Sumatra Insula
| Reference: | s48751 |
| Author | Lodovico di Varthema |
| Year: | 1608 |
| Zone: | Singapor & Sumatra |
| Printed: | Leipzig |
| Measures: | 110 x 73 mm |
€380.00
| Reference: | s48751 |
| Author | Lodovico di Varthema |
| Year: | 1608 |
| Zone: | Singapor & Sumatra |
| Printed: | Leipzig |
| Measures: | 110 x 73 mm |
€380.00
Description
A very rare map of Singapore and Sumatra published in the first edition of Hieronymus Megiser's German translation: Ludovico di Varthema's famous account of travels to Arabia, Syria, Persia, Ethiopia, India and the East Indies; a highly important and adventurous narrative including the first printed eyewitness account of any place in today's United Arab Emirates. "Varthema's Itinerario, first published in 1510, had an enormous impact at the time, and in some respects determined the course of European expansion towards the Orient" (Howgego). The 1510 edition, published in Italian at Rome, had no illustrations.
Map taken from Varthema, Lodovico di. Hodaeporicon Indiae Orientalis; Das ist: Warhafftige Beschreibung der ansehnlich lobwürdigen Reyß, welche der edel, gestreng und weiterfahrne Ritter, H. Ludwig di Barthema von Bononien aus Italia bürtig, in die Orientalische und Morgenländer, Syrien, beide Arabien, Persien und Indien, auch in Egypten und Ethyopien, zu Land und Wasser persönlich verrichtet [...], Leipzig, Henning Groß, 1608.
Ludovico di Varthema or Barthema (ca. 1468-1517) sailed from Venice to Egypt in 1502 and travelled through Alexandria, Beirut, Tripoli and Aleppo, arriving in Damascus in April 1503. There he enrolled in the Mameluke garrison and proceeded overland to Khaybar, Medina and Mecca, thereby becoming the first European to enter the two holiest cities of Islam. His travels took him further to South Arabia, Persia, India, Goa, Cochin, and supposedly the Malay isthmus, Sumatra, Banda, the Moluccas, the Spice Islands, Borneo, Java and Malacca. It has often been suggested, however, that he never came further east than Ceylon and that the account of the rest of his journey was assembled from stories passed on by others, but even in these regions much of his information appears to be accurate. Thanks to his knowledge of Arabic and of Islam, Varthema was able to appreciate the local culture of the places he visited. Impressed and fascinated, he describes not only rites and rituals, but also social and geographical aspects and details of daily life. He gives a detailed description of Mecca and the Islamic pilgrimage, and his description of the Hejaz (the west coast of Arabia on the Red Sea, including Mecca and Medina) is especially valuable as it pre-dates the Ottoman occupation of 1520. He finally returned to Lisbon in 1508.
Varthema's account became a bestseller as soon as it appeared in 1510 and went through about twenty editions in various languages in the next fifty years. It certainly provided many Europeans with their first glimpse of Islamic culture and of non-European cultures in general.
References
Howgego, to 1800, V15 (other eds. only). D. F. Lach, Asia in the making of Europe I, pp. 164-166, 503, 593-594.
Lodovico di Varthema (Bologna, 1470 circa – 1517)
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Ludovico de Varthema, or di Varthema, also known by the surname Barthema or Vertomannus (Bologna, c. 1470 - 1517), was an Italian writer and traveler.
He was the first Westerner (and the only one until the early sixteenth century) to visit Mecca.
He undertook the journey that made him famous only out of a love of discovery and a spirit of adventure.
Varthema left Europe in late 1502. By early 1503 he had reached Alexandria in Egypt and sailed up the Nile to Cairo. From Egypt he sailed to Beirut and from there reached Tripoli, Aleppo and Damascus, where he managed to enlist, under the name Yunas (Jonah), in the Mamluk garrison. From Damascus, Varthema made the pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina as one of the Mamluks escorting the Hajj caravan (April-June 1503). He described Islam's holy cities, major pilgrimage sites and ceremonies with remarkable accuracy; almost all of his details were later confirmed by later writers.
To get to India he embarked in Jeddah, a port about 80 km west of Mecca, and sailed along the Red Sea and through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait to Aden, where he was arrested and imprisoned as a Christian spy. He tells that he managed to gain his freedom because of a love affair with one of the women of the Sultan of Yemen. He then made a long journey to the Saudi southwest (to Sana'a), and embarked in Aden for the Persian Gulf and India. Along the way he stopped in Zeila and Berbera, Somalia.
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Lodovico di Varthema (Bologna, 1470 circa – 1517)
|
Ludovico de Varthema, or di Varthema, also known by the surname Barthema or Vertomannus (Bologna, c. 1470 - 1517), was an Italian writer and traveler.
He was the first Westerner (and the only one until the early sixteenth century) to visit Mecca.
He undertook the journey that made him famous only out of a love of discovery and a spirit of adventure.
Varthema left Europe in late 1502. By early 1503 he had reached Alexandria in Egypt and sailed up the Nile to Cairo. From Egypt he sailed to Beirut and from there reached Tripoli, Aleppo and Damascus, where he managed to enlist, under the name Yunas (Jonah), in the Mamluk garrison. From Damascus, Varthema made the pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina as one of the Mamluks escorting the Hajj caravan (April-June 1503). He described Islam's holy cities, major pilgrimage sites and ceremonies with remarkable accuracy; almost all of his details were later confirmed by later writers.
To get to India he embarked in Jeddah, a port about 80 km west of Mecca, and sailed along the Red Sea and through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait to Aden, where he was arrested and imprisoned as a Christian spy. He tells that he managed to gain his freedom because of a love affair with one of the women of the Sultan of Yemen. He then made a long journey to the Saudi southwest (to Sana'a), and embarked in Aden for the Persian Gulf and India. Along the way he stopped in Zeila and Berbera, Somalia.
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