Transcript Marco Polo The Travels

Marco Polo
The Travels
Title: The Travels
Author: Marco Polo
Format: Paperback
Language: English
Pages: 384
Publisher: , 0
ISBN: 0140440577
Format: PDF / Kindle / ePub
Size: 8 MB
Download: allowed
Description
A sparkling new translation of one of the greatest travel books ever written: Marco Polo's
seminal account of his journeys in the east, in a collectible clothbound edition. Marco Polo was
the most famous traveller of his time. His voyages began in 1271 with a visit to China, after
which he served the Kublai Khan on numerous diplomatic missions. On his return to the West
he was made a prisoner of war and met Rustichello of Pisa, with whom he collaborated on this
book. His account of his travels offers a fascinating glimpse of what he encountered abroad:
unfamiliar religions, customs and societies; the spices and silks of the East; the precious gems,
exotic vegetation and wild beasts of faraway lands. Evoking a remote and long-vanished world
with colour and immediacy, Marco's book revolutionized western ideas about the then unknown
East and is still one of the greatest travel accounts of all time. For this edition - the first
completely new English translation of the Travels in over fifty years - Nigel Cliff has gone back
to the original manuscript sources to produce a fresh, authoritative new version. The volume
also contains invaluable editorial materials, including an introduction describing the world as it
stood on the eve of Polo's departure, and examining the fantastical notions the West had
developed of the East. Marco Polo was born in 1254, joining his father on a journey to China in
1271. He spent the next twenty years travelling in the service of Kublai Khan. There is evidence
that Marco travelled extensively in the Mongol Empire and it is fairly certain he visited India. He
wrote his famous Travels whilst a prisoner in Genoa. Nigel Cliff was previously a theatre and
film critic for The Times and a regular writer for The Economist, among other publications, and
now writes historical nonfiction books. His first book, The Shakespeare Riots, was published in
2007 and shortlisted for the Washington-based National Award for Arts Writing. His second
book, The Last Crusade: Vasco da Gama and the Birth of the Modern World appeared in 2011
and was shortlisted for the PEN Hessell-Tiltman Prize.
Insightful reviews
Procyon Lotor: Educazione veneziana Libro di viaggi, d'avventure, di storia, geografia, tecnica,
economia e sociologia. Collezione d'aneddoti e romanzo di formazione pure, non scordiamo
che Marco Polo part giovinetto e torn uomo. Ricostruito da filologi d'erudizione sconfinata e
poi (questa edizione) ritradotto in un italiano "anticato" dall'ottima Bellonci. Sono brevi scritti,
taluni vere e proprie schede geopolitiche, Polo spessissimo cita la citt (sempre nobilissima e
bellissima, un vero PR, salvo poi nei dettagli fornire gli elementi per giudicare che era in realt
un posto popolato da pezzenti fetenti bastardi, di che vivono, cosa hanno, cosa no, in che
credono, se in merito a ci in cui credono ci s'intende o se prevalgono gli spaccaballe, costumi
sessuali, funerari ed educativi, eccetera. Qualche mito, ma in dosi pediatriche. Pi storie,
anch'esse sovente ripetitive di battaglie o di imprese del Gran Kane. Purtroppo la ripetitivit che
Polo percorre non tanto data da ottusit sua, ma dal fatto - obiettivo - che le cose serie cui
guardare sono pochine e, nelle radici, parte del mondo si somiglia. In ogni caso procedere a
schede esalta le differenze importanti perch spesso utilissime. Molto pi onesto delle moderne
guide turistiche, dove millemila spiaggialbergo identiche vengono magnificate come luoghi di
proteiforme bellezza peraltro. Manca l'arte, da mercante sempre confusa coll'artigianato, e la
filosofia speculativa o le idee, da mercante sempre riportate solo se cagione di fatti, e ne riporta
moltissime. Pochissima autoanalisi, memento per uno stile in voga di taluni libri di viaggio e non
solo, che riportano una quantit abnorme d'impressioni ta lesionare terribilmente il nostro
desiderio di proseguire. Il fatto obiettivo che dove militari, ambasciatori, predicatori e missionari
fallirono un mercante veneziano riusc, e pure i suoi parenti - indice che non fu un caso - pu
dare qualche utile indicazione che ieri come oggi, la gabola dell'equivalenza delle culture era
per l'appunto una puttanata, come le teste appese a seccare al sole dei deserti dell'asia
centrale d'alcuni che vi credettero, o che credettero alla superiorit della propria, testimoniano
ora ed allora. I principali aspetti della cultura cinese (e tartara) sono gi ben rilevati. Che vi
siano tutt'ora giornalisti o politici che giudicano l'Oriente coi criteri buoni per Roccasecca o
Montecotrone Scalo desta viepp meraviglia. E io pago. Colonna sonora: Thievery Corporation
- Culture of Fear.
P.J. Wetzel: Fascinating eyewitness look into the world of the late 1200's. Admittedly it was told
with some Western bias and some Christian bias (He lumps Buddhists, Hindus, Confucians,
etc., together, simply declaring them 'idol-worshipers'). His strongest bias was toward his host
and employer in China, 'The Grand Khan', who ruled China by the sword and employed
foreigners to keep order because he could not trust the natives. Marco describes the marvels of
the Chinese civilization, but is not always appreciative of the richness of its culture. In some
way's that is part of the book's charm.
The majority of the book is a description of places he visited, but occasionally he gets into depth
regarding people stories and in a few cases he touches on local folklore. That is where the book
gets most fascinating. Sadly, this is not a biographical work. Polo kept himself largely out of his
narrative, preferring to play the role of observer and objective reporter.
What I liked most about The Travels is the language of this venerable William Marsden
translation, which was completed in 1818. It captures a sense of antiquity that is probably as
much due to the time the translation was made as to the original Old French 'heavily flavored
with Italian' in which the book was written by Marco's prison mate Rustichello da Pisa while the
two of them were together in a prison in Genoa.
Robyn Groth: 3.5 There were great, boring parts between the marvelous or horrifying parts - city
after city where we learn its name, the religion, the basic food (flesh, rice and milk plus a liquor
made from rice and spices - or something along those lines), whether or not they pay tribute to
anyone and to whom, what they use for money. It was kind of like The Bible - here and there
some really neat stories that make you glad you suffered through the blah, blah, blah.
Adding in some maps - DUH - would make this more valuable, with a simple note at the front of
the book explaining that the maps have been added.
Tragic that nobody believed him (or probably somebody believed him - whatever) and they
made his name and image into a circus clown that sat around telling silly, exaggerated stories.
Loved the footnotes that assured modern readers that this or that fantastic statement is true or
sometimes explained how we now understand this or that phenomenon. Though people today
wouldn't question the veracity of his description of coconuts or paper money, there are still
some pretty incredible tales in here.
Meg: Come non appassionarsi allo straordinario racconto di Marco Polo, del suo viaggio e di
tutte le stranezze che incontra? Come non desiderare di aver visto con i propri occhi le
meraviglie del palazzo di Ciandu, o il ponte di marmo sul fiume Pulisanghin?Ecco, se non lo
avete mai fatto, vi consiglio di leggere il "Milione" e di lasciarvi trasportare sulle ali della fantasia
(o sulla groppa di un destriero dei Tartari, come vi pare).
Susan: It took me ceaselessly to complete this. an important ebook of proof with out flesh. It
used to be like interpreting a phonebook -- dry, repetitive, missing intensity and short of a very
good editor. and each so often, you would encounter strange statements like this:"But, now that
we have got launched into this topic, now we have had moment strategies approximately
surroundings it down in writing; for finally it's very renowned to many people. So allow us to drop
the topic and begin on one other one…"It used to be very unusual to me how any traveller to
those attention-grabbing locations can make them look so dull.
Nate: Well, there's debate over even if Marco Polo ever went to what's referred to now as
China. a few say he bridged jointly items of stories from different tourists whom have been to faroff lands. we are going to by no means be aware of for sure. This travelogue continues to be
just a little interesting. i will be able to see why it would've been extra so in the course of its time.
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