Marco Polo was not the first European to travel to Asia. By the time of their release in 1299, the two men had completed the book that would make Marco Polo a household name. Eager to document his years as a traveler, Polo dictated his life story to Rustichello, who acted as a kind of ghostwriter. While in prison he encountered Rustichello of Pisa, a fellow captive who was known as a talented writer of romances.
In 1298, three years after he returned from his journey, Polo was captured after leading a Venetian galley into battle against the rival Italian city-state of Genoa. Ironically, this record of Polo’s freewheeling years as an explorer was written while he languished behind bars. Marco Polo is remembered thanks to a colorful and popular narrative about his eastward voyage, known simply as The Travels of Marco Polo. Marco Polo’s famous travelogue was penned in prison.
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