Marco Polo and His World

Sharon Kinoshita is Professor of Literature at the University of California, Santa Cruz, specializing in medieval French literature, Mediterranean studies and the global Middle Ages. Her publications include an annotated translation of Marco Polo’s The Description of the World (2016).

An excellent general introduction to Marco Polo . . . Kinoshita provides much-needed elegant and imaginative discussions of historical contexts, in terms of people, places and activities in different parts of the world in Marco Polo's time, as a way of bringing Polo and his work to life. - Margaret Kim, Professor, National Tsing Hua UniversityIn Marco Polo and His World, Sharon Kinoshita offers us at once a single life – that of Marco Polo, merchant, traveller and narrator – and multiple lives, which radiate out like the spokes of a wheel during the original voyage from Italy to China. From one vantage point the book recounts the life of Marco Polo; from another that of the Great Khan, Qubilai; from another the exemplary history of Alexander the Great; and finally, in the speculative closing chapter, Marco Polo’s singular life is refracted out into the lifetimes of three of his contemporaries – a Chinese painter, a South Asian poet and a Byzantine princess. This is an unusual, adventuresome book that will open up multiple medieval worlds to a wide audience. - Suzanne Conklin Akbari, Professor, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, and co-editor of Marco Polo and the Encounter of East and WestWith Marco Polo and His World, Sharon Kinoshita, author of the celebrated translation of Marco Polo’s The Description of the World (2016), offers her readers a second indispensable gift: a deeply researched, accessible account of key contexts illuminating Marco Polo’s multiple and interlocking worlds – Latin Christian, Islamicate, Byzantine and Mongol. Delivering on the promise of the “Global Middle Ages” with equal parts verve and care, this appealing and lucid volume wears its tremendous learning lightly and will intrigue and edify general readers and specialists alike. - Shirin A. Khanmohamadi, Professor of Comparative and World Literature, San Francisco State UniversityThere's a lot of talk about globalizing the Middle Ages today. In this beautifully illustrated book, Sharon Kinoshita shows us how it's done. By telling the story of Marco Polo, his marvels and his Chinese, Indian and Byzantine contemporaries, she brings the Mongol century to life. - Christopher P. Atwood, Professor, University of Pennsylvania, and translator of The Secret History of the Mongols

• Introduction1 Marco Polo and His World2 The Book of the Great Khan3 The Book of Marvels4 Animal, Vegetable, Mineral Merchants and their World5 Portrait Gallery: Marco Polo's ContemporariesAfterwordReferencesSelect BibliographyAcknowledgementsPhoto Acknowledgements Index