Source: Scrinium press office
On Monday 27 September, the splendid Sansovinian Hall of the Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana hosted the donation ceremony of a scientifically perfect reconstruction of Marco Polo’s testament
to the World Tourism Alliance, a non-profit organisation based in China which, with the motto Better Tourism Better World Better Life, brings together the most important companies in the
international tourism business, prestigious hotel chains, academic centres, media, government bodies and local administrations, researchers and scholars.
The donation is an initiative of Ferdinando Santoro, President of Scrinium, a Venetian organisation that has been committed to projects for the enhancement and dissemination of documentary
heritage for over twenty years, and Dr Caterina Ying Hong, President pro tempore of the European Federation of Chinese Tourism and the Italian Association for Chinese Tourism. The event has
a special symbolic relevance due to the special historical-cultural link and the centuries-old relations that the city of Venice has with China.
The gift is in fact a precious copy of the work Ego Marcus Paulo volo et ordino, including a historical-critical study and palaeographic research on Marco Polo‘s testament, a 1324
parchment kept in the same Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana that officially certified the whole operation. The study project, carried out by Scrinium in collaboration with the Library, has also made
it possible to obtain a scientifically compliant clone of the Testament in every detail. Paleographic examination of the document has revealed it to be rich in unpublished and valuable information
for our knowledge of this extraordinary personage and the Venice of his time.
After the virtual handover ceremony, in web connection with the Presidency of the World Tourism Alliance and with numerous representatives of the Chinese Ministry of Culture, the Chinese Embassy
and Consulate in Italy, the copy of the work will be exhibited in a dedicated section of the emerging World Tourism Museum in Hangzhou, a pharaonic and futuristic exhibition and congress structure
in the heart of the Chinese city.
On the Italian side, in addition to the donors, Dr. Rosanna Binacchi, Director of the International Relations Service of the Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities, Dr. Cristiano
Corazzari, Councillor for Culture of the Veneto Region, Arch. Paola Mar, Councillor for Culture of the Municipality of Venice, Hon. Laura Fincato, former Member of Parliament and
honorary citizen of Suzhou, and Dr. Claudio Scarpa, Director of the Venetian Hotel Association. Dr. Ferdinando Santoro anticipated that this event is part of a vast programme of
institutional contacts, strategic partnerships and international collaborations of Scrinium with the aim of promoting the knowledge, protection and enhancement of the extraordinary and often
little-known universal historical-documentary heritage.
