The Travels of Marco Polo · Character
Giovanni Battista Ramusio
Also known as G. B. Ramusio, Gian Battista Ramusio
- Supporting
- First seen · Book 1 · Ch. 10
Ramusio feels like a careful keeper of other people’s journeys: a Venetian scholar surrounded by the weight and possibility of written accounts. His version carries a more literary voice, inviting curiosity about what can be preserved—and what a gifted editor may add to the telling.
- Gender
- male
- First appears
- Book 1 · Ch. 10
- Books
- 1
A Venetian scholar from a family with a long literary reputation, Ramusio prepared a version of Marco Polo’s travels that diverged markedly from other accounts. His edition preserves a number of distinctive details and anecdotes, including notices of tea, the Great Wall, and paper money stamped with a vermilion seal. Its freer utterance and literary fluency made it an influential witness to the text, even as its additions and deviations complicated the work of later readers. The book offers no personal account of his life beyond his scholarly role.
Description
The text identifies Ramusio as a Venetian scholar and compiler but gives no account of his face, complexion, hair, eyes, age, height, or build. His clothing and any distinctive physical features are likewise unspecified. A visual portrayal can suggest a learned editor through period-appropriate scholar’s dress and the composed presence of a man among books, without assigning him unsupported physical traits.
Story so far
BOOK 1The Travels of Marco Polo — Volume 1
Appearances
Meet Giovanni Battista Ramusio in Bookworm
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