I have read Polo's account of his travels from Italy to the far side of China, but Bergreen does a good job of adding interesting historical background.
Unfortunately not all of it is, to say the least, reliable.
Take this digression on silk: "It is possible that the Roman legions first encountered actual silk at the Battle of Carrhae, near the Euphrates River, in 53BC.
"It was said that the Parthians' vivid silk banners unfurling in the wind startled the Roman troops, who promptly fled the battlefield."
This is pure fantasy.
Or this vignette from a battle between Mongols and the King of Burma: "The two sides took each other's measure for several days, while Mongol military intelligence went to work.
"Mongol spies learned the length of the arrows used by the enemy, and made sure that their own warriors' arrows were shorter, so as to be incompatible with the enemy's in battle.
"This way, the enemy would be unable to reuse them in bows designed for a longer weapon."
More nonsense - if the Mongols' changed the length of their arrows in the days before a battle, where did they get the bows needed to fire the new-length arrows?
And then there is this: "It is difficult to imagine the Renaissance - or, for that matter, the modern world - without the benefit of Marco Polo's example of cultural transmission between East and West."
I could mention other sections that cry out for a good editor - a merely competent one would do - and I worry how much other nonsense I missed because my background knowledge on some subjects was not good enough to spot them.
And yet, despite these problems, I enjoyed the book and am glad I spent £14.99 on it.
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| Curate's egg |
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