POLO (MARCO)

La description géographique des provinces & villes plus fameuses de l'Inde Orientale, meurs, loix, & coustumes des habitans d'icelles, mesmement de ce qui est soubz la domination du grand Cham Empereur des Tartares, Paris, Vincent Sertenas, 1556

Footnotes

"A STORY OF ADVENTURE, AN ACCOUNT OF THE EXPERIENCES OF ONE OF THE GREATEST TRAVELLERS WHO EVER LIVED" (PMM) - the rare first French edition. The translation by François Guget appears to be based on the Latin version in Novus orbis regionum (1532); the first appearance of Marco Polo's narrative in print was the German-language edition of 1477.

Marco Polo "set out with his father and uncle in 1271 on a journey to the East. Starting from Acre the party travelled through Persia and the upper Oxus to the Pamir plateau, and then through Mongolia and the Gobi desert to the extreme north-west of China, reaching Shantung in 1275. Here they sojourned at the court of Kublai Khan until 1292, finally arriving back in Venice, after travelling through south-east Asia and southern India in 1295. During his stay in China, Marco Polo took an active part in the administration of the country and travelled widely in the Great Khan's service. He saw (or obtained knowledge of) large parts of China, northern Burma, Tibet, Japan, south-east Asia, the East Indies, Ceylon, southern India, Abyssinia, Zanzibar and Madagascar, Siberia and the Arctic" (PMM).

This French edition was simultaneously issued with variant titles and colophons by three booksellers: Vincent Sertenas (as here), in whose name the privilege was granted, Jehan Longis, and Estienne Groulleau, who may have been the printer.

Provenance: Jabert, inscription on front free endpaper with a few words in cypher; N. and J. Mavesand of Royal Botanical Garden, Paris, inscription on title.