Niccolò Polo

Niccolò Polo was a Venetian merchant, the brother of Maffeo Polo and father of Marco Polo. He travelled through the Mongol world to the court of Kublai Khan and later returned with Marco on the journey described in the Travels of Marco Polo.

Niccolò Polo was born in Venise and died in Venice. Niccolò and his brother Maffeo reached Kublai Khan’s court before returning west with requests for envoys from the pope; on their second journey they took the young Marco Polo with them, beginning the voyage later described in Marco’s Travels.

Gary Jennings’s The Journeyer sends Niccolò Polo east with his brother Maffeo and his son Marco, making the elder merchant part of the commercial and diplomatic framework behind Marco’s famous travels. Niccolò’s experience of the Mongol world gives the party access to routes, courts and trading communities stretching from the Mediterranean through Persia and Central Asia to Kublai Khan’s realm. Jennings fills the documentary gaps freely, but keeps Niccolò’s historical role as father, traveller and intermediary at the foundation of Marco’s journey.