Travels Of Marco Polo: A Tradition of Story Telling

Story telling is an oldest pastime. Since we are discussing Travels Of Marco Polo, we are concerned only with oral story telling. Marco Polo was a thirteenth century celebrity, alien to publishing industry. Printing was started around 1440 in Germany. Manuscript of Travels Of Marco Polo is said to have lost, and this has been the reason for sceptics rising questions about the veracity of his travels, and some of them even doubt whether he had at any time been in China.

Story, as well as history is a narrative.  When historians fail to dig facts they go for legends which are a blend of fact and fiction.

Homo Sapiens and Story Telling:
Story telling is an evolutionary skill that helped to unite human beings. God and Devil, ancient stories that priests and later chiefs and kings evolved to keep their subjects in restraint are now adopted by their modern counter parts. God is still there, but Devil is blunt. So they conveniently adapted the term enemy. There were class enemies and class conflicts. Now there are termites and immigrants. Termites in a multi ethnic society brings majority votes; so also immigrants. The paradox: everybody everywhere is an immigrant, except an African in Africa.

Ancient story tellers 


In Indian subcontinent, Sutas were one of ancient story telling class. Professionally they were chariot drivers, and their journeys to different spots equipped them with different stories about different peoples. Adhiratha and his wife Sudeshna were Sutas and they raised Karna born to Kunti.

Sutas were of mixed lineage, possibly arising from the union of Aryans and natives.

Vyasa was a story teller of Vedic tradition. Vyasa is not a proper name but a common name for story tellers.

Puranika was an expounder of Legends, which are a blend of facts and fiction.

Bards: Ancient Greek story tellers were known as bards. Aesop and Homer were prominent story tellers.
In Celtic cultures bards were employed by kings and chieftains to glorify them and their ancestors.

Griots: In West African cultures griots were the proponents of oral traditions. Popuarising history, glorification of chieftains and chiefdoms, and local traditions were their occupation. Oral traditions were passed down by the griots and the occupation was hereditary. They used instruments to accompany their songs.

Ashik: Also known as Ashug was  traditional singer in Azerbaijan, Armenian and Turkic cultures. A long necked lute always accompanied their songs.

Pingshu: Also known as Pinghua is a Han Chinese performing art of story telling with no musical accompaniment.

Maggid: A maggid is a Jewish preacher, who really preach about morality and ethics linked to Torah.

Minstrel: Minstrels were singers who narrated the history of distant places, historical events and imaginary tales. They were found in Medieval Europe. Generally wind instruments accompanied their songs.

The Rise of Venice 
Venice became a centre of  maritime empire extending over the shores of the Eastern Mediterranean to the island of the Ionian sea and to Crete, in 13th Century. Venice had a long standing rivalry with Genoa, another powerful Italian trading city.
Rustichello da Pisa was a native of Pisa. His pen name (most likely his nickname connected with story telling) was Rusticiano. 
Pisa controlled a significant Merchant fleet and Navy in thirteenth century.

How the Story Tellers Moved 

According to Garrison Martt, a medieval story telling enthusiast, story telling was more important in a medieval society. There were no movies, telivision, or internet. No radio or news paper.  People learned about the world by telling each other. There were no books because there was no printing. Printing came around 1440.

Story tellers used to travel from town to town. Because they were performers their boarding and lodging were adjusted in their rewards.  They would seek noble families with castles or country manor, who could reward them for their stories.  A good story teller  always had an honoured place by fireplace or dinner parlour.  Young people acquired this talent by travelling with master storytellers and got enough stories by travelling to new places and by meeting new places.

Travels of Marco Polo reflects the tradition of story telling that was prevalent in Venice and Pisa in those times. Venice, being a hub of maritime trade attracted merchants and navigators, who in their idle time might have sought pastime and story telling suited their convenience. This was equally true of Pisa. As a child and adolescent Marco must have received enough exposure to this art.
Rustichello da Pisa, as his name indicates was a native of Pisa. Wikipedia narrative about him is far from facts of the time. There was no question of he becoming a writer because the art of printing was historically nonexistent during his lifetime. Perhaps he might have been a story teller because Pisa offered enough opportunities for story telling.

Together in prison Rustichello and Marco Polo might have planned the performance of story telling and thus the origin of manuscript. 

The format of the Travels Of Marco Polo also support this view. Marco Polo's personal life is not at all depicted in the document. This strengthen the view that manuscript was prepared and preserved for the art of oral story telling.

End of the Section 










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