Book Chapter

La Cina scopre Marco Polo

  • Federico Masini

The paper recalls the various phases in the diffusion of knowledge about Marco Polo’s journey. It especially highlights his later discovery in China, which occurred only during the eighteenth century and was made by Protestant missionaries. At the same time, also in Italy his name began to be remembered again, thanks to our first Ambassador to China, who indicated Marco Polo as a champion of the Italian presence in East Asia. Thus, it contributed to the spreading of his fame also in Italy. We can thus appreciate a few episodes of such a history, in Italy and in China, rich in misunderstandings, which, however, turned the Venetian into the symbol of the modern traveler.

  • Keywords:
  • Italy,
  • China,
  • Marco Polo,
+ Show More

Federico Masini

Sapienza University of Rome, Italy - ORCID: 0000-0002-1064-8930

  1. Antonucci, Davor. 2009. “Le colonie mercantili occidentali in Cina nel Medioevo: uomini d’affari in partibus Catagii.” Sulla Via del Catai 3, 3: 11-21.
  2. Antonucci, Davor. 2024. “Marco Polo nella letteratura missionaria dei secoli XVI-XIX.” In Marco Polo. Storia e mito di un viaggio e di un libro, a cura di Samuela Simion, ed Eugenio Burgio, 355-71. Roma: Carocci.
  3. Appelius, Marco. 1926. Cina. Milano: Alpes.
  4. A Reminiscence of Canton, June 1859. 1866. London: Harrison and Sons.
  5. Baldelli Boni, Giovanni Battista, a cura di. 1827. Viaggi di Marco Polo illustrati e commentati dal conte Gio. Batista Baldelli preceduti dalla storia delle relazioni vicendevoli dell’Europa e dell’Asia. Firenze: da’ torchi di Giuseppe Pagani.
  6. Bertuccioli, Giuliano, e Federico Masini. 20142 (1996). Italia e Cina. Roma: L’Asino d’oro.
  7. De Giorgi, Laura. 2022. “An Italian Hero for China. Reading Marco Polo in the Fascist Era.” In Rereading Travellers to the East. Shaping Identities and Building the Nation in Post-unification Italy, edited by Beatrice Falcucci, Emmanuele Giusti, and Davide Trentacoste, 161-80. Firenze: Firenze University Press.
  8. Gray, John Henry. 1875. Walks in the City of Canton. Hong Kong: De Souza & Co.
  9. Gu, Weimin. 2006. “Gli studi su Marco Polo in Cina (1874-1995).” In Marco Polo 750 anni. Il viaggio. Il libro. Il diritto, a cura di Federico Masini, Franco Salvatori, e Sandro Schipani, 317-47. Roma: Tiellemedia Editore.
  10. Hong, Jun 洪鈞. 1937 (1897). Yuanshi yiwen zhengbu元史譯文證補 (Seguito alla traduzione della storia Yuan). Beijing: Shangwu yinshuguan商務印書館.
  11. Huang, Shijian 黄时鉴. 1997. Dong Xiyang kao meiyue tongji zhuan東西洋考每月統記傳 (Eastern Western Monthly Magazine). Beijing: Zhonghua shuju.
  12. Le Goff, Jacques. 2000. “The Medieval West and the Indian Ocean: An Oneiric Horizon.” In Facing Each Other, The World’s Perception of Europe and Europe’s Perception of the World, edited by Anthony Pagden, 189-200. London: Routledge.
  13. Li, Changlin 李长林. 1990. “Guoren jieshao yu yanjiu ‘Make Boluo youji’ shiyu heshi?”《国人介绍与研究〈马可 • 波罗游记〉始于何时?(“Quando i cinesi hanno conosciuto e iniziato a studiare il Viaggio di Marco Polo?”) Shijie shi yanjiu Dongtai世界史研究动态 10: 40-1.
  14. Lin, Yuanbiao 林元彪. 2012. “Wei Yi de fanyi” 魏易的翻译 (“Le traduzioni di Wei Yi.”) Waiguo jiaoxuelilun yu shijian外语教学理论与实践 3: 91-7, 70.
  15. Ma, Xiaolin, ed Elisabetta Ragagnin. 2024. “Il Devisement dou monde e la ricerca scientifica in Cina e in Mongolia.” In Marco Polo Storia e mito di un viaggio e di un libro, a cura di Samuela Simion, ed Eugenio Burgio, 339-52. Roma: Carocci.
  16. Marsden, William. 1818. The Travel of Marco Polo, a Venetian, in the Thirteenth Century: being a Description, by that early traveller, of remarkable places and things, in the Eastern Parts of the Word. Translated from the Italian with Notes, by William Marsden. London: Cox and Baylis.
  17. Mayers, William, Frederik. 1867. The Treaty Ports of China and Japan, London and Hong Kong, Hongkong: A. Shortrede and Co.
  18. Pasini, Lodovico, a cura di. 1847. I viaggi di Marco Polo veneziano tradotti per la prima volta dall’originale francese di Rusticiano di Pisa e corredati d’illustrazioni e di documenti da Vincenzo Lazari. Venezia: Coi Tipi di Pietro Naratovich.
  19. Polo, Marco. 1913. Yuandai keqing Mage Boluo youji 元代客卿马哥博罗游记 (Il Racconto di viaggio del funzionario straniero di epoca Yuan Marco Polo), tradotto da Yi Wei. Beijing: Zhengmeng yinshuju 北京正蒙印書局.
  20. Vinci, Renata. 2015. “L’immagine dell’Italia nella stampa cinese di epoca tardo-Qing. Il ruolo dello Shenbao 申報 (1872-1911).” PhD diss. Università “Sapienza” di Roma.
  21. The American Register. 1881. October, 15, 1881.
  22. Yule, Henry, and Henri Cordier. 19213 (1871). The Book of Ser Marco Polo, the Venetian Concerning the Kingdoms and Marvels of the East [with] Supplementary Volume: Ser Marco Polo: Notes and Addenda… Containing the Results of Recent Research and Discovery. London: John Murray.
  23. Zhong Xi. 1874. Zhong Xi wen jian lu 中西聞見錄 (East West News), n. 22, April 1874, ff. 6r-7r.
PDF
  • Publication Year: 2025
  • Pages: 69-79

XML
  • Publication Year: 2025

Chapter Information

Chapter Title

La Cina scopre Marco Polo

Authors

Federico Masini

Language

Italian

DOI

10.36253/979-12-215-0883-3.11

Peer Reviewed

Publication Year

2025

Copyright Information

© 2025 Author(s)

Content License

CC BY-SA 4.0

Metadata License

CC0 1.0

Bibliographic Information

Book Title

Il Milione nel tempo tra Asia ed Europa: Marco Polo nelle letterature medievali e contemporanee

Book Subtitle

Atti del Convegno Internazionale (Siena, 7–8 novembre 2024) e del Seminario “700 anni di Marco Polo” (Firenze, 11 dicembre 2024)

Editors

Paola Mocella

Peer Reviewed

Number of Pages

178

Publication Year

2025

Copyright Information

© 2025 Author(s)

Content License

CC BY-SA 4.0

Metadata License

CC0 1.0

Publisher Name

Firenze University Press

DOI

10.36253/979-12-215-0883-3

ISBN Print

979-12-215-0882-6

eISBN (pdf)

979-12-215-0883-3

eISBN (epub)

979-12-215-0884-0

Series Title

ConTesti medievali. Studi, ricerche e fonti

0

Fulltext
downloads

0

Views

Export Citation

1,465

Open Access Books

in the Catalogue

3,045

Book Chapters

5,278,226

Fulltext
downloads

5,356

Authors

from 1161 Research Institutions

of 66 Nations

75

scientific boards

from 403 Research Institutions

of 45 Nations

1,314

Referees

from 404 Research Institutions

of 39 Nations