THE INTERNATIONAL COMMITTEE FOR MARCO POLO STUDIES

MARCO POLO

To the Chinese people, Marco Polo is a figure of great significance. He was the first international traveller to bring China to the attention of mediaeval Europe: the first Westerner to write about China from personal experience and, in this way, to guarantee the truth of his observations of that great nation by virtue of being able to say: "I saw these marvels with my own eyes!". To Europeans, Marco Polo is equally significant as one of their own race and culture who, through his published account of his travels to and within Cathay, opened the eyes of all Europe to the achievements of a neighbouring peoples whose very existence, until then, had been the subject of myths and fables, and whose country was shown on the maps of the day as a blank space labelled: ‘Here be dragons!’.

Marco Polo bridged the cultural gap between the ignorance of mediaeval Europe as to the cultural achievements of the civilisation of Cathay, and the xenophobia of mediaeval Asia, to whom the only world that mattered was the one contained within the borders of its own Imperial frontiers.

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Any comments on the above will be most welcome, if communicated to:

james.gilman@virgin.net