Marco Polo
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the celebrated Venetian explorer Marco Polo. In 1271 Polo set off on an epic journey through Asia. He was away for more than twenty years, and when he returned to Venice he told extraordinary tales of his adventures. He had visited the court of the Mongol Emperor Kublai Khan, and acted as his emissary, travelling through many of the remote territories of the Far East. An account of Marco Polo’s travels was written down by his contemporary Rustichello da Pisa, a romance writer he met after being imprisoned during a war against the neighbouring Genoese.The Travels of Marco Polo was one of the most popular books produced in the age before printing. It was widely translated, and many beautifully illustrated editions made their way to the collections of the rich and educated. It was much read by later travellers, and Polo’s devotees included Christopher Columbus and Henry the Navigator. For centuries it was seen as the first and best account of life in the mysterious East; but today the accuracy and even truth of Marco Polo’s work is often disputed.
Guests
- Frances Wood
10 episodes
Lead Curator of Chinese Collections at the British Library -
Joan Pau Rubies No other episodes
Reader in International History at the London School of Economics and Political Science -
Debra Higgs Strickland No other episodes
Senior Lecturer in the History of Art at the University of Glasgow
Related episodes
-
The Ming Voyages
13 Oct, 2011 950 History of Asia -
Matteo Ricci and the Ming Dynasty
16 Apr, 2015 950 History of Asia -
Journey to the West
20 May, 2021 890 Other literatures -
Voyages of James Cook
3 Dec, 2015 900 History -
The Grand Tour
30 May, 2002 910 Geography and travel -
Don Quixote
16 Mar, 2006 800 Literature, rhetoric and criticism -
al-Biruni
10 Jun, 2010 900 History -
The Silk Road
3 Dec, 2009 950 History of Asia -
Strabo’s Geographica
10 Apr, 2014 910 Geography and travel -
Romance of the Three Kingdoms
27 Jun, 2013 950 History of Asia -
The Volga Vikings
11 Nov, 2010 940 History of Europe -
Giorgio Vasari’s Lives of the Artists
27 May, 2010 700 Arts -
The Mughal Empire
26 Feb, 2004 950 History of Asia -
Xenophon
26 May, 2011 930 History of the Ancient World -
Genghis Khan
1 Feb, 2007 950 History of Asia -
Marlowe
7 Jul, 2005 820 English and Old English literatures -
Humboldt
28 Sep, 2006 500 Science -
Sources of Early Chinese History
23 Jan, 2014 950 History of Asia -
Astronomy and Empire
4 May, 2006 520 Astronomy -
The Battle of Talas
9 Oct, 2014 950 History of Asia
Programme ID: b01hxpxh
Episode page: bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01hxpxh
Auto-category: 915.04 (Travel and exploration in Asia)