MARCO POLO AND THE EAST THAT ENCHANTED EUROPE
Marco Polo was the Venetian explorer who, in the Middle Ages, reached China with his father and uncle and remained for nearly two decades at the Mongol court of Kublai Khan before returning to Venice. There, during his imprisonment, he dictated the story of his adventures to a man of letters from Pisa.
For more than two centuries, Il Milion shaped the European imagination of what the distant and fabulous East was like.
No autograph copy of the work exists (only an early version written in French, the so-called Manuscript Z in Toledo). No pages in Marco’s own hand survive. What we do have are numerous records of his commercial transactions and his will, discovered in 1954.
Marco Polo’s Testament, facsimile
The will is preserved in the Biblioteca Marciana. It consists of 63 lines occupying three-quarters of a parchment sheet; in the remaining quarter appear the names of the two witnesses and the scribe.
This most fascinating document states:
Item absolvo Petrum famulum meum de genere Tartatorum ab omni vinculo servitutis, ut Deus absolvat animam meam ab omni culpa et peccato; et sibi remitto omnia quae acquisivit in domo sua labore, et insuper sibi dimitto libras denariorum venecialium centum.
Likewise, I free Peter, my servant, of Tartar origin, from every bond of servitude, so that God may absolve my soul of all guilt and sin; I remit to him all that he has acquired in his household through his own labour, and furthermore I bequeath to him one hundred Venetian lire.
Testament, detail
A BOOK IN THE SIGN OF MARCO POLO – SILK AS A RED THREAD
On the anniversary of Marco Polo’s death in 2024, extensive research was undertaken, particularly in the State Archives of Venice, which hold an immense documentary heritage.
This collective research – the result of teamwork among scholars specializing in different fields – has led to new discoveries.
Professor Luca Molà of the University of Warwick, a historian of the Middle Ages, economics, and trade, presented the fruit of these long studies in his newly published book, Nel segno di Marco Polo (Editori Laterza), at the end of January 2026, in the evocative setting of the Franciscan convent kitchen in Venice.
For the occasion, extraordinary fourteenth-century documents – and others – discussed or mentioned in the book were displayed for one evening.
It is moving to see these pages and this handwriting in such beautiful documents: in some, the words seem almost typewritten; in others, the script is much smaller and more compressed.
Pero de India lived in a house owned by the nuns of Saint Zaccaria
The red thread running through the book is silk – not only Marco Polo himself, in whose Il Milion silk is mentioned more than sixty times (and where the word crimson appears for the first time) – but also dyes, cochineal, and much more. Silk also means global connections long before the modern age.
An archivist, a historian, and a medieval specialist joined the author at the presentation. Each expert reads a document from a different perspective. When the gaps are many, the archivist’s approach is to understand why documents were destroyed – whether for political reasons or lost in times of disorder. The historian, by contrast, uses different tools, searching other archival and literary sources. To fill the gaps in Marco Polo’s life, one may study the histories of other merchants to understand what the documentation leaves unsaid.
PIETRO THE INDIAN – FROM SLAVE TO CITIZEN
Pietro the Tartar went on to become an important administrative official for the Venetian government, working in the silk trade. As an expert, he was responsible for quality control.
He was able to negotiate a higher salary than that initially offered by the Venetian government and even became a Venetian citizen – an exceptional case in the history of Venice.
on 7th April 1328 Pietro became a Venetian citizen
He lived in a parish apartment owned by the nuns of San Zaccaria, recorded as Pero de India.
Pietro de India listed in propriety owned by the nuns of San Zaccaria
Marco Polo’s story is not only one of distant journeys. It is fascinating story of trade, textiles, colour and unexpected social mobility.
A story that still speaks to Venice today.
I look forward to speaking with you about other aspects of this fascinating book, hoping it will soon be translated into English.
Fiona Giusto
www.venicetours.it
