Polo, Marco:

$60,000 · Offered by William Reese Company

HISTORIA DE LAS GRANDEZAS Y COSAS MARAUILLOSAS DE LAS PROUINCIAS ORIENTALES. SACADO DE MARCO PAULO VENETO, Y TRADUZIDA DE LATIN EN ROMANCE, Y ANADIDA EN MUCHAS PARTES POR DON MARTIN DE BOLEA Y ... A rare early 17th-century Spanish edition of Marco Polo's description of his journey across Asia in the late 13th century, one of the most significant and resonant travel accounts in the history of human endeavor, and a key text in the perception in Europe of the East during the late Middle Ages and the Renaissance. This edition, printed in Zaragoza in 1601, is the first edition of the Spanish translation by humanist Martin Abarca de Bolea y Castro of Marco Polo's travel narrative, which replaced the antiquated Spanish version first printed by Cromberger in Seville, 1503. Bolea y Castro, the son of the vice-chancellor of Spain under Charles V and Phillip II, was a scion of one of Aragon's leading families. A lover of literature and humanist ideology, with a predilection for numismatics, Bolea y Castro spent some time serving in Spain's military, although the exact length of his service is not known. Interestingly, this rare translation is his only prose work.Born into a prominent Venetian trading family, Marco Polo (1254–1324) departed with his father and uncle toward the East in 1271, travelling through Syria, Jerusalem, Turkey, Persia, and India, to China and the court of Kublai Khan. Marco Polo became a favorite of the Khan and travelled throughout China over the next fifteen yea

Found via Rare Books Intel, a search across rare-book dealers, auction houses and marketplaces worldwide.