Rare Marco Polo manuscript on display in Hong Kong for the first time

Almost immediately, the text was copied, translated and reinterpreted. It travelled almost as widely as the man himself: first in Franco Italian, then Latin, Venetian, Tuscan, Catalan, Portuguese, Bohemian and even Irish. Of 143 medieval manuscript versions still known, each carries the marks of the region and scribe that produced it.

The manuscript now in Hong Kong belongs to the Latin tradition, which translation was produced by Dominican friar Francesco Pipino between 1314 and 1324, during the author’s lifetime. However, this copy was transcribed far later, in around 1530, in Westminster. Its scribe identified his location in his own neat colophon, describing himself as working “in the Abbey at Westmestre”.

Written on 77 square leaves of fine vellum, almost certainly sheepskin, the book is striking from the first glance. Unlike the upright oblong of most books, the text sits in a square format. Its alternating red and blue initials punctuate dense Gothic script lines written in rich brown ink. The craftsmanship, as Alex Day, senior specialist of rare book and manuscript seller Bernard Quaritch, explains, betrays both the skill of its maker and the intention behind it: this was no ordinary copy for a monastic library, but a luxurious object for a discerning reader, perhaps even a royal gift.

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Indeed, this copy is unique because it is the sole surviving witness of a vanished original from the library of Henry VIII. Its English origin, dating and connections to one John Brereton, who was chaplain to the king and later Master of St Bartholomew’s Hospital, firmly tie it to Tudor London.

Beyond its royal lineage, what makes this manuscript captivating is its humanity. Scholars found, on the very first page, that the scribe had realised he misspelt the Latin word fidelissimi—scratching out an extra s and trying, not entirely successfully, to correct it. Elsewhere, a small hole torn in the parchment has been carefully written around, so that the phrase de insular Zipangi (“about the island of Japan”) curves elegantly around the void.

Stargardt notes that Polo was not the only Westerner to have reached Asia. The Polos followed a beaten track both by sea and by land, which was used by missionary envoys and merchants. Yet none managed to capture the same durable fascination. What set Marco Polo apart was how he didn’t call the Mongols barbarians, as his contemporaries did; instead, he humanised them. Day adds that while Henry VIII was more involved in costly wars with France and the Reformation and less in voyages to the East, there was evidence that he sought times to keep up with the European Maritime exploration, which might have contributed to the value of Polo’s manuscript.

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After Brereton’s time in royal service, the book made an unlikely journey of its own. It eventually surfaced in Devon, at Dunsland Hall, home to the Bigford family, where an owner scribbled astrological notes on the final blank leaf—practical advice, curiously, on choosing the best lunar phase for breeding horses to procure colts. For nearly 300 years, it slept forgotten in rural England, resurfacing only when Sotheby’s sold it in 1930.

From there, it passed through the hands of various dealers, before arriving with its current owner, who has made it available for public view for the first time in Asia. Seven centuries on, Marco Polo’s travels are still making the journey home.

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