While he was in prison in Genoa in the last years of the 13th century, Marco Polo dictated an account of his adventures to a fellow prisoner, a writer of romances named Rustichello of Pisa. The story that Marco Polo told became one of the most famous books in history. He called it The Description of the World or The Travels of Marco Polo. His colourful tales made his book one of history's first bestsellers. The book was published in 1307 and when the printing press finally appeared in Europe in the 1400s, it was one of the first to be printed.