The Travels of Marco Polo · Character
Pope Clement V
Also known as Clement V
- Minor
- First seen · Book 1 · Ch. 11
Clement V is glimpsed through the reach of his office: a distant, solemn authority whose words travel farther than his physical presence. The sparse portrait invites curiosity about the person behind the papal title.
- Gender
- male
- Age
- Adult (active 1305-1314)
- First appears
- Book 1 · Ch. 11
- Books
- 1
Clement V appears in the account as a pope whose influence extended through letters and commissioned works. He wrote to Venice in 1306, encouraging participation in the enterprise to claim Constantinople, and Hayton made his book at Clement's instance. The narrative also associates him with sending a party of Franciscans bearing a long letter to Kublai Khan in 1278, though it offers no personal arc beyond these acts.
Description
Clement V is identified as a pope, but no physical portrait is supplied: his face, skin tone, hair, eyes, age markers, and build remain unspecified. Papal vestments are the only reasonable visual cue, without a stated cut, color, or ornament. His bearing may be rendered as formal and ecclesiastical, but the text gives no distinguishing personal features.
Story so far
BOOK 1The Travels of Marco Polo — Volume 1
Appearances
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