
In September 1298 the rival Italian republics of Genoa & Venice fought a fierce sea battle at Curzola off the rocky coast of southern Dalmatia. Against the odds the Venetians led by Admiral Andrea Dandolo son of the Doge were defeated. Among the thousands of Venetians captives was one Marco Polo gentleman merchant of Venice & sometime traveller to East Asia. Incarcerated in a Ligurian fastness he told his story to a fellow-prisoner a writer of romances named Rustichello of Pisa. The account of his travels that Marco Polo dictated to Rustichello in captivity
- Il Milione
- would be exceptionally widely read & would stimulate European interest in the East & its riches. Marco Polo: from Venice to Xanadu is Laurence Bergreens thrilling & masterly reconstruction of the life & wanderings of one the great adventurers of world history. Between 1271 & 1275 Marco Polo accompanied his father Niccolo & uncle Maffeo on a journey east from Acre into central Asia along the Silk Route eventually reaching China & the court of the Great Khan of the Mongol Empire Kublai Khan. Entering the service of the Khan he travelled extensively in the Mongol Empire. The three Venetians returned home by sea in 1292-5 calling at Sumatra & southern India before reaching Persia & making the last part of their journey to Venice overl&. Three years later came that fateful encounter with the Genoese fleet in the Adriatic...