The Travels of Ludovico di Varthema: In Egypt, Syria, Arabia Deserta and Arabia Felix, in Persia, India, and Ethiopia, A.D. 1503 To 1508. Ludovico di Varthema
the Preface to the Genio Vagante, tom. i. p. 32, viz., that Lodovico Bartema, a Bolognese by birth, flourished in the sixteenth century,—that he left Bologna for Venice, from whence he crossed over into Asia, and arrived first at Alexandria," etc. "This is all we learn from the Co. Valerio Zani in the abovenamed Preface, subsequent to which we possess no information about Lodovico Bartema; hence, we do not know whether he returned to Italy, or where he died, except that, inasmuch as his Itine- rary was printed for the first time in Venice, we are led to believe" that he did return thither; for it is not easy to suppose that he sent his manuscripts from Portugal to be printed in Italy, which they appear to have been during his lifetime."1
1 The following is appended to the foregoing extract in a foot- note:—"This writer's name is spelt in different ways. In his Itinerary comprised in the edition of Ramusio, by Ferdinando Leopoldo del Migliore in the Firenze Illustrata, p. 310, and in P. D. Abondio Collina's Dissertation De acus naufica inventore, contained in the Commentarj dell' Accadem. dell' Instituto, tom. ii.
INTRODUCTION. xix
This is very unsatisfactory, and the deficiency is not supplied by any incidental allusions in the author's dedicatory epistle. Agnesina, the illustrious lady to whom he dedicates his Itinerary, was the fourth daughter of Federico di Montefeltro, Count and second Duke of Urbino, by his second wife Battista Sforza, and was married in 1474 to Fabrizio Colonna, Lord of Marino, Duke of Albi and Tagliacozza. Of the lady Agnesina, Dennistoun says: "She inherited the talents and literary tastes which had descended to her mother, and transmitted them to a still more gifted daughter, the illustrious Vittoria Colonna, Marchioness of Pescara."1 Her brother, whose
part iii. p. 382, he is called Lodovico Bartema; but in the title- page of the edition of the said Itinerary, from the edition of 1535, of Bumaldi, in the Biblioth. Bonon., p. 158, of Orlandi's Notizia degli Scritt. Bologn., he is styled Lodovico Vartema. This is noticed by the Co. Mazzuchelli; but it must be borne in mind, that the permutation of the letters B and V, in pronunciation, is very common with the Portuguese and Spaniards, as has been the case, moreover, among almost all nations in almost every age. So, like- wise, the ancient Florentines used to say Voce and Boce, Voto and Boto, and so forth. By Konig, in the Biblioth. Vetus et Nova, p. 831, he is called Lodovicus Vartomannus, alias Varthema. Doni, in his Libreria, p. 33, styles him merely Lodovico Bolognese; and Simlero, in his Epit. Biblioth. Gesneri, p. 121, has Lodovico da Bologna. Besides Mazzuchelli, who speaks of him in his Scrittori d' Italia, he is also mentioned by Sig. Ab. Tiraboschi, in his Storia della Letter, d' Italia, tom. vii. part i. p. 211." FANTUZZI'S Notizie degli Scrittori Bolognesi, Bologna, 1781.
1 Memoirs of the Dukes of Urbino, vol i. p. 277. Writing of Battista, Agnesina's mother, the same author remarks:— "She was a remarkable instance of the transmission of talent by female descent. Her great grandmother, Battista di Montefeltro [daughter c 2
xx INTRODUCTION.
genius and acquirements are justly eulogized by Varthema, was Guidobaldo, who succeeded to the dukedom on the death of his father in 1482, and died on the 11th of April 1508. As he appears to have been living at the time the Dedication was written, it must have been prepared immediately after the author's return to Italy. 1
of Count Antonio di Montefeltro,] was conspicuous among the ladies of high birth, whose acquirements gave illustration to her age. By cotemporary authors, her talents and endowments are spoken of in most flattering terms, whilst her character is cele- brated for piety and justice, benignity and tranquillity. Though married to a man of miserable character, she had a daughter, Elisabetta Malatesta, who inherited her misfortunes as well as her genius. Elisabetta's daughter was Costanza Varana, the associate of scholars and philosophers, whose gifts she is said to have rivalled, notwithstanding an early death that deprived her infant Battista of a mother's care." The latter, the mother of Agnesina, displayed remarkable talents while yet a child, and subsequently made rapid acquisition of solid knowledge. She was married to Count Federigo, Duke of Urbino, in 1459. (See Id., pp. 206-7.) According to Litta, the lady Agnesina died in 1522, while return- ing from a visit to the Sanctuary at Loreto. Her brother Guildo- baldo having been deprived of the dukedom by Leo X., her son Ascanio Colonna, Duke of Palliano, was subsequently invested with that dignity by Clement VII. ; but the bull of the former pope not having been carried into effect, he never succeeded to Urbino. See Litta, Famiglie Celebri Italiani, torn. ii. tavola vii.
1 I am inclined to think, indeed, that the Dedication may have been intentionally antedated, otherwise Varthema must have had an extraordinary quick passage from India ; for as he left Can- nanore on the 6th December 1507, stayed fifteen days at Mozam- bique and two at the Azores, there only remain three months and eighteen days for the homeward voyage, and for the preliminaries connected with the preparation of his book, or at least of the
INTRODUCTION. xxi
One would have thought that Ramusio might have picked up some information respecting the early life and subsequent career of our author ; but his " Dis- corso Breve" to Varthema's book is briefer than many of the notices prefixed to other far less im- portant Voyages and Travels contained in his valu- able Collection. Moreover, it is clear that the first authorized edition of the Itinerary, printed at Rome in 1510, was either unknown to him or beyond his reach ; since he tells us that his revised exemplar was prepared from a Spanish version made from the Latin translation,—a third hand process, which ac- counts for the many variations existing between his copy and the original Italian edition. The following is all that he says : —
"This Itinerary of Lodovico Barthema. a Bolognese, wherein the things concerning India and the Spice Islands are so full g and so correctly narrated as to transcend all that has been written either by ancient or modern authors, has hitherto been read replete with errors and inaccuracies, and might hare been so read in future, had not God caused to be put into our hands the book of Christoforo di Arco, a clerk of Seville, who, being in possession of the Latin exemplar of that Voyage, made from the original itself, and dedicated to the Most Reverend Monsignor Bernardino, Cardinal Car- vaial of the Santa Croce, translated it with great care into the Spanish language, by the aid of which toe have been enabled to correct in many places the present book, which ivas originally loritten by the author himself in our own vulgar tongue, a?id dedicated to the 3Iost Illustrious Madonna
_______________________
dedicatory epistle, up to the death of Duke Guidobaldo, which, according to Dennistoun, occurred on the 11th of April 1508.
xxii INTRODUCTION.
Agnesina, one of the internment and excellent women of Italy at that period. She was the daughter of the Most Il- lustrious Si y nor Federico, Duke of Urbino, and sister of the Most Excellent Guidobaldo, wife of the Most Illustrious Signor Fabricio Colonna, and mother of the Most Excellent Signor Ascanio Colonna and of the lady Vittoria, Marchio- ness Dal Guasto, the ornament and light of the present age. And the aforesaid Lodovico divided this volume into seven Books, in the First of which he narrates his journey to Egypt, Syria, and Arabia Deserta. In the Second, he treats of Arabia Felix. In the Third, of Persia. In the Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth, he comprises all India and the Molucca Islands, where the spices grow. In the Seventh and last, he recounts his return to Portugal, passing along the coast of Ethiopia, the Cape of Good Hope, and several islands of the Western Ocean"
In this dearth of all external aids, we are obliged to have recourse to the narrative itself; but even there, the materials for constructing a biographical sketch of its author are scanty in the extreme. He tells us on one occasion (p. 263), that his father was a physician ; but as he was acting a part when that statement was made, little reliance can be placed upon it. On another, he claimed a knowledge of casting artillery (p. 50); and although the