Who in his own
person hath had so much knowledge and experience of the divers parts of
the World and its Wonders as hath had this Messer Marco! And for that
reason he bethought himself that it would be a very great pity did he not
cause to be put in writing all the great marvels that he had seen, or on
sure information heard of, so that other people who had not these
advantages might, by his Book, get such knowledge. And I may tell you that
in acquiring this knowledge he spent in those various parts of the World
good six-and-twenty years. Now, being thereafter an inmate of the Prison
at Genoa, he caused Messer Rusticiano of Pisa, who was in the said Prison
likewise, to reduce the whole to writing; and this befell in the year 1298
from the birth of Jesus.
CHAPTER I.
HOW THE TWO BROTHERS POLO SET FORTH FROM CONSTANTINOPLE TO TRAVERSE THE
WORLD.
It came to pass in the year of Christ 1260, when Baldwin was reigning at
Constantinople,[NOTE 1] that Messer Nicolas Polo, the father of my lord
Mark, and Messer Maffeo Polo, the brother of Messer Nicolas, were at the
said city of CONSTANTINOPLE, whither they had gone from Venice with their
merchants' wares. Now these two Brethren, men singularly noble, wise, and
provident, took counsel together to cross the GREATER SEA on a venture of
trade; so they laid in a store of jewels and set forth from
Constantinople, crossing the Sea to SOLDAIA.[NOTE 2]
NOTE 1. - Baldwin II (de Courtenay), the last Latin Emperor of
Constantinople, reigned from 1237 to 1261, when he was expelled by Michael
Palaeologus.
The date in the text is, as we see, that of the Brothers' voyage across
the Black Sea. It stands 1250 in all the chief texts. But the figure is
certainly wrong. We shall see that, when the Brothers return to Venice in
1269, they find Mark, who, according to Ramusio's version, was born after
their departure, a lad of fifteen. Hence, if we rely on Ramusio, they
must have left Venice about 1253-54. And we shall see also that they
reached the Volga in 1261. Hence their start from Constantinople may well
have occurred in 1260, and this I have adopted as the most probable
correction. Where they spent the interval between 1254 (if they really
left Venice so early) and 1260, nowhere appears. But as their brother,
Mark the Elder, in his Will styles himself "whilom of Constantinople,"
their headquarters were probably there.
[Illustration: Castle of Soldaia or Sudak]
NOTE 2. - In the Middle Ages the Euxine was frequently called Mare Magnum
or Majus. Thus Chaucer: -
"In the GRETE SEE,
At many a noble Armee hadde he be."
The term Black Sea (Mare Maurum v. Nigrum) was, however, in use, and
Abulfeda says it was general in his day.
