Mostra Marco Polo 1324-2024. The way to the East and ... to America

The exhibition Marco Polo 1324-2024. The way of the East and ... to America at the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, promoted as part of the celebrations of the centenary of Marco Polo's death (1254-1324), intends to highlight the heritage of exchanges between East and West made possible by Polo travels.

The exhibition, divided into various sections, is organized in such a way as to represent the themes that emerged in the Lyncean conference of the same name held in October, with detailed maps of Marco Polo's travels, with images of the cities and places covered by the Milione, as well as to those taken from illuminated manuscripts. Each theme or subject is combined with relevant iconography and important artefacts representative of what is narrated in the Milione. The exhibition also features some illuminated manuscripts and incunabula of particular importance for their textual and iconographic aspects.

The first section places the figure of Marco Polo at the centre between history and legend, focusing first on the relations between the papacy and Asia, then on the precursors of Marco Polo, such as Giovanni di Pian di Carpine and Guglielmo di Rubruck, giving space to the theme travel reports between the 12th and 14th centuries; the second section deals with the tradition and the manuscript and printed diffusion of the text of the Milione and of Rustichello da Pisa, who was its editor, also taking into consideration the aspect of the translations and miniatures more linked to the Polian imagery. The third is dedicated to the geography of the work, with particular reference to China and the wonders of the East, to the mineralogical aspect - precious stones, oil, coal - to fauna, flora and sciences. There are also other themes like society, anthropology, law and economics, which emerge by studying the relationship between the Milione and the Europe of the time.

The sections also investigate the lexical aspect of the Milione and the nautical vocabulary with the innovations due to this work. The exhibition in fact analyzes the era following Marco Polo, represented, among others, by Odorico da Pordenone, to the point of building a bridge between Poliano's text and the discovery of the New World, thanks to the autograph notes on the Milione that guided Christopher Columbus discovering America. Finally, the last section outlines the figure of the great Venetian traveler in the media, with a series of multimedia stations that show the aspect of the diffusion of the work starting from the last decades of the last century up to today, in which there are comics, clips of films and documentaries.

Photo credits: official poster of the exhibition