Recounts the adventures of the Italian merchant during his travels to China, based on Marco Polo's own accounts.

When Marco Polo arrived at the court of the Great Khan Pekin had just been rebuilt. Kublai Khan was at the height of his glory. Polo rose rapidly in favour and became governor of an important district. In this way he gained first-hand knowledge of a great civilisation and described it with astounding accuracy and detail.

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 text and also later editions by Marsden (1818), Pauthier (1865) and Yule (1871). · The difficulty of following Polo on his many journeys has also been simplified by the process of distinguishing between those places on his main route to China and his return journey by sea to Persia and those places which he visited during his stay in China and those he never visited at all.

«Книга чудес света» — описание путешествий Марко Поло по Азии и Африке, совершённых в период между 1276 и 1291 годами, которые с его слов на старофранцузском языке записал итальянский писатель Рустикелло. Эта увлекательная книга состоит из четырех частей, описывающих красочные и насыщенные путешествия по Центральной Азии, Шри-Ланке, Японии, Китаю... Читайте зарубежную литературу в оригинале!

His journey through the East began in 1271—when, still a teenager, he set out of Venice and found himself traversing the most exotic countries. His acceptance into the court of the great emperor Kublai Khan, and his service to the vast and dazzling Mongol empire, led him to places as far away as Tibet and Burma, lands rich with gems and gold and silk, but virtually unknown to Europeans. Later, as a prisoner of war, Marco Polo would record the details of his remarkable travels across harsh deserts, great mountain ranges, and dangerous seas, as well as of his encounters with beasts and birds, plants and people. His amazing chronicle is both fascinating and awe-inspiring—and still serves as the most vivid depiction of the mysterious East in the Middle Ages. Edited and with an Introduction by Milton Rugoff and an Afterword by Howard Mittelmark