Niccolò Da Conti (also Nicolò de' Conti) (1395–1469) was a Venetian merchant and explorer, born in Chioggia, who traveled to India and Southeast Asia during the early 15th century. Events End of reign of Hungary by Capet-Anjou family. ... Events July 26 - Battle of Edgecote Moor October 17 - Prince Ferdinand of Aragon wed princess Isabella of Castile. ... Venetian could mean of Venice of the Republic of Venice the Venetian language The Venetian, a hotel and casino in Las Vegas, Nevada A venetian blind - a horizontally slatted window blind. ... Chioggia is a coastal town in the Veneto region of northern Italy (pop. ... Location of Southeast Asia Southeast Asia is a subregion of Asia. ... (14th century - 15th century - 16th century - other centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 15th century was that century which lasted from 1401 to 1500. ...

Da Conti departed from Venice about 1419 and established himself in Damascus, Syria, where he studied Arabic. Over a period of 25 years, he traveled as a Muslim merchant to numerous places in Asia. Da Conti's familiarity with the languages and cultures of the Islamic world allowed him to travels to many places, onboard ships owned by Islamic merchants. Events January 19 - Hundred Years War: Rouen surrenders to Henry V of England which brings Normandy under the control of England. ... Damascus by night, the green spots are minarets Damascus (Arabic officially دمشق Dimashq, colloqially ash-Sham الشام) is the capital city of Syria and one of the worlds oldest cities. ... Arabic can mean: From or related to Arabia From or related to the Arabs The Arabic language; see also Arabic grammar The Arabic alphabet, used for expressing the languages of Arabic, Persian, Malay ( Jawi), Kurdish, Panjabi, Pashto, Sindhi and Urdu, among others. ... A Muslim is a believer in or follower of Islam. ... World map showing location of Asia A satellite composite image of Asia Asia is the central and eastern part of the continent of Eurasia, defined by subtracting the European peninsula from Eurasia. ...

Da Conti's travels occured around the same time and in the same places as the Chinese expeditions of Admiral Zheng He. His accounts are contemporary, and fairly consistent with those of the Chinese writers who were on Zheng He's ships, such as Ma Huan (writing in 1433) and Fei Xin (writing in about 1436). Zheng He (Traditional Chinese:鄭和, Simplified Chinese: 郑和 , Hanyu Pinyin: Zhèng Hé, Wade-Giles: Cheng Ho) (1371 - 1435), a famous Chinese mariner and explorer, made the voyages collectively referred to as the Eunuch Sanbao to the Western Ocean (三保太監下西洋) or Zheng He to the Western Ocean, from 1405 to 1433. ...

Travels

The translation (in French) of the travels of Niccolò Da Conti.

Da Conti first crossed the desert to reach Baghdad and from there sailed down the Tigris to Basra. He then sailed through the Persian Gulf and went to Iran where he learned Persian. A street map of Baghdad Average temperature (red) and precipitations (blue) in Baghdad Baghdad (بغداد) is the capital of Iraq and the Baghdad Province. ... The Tigris (Old Persian: Tigr, Syriac Aramaic: Deqlath, Arabic: دجلة, Dijla, Turkish: Dicle; biblical Hiddekil) is the eastern member of the pair of great rivers that define Mesopotamia, along with the Euphrates, which flows from the mountains of Anatolia through Iraq. ... Location of Basra Basra (also known as Başrah or Basara; historically sometimes called Busra, Busrah, and early on Bassorah; Arabic: البصرة, Al-Basrah) is the second largest city of Iraq with an estimated population of about 1,377,000 in 2003. ... Satellite image showing the Persian Gulf The Persian Gulf (Persian: خلیج فارس, pronounced khalij-e fārs, IPA:/χaliːdʒɛfaːrs/, Arabic: الخليج الفارسي) is an extension of the Gulf of Oman in between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran (Persia). ... Persia or Persian most often refer to: Persia The Persians, an ethnic group, also called Tajiks Persian language Persian (Pokémon) See also Iranian, Iranian peoples, Iranian languages and Aryan. ...

He then crossed the Arabian sea to Cambay, in Gujerat. He travelled in India to "Pacamuria", "Helly" and Vijayanagar, capital of the Deccan before 1555. He went to "Maliapur" on the east coast of India, where he visited the tomb of St. Thomas, who in Christian tradition is recorded to have founded a Christian community there. Cambay is a town in Gujarat state, India. ... Gujarat (Hindi: गुजरात) is the most industrialized state in India after Maharashtra and is located in western India, bordered by Pakistan to the northwest and Rajasthan to the north. ... Vijayanagara (often written Vijayanagar), in northern Karnataka, is the name of the now ruined capital city of the historic Vijayanagar empire in the Southern part of India. ... HElp ME ... St. ...

About 1421, Da Conti crossed to "Pedir" in northern Sumatra, where he spent a year, gaining local knowledge, particularly on the gold and spice trade. He then continued after sailing 16 days to Tenasserim on the Malay peninsula. He then sailed to the mouth of the Ganges, visited Burdwan (in Bangladesh), then went overland to Arakan (Burma). After traveling through Burma, he left for Java where he spent nine months, before going to Champa (Vietnam). Events March 21 - Battle of Baugé. A small French force surprises and defeats an English force under Thomas, Duke of Clarence, a brother of Henry V of England, in Normandy. ... Sumatra (also spelled Sumatara and Sumatera) is the sixth largest island of the world (approximately 470,000 km²) and is the largest part of Indonesia. ... Tanintharyi, better known by the old name Tenasserim, is a division of Myanmar, covering the long narrow southern part of the country on the Kra Isthmus. ... The Malay Peninsula (Malay: Semenanjung Melayu) is a major peninsula located in Southeast Asia. ... Bardhaman is a district town in West Bengal. ... The term Java can refer to: Java (island) - the main island of Indonesia Java, Georgia - one of provinces of the Republic of Georgia Java coffee - a variety of coffee plant which originated on the island, or a slang word for coffee. ...

Da Conti described South-East Asia as "exceeding all other regions in wealth, culture and magnificence, and abreast of Italy in civilization". Location of Southeast Asia Southeast Asia is a subregion of Asia. ...

Around 1440 Da Conti sailed back to India (Quilon, Cochin, Calicut, Cambay) and then to the Middle-East (Socotra, Aden, Berbera in Somalia, Jidda in Egypt), from where he travelled overland via Mt. Sinai to Cairo. Kollam, formerly known as Quilon, is a city in Kerala which is also the headquarters of a district by the same name. ... Cochin can refer to: Cochin China Kingdom of Kochi, a former state of India, merged with Travancore to form the State of Kerala Cochin city, the former name of the city of Kochi, in Kerala Hôpital Cochin, a famous hospital in Paris, France This is a disambiguation page — a navigational... Kozhikode, also known as Calicut, is the third largest city (pop. ... Cambay is a town in Gujarat state, India. ... Map of the Socotra archipelago Socotra or Soqotra (Arabic سقطرة Suquṭrah) is a small archipelago of four islands and islets in the Indian Ocean off the Horn of Africa some 350 km south of the Republic of Yemen, which administers Socotra for the Banu Afrar Mahra Sultanate of Qishn and... Aden is a city in Yemen, 105 miles East of Bab-el-Mandeb. ... Berbera is the capital of Saaxil, a region in Somalia and now part of the Republic of Somaliland. ... Jeddah (also Jedda, Jiddah, or Juddah) is a city in in western Saudi Arabia, on the Red Sea. ... For other places named Mount Sinai, see Mount Sinai (disambiguation) Sunrise on the Mount Sinai Sinai Peninsula, showing location of Jabal Musa Mount Sinai (2,285 meters) is a mountain in the southern Sinai Peninsula of Egypt. ... View of the modern citys skyline. ...

Niccolò Da Conti returned to Venice in 1444, where he remained as a respected merchant. Events March 1 - Gjergj Kastriot Skanderbeg proclaimed commander of the Albanian resistance April 16 - Truce of Tours. ...

Account of his voyages

Medal of Pope Eugenius IV.

Throughout his travels, he had abandoned Christianity for Islam, and he was requested by Pope Eugenius IV, as a penance, to relate his travels to the papal secretary Poggio Bracciolini. Poggio's recording of Niccolò's, made in 1439, constitute one of the best accounts of the East by a 15th century traveler. They were included in the Book IV of his "DeVarietate Fortunae" (The Vicissitudes of Fortune). Eugenius IV, né Gabriel Condulmer (1383 - February 23, 1447) was pope from March 3, 1431 to his death. ... Christianity is an Abrahamic religion based on the life, teachings, death by crucifixion, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth as described in the New Testament. ... Islam (Arabic al-islām الإسلام,  listen) the submission to God is a monotheistic faith and the worlds second-largest religion. ... Eugenius IV, né Gabriel Condulmer (1383 - February 23, 1447) was pope from March 3, 1431 to his death. ... This article or section should include material from Gianfrancesco Poggio Bracciolini Gian Francesco Poggio Bracciolini (February 11, 1380 - October 30, 1459), Italian scholar of the Renaissance, was born at Terranuova, a village in the territory of Florence. ...

Niccolò Da Conti's travels, which first circulated in manuscript form, are said to have profoundly influenced the European geographical understanding of the areas around the Indian Ocean during the middle of the 15th century. They were the first accounts to detail the Sunda Islands and Spice Islands since the accounts of Marco Polo. His accounts probably encouraged the European travels of exploration of the end of the century. A manuscript (Latin manu scriptus, written by hand), strictly speaking, is any written document that is put down by hand, in contrast to being printed or reproduced some other way. ... The Sunda Islands are a group of islands in west part of the Indonesian Archipelago. ... This article covers the history of the idea of the Maluku Islands in other cultures, that is, as The Spice Islands. ... Marco Polo, after a painting in Badia, Rome Marco Polo (15 September 1254 - 8 January 1324) was a Venetian trader and explorer who, together with his father and uncle, was one of the first Westerners to travel the Silk Road to China (which he called Cathay) and visited the Great... The so-called Age of Exploration was a period from the early 15th century and continuing into the early 17th century, during which European ships were traveled around the world to search for new trading routes and partners to feed burgeoning capitalism in Europe. ...

He also influenced 15th century cartography, as can be seen on the Genoese Map (1447-1457), and in the work of the mapmaker Fra Mauro, whose influential Fra Mauro map (1457) offered one of the clearest depiction of the Old World. The "trusworthy source" whom Fra Mauro quoted in writing in his map about the travels of a "junk from India" (lit. "Zoncho de India"), beyond the Cape of Good Hope into the Atlantic Ocean around 1420, confirming that it was possible to sail around Africa through the south, is thought to have been Niccolo Da Conti himself. Fra Mauro was a 15th century Italian monk and mapmaker, who in 1457 mapped the then-known Mediterranean world with surprising accuracy. ... The Old World consists of those parts of Earth known to Europeans before the voyages of Christopher Columbus: Europe, Asia, and Africa. ... The Junk is a Chinese sailing vessel. ... The Cape of Good Hope headland seen from the north 1888 Map of the Cape of Good Hope Triangular Postage Stamp The Cape of Good Hope is a headland in South Africa, near Cape Town, traditionally — and incorrectly — regarded as marking the turning point between the Atlantic Ocean and the... Events May 21 - Treaty of Troyes. ... A satellite composite image of Africa Africa is the worlds second-largest continent in both area and population, after Asia. ...

Niccolò Da Conti's book was used by several explorers and travels writers, such as Ludovico di Varthema (1510), and Antonio Pigafetta, who traveled around the world with Magellan's expedition. Antonio Pigafetta was a tourist who paid a large sum of money to accompany Ferdinand Magellan and his crew around the world. ... Magellan may refer to the following: Ferdinand Magellan, the Portuguese explorer the Magellan probe, a NASA unmanned space mission to Venus the Magellan Fund, a mutual fund offered by Fidelity Investments. ...

Editions

The first printed edition of Conti’s account was made in 1492 in the original Latin by Cristoforo da Bollate and dedicated to Pietro Cara, who was going on a journey to India. Events January 2 - Boabdil, the last Moorish King of Granada, surrenders his city to the army of Ferdinand and Isabella after a lengthy siege. ... Latin is the language that was originally spoken in the region around Rome called Latium. ...

Various translations followed, into Portuguese (1502) and Spanish (1503). Events January 1 - Portuguese explorers sailed into Guanabra Bay, Brazil and mistook it for the mouth of a river which they named Rio de Janeiro May 9 - Christopher Columbus leaves Spain for his fourth and final trip to the New World. May 21 - Portuguese discover island of St Helena. ... Events January 20 - Seville in Castile is awarded exclusive right to trade with the New World. ...

The first Italian-language edition appears to have been translated from the Portuguese edition, and was made a part of the collection of travellers’ accounts published in 1550 by Giovanni Battista Ramusio. Events February 7 - Julius III becomes Pope. ...

The first English edition was translated from the Spanish, and printed in 1579 by John Frampton, using a combination of Marco Polo's and Da Conti's narrations. Events January 6 - The Union of Atrecht united the southern Netherlands under the Duke of Parma, governor in the name of king Philip II of Spain. ...

References

• Bracciolini, Poggio: De varietate fortunae, book iv [c.1445] (ed. by Abb・Oliva, Paris 1723).
• J. H. Parry, The European Reconnaissance: Selected Documents. London, Macmillan, 1968
• Nicolo De Conti, Chandeigne (ed.), Le voyage aux Indes (in French), 2004, ISBN 2906462861

External links

• Niccolo da Conti (http://www.win.tue.nl/~engels/discovery/conti.html)