Delle Navigationi et Viaggi
Raccolte da M. Gio. Battista Ramusio,
In Tre Volumi Divise
VOLUME PRIMO
EXTREMELY RARE BOOK
ILLUSTRATED WITH WOODCUTS
!NO MAPS!
6TH EDITION
VOLUME ONE ONLY
ITALIAN LANGUAGE TEXT
Publisher: In Venetia, Appresso I Giunti
Copyright: 1613
Though he himself traveled little, Ramusio published Navigationi et Viaggi ("Navigations and Travels"); a collection of explorers' first-hand accounts of their travels. This was the first work of its kind. It included the accounts of Marco Polo, Niccolò Da Conti, Magellan, Alvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca, and Giosafat Barbaro, as well as the Descrittione dell’ Africa. The first volume was published in 1550. This is the 6th Edition of said volume published in 1613.
This collection of voyages was compiled by Giovanni Battista Ramusio (Venice, 1485-1557). The three volumes he left form the most highly valued collection of voyages of the sixteenth century. It is composed of accounts of voyages that had already been published, translated from the French, Spanish and Latin, and also of manuscript accounts that appear here for the first time.
All authors are unanimous in their praise of Ramusio's choice of published narratives. Locke, the English philosopher, states that it is "the most perfect work that nature in any language." Harisse writes, "The publication of Ramusio Raccolta may be said to open an era in the literary history of Voyage and Navigation. Instead of accounts carelessly copied and translated from previous collections, perpetuating errors and anachronisms, we find in this valuable work, original narratives that betray the hand of a scholar of great critical acumen. Ramusio's collection of voyages enjoyed great success, and each volume appeared in several editions, some containing more narratives than others, and with small differences in the maps.
