YULE'S MARCO POLO, 1875, "THE CLASSIC TRANSLATION AND THE BEST COMMENTARY ON THE BOOK IN ANY LANGUAGE"

(POLO, Marco) YULE, Henry, Colonel. The Book of Ser Marco Polo, The Venetian, Concerning the Kingdoms and Marvels of the East. London: John Murray, 1875. Two volumes. Thick octavo, original green cloth gilt. $2000.

Second edition, substantially expanded and revised, of Henry Yule's esteemed translation of Marco Polo's travels, profusely illustrated with 33 plates, many printed in color, including frontispieces, additional illustrated title pages, portraits, facsimiles, maps and plans (several folding), and numerous in-text woodcut-engraved illustrations, in original gilt-stamped cloth.

"Yule's famous edition of 'Marco Polo'… is a storehouse of curious and profound research, and placed the editor by common consent in the first rank of geographers. A remarkable feature in Yule's work is the skill with which he unravels the most confused narratives of uncritical and credulous medieval writers, and the satisfaction he feels in rehabilitating, when possible, their character for accuracy" (DNB). "Yule's is the classic translation, with the best commentary on the book in any language" (Cox). "The great stores of information he laid up from diligent inquiry in out-of-the-way places had given him a literary reputation to which perhaps no other writer on Asiatic subjects could lay claim" (London Times). First published in 1871. Each volume with frontispiece, color-illustrated and letterpress title pages. Volume I with nine maps (including four folding), folding facsimiles, full-page and in-text illustrations, and tipped-in errata slip. Volume II with nine full-page maps, folding facsimiles, full-page, folding and in-text illustrations. Cox I:321. See Wilson, 249.

Interiors clean, cloth fresh, gilt bright. A handsome copy in fine condition.