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Hello, one morning in 1271, two merchants boarded a ship in the port of Venice and set sail

for the east. Their names were Nicolò and Mafia Polo, and with them was Nicolò's teenage

son Marco. Their travels lasted almost a quarter of a century, and when they returned to the city

of their birth, they had some extraordinary tales to tell. The Polos had travelled widely

throughout the Mongol Empire. They had met the Mongol Emperor himself and been members

of his imperial court in China. Then they'd been the first Europeans to visit some of

the remote spots of Asia, seeing wonders unimaginable by their contemporaries.

An account of these adventures is contained in what is perhaps the most celebrated travel

book ever written, the travels of Marco Polo. It first appeared in the early 14th century

and became one of the most popular books in late medieval Europe. The explorers of

later centuries, including Henry the Navigator and Christopher Columbus, studied the work,

and today Marco Polo remains the most celebrated European ever to have explored the distant

east. With me to discuss the travels of Marco Polo

are Frances Wood, Leeds Curator of Chinese Collections at the British Library, Jean-Paul

Rubius, reader in international history at the London School of Economics and Political

Science and Deborah Strickland, senior lecturer in the history of art at the University of

Glasgow. Frances Wood, at that time, at the end of the 13th century, how much contact

had Europeans with the east? What was the situation? At that time, Europe had very little direct

communication with the east. The east was mainly known at that time by, through its products,

through things like silk, which had been celebrated since the days of ancient Rome, and

...