You teach the youths about Marco Polo...
July 25, 2016 5:29 PM Subscribe
I would like to read The Travels of Marco Polo. Turns out, there are a lot of versions. I thought to myself: "you know who has considered opinions about things there are versions of? Mefites, of course!"
This is for personal interest and not serious scholarship. However, this doesn't mean scholarly considerations don't matter at all. It just means that readability is also important.
Suggestions? Is there a latest and greatest edition?
I found the Penguin Classics translation by Ronald Latham to be perfectly fine and well annotated.
You should avoid most of the free online editions. They are poorly formatted, probably due to bad OCR, to the point of illegibility. The Gutenberg version is also burdened with a lengthy and uninteresting biography of the translator. It's really crying out for a big fancy coffee-table edition with good maps and copious notes, something like the Landmark Herodotus.
Whatever you go with, you will definitely get some use out of this Marco Polo Google maps setup by Rachel Leow, a lecturer at Cambridge. It doesn't show the exact route of Polo's journeys but it does have points showing places he mentioned, with their modern name and extracts from the text. I found it immensely helpful to consult it periodically.
Also seconding Invisible Cities 100%.
posted by ocular shenanigans at 2:24 AM on July 26, 2016 [2 favorites]
You should avoid most of the free online editions. They are poorly formatted, probably due to bad OCR, to the point of illegibility. The Gutenberg version is also burdened with a lengthy and uninteresting biography of the translator. It's really crying out for a big fancy coffee-table edition with good maps and copious notes, something like the Landmark Herodotus.
Whatever you go with, you will definitely get some use out of this Marco Polo Google maps setup by Rachel Leow, a lecturer at Cambridge. It doesn't show the exact route of Polo's journeys but it does have points showing places he mentioned, with their modern name and extracts from the text. I found it immensely helpful to consult it periodically.
Also seconding Invisible Cities 100%.
posted by ocular shenanigans at 2:24 AM on July 26, 2016 [2 favorites]
Try this one
Actually, don't. Marsden's translation is nearly 200 years old and very out of date. The Yule-Cordier edition is the most scholarly, but the brand-new Penguin Classics translation by Nigel Cliff is the most readable.
For background, try Frances Wood's Did Marco Polo Go To China? (spoiler: she argues that he didn't). Wood's book stirred up a lot of controversy (one of her opponents recently published a book entitled Marco Polo WAS in China), but regardless of which way you jump on the did-he-or-didn't-he question, it's still an excellent introduction to the complicated history of the text.
posted by verstegan at 2:27 AM on July 26, 2016 [6 favorites]
Actually, don't. Marsden's translation is nearly 200 years old and very out of date. The Yule-Cordier edition is the most scholarly, but the brand-new Penguin Classics translation by Nigel Cliff is the most readable.
For background, try Frances Wood's Did Marco Polo Go To China? (spoiler: she argues that he didn't). Wood's book stirred up a lot of controversy (one of her opponents recently published a book entitled Marco Polo WAS in China), but regardless of which way you jump on the did-he-or-didn't-he question, it's still an excellent introduction to the complicated history of the text.
posted by verstegan at 2:27 AM on July 26, 2016 [6 favorites]
I LOVED the Penguin Classics one. It was SO readable and way more enjoyable than you'd imagine. You're going to have a total blast. MARCO POLO FOREVER!
posted by Dressed to Kill at 5:19 AM on July 26, 2016
posted by Dressed to Kill at 5:19 AM on July 26, 2016
If you enjoy Marco Polo, then you should definitely read the Narrative of the Embassy of Ruy Gonzalez de Clavijo to the Court of Timour at Samarcand, too. Clavijo was traveling 132 years after Marco Polo through some of the same territory, and he tells an amazing story.
Clavijo was sent as an ambassador from his king to Timur (aka Tamerlane), who saw himself as Genghis Khan's heir and founded an empire centered in modern Uzbekistan. Clavijo's trip was almost comically ill-fated -- he made his way through volcanic eruptions, wars, shipwreck, robbery, deadly illness, and intrigue, only to find that Timur (while perfectly willing to accept the expensive presents Clavijo carted over half the known world) isn't particularly interested in conversation. And the return journey is even more eventful. It's a great read -- I definitely recommend it!
posted by ourobouros at 9:11 AM on July 26, 2016 [4 favorites]
Clavijo was sent as an ambassador from his king to Timur (aka Tamerlane), who saw himself as Genghis Khan's heir and founded an empire centered in modern Uzbekistan. Clavijo's trip was almost comically ill-fated -- he made his way through volcanic eruptions, wars, shipwreck, robbery, deadly illness, and intrigue, only to find that Timur (while perfectly willing to accept the expensive presents Clavijo carted over half the known world) isn't particularly interested in conversation. And the return journey is even more eventful. It's a great read -- I definitely recommend it!
posted by ourobouros at 9:11 AM on July 26, 2016 [4 favorites]
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