Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of illustrations
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- A note on spelling and vocabulary
- 1 In Search of India: the empire of Vijayanagara through European eyes
- 2 Marco Polo's India and the Latin Christian tradition
- 3 Establishing lay science: the merchant and the humanist
- 4 Ludovico de Varthema: the curious traveller at the time of Vasco da Gama and Columbus
- 5 The Portuguese and Vijayanagara: politics, religion and classication
- 6 The practice of ethnography: Indian customs and castes
- 7 The social and political order: Vijayanagara decoded
- 8 The historical dimension: from native traditions to European orientalism
- 9 The missionary discovery of South Indian religion: opening the doors of idolatry
- 10 From humanism to scepticism: the independent traveller in the seventeenth century
- Conclusion: Before Orientalism
- Appendix
- Bibliography
- Index
- Past and Present Publications
4 - Ludovico de Varthema: the curious traveller at the time of Vasco da Gama and Columbus
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 29 October 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of illustrations
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- A note on spelling and vocabulary
- 1 In Search of India: the empire of Vijayanagara through European eyes
- 2 Marco Polo's India and the Latin Christian tradition
- 3 Establishing lay science: the merchant and the humanist
- 4 Ludovico de Varthema: the curious traveller at the time of Vasco da Gama and Columbus
- 5 The Portuguese and Vijayanagara: politics, religion and classication
- 6 The practice of ethnography: Indian customs and castes
- 7 The social and political order: Vijayanagara decoded
- 8 The historical dimension: from native traditions to European orientalism
- 9 The missionary discovery of South Indian religion: opening the doors of idolatry
- 10 From humanism to scepticism: the independent traveller in the seventeenth century
- Conclusion: Before Orientalism
- Appendix
- Bibliography
- Index
- Past and Present Publications
Summary
CURIOSITY, DISGUISE AND THE END OF PILGRIMAGE
Ludovico de Varthema of Bologna is the second European traveller to have visited and described Vijayanagara. We know little about him, apart from what he tells us in his own book, and that, alas, is not always reliable. However, when he died some time before 1517, Varthema was one of the most successful and best-known travel writers since Marco Polo. On his return to Italy in 1508, after seven years in the East, he personally recounted his travels to the Venetian Senate (for which he was paid). The written version which he produced soon afterwards was dedicated to members of one of the leading noble families in Rome, the Colonna-Montefeltro. It was printed in Italian in 1510 with the support of the Pope and several of his humanist-trained cardinals, and then immediately translated into Latin. For decades, Varthema's Itinerario would figure as one of the key modern authorities concerning the Portuguese discoveries in the East. In fact his work is one of the most striking successes of travel literature in the early history of printing, with at least five editions in Italian, one in Latin, three in German, and two in Castilian between only 1510 and 1523. There were several more editions later in the century, including French, Dutch and English translations. Having been knighted by the king of Portugal for his services in India, Varthema could also seek to add a social emblem to his authority as traveller.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Travel and Ethnology in the RenaissanceSouth India through European Eyes, 1250–1625, pp. 125 - 163Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2000