Answer the questions on the worksheet based on two readings

HIST 1550 WORKSHEET 3 NAME____________________________ DATE_______________

THE ATTRACTIONS OF THE CAPITAL is a Chinese text. Who seems to be its intended audience? What sort of things does it tell us that the description of Kinsai does not?

The description of Kinsai is the longest single chapter in Marco Polo’s TRAVELS, aka DESCRIPTION OF THE WORLD. It is famous, but it has difficulties: the actual writer was Polo’s cellmate in Genoa, Rusticello of Pisa; it was based on Polo’s memory years after the fact; and it circulated for at least a century and a half as a manuscript, copied, abridged, sight-translated from one language to another, before appearing in print. Are there aspects of the text which would lead you to doubt its value as a historical source?

Some scholars have argued that Marco Polo never got to China; thus, his claim to be a first-hand observer is bogus. Do you believe that such skepticism is warranted? Why or why not? If so, should we simply discard this as fantasy?

First of all, even though the stories Marco Polo told are unconvinced and agnostic, this skepticism is fallacious and unwarranted. As mentioned that it was a first-hand observer, so the facticity cannot be determined. However, the content in

What does the description of Kinsai tell you that ATTRACTIONS OF THE CAPITAL does not?