La description du monde

Texte et traduction de la redaction latine Z

by Marco Polo and edited and translated by Michel Quereuil, commentaries by Michel Quereuil

Book cover: La description du monde

Extent: 624 pages

Publisher: Les Belles Lettres

Subjects: Medieval Studies

Series: Auteurs latin du Moyen age

Language: French

Paperback (Published)

(November 2024)

ISBN: 9782251455853

5.16 x 7.44 inches

Price: $74.00

In stock

Attributed to Marco Polo, son and nephew of the Venetian merchants Nicolo and Mafeo Polo, written at the very end of the 13th century , the text entitled the Devisement of the World in the oldest manuscripts is in fact, according to a tradition probably close to the truth, the fruit of a collaboration. After more than twenty years of a voyage with multiple adventures, Marco, prisoner at the end of the naval battle of Curzola, the current Croatian island of Korcula, is imprisoned in Genoa. There he meets a fellow prisoner, a writer by profession, the Pisan Rustichello, author of an Arthurian novel. Day after day, he recounts to him in detail the adventures and various experiences lived during these long years spent outside his homeland, charging his partner, with a view to dissemination, to make use of the rich material thus collected to make a book. This collaboration between Marco and Rustichello, his presumed “pen,” thus gave birth to the famous work that has come down to us through various “versions” or “redactions” emanating from a lost original. The work, initially written in French, quickly achieved success. It was transmitted through several versions or redactions, Franco-Italian, French, Italian, Tuscan, or Venetian. Finally, the text was translated several times into Latin, a lingua franca that allowed it to be more widely disseminated in medieval Europe, particularly among ecclesiastical circles. One of these translations is particularly noteworthy and stands out from all the others due to the number and richness of its contributions. It is the one we are publishing today in this volume.

  • By (author) Marco Polo
  • Commentaries by Michel Quereuil
  • Edited and translated by Michel Quereuil