Marco Polo was born into a prominent Venetian trading family. In 1271, he travelled eastwards with his father and uncle, through Syria, Jerusalem, Turkey, Persia, and India, to China. Shortly after his return to Venice, Polo dictated his adventures to Rustichello da Pisa, an Arthurian romance writer, while both were prisoners in Genoa in 1298. The manuscript was written in literary Franco-Italian; the two 15th-century Italian editions are in the modern language closest to the original. His travel account provided the first detailed accounts of China, Tibet, Japan, and south-east Asia, among many others. His geographical observations were the most accurate up to that time, and a major influence on European cartography for centuries.

After nearly two centuries of wide manuscript circulation, the text was first printed in German (1477 and 1481, the latter within a composite volume), followed by a Latin edition (1483-85) and the first Italian edition of 1496. The present Brescia printing is a reissue of the 1496 Italian text, with minor revisions to the introductory material.

Whereas the earlier 15th-century editions are represented by one or two dozen institutional copies worldwide, only four other copies of this second Italian edition are recorded, all in institutional libraries: two in the United States (the Morgan and the Huntington) and two in Italy (Brescia and Verona).

All 15th-century editions of Marco Polo are scarce on the market, but this edition is exceptionally so.