IIIF Color HighRes
National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
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| IIIF Color HighRes |
| The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.1 |
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Citation Information
Ib INTRODUCTION
frontiers, but had met with its people at the Court of the
Great Kaan in Mongolia ; whilst the latter of the two with
characteristic acumen had seen that they were identical with
the Seres of classic fame.
Kúblái had never before fallen in with European
gentlemen. He was delighted with these Venetians, listened
Their inter- with strong interest to all that they had to tell him
course with of the Latin world, and determined to send them
Kúblái
Kaan. back as his ambassadors to the Pope, accompanied
by an officer of his own Court. His letters to the Pope, as the
Polos represent them, were mainly to desire the despatch of a
large body of educated missionaries to convert his people to
Christianity. It is not likely that religious motives influenced
Kúblái in this, but he probably desired religious aid in
softening and civilizing his rude kinsmen of the Steppes, and
judged, from what he saw in the Venetians and heard from
them, that Europe could afford such aid of a higher quality
than the degenerate Oriental Christians with whom he was
familiar, or the Tibetan Lamas on whom his patronage event-
ually devolved when Rome so deplorably failed to meet his
advances.
The Brothers arrived at Acre in April,* 1269, and
found that no Pope existed, for Clement IV. was dead the
Their return home, and Marco's appearance on the scene.
year before, and no new election had taken place.
So they went home to Venice to see how things
stood there after their absence of so many years.
The wife of Nicolo was no longer among the living,
but he found his son Marco a fine lad of fifteen.
The best and most authentic MSS. tell us no more than
this. But one class of copies, consisting of the Latin version
made by our Traveller's contemporary, Francesco Pipino, and
of the numerous editions based indirectly upon it, represents
that Nicolo had left Venice when Marco was as yet unborn,
and consequently had never seen him till his return from the
East in 1269.1
6
* Baldelli and Lazari say that the Bern MS. specifies 30th April ; but this is a mistake.
t Pipino's version runs : " Invenit Dominus Nicolaus Paulus uxorem suain esse de - functam, quae in recessu suo fuit praegnans. Invenitque filium, Marcum nomine, qui jam annos xv. habebat aetatis, qui post discessum ipsius de Venetiis natus fuerat de uxore
1110
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