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Darrera modificació: 2009-11-23
Bases de dades: Sciència.cat
Wood, Frances, Did Marco Polo Go to China?, Londres, Secker & Warburg, 1995, vii + 182 pp., il. bib. i índ.
- Resum
- Marco Polo's book "The Description of the World" is one of the classics of medieval literature, describing his epic journey to China and subsequent return to Italy. He has become a cultural icon bridging East and West, his name known by adults and children alike. Frances Wood's fascinating piece of historical detective work, marking the 700th anniversary of Polo's journey, questions whether the explorer ever reached the country he so vividly described. Why, within his romantic and detailed account, is there no mention of such fundamental aspects of Chinese life as tea or foot-binding, or even the Great Wall? Did Polo really bring noodles and ice-cream back to Italy? And why is there no record of the Polo family in China itself?
Contrary to an assumption basic to European and Chinese history—the tales of Marco Polo’s journey to China—Frances Wood argues that he not only never went to China, but probably never ventured past his family home on the Black Sea. Instead, his imagination fueled by stories garnered from other traders and with the help of a ghostwriter, Polo may simply have sought to exploit the growing demand for tales of distant lands. By carefully examining the Polo family history, Marco Polo’s activities as a merchant, the preparation of his book, and the imperial Chinese records, Wood tries to reconcile a number of inconsistencies that shed light on what may be only an extraordinary and enduring myth.
Contents:
Introduction; The Bare Details; Why Go at All? Missionaries Nose to Tail; Prester John and the Magi; Not an Itinerary; The Ghost Writer and the First Fan; The Language of the Text; Omissions and Inclusions; Ice-cream and Spaghetti; Walls Within Walls; He Missed the Biggest Wall; Not Unique and Certainly Not a Siege Engineer; Who Were the Polos? Was It China? A Significant Absence; Conclusions; Afterword.
- Matèries
- Geografia i viatges
- Notes
- Reimpr.: Boulder, Colo.-Oxford, Westview, 1996.
Recensions:
* Igor de Rachewiltz, a East Asian History, en accés lliure a http://rspas.anu.edu.au/eah/Marcopolo.html 
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