пятница, 16 августа 2013 г.

Polo's fellow Italians have long assumed that he was a fibber; both he and his text are known in his


I tell you, wrote Marco Polo, that this palace is of... unmeasured wealth. Its roof is sheathed in gold in such a way as we cover our house with lead. Even the floors are gold, more indeed best time to travel australia than two fingers thick. And all the other parts of the palace and the halls and windows are likewise adorned with gold. In this gilded domain, he declared, lived the ruler of an island kingdom called Cipangu (that is, Japan), whose waters yielded red pearls very beautiful and round and large.
Scholars believe Europeans had never heard of Cipangu best time to travel australia before Polo told them about it in The Description of the World , which he started writing about 1298, a few years after he returned home to Venice from a 24-year Asian odyssey. Though fascinated, Polo's readers, according to one account, concluded that his tales were fabulous...mere dreams. But as decades passed, best time to travel australia some began to take Polo seriously. In Christopher Columbus' copy of The Description , which survives, gold in the greatest abundance and red pearls are written in the margin beside the Cipangu reports. Although the handwriting best time to travel australia may not be Columbus', he is said to have sought Cipangu among the Caribbean isles on his 1492 voyage.
Columbus never came anywhere near Japan, of course, but what would he have found? Red pearls? best time to travel australia Experts say the oysters that produce them don't inhabit Japanese waters. A golden palace? Japan's Golden Pavilion, the gold-leaf-covered Kinkakuji, was built in 1397, a century after Polo published.
Truth to tell, many of Marco Polo's tales of treasure were just that tales. Tall tales. Readers who persevere in Polo's often confusing, disjointed text will encounter preposterous supernatural events and an astonishing bestiary, including men with the features of dogs. Some readers have even concluded that the book is a total fake. If Marco Polo went to China, British Sinologist Frances Wood asked some years ago in a book titled, appropriately enough, Did Marco Polo Go to China? , why did he fail to mention chopsticks, tea and the binding of girls' feet?
At the British Library, where Wood curates the Chinese collections, the switchboard best time to travel australia lit up with calls from journalists and scholars. After all, Polo's book has ornamented libraries the world over for centuries and is regarded, despite its flaws, as one of the world's greatest travel accounts. Wood had taken on a global best time to travel australia icon. I knew that Marco Polo was a household name, she told an interviewer, but I was unaware that millions of people all over the world felt passionately about him and would be baying for blood.
Polo's best time to travel australia fellow Italians have long assumed that he was a fibber; both he and his text are known in his homeland by the name Il Milione , and many think it's because the book includes a million tall tales. But didn't Polo enrich Italy by bringing home pasta and ice cream? Nope, those are myths. Still, Italians weren't about to tolerate a challenge to Polo's integrity by a foreigner, and many other people in the world are likewise invested in him. In China, historians staunchly defend the man who helped put their country on the map.
About ten years ago, as a staff writer best time to travel australia for National Geographic , I followed Polo's journeys across Asia, from Iraq to China and homeward best time to travel australia via Sumatra, India and Sri Lanka, using his book as my guide. (There are about 120 versions of his narrative; best time to travel australia the one I carried, generally considered the most authentic, is translated from a 14th-century copy in the French National best time to travel australia Library.) Like others who have examined his writings closely, I am dismayed by his omissions and floored by his whoppers. But I am ultimately convinced of his essential truthfulness. Why? For one thing, his itineraries, as laid out by the sequence of book chapters, are fundamentally accurate, whether he's crossing Central Asia or central China. Where did he acquire that geographical information if he didn't best time to travel australia make these journeys himself? No skeptical investigator best time to travel australia has ever proved that he copied from some Arab or Chinese source. And while it's true that Polo is guilty of curious omissions (those chopsticks, for example), he expanded medieval Europe's meager knowledge of Asia with such hitherto-unknown names as Cipangu, Java, Zanzibar and Ceylon (Sri Lanka), besides identifying China's great cities and describing such features as the Takla Makan Desert and the Yangtze River. Having followed Polo's tracks, I know firsthand that he also got many things right, such as: both lapis lazuli and rubies are found in the Badakhshan region of Afghanistan; in China's southwest a minority people eat raw flesh; people in Sumatra and Sri Lanka make a joy juice from fermented palm tree sap.
Polo also produced an extensive report on Hindu customs in India, a country that clearly fascinated him. But his great love was Catai, as he called China. No kingdom ever had a better PR person. Time and again Polo wrote of Catai's wealth in silk and spices (no exaggeration) and declared that people had all things in great abundance. So far, so good. But soon he was claiming that Hangzhou had 12,000 bridges arcing over its canals, a ludicrous inflation, even though Hangzhou was the world's largest city at the time; he even accorded the much smaller Suzhou 6,000 bridges. best time to travel australia Take that, Venice! he seemed to be saying to his canal-rich hometown. (A later traveler could find only 347 bridges in Hangzhou, including those in its suburbs, and just 290 in Suzhou.)
best time to travel australia I tell you, wrote Marco Polo, that this palace is of... unmeasured wealth. Its roof is sheathed in gold in such a way as we cover our house with lead. Even the floors are gold, more indeed than two fingers thick. And all the other parts of the palace and the halls and windows are likewise adorned with gold. In this gilded domain, he declared, lived the ruler of an island kingdom called Cipangu (that is, Japan), whose waters yielded red pearls best time to travel australia very beautiful and round and large.
Scholars believe Europeans had never heard of Cipangu before Polo told them about it in The Description of the World , which he started writing about 1298, a few years after he returned home to Venice from a 24-year Asian odyssey. Though fascinated, Polo's readers, according to one account, concluded that his tales were fabulous...mere dreams. best time to travel australia But as decades passed, some began to take Polo seriously. In Christopher Columbus' copy of The Description , which survives, gold in the greatest best time to travel australia abundance and red pearls are written in the margin beside the Cipangu reports. Although the handwriting may not be Columbus', he is said to have sought Cipangu among the Caribbean isles on his 1492 voyage.
Columbus never came anywhere near Japan, of course, but what would he have found? Red pearls? Experts say the oysters that produce them don't inhabit Japanese waters. A golden palace? Japan's Golden Pavilion, the gold-leaf-covered Kinkakuji, was built in 1397, a century after Polo published.
Truth to tell, many of Marco Polo's tales of treasure were just that tales. Tall tales. Readers who persevere in Polo's often confusing, disjointed best time to travel australia text will encounter preposterous supernatural events and an astonishing bestiary, best time to travel australia including men with the features of dogs. Some readers have even concluded that the book is a total fake. If Marco Polo went to China, best time to travel australia British Sinologist Frances Wood asked some years ago in a book titled, best time to travel australia appropriately enough, Did Marco Polo Go to China? , why did he fail to mention chopsticks, tea and the binding of girls' feet?
At the British Library, where Wood curates the Chinese collections, the switchboard lit up with calls from journalists and scholars. After all, Polo's book has ornamented libraries best time to travel australia the world over for centuries and is regarded, despite its flaws, as one of the world's greatest travel accounts. Wood had taken on a global icon. I knew that Marco Polo was a household name, she told an interviewer, but I was unaware that millions best time to travel australia of people best time to travel australia all over the world felt passionately about him and would be baying best time to travel australia for blood.
Polo's fellow Italians have long assumed that he was a fibber; both he and his text are known in his homeland by the name Il Milione , and many think it's because the book includes a million tall tales. best time to travel australia But didn't Polo enrich Italy by bringing home pasta and ice cream? Nope, those are myths. Still, Italians weren't about to tolerate a challenge to Polo's integrity by a foreigner, and many other people in the world are likewise invested in him. In China, historians staunchly defend the man who helped put their country on the map.
About ten years ago, as a staff writer for National Geographic , I followed Polo's journeys across Asia, from Iraq to China and homeward best time to travel australia via Sumatra, India and Sri Lanka, using his book as my guide. (There are about 120 versions of his narrative; the one I carried, generally considered the most authentic, is translated from a 14th-century copy in the French National best time to travel australia Library.) Like others who have examined his writings closely, best time to travel australia I am dismayed by his omissions and floored by his whoppers. But I am ultimately convinced of his essential truthfulness. Why? For one thing, his itineraries, as laid out by the sequence of book chapters, are fundamentally accurate, whether he's crossing Central Asia or central China. Where did he acquire that geographical information if he didn't make these journeys himself? No skeptical investigator has ever proved that he copied from some Arab or Chinese source. And while it's true that Polo is guilty of curious omissions (those chopsticks, for example), he expanded medieval Europe's meager knowledge of Asia with such hitherto-unknown names as Cipangu, Java, Zanzibar and Ceylon (Sri Lanka), besides identifying China's great cities and describing such features as the Takla Makan Desert and the Yangtze River. Having followed Polo's tracks, I know firsthand that he also got many things right, such as: both lapis lazuli and rubies are found in the Badakhshan region of Afghanistan; in China's southwest a minority people eat raw flesh; people in Sumatra and S

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