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Books

The real mystery is how it got published

Benjamin B. Olshin’s The Mysteries of the Marco Polo Maps is an unconvincing speculation – but a reminder of a great story does not convince our reviewer

24 January 2015

9:00 AM

24 January 2015

9:00 AM

The Mysteries of the Marco Polo Maps Benjamin B. Olshin

University of Chicago Press, pp.174, £31.50

As a boy I spent quite a lot of my free time trying to fake up ancient-looking documents. This hopeless enterprise involved things like staining paper with tea or vinegar, together with plenty of burning, and creasing, and copying of random texts with a scratchy old inkwell pen. Typical silly small boy stuff.

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