Marco Polo's book was written down by someone else: his cellmate.

1298

Captured by Genoa in 1298, Polo told his tales of China to Rustichello da Pisa, a writer of romances, who put them on paper.

◍ Show on the globe

The event

• Travels of Marco Polo1271–1295 · Shangdu (Xanadu). The Venetian Marco Polo travelled to China with his father and uncle and spent some 17 years at the court of Kublai Khan. His book of travels became Europe's chief source of knowledge about Asia for centuries.

13th century

More amazing facts

• 1299 · 1903 The Ottoman state, founded around 1299, still existed when the Wright brothers made the first airplane flight: the sultanate was abolished only in 1922.
• 1300 · 1303 Dante booked a place in Hell for a living pope.
• 1300 · 1944 Coins of the Kilwa Sultanate in East Africa were found in Australia.
• 1300 · 1910 On finding a bronze head at Ife in 1910, the German ethnologist Leo Frobenius decided it was a relic of Atlantis.
• 1300 Medieval people did drink water; beer was not a forced substitute for 'unsafe' water.
• 1300 A life expectancy of around 30 did not mean people grew old at 30.

All amazing facts (1058) →