The Nauigation and v[o]yages of Lewes Vertomannus, Gentleman of the citie of Rome, to the regions of Arabia, Egypte, Persia, Syria, Ethiopia, and East India, both within and without the ryver of Gange

£15,000 · Offered by Maggs Bros Ltd

The first appearance in English of Ludovico di Varthema’s ground-breaking travel account, in which he described parts of the Middle East practically unknown to non-Muslim Europeans. It is justly famous for Varthema’s accurate and unprecedented account of Mecca and Medina in 1503 CE. Of his visit to the Holy Cities, D.G. Hogarth asserts Varthema’s primacy**: “All later European pilgrims, who have known his narrative, have borne witness to its great succinct fidelity in so far as concerns Mecca, its great shrine and its neighbourhood.”** (Hogarth, p.65). This copy has been extracted from the 1577 expanded version of Richard Eden’s The history of travayle in the West and East Indies …, a compilation of Western colonial expeditions and explorations. Eden’s work was the first to include an English translation of Varthema’s remarkable journey, which was first published as Itinerario de Ludouico de Varthema Bolognese in Rome, 1510. Little is known of Varthema (c.1470-1517) beyond what is contained in his Itinerario . Born in Bologna, he may have been employed as a soldier before an appetite for travel directed his future course. Setting out from Venice in late 1502 he first stepped foot in the Islamic Middle East at Alexandria in January 1503. Stops at Cairo, Beirut, Tripoli and Aleppo followed, then Damascus which drew high praise: “It is in maner incredible, and passeth all beleefe, to think howe fayre the citie of Damasco is, and how fertile is the soyle.” (p.357). It was in Dama

• Binding: Hardcover

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