Skip to main content

Secondary sourcePainting15th century

The City of Zayton (Quanzhou)

Unknown (manuscript illustrator) · 15th century

A 15th-century manuscript painting depicting the Chinese port city of Zayton, described in Marco Polo's travel book.

This image illustrates Marco Polo's description of Zayton, a Chinese port city he claimed to have visited.

Ask Marco Polo about this sourceView the original(opens in new tab)
Medieval painted miniature of a harbor scene: a trumpeter in a red robe plays a long gold horn on a ship. Other wooden ships with rigging and sails sit on blue waves, and a walled city with pink and grey towers and red roofs stands behind them.
La cite de Caitan (Zayton/Quanzhou), from a 15th-century manuscript of Marco Polo's Li livres du Graunt Caam.

About this source

What it is

This miniature comes from a 15th-century manuscript of Marco Polo's book, known in this version as Li livres du Graunt Caam. It depicts Zayton, the Chinese port now known as Quanzhou, which Marco Polo described visiting during the Yuan Dynasty.

Why it matters

The image shows how later illustrators pictured the distant Asian ports Marco Polo described, places few Europeans had ever seen themselves. It reflects the fascination his book created with Chinese trade and the wider world.

Look closer

  • What does the harbor scene suggest about trade and travel in this city?
  • Some details in the water are unsettling — what might they suggest about how the artist imagined distant lands?
  • How might this image differ from what Marco Polo actually saw?

This painting is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Marco Polo on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

More Marco Polo sources

Meet the AI Marco Polo →
Illuminated manuscript page with a decorated border and a miniature painting of a medieval walled city with pink towers and a rider on a white horse greeting a group of robed men. Text in columns below.Book

Secondary source

The Travels of Marco Polo

Rustichello da Pisa · 1298

Photograph of a long, narrow medieval parchment document with dense brown handwritten Latin text in columns, a decorative initial at the top left, and signatures and a seal-like mark at the bottom on a dark background.Document

Primary source

Marco Polo's Will

Marco Polo · 1324

Illuminated manuscript page with a painted miniature of a medieval walled town with pink towers and a half-timbered tower. Richly decorated borders surround it, with gold leaf, foliage, and a blue-and-gold initial. A rider on a white horse and a group of figures in robes stand in a landscape; a kneeling figure offers something to a robed man. Blue text heading and red and black text columns appear on the page.Painting

Secondary source

Livre des merveilles

Mazarine Master · c. 1410-1412

Detail of a medieval painted map showing a camel caravan on a tan desert band. Grey camels with saddles and red-and-gold trappings walk left, led by robed merchants in green and red. Red rhumb lines radiate from a compass rose. Gold-trimmed walled towns with flags sit below.Painting

Secondary source

Caravane Marco Polo

Abraham Cresques · c. 1375

Circular world map in a gold frame, with south at top. Blue oceans with ships surround tan-colored landmasses, with rivers, cities and labels in Italian. Text panels and small circular diagrams fill the four corners.Artifact

Secondary source

Fra Mauro map

Fra Mauro · c. 1450-1459

Ready when you are

Start chatting with Marco Polo now.

20 messages free · No credit card · Available in 50+ languages.

Trial Humy for freeGet a quote for institutions