After many years in Asia, Marco Polo wrote one of the most influential books of the past millennium. No mere travel account, Polo’s Book is a work that played a key role in the development of European overseas expansion. In this engaging and authoritative book, historian John Larner explores for the first time the full range of influence of Polo’s Book on the history of geography and exploration. Larner assesses the findings of modern scholarship and offers an original account of Polo and his family, of how and why the Book came into being, and of its reception over the centuries. Beginning with a discussion of the extent of European knowledge of Asia early in the thirteenth century, Larner considers what is known about Marco Polo’s life and the composition of his text. He examines the Book’s scope and sources (vindicating its author from recent claims that he never visited China), as well as the nature of Polo’s cooperation with his co-author Rustichello da Pisa. He traces the manuscript forms and translations of Polo’s Book in the Middle Ages, its influence on Western cartographers, its fortunes in the climate of fifteenth-century humanism, the possible extent of its encouragement to Columbus, and its later evolution into such new guises as the object of historical scholarship and exotic curiosity. Finally, Larner provides a fresh view of the enigmatic Polo, who, despite a deliberate cultivation of impersonality, continues today to engage the attention of readers.

Marco Polo and the Discovery of the World

History

Larner, John

Asia

Yale University Press

No mere travel account, the book that Marco Polo wrote after many years in Asia became one of the most influential of the millennium. Historian John Larner here explores for the first time the full range of influence of Polo's Book on the history of geography and exploration, showing why the Book came into being and how it played a key role in the development of European overseas expansion.

Physical description; xvi, 322 p., [8] leaves of pls. : ill., map, alb. geneal. ; 23 cm. Subjects; Fatto d'arme di Romagna - History. Nobility - Italy - Emilia-Romagna - History.

The Lords of Romagna: Romagnol Society and the Origins of the Signorie

Cornell University Press

John Larner examines all the major developments across the Italian peninsula in the period that saw the rise of Florence and Venice, the development of a commercial empire by Italian towns which stretched from England to China, as well as the extraordinary cultural growth of the time.

Italy in the age of Dante and Petrarch, 1216-1380 (A Longman history of Italy ; v. 2)

Europe

Longman

John Larner examines all the major developments across the Italian peninsula in the period that saw the rise of Florence and Venice, the development of a commercial empire by Italian towns which stretched from England to China, as well as the extraordinary cultural growth of the time.

Italy in the Age of Dante and Petrarch, 1216-1380

Addison-Wesley Longman Ltd

Culture and society in Italy, 1290-1420 (Studies in cultural history)

Scribner

Batsford

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Larner, John. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Larner, John

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Larner, John. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Marco Polo and the Discovery of the World

Marco Polo and the Discovery of the World

The Lords of Romagna: Romagnol Society and the Origins of the Signorie

Italy in the age of Dante and Petrarch, 1216-1380 (A Longman history of Italy ; v. 2)

Italy in the Age of Dante and Petrarch, 1216-1380

Culture and society in Italy, 1290-1420 (Studies in cultural history)

Culture and society in Italy, 1290-1420 (Studies in cultural history)