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Benjamin B. Olshin - The Mysteries of the Marco Polo Maps - 9780226149820 - V9780226149820
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The Mysteries of the Marco Polo Maps

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Description for The Mysteries of the Marco Polo Maps Hardcover. While Marco Polo's writings would go on to inspire the likes of Christopher Columbus, scholars have long debated their veracity. Now, there's new evidence: a collection of fourteen little-known maps and related documents said to have belonged to the family of Marco Polo himself. The author offers an analysis of these artifacts. Num Pages: 176 pages, 13 colour plates, 23 halftones, 3 line drawings. BIC Classification: 1DST; 3H; HBJD; HBLC; PDX; RGV. Category: (G) General (US: Trade). Dimension: 236 x 156 x 18. Weight in Grams: 450.
In the thirteenth century, Italian merchant and explorer Marco Polo traveled from Venice to the far reaches of Asia, a journey he chronicled in a narrative titled Il Milione, later known as The Travels of Marco Polo. While Polo's writings would go on to inspire the likes of Christopher Columbus, scholars have long debated their veracity. Now, there's new evidence connected to this historical puzzle: a very curious collection of fourteen little-known maps and related documents said to have belonged to the family of Marco Polo himself. In The Mysteries of the Marco Polo Maps, historian of cartography Benjamin B. Olshin offers the first credible book-length analysis of these artifacts, charting their course from obscure origins in the private collection of Italian-American immigrant Marcian Rossi in the 1930s; to investigations of their authenticity by the Library of Congress, J. Edgar Hoover, and the FBI; to the work of the late cartographic scholar Leo Bagrow; to Olshin's own efforts to track down and study the Rossi maps. Are the maps forgeries, facsimiles, or modernized copies? Did Marco Polo's daughters - whose names appear on several of the artifacts - preserve in them geographic information about Asia first recorded by their father? Or did they inherit maps created by him? If the maps have no connection to Marco Polo, who made them, when, and why? Regardless of the maps' provenance, Olshin's tale takes readers on a journey into Italian history, the age of exploration, and the wonders of cartography.

Product Details

Format
Hardback
Publication date
2014
Publisher
University Of Chicago Press
Condition
New
Number of Pages
176
Place of Publication
, United States
ISBN
9780226149820
SKU
V9780226149820
Shipping Time
Usually ships in 7 to 11 working days
Ref
99-1

About Benjamin B. Olshin
Benjamin B. Olshin is associate professor of philosophy and the history and philosophy of science and technology at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. He lives in Philadelphia, PA.

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