Donnerstag, 14.11.2024 bis Samstag, 16.11.2024
09:00 - 18:00 Uhr
Palais Claudiana, Herzog-Friedrich-Straße 3, 6020 Innsbruck
Anmeldung ist nicht erforderlich
Eintritt / Kosten: Eintritt frei
Marco Polo’s narrative account of Asia in his Il Milione is one of the first and major sources to shape the European image of Asia for centuries to come. The Polo universe is vast, encompassing numerous vernacular and Latin versions of the account, which differ through their emphasis of specific aspects. This conference, commemorating the 700th anniversary of Marco Polo’s death in 2024, explores some of the different descriptions, projections, and phantasies of Asia in the light of Marco Polo’s Il Milione and beyond.
Possible contributions include precursors of or influences on Marco Polo’s narrative as well as transformations of the different Polo versions and their legacies. The scope of the conference bridges literary, linguistic, philological, historical, art-historical, religious, economic, sociological, and political approaches—to mention only the most obvious ones. Contributors are invited to address novel aspects within the larger context of Marco Polo’s Il Milione, both from a diachronic as well as a synchronic perspective. General contributions on the European image of Asia, both past and present, are also welcome.
Austrian Science Fund (FWF) project “The Marco Polo of Christopher Columbus: Francesco Pipino’s Latin Version of Il Milione”