The Eighteenth Canto opens with Marco Polo describing the use of paper money and letters or credit in Kublai Khan’s empire, which reminds me of that wonderful book by Italo Calvino, Invisible Cities.

The rest is dedicated to describing incidences of manufacturing – plus a funny little anecdote about Napoleon.

Though lacking in lines that are traditionally poetic, I very much enjoyed reading this Canto though I couldn’t tell you why or what it is that appealed to me.