Book Chapter

Marco Polo’s journey throughout the Mongol Yuan Empire, and his possible (or potential) encounters with Koryŏ of the Korean peninsula

  • Kang Hahn Lee

Marco Polo’s Writing of the World contains detailed description of his visit to the Mongol Yuan Empire, and his stay in Asia for almost two decades. During his travels, he never visited the Korean peninsula and made no reference to the Koryo dynasty which inhabited the region at the time. Yet there is a chance that he may have come across facets of the Koryo culture or quite possibly people from Koryo, as he was intrigued by certain commodities which Koryo people excelled at producing at the time, such as celadon with exquisite colors and nasij fabric made of ramie instead of silk. Polo also visited regions which the Korean peninsula received contacts from for the very first time in its existence, like the Mabar state on India’s east coast, and the Ilkhanate in West Asia.

  • Keywords:
  • Marco Polo,
  • Koryo,
  • celadon,
  • fabric,
  • Mabar,
+ Show More

Kang Hahn Lee

Academy of Korean Studies, Korea (the Republic of) - ORCID: 0009-0004-6296-5227

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  • Publication Year: 2025
  • Pages: 35-46

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Chapter Information

Chapter Title

Marco Polo’s journey throughout the Mongol Yuan Empire, and his possible (or potential) encounters with Koryŏ of the Korean peninsula

Authors

Kang Hahn Lee

Language

English

DOI

10.36253/979-12-215-0883-3.06

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

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