esta escrita também nos designa porque, nascendo mítica, se nos empresta para que reencontremos o sentido mágico e, por isso mesmo, verdadeiro da nossa humana jornada. Nadamos a vertigem.

Se não caminhamos sozinhos, se caminhar é conviver, abrir-se ao outro, no estabelecimento dos elos que nos libertam para a vida, "serpenteando a terra, à procura de seu destino", então afirmamos: somos felizes aonde Marco Polo e a Princesa Azul nos levam. Somos felizes porque somos levados e não apenas levamos. Porque não somos apenas sujeitos de, mas sujeitos aos espaços, temporalidades e personas "por onde já nos perdemos".

Perdemo-nos no livro de Thereza Christina Motta para encontrá-lo por sob os marcos e entre os polos de cada um de seus encontros: estará conosco mesmo depois de partirmos. Deixamo-nos ouvir aquilo que ele não escreveu nem escreve para nomearmos Mar em Silêncio esse infinito calar no hiato dos barulhos da onda. Reparemos: os poemas, em sua precisa contenção e, simultaneamente, em seu sutil vazar de imprecisas paragens, são barcos na amplitude branca do oceano-página. A autora dá luz à ribalta desse cenário. Ela valoriza o que, na folha, segue mudo, porque, imenso, o mundo que convoca. No primeiro bloco, aquosamente dramatúrgico, performático, o verbo. No segundo, distendido em prosa, quase aforismático. Em ambos os casos, sobressai o que, do barco, não se vê, mas se imagina ou se penetra quando dele saltamos: conchas e corais, pedras e polvos, algas e ostras, aprendizagem de abismos. Abandona-se a palavra em determinado ponto (no ponto que nunca é, de fato, final), para alcançarmos o que carece de fundo - o sagrado que nunca se desvela, somente se re-vela e, como véu, veste o amor que parece, em síntese, ser o personagem central dessas léguas e léguas por onde seguimos, graças à poiesis, felizes.

Igor Fagundes é poeta, doutorando e mestre em Poética pela UFRJ, professor de Teoria Literária na mesma universidade, colaborador do Jornal Rascunho e da Academia Brasileira de Letras.

Marco Polo & a Princesa Azul / Marco Polo & The Blue Princess, de Thereza Christina Rocque da Motta (Rio de Janeiro: Ibis Libris, 2008; tradução da autora; edição bilíngue).

É curioso notar como a vida de Marco Polo - sobretudo suas experiências amorosas - vem instigando prosadores e poetas. Recentemente, comentamos aqui o livro A vida amorosa de Marco Polo, de Natalício Barroso, em que o escritor cearense cria narrativas baseadas nos relatos do viajante veneziano. Agora, Thereza Christina Rocque da Motta cria poemas sobre Marco Polo e sua relação com a princesa Kokejin, a "Princesa Azul", jovem mongol de 17 anos que teve de levar à Pérsia para se casar. O livro é dividido em duas partes: na primeira, toda em versos, temos a viagem de Marco Polo, o conhecimento que fez de diversas mulheres, até conhecer o amor pela princesa enquanto a levava a seu destino; na segunda, em pequenos poemas em prosa, é a própria princesa que fala, e aos poucos corresponde (e aceita) o sentimento de Marco Polo a seu respeito. Em poemas curtos, porém bastante expressivos, onde se mesclam desejo, melancolia, amor e paixão, homem e mulher externam e expõem o que sentem um pelo outro, mesmo sabendo que esse amor não terá futuro, como diz a princesa ("poema 15"): "Nada posso ser para ti". O livro é uma pequena joia literária, igualmente valorizado pela excelente tradução para o inglês, idioma que a autora conhece e pratica soberbamente - haja vista suas notáveis traduções dos sonetos de Shakespeare. É ler e deslumbrar-se. Parabéns.

Fernando Py, Coluna "Literatura", Tribuna de Petrópolis, 10/07/2009, caderno "Lazer", p. 5 ... Read more

Product Description
Returned from twenty years of travelling in China, Marco Polo now languishes in a Genoan prison cell. But his fellow inmate, Rustichello of Pisa, turns out to be an author of popular romances and persuades Polo to dictate his memoirs to him. The scribe listens, ignores, alters and embellishes. The consequent ironies, uncertainties, slippages between fact and fiction are the very stuff of the post-modern writer. On first publication in 1989, it was widely praised.'The narrative loops are as graceful as any Arabian calligraphy ... Paul Griffiths writes superbly.' Hilary Mantel, Daily Telegraph'A thoroughly modern piece of fiction which queries the nature of authorship, readership and truth itself ... Marco's doubtful account of himself rapidly falters and falls victim to ambiguity, paradox, self-reference, wilful anachronism and parody.' Robert Irwin, TLS ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A prizewinning debut novel by a well known music writer
It is no wonder that this witty, Borges-ian first novel won a prestigious Australian book prize. Griffiths' clear and approachable style is superbly suited to such a thought provoking work, but he never seems to talk down to the reader as he discusses weighty subject matter in a lighthearted manner. I really enjoyed reading this; I preferred it to his second novel, The Lay of Sir Tristan, which was less open in spirit, but I would certainly buy any other works by the same author, and his column in the New York Times always has an interesting perspective on the classical music scene. ... Read more

Product Description
travels of marco polo printed in date narrative form. ... Read more