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First published in 1931. None of the manuscripts which have come down to us represent the original form of Marco Polo's narrative, but it is clear that certain texts are closer to the lost original than others. Entrusted with the task of preparing a new Italian edition of Marco Polo, Benedetto discovered many unknown manuscripts. He carefully edited the most famous of the manuscripts (the Geographic text) and collated it with the other best known ones. · An invaluable index has been added to Aldo Ricci's of Benedetto's text, which includes all the identifications made in the Geographic tex… (more)
bookwoman247: Both men traveled extensively in Medeival times. It's interesting to compare the two; one from a Western perspective, and one from a Middle
Eastern /North African perspective.
I guess the biggest surprise of this book is that it's not really a narrative. It's more a description of the world as seen by Marco Polo. This makes it dull in places, and I almost feel I can repeat verbatim the opening to many chapters. "The people here are idolaters. They are subject to the Grand Khan, whose paper money is current between them."
Marco rarely gets into his personal experiences. He doesn't talk about his feelings on seeing these fantastic places, or his difficulties, or even really of the people he meets. Sometimes he gets into some interesting cultural observations, mostly to do with marriage or sexual habits, but otherwise it's pretty dry.
Apparently he was charged with escorting a Mongol princess for part of his journey, and at one point he lost his fortune! At another he governed a town. But he mentions nothing of the first two points and only briefly references the third. I want to hear about the princess! Not 8 different cities, all populated by idolators who use paper money. Of course, if you were a medieval traveller, this information would be much more useful than any story about a princess, and I think therein lies the problem of this book for modern audiences. It's not written for us. It's not written for curiosity or entertainment or historic value, it's a description of the world as it was at the time, written for a medieval audience. ( )
Have attempted to listen to this audio (downloaded from audible.co.uk) several but so far have had difficulty getting very far into it.[return][return]The narrator is distant and badly recorded - it sounds like he's recorded it down a phone line. The most animation in his voice comes when he stumbles over words he seems not to know but should have practised before recording. Italian in particular seems to be his sticking point - definately an issue when recording a narration of an Italian travelling to the far east! Otherwise his voice is flat and uninteresting - there is narely a breath or change in tone when announcing the chapter changes that happen on a regular basis and that could, nay should, be pulling the listener back to the recording. Instead, it becomes a background noise that is easily tuned out, and therefore missing the possibly fantastical story ( )
Mui interessante olhar para o mundo desde a perspectiva daquela época. Ler um material em primeira mão fornece uma percepção mais acurada da realidade à época. ( )
A biography of the Venetian traveler whose trips throughout Asia and China gave the European world its first knowledge of the Far East. This is the companion volume for Contemporaries of Marco Polo by the same publisher.
The Venetian Marco Polo is not only the most renowned traveler in world history, but he and his book have generated more speculation then almost any other person or volume in world literature.
First published in 1931. None of the manuscripts which have come down to us represent the original form of Marco Polo's narrative, but it is clear that certain texts are closer to the lost original than others. Entrusted with the task of preparing a new Italian edition of Marco Polo, Benedetto discovered many unknown manuscripts. He carefully edited the most famous of the manuscripts (the Geographic text) and collated it with the other best known ones. · An invaluable index has been added to Aldo Ricci's of Benedetto's text, which includes all the identifications made in the Geographic tex
Marco rarely gets into his personal experiences. He doesn't talk about his feelings on seeing these fantastic places, or his difficulties, or even really of the people he meets. Sometimes he gets into some interesting cultural observations, mostly to do with marriage or sexual habits, but otherwise it's pretty dry.
Apparently he was charged with escorting a Mongol princess for part of his journey, and at one point he lost his fortune! At another he governed a town. But he mentions nothing of the first two points and only briefly references the third. I want to hear about the princess! Not 8 different cities, all populated by idolators who use paper money. Of course, if you were a medieval traveller, this information would be much more useful than any story about a princess, and I think therein lies the problem of this book for modern audiences. It's not written for us. It's not written for curiosity or entertainment or historic value, it's a description of the world as it was at the time, written for a medieval audience. ( )