Intro

Hello and Welcome to this episode of the podcast, "The Mnemonic Tree", where we add a single mnemonic leaf to our Tree of Knowledge.

I’m Jans your Mnemonic Man and today's episode will be on the famous Italian explorer Marco Polo.

Beginning his epic trip in 1271 when he was just 17 years old, Marco Polo set out with his father Niccolo and his Uncle Maffeo hoping to reach the court of Kublai Khan. Ironically his father and uncle had just come back from China after meeting with Kublai Khan and travelling the world. They had actually travelled since Marco Polo’s birth and thus this was the first time that Marco Polo had met both his dad and uncle. Interestingly history barely remembers Niccolo or Maffeo who were probably two of the most travelled humans on the planet at the time. Just goes to show, it pays to write a book!

Travelling along the Silk Road and encountering many dangers along the way it took three and a half years to arrive at the summer palace of Kublai Khan. Here he became close with the emperor Kublai Khan due to his erudite capabilities having learnt several languages and four written alphabets. This led to several positions, becoming Khan’s right-hand man and advisor.

After more than 16 years in China Khan was resistant in letting them go because of their value, however conceded when it was arranged for them to escort the Mongolian princes, Kokachin west to be married to a Persin Khan.

He did return to Venice however, right in the middle of a war between Venice and Genoa where he was captured and imprisoned, where he then had the time, to pen his book with the help of his cell mate Rustichello.

Today’s mnemonic will be on Marco Polo’s top five discoveries.

So, with no further ado, we will begin with a summary from Wikipedia.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Marco_Polo_Mosaic_from_Palazzo_Tursi.jpg

Wikipedia Summary

Marco Polo (/ˈmɑːrkoʊ ˈpoʊloʊ/ ⓘ, Venetian: [ˈmaɾko ˈpolo], Italian: [ˈmarko ˈpɔːlo] ⓘ; c. 1254 – 8 January 1324)[1] was a Venetian merchant, explorer and writer who travelled through Asia along the Silk Road between 1271 and 1295.[2][3] His travels are recorded in The Travels of Marco Polo (also known as Book of the Marvels of the World and Il Milione, c. 1300), a book that described to Europeans the then-mysterious culture and inner workings of the Eastern world, including the wealth and great size of the Mongol Empire and China under the Yuan dynasty, giving their first comprehensive look into China, Persia, India, Japan, and other locations throughout Asia.[4]

Born in Venice, Marco learned the mercantile trade from his father and his uncle, Niccolò and Maffeo, who travelled through Asia and met Kublai Khan. In 1269, they returned to Venice to meet Marco for the first time. The three of them embarked on an epic journey to Asia, exploring many places along the Silk Road until they reached "Cathay". They were received by the royal court of Kublai Khan, who was impressed by Marco's intelligence and humility. Marco was appointed to serve as Kublai's foreign emissary, and he was sent on many diplomatic missions throughout the empire and Southeast Asia, such as in present-day Burma, India, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, and Vietnam.[5][6] As part of this appointment, Marco also travelled extensively inside China, living in the emperor's lands for 17 years and seeing many things that had previously been unknown to Europeans.[7] Around 1291, the Polos also offered to accompany the Mongol princess Kököchin to Persia; they arrived around 1293. After leaving the princess, they travelled overland to Constantinople and then to Venice, returning home after 24 years.[7] At this time, Venice was at war with Genoa; Marco was captured and imprisoned by the Genoans after joining the war effort and dictated his stories to Rustichello da Pisa, a cellmate. He was released in 1299, became a wealthy merchant, married, and had three children. He died in 1324 and was buried in the church of San Lorenzo in Venice.

Though he was not the first European to reach China, Marco Polo was the first to leave a detailed chronicle of his experience. This account of the Orient provided the Europeans with a clear picture of the East's geography and ethnic customs, and was the first Western record of porcelain, gunpowder, paper money, and some Asian plants and exotic animals.[8] His travel book inspired Christopher Columbus [9] and many other travellers. There is substantial literature based on Polo's writings; he also influenced European cartography, leading to the introduction of the Catalan Atlas and the Fra Mauro map.[10]

Extracted from: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marco_Polo]

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Marco_Polo_-_costume_tartare.jpg

Mnemonic

Marco Polo – Top 5 Discoveries Mnemonic – Marco Polo CoPS

(Picture a group of cops chasing Maco Polo around the world for supposedly stealing a large volume of spices)

1. Marriage Customs

2. Paper Money

3. Crocodiles & the Yak

4. Postal Service

5. Spices

Five Fun Facts

1. Marco Polo came across some unusual marriage customs in his travels. For instance, in a province in China called Pem they had an interesting agreement where legally the women could take another husband if their husband had been gone on a journey for more than twenty days. Equally, when the men had been gone for over twenty days, they could also legally take another wife.

2. True paper money first appeared in the Song Dynasty in China in the 11th century. Marco Polo came across paper currency in the city of Khanbaliq in what is now central Beijing. It was the Winter capital of the Mongol-led Yuan Dynasty led by Kublai Khan. The money was made from the bark of the mulberry tree and was created for ease of transport.

3. Seeing a crocodile for the first time was beyond belief for Polo as no one had ever seen or let alone heard of such an animal. When he came across the reptiles, he described them as “loathsome creatures” saying “Their mouth is big enough to swallow a man at one gulp”. He learned from the natives how to trap these crocodiles for which they then removed the gall bladder which was sold for a high price. However, his favourite was the Yak of which he was amazed by their silky, soft fur.

4. The postal service under Kublai Khan was one of the discoveries that Marco Polo was most impressed with. It consisted of two systems. One with horses and the other with humans. The one with horses consisted of postal stations every 25 miles in more populated areas and 35 to 40 miles in more remote areas. These postal stations consisted of many horses and lodgings for horse and rider to recover. Whereas, the human postal service consisted of expert runners who were stationed every 3 miles. The system was so well refined that the runners would wear large belts decorated with bells so they could be heard from a distance in order for the next runner to prepare and be ready.

5. Marco Polo came across a range of spices throughout his travels. For example Ginger and cassia in Peking, sesame oil in Afghanistan, garlic in China and India, pepper, nutmeg, and cloves in Java and other islands of the South China Sea, and cinnamon on the Malabar Coast of India.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:MarcoPoloStatueInHangzhou.JPG

Three Question Quiz

Q.1. What was the name of Marco Polo’s famous book that he penned while he was a prisoner? Options are Fortunes of the World, The Travels of Marco Polo, or The Venetian Vagabond

Q.2. Parts of what two centuries was Marco Polo alive?

Q.3. Marco Polo left on his travels at age 17. How many years was he away for?

Bonus Q. In which Italian city is Marco Polo believed to have been born?

Mnemonic Recap

Marco Polo – Top 5 Discoveries Mnemonic – Marco Polo CoPS

(Picture a group of cops chasing Maco Polo around the world for supposedly stealing a large volume of spices)

1. Marriage Customs

2. Paper Money

3. Crocodiles & the Yak

4. Postal Service

5. Spices

Three Question Quiz Answers

Q.1. What was the name of Marco Polo’s famous book that he penned while he was a prisoner? Options are Fortunes of the World, The Travels of Marco Polo, or The Venetian Vagabond

A. The Travels of Marco Polo

Now, just speaking of traveling, a while back I asked my bike if it wanted to recreate the footsteps of Marco Polo along the Silk Road. Anyway, the bike thought about it for a while, but unfortunately refused to go; something about being too tired!

Q.2. Parts of what two centuries was Marco Polo alive?

A. Thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. Born in 1254 and died in 1324.

Q.3. Marco Polo left on his travels at age 17. How many years was he away for?

A. 24 years

Bonus Q. In which Italian city is Marco Polo believed to have been born?

A. Venice. This is not known for certain with Korcula which is an island in modern-day Croatia another possibility.

Word of the Week

gallimaufry

[ gal-uh-maw-free ]

noun

a hodgepodge; confused medley; jumble.

Example