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In the centuries after Marco Polo’s death, his book became more famous. People translated The description of the World into English, Latin, German, and other languages. We still have 110 of these early books and they are all different. Many of them have pages of beautiful pictures. But the artists did not always read Marco’s descriptions very carefully and the pictures sometimes showed strange and unusual animals!In the fourteenth and fifteenth century the book gave people in Europe the best description of the countries of the East as this time. Marco Polo opened up the world for many readers and he helped them to see into the daily lives of people far away.The book was also very important because of his wonderful descriptions of the Mongol Empire and his window into the life of Kublai Khan. No later travellers could ever write a book like The description of the world. When Kublai Khan died in 1294 and his empire began to fall, it was no longer possible for Europeans to journey along the Silk Road to the East.Marco Polo wrote about new things for Europeans at the time too. He described making silk and using gunpowder. Through him they also learned about rhinoceroses, paper money, and the fast messengers of the Mongol Empire. And of course, Marco also took news about life in Europe to China, and he explained to the Khan about the Pope and the Christian religion. The description of the World was a useful book as well as an interesting one. Merchants later read all about the markets on the Silk Road and they learned from Marco about the best goods to buy and sell in different cities.In the next centuries, map markets in Spain and Italy also carefully read Marco’s book. They put a lot of the places from his descriptions onto their new maps for travellers, traders, and sailors.We know that one famous sailor from Genoa later read The description of the World and we still have his book today with his notes all over it. This man was very interested in Marco’s exciting stories of Cipangu – Japan – and all the gold there. He wanted to open up a trade route to Japan for European merchants.And what was this sailor’s name? Christopher Columbus. He began to sail west around the world because he wanted to arrive in Japan from the East. He did not find the islands of Japan, of course, but that is different story.
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