ABSTRACT
Christopher Columbus had a copy of Polo's Description of the World with him on his epic voyage, though the fact that he ended up on the other side of the world was not due solely to the difficulty of physically following in Polo's footsteps. Christopher Columbus' own copy of Marco Polo with marginal notes still survives in the Capitular and Columbus Library of Seville, but his scribbles do not appear to hint at massive disillusion. Impressed by the fantastic tales told by Marco Polo to pass the time, whether in a dungeon or other form of confinement, Messer Rustichello perhaps proposed a literary collaboration. Paul Pelliot's work on Marco Polo's vocabulary contains much reference to Persian and Arabic sources. Rashid al-Din's history of China in many instances paralleled Marco Polo's account. If Francesco Balducci Pegolotti could write a credible guide to merchant travel to China based entirely on second-hand information, Marco Polo could, too.
