Marco Polo's famous travel book was dictated from a prison cell

Captured during a war between Venice and Genoa, Marco Polo shared a cell with a romance writer named Rustichello da Pisa. Polo dictated his account of two decades traveling Mongol-ruled Asia, and Rustichello wrote it down — producing 'The Travels of Marco Polo', one of the most influential travelogues ever written.

— Marco Polo & Rustichello da Pisa, The Travels of Marco Polo — c. 1298
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