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Was Marco Polo a mere teller of tall stories about foreign lands? Or was he
the millennium’s greatest contributor to European geographical knowledge? It’s
fashionable to downplay the well-travelled 14th-century merchant. But in
Marco Polo and the Discovery of the World, John Larner puts him back on his
pedestal as the first and most important inspiration for Europe’s eventual
conquest of the globe. Published by Yale University Press, £19.95, ISBN
0300079710.