Author: Andrew Conte

Marco Polo is renowned for his travels across the Medieval world, but notable, he would never have used a navigational tool such as the Ebstorf mappamundi during his travels. A concept such as using a map for directional information was not standardized and most travelers would resort to hiring guides or consulting manuscripts akin to those of Marco Polo’s for navigation. Because of this, mapping Polo’s travel route on an incomplete, biased, and overall incomprehensive is a argues endeavor since the creator of the map was not focused on geography, place, location, or even realistic accuracy. Instead, the Ebstorf map is filled with European ideas of the eastern world based on classical literature and Biblical overtones. Additionally, parts of Asia are completely unknown and not mapped at all. It is not even just Asia that is at risk. Domestically, countries are shrunk down to unproportionale sizes or in the case of Italy, Marco Polo’s native land, represented as sole city.

In comparison to a modern map, the Ebstorf map falls phenomenally short at being a device a traveler can use to orient themselves. The most notable difference is the overall size. While I had initially only plotted out Polo’s journey through mainland China on a modern map, doing as such on the Ebstorf map was simply impossible. To begin, China is not labeled as a definitive place on the map. The general direction of Asia is north of the “T” aspect of the map, dividing the world into three segments, leaves very little room to definitively mark each city Polo noted in his travels. Instead, I traced Polo’s journey starting from his departure in Venice. As mentioned previously, Italy is not represented geographically, but rather as a large circle of churches with a lion nearby comprise the city of Rome. Rome is reprehensive of a larger theme of the map: religion and its influence on the physical landscape of the world. Italy is only represented as Rome because of its ties with the Vatican and the Holy Sea. In contrast, Polo’s trail on a modern map shows only factual information of where he traveled and says nothing to how medieval people such as Polo would view the rest of the world.

The Ebstorf map puts into conversation European ideas of religion with the locations of places, showing how God and His Kingdom are everywhere in the mortal world, functioning more as the “medieval European’s view of the world” opposed to what it realistically looks like. Marco Polo reflects this in his accounts of his journey. Every place he goes, Polo mentions Christianity or how the area he is currently traveling through differs from the traditional Christian values. For instance, the second area plotted on the map is Jerusalem, which is notably one of the largest icons on the map, but also in the center of the whole world. Jerusalem is the Holy City, one of the most significant cities in the Christian world, so it being in the center of the world further supports how medieval map makers were influenced by the religion at the time. Other locations like Ayas, Saba, and the Grave of Saint Thomas, while not explicitly shown on the map can be located through iconography of Christian elements. In particular, Saba, the city where one of the three magi who came and bore gifts to the baby Jesus, is reportedly buried there, with the other two buried in surrounding locations. Saba is not on the map, but a turret where a plume of fire is spitting out at the top resembles the castle Polo talks about where “fire is worshipped”. The symbolism of the castle standing in for any geographic location or even a name is representative of how the map was “made for Europeans by Europeans”.  Inversely, areas of the world such as Myanmar are not with any definitive characteristics. The boarders of the map consist of mythical and misshapen people which fit the medieval narrative of not knowing what is beyond the gates of their own world. Polo “visits” such a place when he travels to the city of Mein, in Myanmar. There, Polo encounters what the Ebstof map considers “the boarder of civilization and humanity” and makes his journey seem like he has traveled across planes into a land of chaos and magic.

Marco Polo’s tales of travel were some of the most popular in the medieval world and even in the present day. His travel accounts give insight into how travelers from Europe would view the world and then bring back their discoveries and share them with others. This in turn influences how medieval map makers would style their maps, creating the world in the image of how a European would view it since that was all the information they had to base their designs off.

MAP: https://uploads.knightlab.com/storymapjs/fbe66306001392d57a9e7aec871afb8a/ebstorf-map/index.html

The perception of race in Marco Polo’s Medieval travels is a complex and needless to say, very misguided. In particular, I wish to discuss race in Japan and how it corelated with cartography.

To begin, Marco Polo’s “adventure” through Japan simply did not happen. The account of the land is horrifically inaccurate and there is no proof other than his own word that he traveled there. The way in which Polo describes Japan is comparable to a fictional land of horror like one from the popular anime series “Attack on Titan (AoT)”. The people of Japan are similar to the titan creatures, an exaggerated, misshapen, gigantic  mutation of humans. These titans live exclusively on an excluded island and eat the regular inhabitants. Similarly, Polo describes most “tribes” of the Japanese as deformed cannibals who are unidentifiable between male and female (again just like the titans in Aot).

I believe that Marco Polo bases his descriptions of the Japanese off of the medieval Mappamudies that would have been circulating throughout Italy in his life time. Most people except for those wealthy enough to travel would never have any exposure to other cultures/races and would only hear about them through stories (like in the bible) or ancient myths like Gog and Magog. In these stories warped adaptations of other races would be put to paper on maps. So even though Marco Polo never went to Japan he still made those claims based on the knowledge he was working with.

In this post I want to discuss how Marco Polo’s travel through India and China shows the evolving style of travel narratives/accounts. When we first started this class with Ibn Fadlan, his narrative of the “Land of Darkness” has a very personal feel to the story. While this has been the base line for our class, I want to put it into conversation with Benjamin of  Tudela. While Benjamin  still has his personal notes on his journey (specifically race, which I will discuss next blog post) it is not the same as Fadlan. We see that both the travel narrative and the travel account are blooming at very similar times alongside one another. How does this connect to Marco Polo? Polo is a culmination of the two ideas of what a travel text looks like. Polo (or Rustichello) blends the impersonal strictly “factual” (or as factual as one can get with personal bias obscuring the world) such as the four qualities that belongs to the people of the Khans while still talking about his own stories during his travels. We see that the idea of a travel text has evolved not only to show people back at home (who could afford to read the text)  serves to inform people of foreign areas (or also reinforce their ideas of what they want to believe) but also to fill their heads with mystical stories of wonder. The factual evidence begins with writers such as Benjamin of  Tudela who was very goal focused. Additionally, it is only natural to assume the human condition will add in it’s own perceptions of the world based on how the individual was raised. This can be seen with writers such as Ibn Fadlan.

Wrapping up thoughts on Marco Polo

As last time, most of what will be covered in this post will be what we discussed in class, specifically, on the travels of Polo from China to “Japan” and India, and the influences of Rustecello. There was a clear and definitive shift in the tone of the writing in the last chapter. Marco Polo becomes considerably more deeming of the people he encounters. Some notable facts he points out are the lack of clothes the farther away he gets from the Khan’s domain.  Additionally, he explains how these people are cannibals and eat the dead if they happen upon them. While there is still mention of goods that these people produce, and the general format of “Use paper money, are idolaters,  burn their dead, and are loyal to the Khan” is still somewhat in place,  Polo begins to abandon it in favor of the more mystical/ foreign stories he wants to tell. The reason for this can be explained by one of two options. The first (and more probable) is that Rustecello wanted to add details that would shock readers and further promote the idea that Asia was a mysterious land. This may be since on Polo’s return home, he had less to talk about. This being true, Rustecello might want to add detail to make the ending more engaging and also promote his romance style writing. The other possibility is that Marco Polo wanted to be as relentless as he was in the final chapters, but because of his ties to the Khan and the potential risk to his life by the Khan, if he demonized the Khan’s kingdom was enough to sway him not to discredit him.

Google Earth Link: https://earth.google.com/earth/d/1v7kiuzXSZ4p4Aypj01Zrl8P6ZBQ6v2wK?usp=sharing

***I am using a different translation of the text, if some city names are not familiar, it is because my version of the text is weird. Thank you for understanding!***

Red: Major Cities Kanbalu (Beijing) and Kin-sai (Hangzhou)

The red markers indicate major cities. These are distinctive cities that Polo pays extra attention to. Some notable qualities of both is that a person of great power and high imperial distinction lives there (such as the Khan), the city is large and has a great population, there is a bountiful trade market in the city, there is notable architecture, the livestock and goods are very valuable, and finally that the economy of the city and specifically the treasure belonging to the Khan. These cities serve as capitals to either the region or greater territory.

Yellow: Chan-glu (Cangzhou), Tin-gui (Changzhou), Yan-gui (Yangzhou), Non-king (Nanjing),  Sin-gui (Suzhou), Kin-sai (Hangzhou)

The yellow markers signify cities or regions that Marco Polo pays special attention to because of their economic value and output into the trade market. For instance, Chan-glu is one of his first stops going down the eastern coast of China. Polo notes the great amount of salt they produce and how they are able to harvest it from the salt-water in that area. Another notable city Polo talks about is Yan-gui which is notable for the arms and other military goods it produces for the greater area. Polo notes that because this city is so good at producing means for war, many soldiers are stationed in that part of Cathay (China).

Blue: Kara-moran (Yellow River), Singui-matu (Jining),  and The Great River Kiang (Yangtze River)

The blue markers are waypoints for any location Marco Polo travelled to that has considerable geography, specifically for boat travel and trade. The two biggest examples are Kara-moran and The Great River Kiang. Both are notable to Polo becasue of their great size which allows for many boats to sail to different parts of Cathay.  Specifically with the Kara-moran, Polo notes boats carrying their loads of goods to a port only a mile from the sea that can hold up to 15,000 boats. Additionally, the source for the water in the Kara-moran is supposed to be under the control of Prestor John, the mythical Christian king of the East.

As we discussed in class, Marco Polo’s book is a dramatized version of the truth.  While we have deemed this book a travel account, because of its less “character-focused” narrative, it is still a story. While Polo was in prison, he recounted his adventures to the writer Rustichello. Because of Rustichello’s “liberal” flair, he added to the book the experiences of Marco Polo may be overly excessive. Nonetheless, it should be noted, the sheer display of grandeur that is the kingdom of the Great Khan should not be seen to differ too far from the truth. Polo goes on for pages about the splendor of each castle the Khan has, along with all the riches that come with them.  Polo goes on for pages about the decor of the area and tries hard to relate the sheer amount of marvels that he has seen to the reader. In addition to the material wonders, Polo is equally impressed by the number of people within the Khan’s great dining hall.  With each person, Polo is convinced of the strong community the Khan has made around the imperial domain.

What we can infer from this information is that Polo (as noted in the previous post and in class) is obsessed with material culture since he himself is a merchant and tradesman. However, what is more impressive is Polo’s wonder and admiration for the community of the people serving the Great Khan. Polo comes from a divided Italy that is warring with itself. For him to see a vast sweeping kingdom such as the Khan’s, that is also stable, shows how he can admire another culture based on its values, even though it differs greatly from the religious values he holds.