Marco Polo, Odorico of Pordenone, the Crusade, and the Role of Vernacular in the first Descriptions of the Indies. Viator 40 No.1

This paper addresses the genesis of a scientific language able to cope with the demand for information about the larger world. The nature of such a demand must be thoroughly analyzed in order to understand properly the nature of the solutions provided to deal with it. My hypothesis is that, arising from a critical situation, the book of Marco Polo could not avoid reflecting an equivalent conflict. This dual structure of language, I argue, explains the failure of current scholars to identify the historical foundations of Marco Polo’s narrative as well as its closeness to the political agenda of the later crusade. Due to this, 14th century descriptions of the Indies have not been credited as valid analytical references in order to provide a wider and less monochromatic view of the so-called Orientalism.
'Libraries Are Not Made, They Grow' by Andrea Mastrovito
This paper was initially conceived at the Italian Academy for Advanced Studies in America at Columbia University during the spring semester of 2008 (see hereby an abstract of the working paper presented there). Now the entire version has been published by Viator - journal of The Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, University of California, Los Angeles - and it is available on-line at:
http://brepols.metapress.com/content/0354rp8221q11126/?p=8beb5af38cf64688b905373d1390b213&pi=10