Niccolo di Conti
Niccolò di Conti (also Nicolo de 'Conti, Niccolo da Conti, dei Conti; * approx. 1395 ; † 1469 ) was a Venetian merchant and explorer.
Life and travel
He left Venice around 1419 and settled in Damascus . He toured Egypt and converted to Islam for form. In order to make his travel plans to India possible, he married a Muslim woman - at that time Christians were barred from traveling to the east in order not to endanger the trade monopoly with India and China. He learned Arabic and traveled to Asia until 1444 .
Niccolo di Conti first traveled through the desert to Baghdad , then by ship on the Tigris to Basra . His way to Persia and India led across the Persian Gulf . From Cambay he traveled the west coast to Pacamuria . He crossed the Indian subcontinent and visited Vijayanagar (capital of the Deccan until 1556 ). On the east coast he paid his visit to the tomb of St. Thomas in Mylapore . Via Burma and Bengal he went to Pedir (North Sumatra ), where he stayed for a year (around 1421 ). Then it went to Java , from there to Champa ( Vietnam ). The return journey was via Calicut , Cambay , Aden , Berbera , Jiddah , the Sinai and Cairo .
In 1444 Niccolo di Conti returned to Venice. Poggio Bracciolini , the secretary of Pope Pope Eugene IV , wrote down his travel reports.
It is speculated whether Conti also had contact with Chinese traders who reported to him about Japan . His reports on the foreign countries of Asia served u. a. Martin Behaim as the basis for his globe. The reports by Niccolo di Conti influenced the creator of the Genoese world map from 1457 in the form of geographical conceptions and several quotations and names that were directly adopted by Conti.
literature
- Francesco Surdich: Conti, Niccolò de '. In: Alberto M. Ghisalberti (Ed.): Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani (DBI). Volume 28: Conforto-Cordero. Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, Rome 1983.
Individual evidence
- ^ Peter Whitfield: New Found Lands: Maps in the History of Exploration . Routledge, London 1998, ISBN 0-415-92026-4 , p. 36.
Web links
- Niccolò dei Conti, Viaggiatore (Chioggia, circa 1395 - Venezia, 1469) ( Memento from February 22, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) (Italian)
- The "picture" of others and aspects of one's own in the travel reports (Friederike Jänner) (PDF; 329 kB)
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Conti, Niccolo di |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Conti, Niccolo di; Conti, Nicolo de '; Conti, Niccolo da; Conti, Niccolo dei |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Venetian merchant and explorer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | around 1395 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Venice |
| DATE OF DEATH | 1469 |