Year: 2014
Type: article
Abstract: Since its publication in the 13th century, the Travels of Marco Polo has attracted a wide readership around the world.The transmission and translation of the original Rustichello-Marco text (either in French or Franco-Italian) resulted in 150 medieval manuscripts.Despite its popularity, not everyone believed Marco Polo's account.Many people throughout the Middle Ages viewed the book as a romance or fable, while in recent years some scholars have deemed the book to be fraudulent.At the time the book came out, the general verdict was that the contents seemed 'incredible'.As John Larner notes, 'the real difficulty for the Western reader was in believing in the revelation of a wholly new world of towns and cities'.(1)Marco Polo's description of the Far East met with such scepticism in large part because it differed so widely from the accounts of travellers in the first half of the century.Friars John of Pian Carpini and William of Rubruck portrayed the Mongols as 'barbarians' who seemed to be members of 'some other world', and this perception had taken root in Europe.Thus, it was difficult for Westerners to accept such a sharp contrast between the friars' accounts and Marco Polo's description of the East in the same century.
Source: Reviews in History
Author: Na Chang
Language: English
Topic: Eurasian Exchange Networks
Subfield: Anthropology
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W2323314136