[Sca-cooks] Gunpowder, not Noodles/Pasta

[Decker, Terry D.]

I don't recall gunpowder being mentioned in the Travels, which was Europe's
knowledge of Polos.  If it doesn't appear in the Travels then it is very
doubtful that the Polos introduced gunpowder to the West.

Most of the secondary sources place the earliest references to gunpowder in
the first half of the 13th Century.  Marco Polo's journey was between
1271-1295.

In China, gunpowder had been a state secret by royal edict since 1067.  Had
the Polos known of gunpowder, they would probably not have been able to
learn the process.

I tend toward the Mongol introduction of gunpowder to the West.  Subutai
apparently seized the Chinese munitions works at Bian Qin in 1233.

Bear



> This does leave open the possibility of information about gunpowder
> being brought to Europe by the Polos, later than Bacon had already
> learned and written of it.  If Bacon's work was not widely known
> then it is possible that many in Europe could have first learned
> of gunpowder from the Polos.
>
> Thorvald