Introduction Summary and Analysis

"The Travels of Marco Polo" presents a broad and wide-ranging panorama of Kubilai Khan's thirteenth century empire. Marco Polo is the Great Khan's emissary who is commissioned to travel throughout his empire. Marco Polo is sent to investigate and report back his findings about people, customs, culture, climate, flora and fauna, game, birds and habitation.

"The Travels of Marco Polo" is first introduced to the reading public in the thirteenth century as "A Description of the World." Marco Polo is then believed to travel farther and more widely than anyone else in the world. His travels take him from Java to the Polar Sea, from Japan to Zanzibar. Many tales he tells are enjoyable as fact or fiction. Eastern merchants like "the India voyager" Cosmas follow trade routes, Theophylactus Simocatta writes about China and Rabbi Benjamin's travels to Baghdad in the...