Marco Polo: From Venice to Xanada. Bergrin L.

Marco Polo - a merchant, a researcher, an adventurer and traveler of the 13th century - was the first and, perhaps, the most famous European who made a long journey through Asia and laid the bridge between East and West. The wanderings led him to the borders of the world familiar then to Europe and beyond their limits along the dangerous silk path to the court of Hubilai-Khan, where he won the trust of the powerful ruler of the Mongol Empire. Having returned, the Venetian introduced compatriots to the cultural wealth of the East, thereby laying the beginning of the centuries -old hobby of Asia.

The first -class storyteller, Lawrence Bergrin created the most authoritative description of Marko Polo today, masterfully combining the genres of scientific research, biography and a waybill diary. Incredible Odyssey, which absorbed all the fantastic circumstances of the life of the offspring of a rich merchant family - from youth in Venice and traveling to Asia to returning to Europe and the writings of the book, the history of the spread and interpretation of which is no less dramatic than the path of its author - appears in carefully selected And bright details. Based on the solid sources and materials of his own travels along the route of Polo in China and Mongolia, Bergrin describes the life of a person who expanded the limits of knowledge and imagination of his contemporaries, and analyzes legends about him, separating the truth from fiction, and history from the myth. The book withstood many reprints, translated into 14 languages.

“Over time, I acquired the status of an intermediary on the exchange of cultural values, becoming one of those rare personalities whose extensive experience allows you to realize and convey the spirit of the era to subsequent generations. His culture was the culture of a traveler and a merchant and included many subcultures: the Mongolian, Chinese, culture of India and Asian tribes. His gaze stretched from Armenia to Zanzibar. His perception of these crops, especially the Chinese, remained the main source of information about them for Europeans until the 19th century. The world that Marco Polo studied has long been a thing of the past, but some of its features are amazingly modern. ” (Lawrence Bergrin)

This book is released in Russian in two episodes under the names “Marco Polo: from Venice to Xanada” (series “Historical interest”) and “History of famous trips: Marco Polo” (series “Series” Person ").