In the Middle Ages, Europeans knew almost nothing about the countries of the East. The knowledge of the Italians - the most knowledgeable people at that time - was limited to the regions of the Eastern Mediterranean and the Black Sea region. In the 14th century, the possessions of Arabs, Turks and Horde extended there. The existence of the Mongols was known thanks to the devastating campaigns of conquest they carried out in Eastern and Central Europe in the 1230s and 1240s. India and the countries of the Far East, especially Japan and Indochina, were shrouded in the darkness of the unknown for Europeans. The curtain over it was lifted by the Venetian merchant Marco Polo (1254-1324), who managed to get to China, live there for 15 years and return to his homeland. But - most importantly - he talked about his journey in “The Book of the Diversity of the World.” Originally written in the Venetian dialect of Italian, the book would soon become known as "Million" - after the nickname that the entire Polo family had. Despite the fact that even today the book of Marco Polo is perceived as a description of “miracles”, it was in fact one of the first examples of scientific prose - or, in the author’s words, a “useful book” that could give the reader accurate and detailed information about geography, economics, morals and behavior of almost completely unknown peoples. Translated into European languages, this book had a significant influence on sailors, cartographers, and writers of the 14th-16th centuries.