A brilliant new translation of one of the greatest travel books ever written: Marco Polo's foundational account of his travels to the East, in a collector's edition with a cloth cover. Marco Polo was the most famous traveler of his time. His travels began in 1271 with a visit to China, after which he served Kublai Khan on many diplomatic missions. On his return to the West, he was captured in war and met Rustichello of Pisa, with whom he collaborated to write this book. His narrative of the travels offers a fascinating glimpse of what he encountered abroad: unknown religions, customs, and societies, the spices and silks of the East, precious jewels, exotic vegetation, and the wild treasures of faraway lands. Recalling a distant and remote world with color and immediacy, Marco's book revolutionized western ideas about the then unknown East and remains one of the greatest travel narratives of all time. For this edition - the first completely new translation of the 'Travels' into English in over fifty years - Nigel Cliff has returned to the original sources of the manuscript to produce a fresh, authentic new version. The volume also contains valuable editorial material, including an introduction that describes the world as it was on the eve of Polo's departure and examines the fanciful notions the West had developed about the East. Marco Polo was born in 1254, joined his father on a trip to China in 1271. He spent the next twenty years traveling in the service of Kublai Khan. There is evidence that Marco traveled extensively in the Mongol Empire and is quite certain that he visited India. He wrote his famous 'Travels' while imprisoned in Genoa.