In 2024, the year marking the 700th anniversary of the death of one of the world’s great explorers, Marco Polo, the University of Warwick is proud to partner with 36 global institutions to launch the Marco Polo International ProgrammeLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window.

As part of the Marco Polo International Programme, Warwick academics, in conjunction with our European, Singaporean and Chinese partners, are involved in:

• the rediscovery, restoration and public display of 14th century records of Venetian travellers in India;
• the high-resolution scanning and interdisciplinary study of textiles, ceramics and lacquerware to aid our understanding of goods that travelled across the Silks Roads culminating in a series of virtual and physical exhibitions across the globe;
• the first-ever digitisation of the writings of the Islamic traveller Ibn Battuta as he explored around Africa and Asia;
• a deep dive into the worlds and cultures, which Marco Polo travelled through;
• the uncovering of the views of modern travellers to China during key moments of 20th century Chinese history;
• as well as a wider re-examination of what is at stake in travel writing – in the past and today.

These include A collaborative project setup by Dr Luca Molà, University of Warwick, between the Venetian State Archives and the Museum of Asian Art in Venice will aim to restore and re-evaluate an important testimony on Venetian merchants who followed in the steps of Marco Polo. And the conference "Marco Polo, Ibn Baṭṭūṭa and Zheng He: Three Afro-Eurasian Travellers, 13th-15th Centuries" taking place in Venice on 12 June 2024.