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Encyclopedia Britannica

VARTHEMA (BARTHEMA, VERTOMANNUS, &C.), LUDOVICO DI

This article appears in Volume V27, Page 925 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: VAN-VIR

VARTHEMA (BARTHEMA, VERTOMANNUS, &C.), LUDOVICO DI , of Bologna (fl. 15021510), Italian traveller and writer. He was perhaps a soldier before beginning his distant journeys, which he undertook apparently from a passion for adventure, novelty and the fame which (then especially) attended successful exploration. He left Europe near the end of 1502; early in 1503 he reached Alexandria and ascended the Nile to Cairo. From

Egypt

EGYPT

he sailed to Beirut and thence travelled to

Tripoli

, Aleppo and Damascus, where he managed to get himself enrolled, under the name of Yunas (Jonah), in the Mameluke garrisondoubtless after adopting Islam. From Damascus he made the

pilgrimage

PILGRIMAGE (Fr. pelerinage, Lat. peregrinatio)

to Mecca and Medina as one of the Mameluke escort of the Hajj caravan (AprilJune 1503); he describes the sacred cities of Islam and the

chief

CHIEF (from Fr. chef, head, Lat. caput)

pilgrim sites and ceremonies with remarkable accuracy, almost all his details being confirmed by later writers. With the view of reaching India, he embarked at Jidda, the port of Mecca, and sailed down the Red Sea and through the Straits of Bab-el-Mandeb to Aden, where he was arrested and imprisoned as a Christian spy. He gained his libertyafter imprisonment both at Aden and Radaathrough the partiality of one of the sultanas of

Yemen

YEMEN (Yaman)

, made an extensive tour in

south

SOUTH
SOUTH, ROBERT (1634–1716)

-west Arabia (visiting Sana, &c.), and took ship at Aden for the Persian Gulf and India. On the way he touched at Zaila
925
Varthema's

work

WORK

(Itinerario de Ludouico de Varthema Bolognese
was first published in Italian at Rome in 1510 (ad instatia de Lodouico de Henricis da Corneto Vicetino). Other Italian editions appeared at Rome, 1517, at Venice, 1518, 1535, 1563, 1589, &c., at

Milan

MILAN
MILAN (Ital. Milano, Ger. Mailand, anc. Mediolanum, q.v.)

, 1519, 1523, 1525, &c. Latin translations appeared at

Milan

MILAN
MILAN (Ital. Milano, Ger. Mailand, anc. Mediolanum, q.v.)

, 1511 (by Archangelus Madrignanus) ; and at Nuremberg, 1610 (Frankfort, 1611) ; as well as in the Novus Orbis of Simon Grynaeus (Basel, 1532). German versions came out at Augsburg, 1515 (Strassburg, 1516) ; at Strassburg, by Michael Herr, in his New Welt, from Grynaeus, 1534; at

Leipzig

LEIPZIG

, by Hieronymus Megiserus, 1610 (and 1615), &c. A Spanish

translation

TRANSLATION

was issued at Seville, 1520 (from the Latin), and a French at Lyons, 1556. Dutch versions were printed at Antwerp, 1563 (from Grynaeus), at Utrecht, 1615 (from the

Leipzig

LEIPZIG

German of 161o), and again at Utrecht, 1655. The first English

translation

TRANSLATION

was of 15761577 (in Richard Eden's History of Travayle); an extract from Varthema was inserted in Samuel Purchas's

Pilgrimage

PILGRIMAGE (Fr. pelerinage, Lat. peregrinatio)

(London, 16251626) ; and in 1863 appeared the Hakluyt Society edition by J. W. Jones and G. P. Badger (Travels of Ludovico di Varthema, London). (C. R. B.)

End of Article: VARTHEMA (BARTHEMA, VERTOMANNUS, &C.), LUDOVICO DI

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