Some readers have even concluded that the book is a total fake. If Marco Polo went to China, British Sinologist Frances Wood asked some years ago in a book titled, appropriately enough ...

The Biennale is dominating Venice this month, but the rest of the city still has plenty to offer, from a deep dive into the travels of Marco Polo to a celebration of Jean Cocteau’s genius.

Olshin, a historian of cartography whose book, The Mysteries of the Marco Polo Maps, is out in November from the University of Chicago Press. “There’s nothing else that matches that ...