Purchas

As noted above, the description of the size and landscape of Xanadu and of the Pleasure Dome was taken directly from Purchas, who took it from the description of Marco Polo, who had visited Xanadu.

Fruman 1971 p. 337 It is possible that the words of Purchas were merely remembered by Coleridge and that the depiction of immediately reading the work before falling asleep was to suggest that the subject came to him accidentally.

His description of Mount Amara was published in 1540, and appears in Purchas, his Pilgrimes, the book Coleridge was reading before he wrote "Kubla Khan".

In terms of spelling, Coleridge's printed version differs from Purchas's spelling, which refers to the Tartar ruler as "Cublai Can", and from the spelling used by Milton, "Cathaian Can".

Jasper 1985 p. 45 The account of Cublai Can in Purchas's work, discussed in Coleridge's Preface, connects the idea of paradise with luxury and sensual pleasure.

Perkins 2010 p. 39 There are some problems with Coleridge's account, especially the claim to have a copy of Purchas with him.

These were both times he was in the area, and, by 1799, Coleridge was able to read Robert Southey 's Thalaba the Destroyer, a work which also drew on Purchas's work.

This was the "sumptuous house of pleasure" mentioned by Purchas, which Coleridge transformed into a "stately pleasure dome".