Marco Polo : son temps et ses voyages by Paul Vidal de La Blache
"Marco Polo" by Paul Vidal de La Blache is a historical account written in the late 19th century. The work surveys the life and travels of the Venetian explorer within the broader currents of 13th‑century Eurasian expansion, trade, and the Mongol Empire, assessing how his narratives were recorded, received, and verified. It blends biography with geopolitical context, from the Black Sea hubs to the courts of Mongol khans, to show why Marco
Polo’s testimony mattered. The opening of the book recounts Marco’s dramatic return to Venice with his father and uncle, their strange “Tartar” appearance, the famous banquet where they revealed hidden jewels, and the city’s dubbing him “Messer Milione.” It explains how his tales became a book when, after the naval defeat at Curzola, he was imprisoned in Genoa and dictated them to Rustichello of Pisa—initially in French—leading to swift diffusion, translations, and later amplifications. The narrative then widens to set the stage: Soldaia (Sudak) in Crimea as a key East–West entrepôt; the structure and reach of the Mongol Empire; and Europe’s curiosity, myths like Prester John, and early papal and royal embassies. A concise account of Guillaume de Rubrouck’s 1253–1255 journey follows—across the steppes to Batu on the Volga, on to Möngke near Karakorum—highlighting steppe life, religious toleration at the khan’s court, and encounters with European captives, including a Parisian goldsmith who crafted the famed silver “tree” fountain. The focus then turns to Nicolo and Maffeo Polo: their move from Constantinople to Soldaia, travels along the Volga and to Bolgar, their detour to Bokhara, and finally their audience with the new great khan, Kubilai, in Cambaluc (Beijing). Kubilai’s curiosity about the West, his request for learned Christian envoys skilled in the seven liberal arts, and his golden safe-conduct frame a bid for sustained contact. At the start of the second part, the narrative reaches Marco himself: the brothers return to Venice during a papal interregnum, Marco joins them as a teenager, they secure holy oil in Jerusalem per Kubilai’s wish, and—still awaiting a pope—set out again for the East, inaugurating the travels that will define the rest of the work. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
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About this eBook
| Author | Vidal de La Blache, Paul, 1845-1918 |
|---|---|
| Title | Marco Polo : son temps et ses voyages |
| Original Publication | Paris: Hachette, 1880. |
| Credits | Laurent Vogel, Robin Tremblay and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive) |
| Language | French |
| LoC Class | G: Geography, Anthropology, Recreation |
| Subject | Voyages and travels |
| Subject | Polo, Marco, 1254-1323? |
| Category | Text |
| EBook-No. | 78165 |
| Release Date | Mar 10, 2026 |
| Copyright Status | Public domain in the USA. |
| Downloads | 229 downloads in the last 30 days. |
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