Renaissance Illustrations to Marco Polo

Marco Polo sailing from Venice, and detail

People have been arguing over how to view Marco Polo's Book of Marvels of the World since it first appeared in 1300. The skeptics have had their day, but now the general view is that Marco Polo really did travel to China and serve Kublai Khan as an ambassador. There are embellishments in the text, but most of them are called out as things Polo only heard about and did not see himself; and as for the rest, well, the man to whom Polo dictated his tale was a noted author of romances named Rustichello da Pisa. Blame him.

Two versions of the Polo brothers doing homage to Kublai Kahn 

And one that shows the brothers receiving a gold passport.
These were real, one of the many accurate details in the book,

The Great Khan hunting

Harvesting pepper in Indonesia

The Polos served the Khan as ambassadors to South Asia, traveling to Indonesia, Burma, and India.

A battle between the Mongols in the King of Burma

And some of the fabulous details that made it into the manuscript.