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Primary sourceBook1891

Voyages and Travels of Marco Polo

Marco Polo · 1891

A 19th-century English edition of Marco Polo's travel account, presenting his full story of journeys through Asia.

This English edition presents Marco Polo's own account of his travels for readers centuries later.

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Full text (public-domain edition)

About this source

What it is

This is an 1891 English-language printing of Marco Polo's travel account, published as part of a popular library series. It opens with an introduction describing Polo's life and his family's journey to the court of Kublai Khan.

Why it matters

This edition made Polo's account accessible to a wide English-reading public centuries after it was first dictated. It shows the lasting fascination with Polo's journey and the Mongol Empire he described, a story still inspiring writers and readers.

Look closer

  • How does the introduction describe Polo's family and their motives for travel?
  • Why might this account still be published and read hundreds of years after it was written?
  • What might be lost or changed in translating and re-publishing Polo's original dictated text?

This book 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.

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