Giovanni Battista Ramusio And The History Of Discoveries: An Analysis Of Ramusio's Commentary, Cartography,

Giovanni Battista Ramusio was a sixteenth-century Venetian scholar who was very interested in the studies of geography and cartography. Ramusio's keen interest was in the findings of travelers and explorers to all parts of the world during the Age of Discoveries. He is remembered for his compilation of travel narratives entitled Delle Navigationi et Viaggi. Navigationi et Viaggi is a massive work in three volumes that includes a comprehensive collection of travel narratives translated into Italian and published by Giunti in Venice. While this was a major accomplishment, Ramusio's original commentaries on these travels and on the history of exploration have been overlooked. The present work offers an analysis of the original work in Navigationi et Viaggi, including Ramusio's commentaries and original maps and images, and provides background information on Ramusio's life. Some of Ramusio's writings are presented for the first time in the English language, and the biography of Ramusio included in the introduction is the most complete to date in English. Ramusio's writings give insight into the immediate impact of early modern discoveries on scholars of the time making Ramusio an important historian and reporter of these events.