Terra Incognita & World of the Imagination

When we think of the world of discovery, we often think of explorers and pioneers with a certain kind of romance. Their transmission into readable descriptions is what reaches us, the readers of those marvelous stories. Marco Polo may surprise us as one of the explorers or pioneers who later shaped the genre of travel literature.

Other writers, however, took a completely different approach to their literary efforts. This is the case with Sir John Mandeville, or much later Niccolao Manucci. Mandeville was a contemporary of Polo and both traveled to the Far East. Both men provided wonderful literary accounts of their journey. However, their approach to presenting their work to readers was fundamentally different.Exploring them trip, The key to understanding the early development of travelogues is their edition and public acceptance.

Marco Polo spent his adulthood traveling the Far East for the Mongol Empire. It was not at all unusual that some of these territories were known to other European travelers who traded along the Silk Road. Thus the Polo family traveled to the Far East, and from about 1260 young Marco began his journey to China.

There, he served the Mongol Empire for several years. After his return he arrived in Venice in 1296, where he was captured by the Genoese.Written by Polo trip, his description of his travels in Asia. He was able to accomplish this feat, at least in part, thanks to the Genoese Rusticheroda he met during his confinement in Pisa. Da Pisa knew the literary trends of the time in Europe. The resulting narrative might have been as alien and awe-inspiring to his readers as the magical and romantic tales of travel literature. Such wonders and images were regularly consumed by readers of the time.

Regardless of their intentions, trip It cannot be considered a travel book. At least, not what it was invented for. Polo published a nonchalant piece of human geography that failed to appeal to a general readership thirsting for his pleasure. His literary efforts dealt heavily with the political composition and depiction of peoples under Mongol rule. does not seem to be touched.

his explanation marvel What he encounters is fact, not his flair for wordiness or exaggeration. He described physical geography only sporadically and superficially. His focus was on describing the people, customs and governments of China and Southeast Asia. To complement this content, his style was plain and concise. The book was first published in French around 1300, but was not translated into English until 1579.

Sir John Mandeville was almost a contemporary of Marco Polo. Mandeville likewise traveled to the Far East and brought back an extraordinary compilation of stories. His travels through China revealed to his readers fantastic and dreamlike creatures, rich lands never seen before, and people with supernatural qualities. It may now seem silly to think that such an explanation could be taken at face value.

But the realm described in his works had never been seen or described by anyone the reader could expect to meet or become familiar with. is disputed by scholars — French abbot Jan de Lange appears to be a plausible but highly controversial candidate, as the author behind the pseudonym of John Mandeville. is specified.

Despite the author’s mystery, Mandeville’s work was more compelling than Polo’s. trip It complied with popular literary trends. In fact, Polo’s has almost fallen into oblivion as a victim of the fantastical prose literary craze of the time. Mandeville’s works have been translated into many European languages ​​and have been very popular since their first publication in 1356.

According to the literary trends of the time, his portrayals were works of romantic fantasy travel. It presents itself clearly as fiction without openly acknowledging it, making the reader an implicit accomplice in the mischief.Mandeville enjoyed great success with readers throughout Europe throughout his life. His name has certainly become a part of everyday conversation in many households.

As mentioned earlier, Marco Polo was little more successful than Mandeville.his trip Nevertheless, it was considered a worthy work for intellectual literacy classes. Working with Genoese acquaintances, Polo sought to adapt his work to the literary trends of his time. But the result is a banal, nonchalant tale of foreign geography. There are accurate descriptions of the places he visited, the people and their customs, and the government under which they were governed. It is a conscientious work of human geography. Such descriptions from hitherto unexplored places resulted from a feat many regarded as valuable knowledge.

Polo’s attempts were wise and thorough. He gave his name to the unseen with the same fervor as Mandeville.that is, he is his trip In as many improbable scenes as he could notice. An example of this can be seen in the text itself.

“They have wild elephants and lots of unicorns, almost smaller than elephants. [are] like an elephant”
(Marco Polo’s About Unicorns and Pygmies (Kingdom of Bassman) Benedetto. Marco Polo’s JourneyTaylor & Francis Group, 2004).

It would have been difficult to comprehend such creatures in the kingdom animal kingdom If you have never seen or heard of an Indonesian rhinoceros. Conversely, Polo continues to write some accounts as factual, evidence-based revelations. […]”(Id.). These final quotes, extracted from the same excerpt from the text, may seem to create an amusing dichotomy, especially in the way Polo presents his findings.

Marco Polo trip Contributing to the creation of the genre of travel literature

For these whimsical explanations and characterizations (and certainly for other reasons), Marco Polo’s trip It was initially dismissed as a charade of half-imaginary stories. It was many years later that attempts were made to bring the work into the wider literary market. A review of this work marked a new starting point in the later literary tradition. When considering the term “human geographic work” to describe his work, one must admit that this refers to its historical context. So this is how Polo’s contemporaries categorized their works. Furthermore, without ignoring at least some of the aforementioned context, trip Nothing more than a work of “human geography”.

When editors and readers later took a keen interest in Marco Polo’s writings, they not only reintroduced the work, but expanded the literary culture of the time.Marco Polo trip Created new literary genres within existing literary genres. Subsequent generations, through Marco Polo, reinvented the literature of ‘travel writing’.

It is indeed difficult to trace the evolution of literature from these distant times.if the author of The Journey of Sir John Mandeville Similarly, one cannot expect to appreciate Polo’s contribution to world literature. Nevertheless, we can captivate readers of the late Middle Ages to enjoy his efforts.Never dismissed as a by-product of editorial practice, his ingenuity and I have to admire your imagination.

It is worth noting that the European world desperately needed such kind of literature. Writings from both men were a distraction from war, epidemics, and perhaps, for some, the boredom of everyday life. For a long time his work was the favored work, and by far the most popular of the two.Also, his description marvel What he encountered was undoubtedly part of the formula to his success.

The population of Europe has been embroiled in, or dragged into, the Hundred Years’ War for some time, and several recent and recurring deadly epidemics have left many with little sense of security and stability. Indeed, life in Europe at the time had little to offer in terms of enjoying things outside the material world, if you’re lucky. Their joy was such that they could aspire.

Polo and Mandeville’s Journey: The Visible and the Amazing

The works of both Mandeville and Polo have survived to this day as historical relics and part of the intellectual history of medieval Europe, but the most significant works in history are the most memorable. You can clearly see that. that’s right, Marco Polo’s Journey It exhibits a resilience that few other publications possess. But he could have two reasons. A keen eye for the transnational facts that Europeans know, and an utter incompetence in approaching the literary market. Polo’s commercial missteps allowed it to unintentionally slip into one of the most famous names in history.

Mandeville, on the other hand, has had the opposite fate. Although his work successfully met the needs of its intended readers, his fantastical creatures and colorful lands faded from our memory and his work became a historical anecdote. His book, Historical Relics: Probably for Centuries. Both works have distinct merits and values. However, they seem to have crossed paths along the lines of their respective histories.