Rise of Medieval European Travel Literature

Timeline

1. 1290–1299Italian Peninsula · ItalyThe Travels of Marco Polo and similar exotic accounts spread in manuscript form across the Italian city-states. Merchants and churchmen learned of Far Eastern cities, products, and political systems through these texts, and travel literature became a bridge connecting Eurasian information.
2. 1298–1300Europe · EuropePolo-style travel accounts stimulated European interest in foreign geography, and together with missionary reports and merchant ledgers formed a late medieval knowledge-transmission network. Such texts later shaped the understanding of the East and the exploratory motives of navigators including Columbus.