=A.D. 1271–1295.=--Polo (Marco), Paulum Venetum, is reported by many to have brought the compass from China to Italy. This is, however, supported by no evidence, nor is any allusion whatever made to the fact in the account he rendered of his voyage. Before Marco Polo set out on his travels, as Humboldt states, the Catalans had already made voyages “along the northern islands of Scotland as well as along the western shores of tropical Africa, while the Basques had ventured forth in search of the whale, and the Northmen had made their way to the Azores (the Bracir islands of Picignano).” Polo relates that he set out from Acre in 1271, and returned to Venice “in the year 1295 of Christ’s Incarnation.” His “Travels” (“Il Milione di Messer Marco Polo”) according to the review of Col. Henry Yule, consists of a prologue and four books. It was dictated by him to a fellow prisoner, Rusticiano or Rusticello, of Pisa, and “it would appear now to be definitely settled that the original was ... of just such French as we might expect in the thirteenth century from a Tuscan amanuensis following the oral dictation of an Orientalized Venetian.” Polo’s journeyings extended “so far to the north that he leaves the North Star behind him, and thence so far to the south that the North Star is never seen.” REFERENCES.--Becquerel, “Elec. et Magn.,” Vol. I. p. 70; Sonnini, in Buffon, “Minéraux,” Vol. VI. p. 84; Humboldt, “Cosmos,” 1849, Vol. II. pp. 625, 656, or 1860, pp. 250–251; “The Book of Ser Marco Polo,” by Sir Henry Yule, New York, 1903, which contains a very extensive bibliography at end of the second volume; Libri, “Hist. des Sc. Mathém.,” Paris, 1838, Vol. II. pp. 26, 140, etc.; D. A. Azuni, “Dissertation sur la Boussole,” p. 69; Miller, “Hist. Phil. Ill.,” 1849, Vol. I. pp. 179–180; “Encycl. Brit.,” ninth ed., Vol. XIX. p. 407; “Journal des Savants” for September 1818, also May 1823, and the five articles published January to May 1867; see also “Centennaire de Marco Polo,” par. H. Cordier, Paris, 1896, containing “bibliographie très complète de toutes les éditions de Marco Polo et des ouvrages qui lui sont consacrés.”