His first known work, the French text known as the Roman de Roi Artus or, simply, the Compilation, appears to derive from a particular book in the possession of Edward I of England when he passed through Italy on his way to fighting in the Eighth Crusade in 1270 to 1274.
While written in French, it is the first known romance by an Italian author to address the Arthurian legend.
[2] It was later divided into two sections, named after their principal protagonists, Meliadus (Tristan's father) and Guiron le Courtois.
Both remained popular for hundreds of years, and influenced many later works written in French as well as in Spanish, Italian, and even Greek.
When Polo was imprisoned around 1298, possibly after a clash between Genoa and Venice (according to tradition the Battle of Curzola[3]), he told his tales of travel to Rustichello.