MARCO POLO Contemporary to Giotto, Marco Polo represents another aspect of that revolution that was put into motion by the commercial activity of populations in those times. In Italy, another great pole of this activity was Venice. While Florence gravitated towards North-West, Venice gravitated towards South-East. In search of new and more profitable markets, both the father and uncle of Marco Polo had pushed "further out of the known world". They had arrived as far as Constantinopole, then Tibet, then China, where they befriended the Emperor Kublai Khan. Back in Venice, they set out again for China, in 1271, this time with Marco, the eighteen-year old son of Niccolò They remained in China for more than twenty years, during which Marco was nominated governor of a province by the Emperor, so much was he appreciated. On his return to Italy Marco was imprisoned by the Genoese; it was in prison that he dictated to a cell-mate the report of his journey, later to become famous as "Il Milione". The title of the book, however, was "The book of Mr. Marco Polo, citizen of Venice, called Milione, in which are told the wonders of the world". "Milione" was Marco's nickname, an abbreviation of Emilione. The book contains tales of his journey, of his adventures, of the people he met, but it is the spirit of the tale that puts Marco Polo into the new cultural epoch. He describes his adventures and his encounters in a precise and rigorous fashion, careful not to compromise the truth. He is attracted to the customs of the most varied populations and he seeks to understand their social reality. He describes in detail the geography of the places as well as all those aspects that could be thought useful. He observes the systems of government, of taxation, the currency. From being the son of a merchant, and as a good merchant, he, the same Marco is never scandalized and seeks continually to captivate his fellows, as if a potential customer. Incarnation of the commercial spirit and of undertaking, he, too, is equal to Giotto and, from a different angle, an anticipator of the humanistic revolution to follow, attracted as he was to all human behaviour, customs and the history of different and unknown cultures.