You’ve probably heard the name a thousand times. Marco Polo. The guy who went to China, met a Khan, and came back with stories about pasta (which is actually a myth, by the way). But if you were to walk into a bookstore today and ask for the specific thing he wrote, you might get a few different answers.
So, what book did Marco Polo write exactly?
The short answer is a book most commonly known in English as The Travels of Marco Polo. But history is rarely that simple. If you were living in the 1300s, you would have called it Il Milione (The Million) or Le Devisament dou Monde (The Description of the World).
Here is the kicker: Marco Polo didn't actually sit down with a quill and parchment to write it himself. He was a merchant, not a novelist. The story of how this book came to be is almost as wild as the travels themselves, involving a sea battle, a prison cell, and a professional writer of "romance" stories who might have exaggerated a thing or two.
The Prison Cell Collaboration
In 1298, three years after returning from his twenty-four-year odyssey across Asia, Marco Polo found himself in a Genoese prison. Venice and Genoa were at war—standard stuff for the time—and Polo had been captured during a naval skirmish.
While rotting away in a cell, he met a man named Rustichello da Pisa.
Rustichello wasn't a merchant. He was a writer of Arthurian romances. Basically, he wrote the medieval equivalent of blockbuster fantasy novels. Polo started telling Rustichello about the silk, the spices, the paper money, and the coal he saw in the East. Rustichello, smelling a bestseller, wrote it all down in Old French, which was the prestige language of the day.
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This partnership is why the book feels so strange. It’s a mix of dry merchant data—like how many miles it is between cities—and high-octane adventure. Without Rustichello, we might never have known what book did Marco Polo write because Polo might never have bothered to record it.
One Book, Many Names
Because this was before the printing press, people copied the manuscript by hand. Every time someone copied it, they changed things. They added their own notes, fixed "mistakes," or just flat-out removed parts they didn't like.
Today, there are about 140 different manuscript versions of the book. This leads to a lot of confusion about the "real" title.
- The Description of the World: This was the original intended title, focusing on geography.
- Il Milione: A nickname given to the book in Italy, either because Polo's family was known for having "millions" or because the stories seemed like a million lies.
- The Travels of Marco Polo: The modern English title we all use today.
What Is Actually Inside the Book?
Most people expect a diary. You know, "Day 45: I’m really tired of riding this camel." But that’s not what it is.
The book is more of a geographic survey. It’s divided into several sections that cover different regions of the Mongol Empire. Polo describes the court of Kublai Khan in Xanadu with a level of awe that borders on obsession. He talks about the Khan's palace, the 12,000 bodyguards, and the sheer wealth of the Yuan Dynasty.
He also mentions things that sounded like pure magic to Europeans in 1299:
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- Paper Money: Europeans used heavy gold and silver coins. The idea that a piece of paper had value was mind-blowing.
- Burning "Black Stones": He was describing coal. Most Europeans were still burning wood.
- The Postal System: A network of stations and riders that allowed messages to travel across the empire with incredible speed.
It wasn't just about China, either. The book covers Japan (which he called Cipangu), India, and even parts of Africa and the Middle East. Honestly, it was the first time most Europeans realized that they weren't the center of the universe.
The Great Debate: Did He Make It All Up?
For centuries, people have asked: "Did Marco Polo actually go to China?"
Critics like historian Frances Wood have pointed out some glaring omissions. For example, why doesn't he mention the Great Wall? Why is there no mention of tea ceremonies or the Chinese practice of foot-binding? And why doesn't his name appear in any official Chinese imperial records of the time?
These are fair points. However, most modern scholars, like Hans Ulrich Vogel, argue that he definitely went.
Vogel points out that Polo's descriptions of the Chinese economy—specifically the way they produced salt and the technical details of their paper currency—are so accurate that he couldn't have just heard about them in a bazaar in Persia. He had to be there. As for the Great Wall, the versions we see today were mostly built during the Ming Dynasty, long after Polo left. In his time, it was mostly just heaps of dirt and ruins.
Why This Book Changed the World
Even if some of the details are "kinda" sketchy, the impact of the book was massive. It wasn't just a bedtime story for bored nobles.
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It was a map.
Christopher Columbus famously owned a copy of The Travels. He didn't just read it; he heavily annotated it. He was obsessed with finding a sea route to the wealth Polo described. When Columbus set sail in 1492, he was literally looking for the places he read about in Marco Polo's book.
Without this specific text, the Age of Discovery might have looked completely different.
Actionable Insights for History Buffs
If you’re interested in diving deeper into what book did Marco Polo write, don’t just buy the first copy you see on a shelf.
- Look for the Yule-Cordier Edition: This is the "gold standard" for scholars. It’s packed with footnotes that explain the historical context of Polo’s claims.
- Check out Nigel Cliff’s Translation: If you want something that reads more like a modern story and less like a textbook, this is the one to grab.
- Visit a Museum Display: If you’re ever in Venice, the Correr Museum often has exhibits related to the Polo family’s merchant history.
Basically, the book is a survivor. It survived the death of the Mongol Empire, the rise of the printing press, and 700 years of people calling it a pack of lies. It remains the definitive bridge between the medieval West and the ancient East.
To truly understand the text, you have to remember it's a "collaborative" effort between a curious merchant and a guy who wrote about knights for a living. It’s not perfect history, but it’s a perfect window into how the world used to look to someone who was brave enough—or crazy enough—to walk across it.
Next Steps for Your Research
To get the most out of Marco Polo’s narrative, start by comparing his descriptions of the city of Hangzhou (which he called Kinsay) with modern historical records of the Song and Yuan Dynasties. You will find that while he exaggerates the number of bridges, his descriptions of the city's layout and markets are remarkably consistent with archaeological findings. This will help you distinguish between the "romance" added by Rustichello and the "reporting" provided by Polo himself.