For centuries, people have been fascinated by the story of Marco Polo's exploration of China and the Venetian adventurer's name has become synonymous with the Far East.
While few will have read the 13th century book of his travels, even fewer will be ignorant of the name.
Academic debate over the veracity of Marco Polo's account of his meetings with the Mongol emperor Kublai Khan began long before the publicity generated by Coleridge's famous poem, Xanadu, in which "did Kublai Khan/ A stately pleasure dome decree", although the poet knew nothing of the place himself.
Did the Venetian himself know more? The conclusion reached by John Man in Xanadu (Bantam Press, $39.99, pbk) is that the book is riddled with inconsistencies and distortions but the more the account is investigated, the truer it rings.
That it was ghost-written by a medieval composer of romances has not helped the book's reputation for veracity, but details of Chinese history, topography and natural history are demonstrably correct.
Taking matters further, Man explored the route Polo - and his father and uncle, who often are overlooked - took across the Middle East through Mongolia to China and, almost by chance, discovered a Chinese archaeologist who has spent 15 years quietly digging the site of Xanadu.
As a result, more is known about Kublai Khan's summer capital and it fits with the things Polo described.
Man's conclusion is simple: while to the 21st-century world Marco Polo's account has little information value, the merchant deserves his illustrious reputation because he was the first to bring China into the real world.
Quite an epitaph.
- Geoffrey Vine is a Dunedin journalist and Presbyterian minister.
