The final journey with Marco Polo.

We are the majority of the way through our Bob Jones University World History study and that lead us back to studying the explorers one last time.

First up, Marco Polo.

We have learned quite a bit already and you can find my blog post from 2011 is here.  I cannot believe that was four years ago.

Factoids about Marco Polo:

~Marco was born in Venice, Italy around 1254.  His exact day of birth has never been confirmed.  Some historians are still debating the location he was born.

~His mother died when Marco was young, and his father was Niccolo Polo.

~His father and uncle, Maffeo, were jewel merchants.  They sailed all the way to China in 1266 to set up a trading business.  They were among the first ever explorers to travel to Mongolia and China.

~Niccolo and Maffeo met Kublai Khan, the Mongol prince.  Khan wanted the Pope to send 100 European priests to come to China and teach Christianity.

~Marco Polo accompanied his father and uncle to Asia around 1271 when he was 17 years old.  Their journey took four years just to get to Asia.  They ended up staying for 17 years.

~When Marco returned to Venice, he was thrown in jail by the people living in Genoa siting conflict between Genoa and Venice.  He was  44 years old at that time.

~Lucky for history that Marco was in jail.  It lead to the creation of his book called The Travels of Marco Polo.  This book was dictated by Marco and transcribed by a prisoner named Rustichello da Pisa.

~Marco was declared one of the greatest storytellers of his time because he would describe a million things about his adventures.  People called him Il Milione which loosely translates to one million lies.

~Marco described what would be sheep in his book and in later years, one species of sheep would be named the Marco Polo sheep.  

~Marco told many stories about the Silk Road in China.

~This book, amazingly at that time, was printed in Latin, Italian, and French.

~ This book had an impact on Christopher Columbus so much so that when he set out on his journey to Asia, he took the book with him.

~Marco was released from prison around 1299 and in 1300, he married Donata Badoer.  They had three daughters.  (Bellela, Fantina, and Moretta).  I could not find a lot of info on the daughters.

~Marco died on January 8, 1324 at the age of 69 from an illness.  Doctors could not treat his illness.

~He is buried at the Church of San Lorenzo in Venice, Italy.

And with that, we say farewell to Marco Polo!