Pepper Harvest. Marco Polo's journeys to the East in the fourteenth century caught the imagination of Europe. The illustration is a western artist's imagined rendition of a pepper harvest taken from the 15th century French manuscript Le Uvre des Merveilles de Marco Polo (The Wonders of Marco Polo). From Spice of Life by Sheldon Greenberg and Elizabeth Lambeth Ortiz page 44. Marco Polo (1254-1324) was a Venetian trader and explorer who, together with his father Niccol?and his uncle Maffeo, was one of the first Westerners to travel the Silk Road to China (which he called Cathay). He visited the Great Khan of the Mongol Empire, Kublai Khan (grandson of Genghis Khan). *** Local Caption *** 8392