Captured during a naval battle between Venice and Genoa, Marco Polo spent his imprisonment dictating tales of his 24 years traveling the Mongol Empire to a fellow prisoner, the writer Rustichello da Pisa. The resulting book, known as 'The Travels of Marco Polo,' became one of the most influential travel accounts in history, shaping European imagination of Asia for centuries.
Marco Polo had left Venice as a teenager in 1271 with his father and uncle, traveling the Silk Road to the court of Kublai Khan, where he served the Mongol emperor for years as a trusted emissary. He witnessed the wealth of Cathay, the use of paper money, and cities larger and more sophisticated than anything in Europe.
Returning to Venice in 1295, Polo found himself swept into the perennial war between Venice and Genoa. Captured in a naval battle, he was thrown into a Genoese prison, where by chance he shared a cell with Rustichello da Pisa, a writer of romances.
Over months of captivity, Polo dictated his adventures, and Rustichello shaped them into a narrative blending fact, hearsay, and wonder. Skeptics for centuries doubted his most extravagant claims, but the book fueled European fascination with the East and reportedly inspired Christopher Columbus, who owned an annotated copy.