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The Travels of Marco Polo — Volume 1

Chapter 2: Prefatory Material
By Marco Polo
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This work presents an extended travel narrative describing journeys across Asia and the Mongol realms, detailing routes, cities, courts, administrative systems, trade goods, and customs. It mixes firsthand reportage and compiled reports to catalog geography, commodities, religious practices, and local technologies, interspersed with anecdotes about diplomacy and commercial exchange. Chapters examine major urban centers, caravan routes, and natural products, offering measurements, observations on governance and ethnography, and practical notes for commerce and travel, blending vivid description with an encyclopedic accumulation of regional information.

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Title: The Travels of Marco Polo — Volume 1

Author: Marco Polo

da Pisa Rusticiano

Editor: Henri Cordier

Translator: Sir Henry Yule

Release date: January 1, 2004 [eBook #10636]
Most recently updated: June 11, 2025

Language: English

Credits: Charles Franks, Robert Connal, John Williams and PG Distributed Proofreaders, updated and HTML created by Robert Tonsing

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TRAVELS OF MARCO POLO — VOLUME 1 ***
T. B. Wirgman, del. et. sc.
Walker & Cockerell, ph. sc.

THE TRAVELS OF
MARCO POLO

THE COMPLETE
YULE-CORDIER EDITION
Including the unabridged third edition (1903) of
Henry Yule’s annotated translation, as revised
by Henri Cordier; together with Cordier’s later
volume of notes and addenda (1920)
IN TWO VOLUMES
Volume I
Containing the first volume of the 1903 edition

 

DEDICATION.

TO THE MEMORY OF
SIR RODERICK I. MURCHISON, BART., K.C.B., G.C.ST.A., G.C.ST.S.,
ETC.
THE PERFECT FRIEND
WHO FIRST BROUGHT HENRY YULE AND JOHN MURRAY TOGETHER
(HE ENTERED INTO REST, OCTOBER 22ND, 1871,)
AND TO THAT OF HIS MUCH LOVED NIECE,
HARRIET ISABELLA MURCHISON,
WIFE OF KENNETH ROBERT MURCHISON, D.L., J.P.,
(SHE ENTERED INTO REST, AUGUST 9TH, 1902,)
UNDER WHOSE EVER HOSPITABLE ROOF MANY OF THE PROOF
SHEETS OF THIS EDITION WERE READ BY ME,
I DEDICATE THESE VOLUMES FROM
THE OLD MURCHISON HOME,
IN THANKFUL REMEMBRANCE OF ALL I OWE TO
THE ABIDING AFFECTION, SYMPATHY, AND EXAMPLE OF BOTH.
AMY FRANCES YULE.
September 11th, 1902.
TARADALE,
ROSS-SHIRE,
SCOTLAND.
*      *      *      *
Ed è da noi sì strano,
Che quando ne ragiono
I’ non trovo nessuno,
Che l’abbia navicato,
*      *      *      *
Le parti del Levante,
Là dove sono tante
Gemme di gran valute
E di molta salute:
E sono in quello giro
Balsamo, e ambra, e tiro,
E lo pepe, e lo legno
Aloe, ch’è sì degno,
E spigo, e cardamomo,
Giengiovo, e cennamomo;
E altre molte spezie,
Ciascuna in sua spezie,
E migliore, e più fina,
E sana in medicina.
Appresso in questo loco
Mise in assetto loco
Li tigri, e li grifoni,
Leofanti, e leoni
Cammelli, e dragomene,
Badalischi, e gene,
E pantere, e castoro,
Le formiche dell’oro,
E tanti altri animali,
Ch’io non so ben dir quali,
Che son sì divisati,
E sì dissomigliati
Di corpo e di fazione,
Di sì fera ragione,
E di sì strana taglia,
Ch’io non credo san faglia,
Ch’alcun uomo vivente
Potesse veramente
Per lingua, o per scritture
Recitar le figure
Delle bestie, e gli uccelli....
—From Il Tesoretto di Ser Brunetto Latini (circa MDCCLX.).
(Florence, 1824, pp. 83 seqq.)
Ἂνδρα μοι ἔννεπε, Μοῦσα, πολύτροπον, ὃς μάλα πολλὰ
Πλάγχθη      .      .      .      .      .      .      .
Πολλῶν δ᾽ ἀνθρώπων ἴδεν ἄστεα καὶ νόον ἔγνω.
Odyssey, I.
————“I am become a name;
For always roaming with a hungry heart
Much have I seen and known; cities of men,
And manners, climates, councils, governments,
Myself not least, but honoured of them all.”
Tennyson.
“A seder ci ponemmo ivi ambodui
Vôlti a Levante, ond’eravam saliti;
Chè suole a riguardar giovare altrui.”
Dante, Purgatory, IV.
Messer Marco Polo, with Messer Nicolo and Messer Maffeo, returned from xxvi years’ sojourn in the Orient, is denied entrance to the Ca’ Polo. (See Int. p. 4)