Marco Polo Timeline

According to Giovanni Battista Ramusio, fellow citizens nicknamed him Milione when he came back to Venice because he kept saying that Kublai Khan's wealth was counted in millions. Since his father was also called Milione, philologist Luigi Foscolo Benedetto believed it was shortened from Emilione, distinguishing the family branch.

Doubts about Marco Polo's narrative of his travels in China arose over his failure to mention the Great Wall, first raised in the middle of the 17th century. By the middle of the 18th century it was even suggested he never reached China. Defenders note the familiar wall is a Ming structure built some two centuries after his travels.

Frances Wood claimed in her 1995 book Did Marco Polo Go to China? that at best Polo never went farther east than Persia, and that nothing in The Book of Marvels about China could not have been obtained from Persian books. Critics such as Hans Ulrich Vogel countered that Polo's descriptions of currencies, salt production, and revenues support his presence in China.

Image source: Did Marco Polo Go to China?

In 2010, the Marco Polo Memorial Hall was erected in Yangzhou, China, commemorating the explorer's reported service there, and it was renovated in 2023.

In 2012, Tübingen Sinologist Hans Ulrich Vogel released a detailed analysis of Polo's description of currencies, salt production, and revenues, arguing the evidence supports his presence in China. Economic historian Mark Elvin concluded Vogel demonstrated 'the ultimately overwhelming probability of the broad authenticity' of Polo's account.

Image source: Marco Polo

Marco Polo (2014–2016) is a Netflix television drama series about Marco Polo's early years in the court of Kublai Khan, created by John Fusco. Polo has also appeared in many works, including Calvino's Invisible Cities (1972), Doctor Who (1964), the miniseries Marco Polo (1982), and Uncharted 2: Among Thieves (2009).

Image source: Marco Polo (2014 TV series)

They returned to Venice in 1295, after 24 years, with many riches and treasures. Marco Polo returned home with his fortune converted into gemstones.

Polo was probably caught by Genoese in a skirmish in 1296 off the Anatolian coast between Adana and the Gulf of Alexandretta, rather than during the Battle of Curzola of September 1298 as later tradition recorded.

A later tradition from the 16th century recorded by Ramusio claims Polo was captured during the Battle of Curzola (September 1298) off the Dalmatian coast, though modern scholars believe he was caught in a skirmish off the Anatolian coast in 1296 instead.

Image source: Battle of Curzola

Polo was finally released from captivity in August 1299 and returned home to Venice, where his father and uncle had in the meantime purchased a large palazzo in the contrada San Giovanni Crisostomo (Corte del Milion). He became a wealthy merchant, married, and had three children.

Sometime before 1300, Marco Polo's father Niccolò died, leaving his son owner of family estates.

In 1300, Marco Polo married Donata Badoèr, the daughter of Vitale Badoèr, a merchant. It was also found that Polo first had a daughter named Agnese (born 1319) from a partnership or marriage which ended before 1300, and he went on to have three children.

Image source: Donata Badoer

In 1305, Marco Polo is mentioned in a Venetian document among local sea captains regarding the payment of taxes, providing evidence of his continued life as a merchant in the city.

Polo is clearly mentioned again after 1305 in Maffeo's testament from 1309 to 1310. In 1321, he bought part of the family property of his wife Donata, and in 1319 he became owner of some estates of his deceased father.

In 1323, Polo was confined to bed due to illness. Despite physicians' efforts to treat him, he was on his deathbed by 8 January 1324.

Due to Venetian law stating that the day ends at sunset, the exact date of Marco Polo's death cannot be determined, but according to some scholars it was between the sunsets of 8 and 9 January 1324. His testament, dated 9 January 1324, is held by the Biblioteca Marciana, which gives June 1324 as an alternate date. He was buried in the church of San Lorenzo in Venice.

British scholar Ronald Latham pointed out that The Travels of Marco Polo was a collaboration written in 1298–1299 between Polo and Rustichello of Pisa, a professional writer of romances, who composed Devisement du Monde in Franco-Venetian.

One early manuscript, Iter Marci Pauli Veneti, was a translation into Latin made by the Dominican brother Francesco Pipino in 1302, just a few years after Marco's return to Venice.

Image source: The Travels of Marco Polo

Another Old French Polo manuscript, dating to around 1350, is held by the National Library of Sweden. Other important early sources include Ramusio's Italian translation first printed in 1559 and a 15th-century Latin manuscript kept at Toledo, Spain.

Image source: The Travels of Marco Polo

Sharon Kinoshita's 2016 translation takes as its source the Franco-Italian 'F' manuscript and invites readers to focus on the text as the product of a larger European and Eurasian literary and commercial culture. Earlier translations include John Frampton's 1579 English version and the popular Penguin edition of 1958.