«Ad consolationem legentium» Il Marco Polo dei Domenicani

This book is the result of a fruitful exchange between the textual studies about Marco Polo’s Devisement dou Monde and the socio-historical research regarding Mendicant Orders. The Order of Preachers, in particular, includes the figure of the Venetian merchant as an auctoritas in the area of anthropological knowledge of Eastern traditions, through a Latin translation process contributing to evangelization in Asia. The aim of this book is to analyze the Dominican reception hybridizing philological and linguistical with historical and archival methods. The crossing of these research trajectories led to the finding of a parchment that testifies definitively the trusting relationship between Marco and the preachers of SS. Giovanni e Paolo convent. This convent is a key cultural center in the humanistic environment of Veneto, within which the Latin version Z is elaborated. This research has shed light on several fundamental moments of the P Latin version’s textual history, exploring the material aspects of manuscript witnesses as well as the textual relation with the vernacular source and Francesco Pipino’s Chronicon. Finally, an investigation is dedicated to the edifying adaptation of Marco Polo’s tales in Nicoluccio d’Ascoli’s sermons. The Dominican reception of Devisement dou Monde has relevant consequences for the text and its circulation, hopefully this book suggests a new perspective on Marco Polo and Dominican studies, stimulating further research.