---
title: México-Ejemplo-Marco Polo
author: HD CAICYT
source: Digital
publication-date: 11/06/2018
layout: narrative
---

It should be known to the reader that, at the time when Baldwin[^8cbeb638-6b3d-4e8a-a249-7a8563ff055f] II. was emperor of Constantinople/ where a magis  trate representing the doge of Venice then resided, and in the year of our Lord 1250[^61228ddf-49e9-4d3c-b62e-1a083b9d4199] Nicolo Polo, the father of the said Marco, and Maffeo, the brother of Nicolo, respectable and weli-informed men, embarked in a ship of their own, with a rich and varied cargo of merchandise, and reached Constantinople in safety. After mature deliberation on the subject of their proceedings, it was determined, as the measure most likely to improve their trading capital, that they should prosecute their voyage into the Euxine or Black Sea. With this view they made purchases of many fine and costly jewels, and taking their departure from Constantinople, navigated that sea to a port named Soldaia, from whence they travelled on horse back many days until they reached the court of a powerful chief of the Western Tartars, named Barka, who dwelt in the cities of Bolgara and Assara, and had the reputation of being one of the most liberal and civilized princes hitherto known amongst the tribes of Tartary. He expressed much satisfaction at the arrival of these travellers, and received them with marks of distinction. In return for which courtesy, when they had laid before him the jewels they brought with them, and perceived that their beauty pleased him, they presented them for his acceptance.

[^8cbeb638-6b3d-4e8a-a249-7a8563ff055f]: Count of Flanders, and cousin of Louis IX. King of France, who reigned from 1237 to 1261, was the last of the Latin emperors of Constantinople.

[^61228ddf-49e9-4d3c-b62e-1a083b9d4199]: There are strong grounds, Marsden says, for believing that this date of 1250, although found in all the editions, is incorrect. In the manuscript, of which there are copies in the British Museum and Berlin libraries, the commencement of the voyage is placed in 1252, and some of the events related in the sequel render it evident that the departure, at least, of our travellers from Constantinople, must have been some years later than the middle of the century, and probably not sooner than 1255. How long they were detained in that city is not stated; but, upon any calculation of the period of their arrival or departure, it is surprising that Grynams, the editor of the Basle and Paris edition of 1532, and after him the learned Miiller and Bergeron, should, notwithstanding the anachronism, introduce into their texts the date of 1269, which was eight years after the expulsion of the emperor Baldwin, and was, in fact, the year in which they returned to Syria from their first Tartarian journey.