Item #4307510 Di Marco Polo e Degli Altri Viaggiatori Veneziani piu Illustri Dissertazioni. MARCO POLO, Placido ZURLA.
Di Marco Polo e Degli Altri Viaggiatori Veneziani piu Illustri Dissertazioni.
Di Marco Polo e Degli Altri Viaggiatori Veneziani piu Illustri Dissertazioni.
Di Marco Polo e Degli Altri Viaggiatori Veneziani piu Illustri Dissertazioni.
Di Marco Polo e Degli Altri Viaggiatori Veneziani piu Illustri Dissertazioni.
Di Marco Polo e Degli Altri Viaggiatori Veneziani piu Illustri Dissertazioni.
Di Marco Polo e Degli Altri Viaggiatori Veneziani piu Illustri Dissertazioni.

Di Marco Polo e Degli Altri Viaggiatori Veneziani piu Illustri Dissertazioni.

Venice: Gio. Giacomo Fuchs, 1818-1819.

Two volumes, quarto, with four folding maps; quarter vellum in antique style, original plain blue-grey wrappers bound in.

The earliest scholarly edition of Marco Polo

The first "modern" edition of Marco Polo, the inspiration for all explorers towards the east. His reports of his travels, whether factual or embroidered, provided Europeans not only with their first account of China, but also with a new standard in travelogue. A unique compilation of history, politics and accounts of territories uncharted by the west, his account was originally dictated to an acquaintance, Rusticiano, whilst he was being held prisoner in Genoa in 1299, following a naval defeat. His work was largely unknown in his lifetime, and first appeared in print in 1477 in Nuremberg, almost two hundred years after it was written.

The first "modern" edition of Marco Polo, the inspiration for all explorers towards the east. His reports of his travels, whether factual or embroidered, provided Europeans not only with their first account of China, but also with a new standard in travelogue. A unique compilation of history, politics and accounts of territories uncharted by the west, his account was originally dictated to an acquaintance, Rusticiano, whilst he was being held prisoner in Genoa in 1299, following a naval defeat. His work was largely unknown in his lifetime, and first appeared in print in 1477 in Nuremberg, almost two hundred years after it was written.

Subsequent editions were the source of various misprints and typographical errors, which were perpetuated for centuries, and which laid the foundation for speculation about the existence of a great continent to the south. The appearance of a promontory named "Beach" that appears on the earliest maps in the vicinity of northern Australia, stems from Polo's term "Locac", which probably describes Thailand. In Ramusio's edition of Polo, the term became "Lochac", and in the Basle edition, the term was further corrupted to "Beach". This name was then used by late-sixteenth-century and early-seventeenth-century cartographers to describe the northernmost coastline of "Terra Australis".

This first edition of Zurla's version of Marco Polo's travels was appropriately published in Polo's home city of Venice. Zurla, Cardinal Vicar of Rome, was an influential writer on medieval geography: his edition of Marco Polo is noteworthy as the first "modern" edition.

Condition Report: Paper patches covering ink stamps on each title-page, minor marginal stains to final few leaves and two of the maps, but generally fine condition.

Price (AUD): $4,850.00

US$3,186.33   Other currencies

Ref: #4307510

Condition Report