Marco Polo - Laurence Bergreen [3]
Kublai Khan was, at the time, a half-real, half-legendary figure to most Europeans, who considered the Mongol Empire the most savage and dangerous realm on earth. Yet here, in Rustichello’s presence, was a man who had not only seen Kublai Khan but appeared to know him well, and who in his service had traveled from one end of Asia to the other, and beyond.
In Rustichello’s words, “Marco stayed with the Great Khan fully seventeen years; and in this time he never ceased to travel on special missions. For the Great Khan, seeing that Marco brought him such news from every country and conducted so successfully all the business on which he was sent, used to entrust him with the most interesting and distant missions.” Impressed, Rustichello continued, “The Great Khan was so well satisfied with his conduct of affairs that he held him in high esteem and showed him such favor and kept him so near his own person that the other lords were moved to envy. This is how it came to be that Marco observed more of this part of the world than any other man, because he traveled more widely in these outlandish regions than any man who was ever born, and also because he gave his mind more intently to observing them.”
The palazzo’s better-educated inmates composed poetry or spun elaborate tales of chivalry as a means of diversion. At times the prison resembled a particularly well-guarded literary colony populated with aristocratic writers and would-be writers. In their midst was Rustichello, a quick-witted scribe with a talent for flattery, constantly on the lookout for a story—an adventure, a romance, a battle—to beguile his aristocratic audience.
Hearing Marco Polo’s wondrous tales of the East, Rustichello realized he had come across the story of a lifetime, one of the most remarkable true tales ever told. Inevitably, the romance writer suggested to the world traveler that they collaborate on a popular account of Marco’s travels. Trying to inject a note of nonchalance into the grim circumstances that had led to the creation of their masterpiece, Rustichello explains, “When he was staying in the prison of Genoa because of the war, not wishing to be idle, he thought he ought to compile this book for the enjoyment of readers.”
Marco knew well the uses of adversity, and had been turning them to his advantage during the whole of his extraordinary life. Here was his chance to memorialize his adventures. To refresh his memory, he sent for the records of his journey, and the collaborators set to work on a “Description of the World” as experienced by Marco Polo. It would come to be known simply as his Travels.
BOOK ONE
Europa
CHAPTER ONE
The Merchants of Venice
Then all the charm
Is broken—all that phantom-world so fair
Vanishes, and a thousand circlets spread….
SHE HID from her enemies amid a seductive array of islands, 118 in all. Damp, dark, cloistered, and crowded, she perched on rocks and silt. Fortifications and spectacular residences rose on foundations of pinewood piles and Istrian stone. In Marco Polo’s Venice, few edifices—with the exception of one huge Byzantine basilica and other large churches—stood entirely straight; most structures seemed to rise uncertainly from the water.
Marco Polo came of age in a city of night edging toward dawn; it was opaque, secretive, and rife with transgressions and superstitions. Even those who had lived their entire lives in Venice became disoriented as they wandered down blind alleys that turned without warning from familiar to sinister. The whispers of conspiracy and the laughter of intimacy echoed through narrow passageways from invisible sources; behind dim windows, candles and torches flickered discreetly. In