Beschreibung:

Itinerario. En el Qual Cueta Mucha Parte de la Ethiopia Egipto; y Entrabas Arabias: Sira y la India
Seville: J. Cromberger, 1520. 55, [1] ff. including colophon leaf. 4to (275 x 195 mm). Modern crushed red morocco. Condition : closed tears to title neatly repaired, some intermittent light, mostly marginal staining, one leaf with more moderate staining, lower corner of colophon leaf supplied. Acquisition : purchased from William Reese Company (1998), $37,345. first spanish edition of one of the greatest travel narratives of the age of discovery, by the first non-muslim european to enter mecca . The Italian Ludivico di Varthema was one of the first to publish a detailed account of his voyage to Asia, well before many of his contemporaries. “…a man whose fame in his own lifetime rivaled that of Columbus and Magellan and who even now must win our admiration by his courage and resourcefulness.” (Penrose) Embarking from Venice in 1502 and adopting Muslim dress and manners upon his arrival in Egypt (a deception made considerably easier by his facility with foreign tongues) . He eventually impersonated himself into a position as a guard for a group of pilgrims on their way to Mecca. Varthema became the first Christian to make the pilgrimage, a goal that was still an extremely dangerous enterprise when attempted by such later explorers as Richard Burton While in Aden his true religion was discovered and spent two months imprisoned there before escaping and evenutally making his way to India in the fall of 1504. Goa, Pulicat, Madras and Malacca were all eventual destitnations and described herein. His return voyage to Europe in 1508 took him past the Cape of Good Hope (and subsequently he became one of the first Europeans to descibe the Cape). By the end of the year he was writing this account of six years of travel. A remarkable journey for an European to have undertaken at this time. "For correctness of observation and readiness of Varthema stands in the foremost rank of the old Oriental travellers. In Arabia and in the Indian archipelago east of Java he is (for Europe and Christendom) a real discoverer. Even where passing over ground traversed by earlier European explorers, his keen intelligence frequently adds valuable original notes on peoples, manners, customs, laws, religions, products, trade, methods of war." (Burton, The Pilgrimage to Al-Medinah and Meccah) All early editions are uncommon in commerce. European Americana 520-27; Palau 352971.