The Travels of Marco Polo, a Venetian, in the Thirteenth Century: Being a Description, by that Early Traveller, of Remarkable Places and Things, in the Eastern Parts of the World. Translated from the Italian. MARCO POLO - MARSDEN, William (trans.).

First Marsden edition, with extensive historical, geographical, and cultural notes. His translation of Polo's classic account "not only sustained British fascination with historical global exchanges but also contributed to the development of emergent British Sinology" (Hargrave, p. 516). William Marsden (1754-1836) was an Irish orientalist and numismatist and later served as First Secretary to the Admiralty. From the age of sixteen, Marsden served as a civil servant for the East India Company and was later sent to Sumatra, where he learnt Malay. He later published several works on the local language and culture of Sumatra. His experience in Asia enriched his commentary, and "no one was so well qualified to do justice to the merits of the illustrious traveller, as the learned and accurate historian of Sumatra. His residence on that island, which is largely spoken of by Marco Polo under the name of Java Minor, first gave him, he says, occasion to examine the narrative relating to it" (The Quarterly Review, p. 179). Provenance: with the armorial bookplate of John Waldie (1781-1862) and his library label of the categories "Topography, Travels, etc." to front pastedown. After attending the University of Edinburgh, the multi-faceted Waldie, from an old Border gentry family, assumed the administration of Hendersyde Park at Kelso, Roxburghshire. He travelled widely and kept journals of his tours. Jennifer Hargrave, "'Marco Polo' and the Emergence of British Sinology", Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900, vol. 56, no. 3, 2016, pp. 515-37. "Miscellaneous on China: Art. IX", The Quarterly Review, vol. XXI, no. XLI, 1819. Quarto (265 x 215 mm), pp. lxxx, 782. Folding engraved map, errata leaf. Contemporary calf, rebacked with the original spine laid down, raised bands tooled in gilt, compartments decorated with floral gilt device, brown morocco label, covers ruled in gilt and rolled in blind, marbled endpapers and edges, blue silk bookmarker. Slight loss to corners (lower corners sometime repaired), minor surface abrasions, lower joint and inner hinges cracked but holding, sporadic foxing, bookmarker detached and loosely inserted. A very good copy.