Nicolò de’ Conti

Nicolò de’ Conti -- Summary

(Travellers | Cities | Routes | Trade Goods | Themes)

Conti's Journey
Interactive Map

Venice
Chioggia
Marco Polo

When he first sailed for the East in 1414, he spent some time in Damascus learning Arabic. He then set out with a caravan to Baghdad, made his way to Hormuz and went on by boat via Kalhat (Qalhat) in Oman to Cambay on the west coast of India. He travelled first in Malabar, and then overland to Madras and Malapur, where he took ship for Sumatra. While in India he married an Indian wife, by whom he had four children.

From Sumatra he sailed to Tenasserim in Burma, then to the mouth of the Ganges. He subsequently returned to the Indochinese peninsula, visiting cities like Ava and Pegu. He then sailed to Java and Borneo, where he spent some nine months. He gives valuable information about the Moluccas, the Spice Islands, of which he learned from traders. We next find him in Champa, the easternmost point of his travels.

His return trip was no less interesting. He sailed from Champa to India, visiting Quilon, Cochin and Calicut on the Malabar coast and finally returning to his port of entry, Cambay. His description of these and other ports on the west coast of India is extremely valuable, predating the Portugese descriptions by at least 80 years.

From Cambay, Nicolò sailed to Aden, then to Berbera and Jiddah. Accompanied by his wife and children, he visited Makkah, then sailed up the Red Sea to a port in Sinai. It was to atone for his conversion to Islam, which allowed him to visit the Holy Cities, that the penance of dictating his travels to Poggio was imposed upon him by Pope Eugenius IV.

The Castilian traveller Pero Tafur met Nicolò’s caravan to Cairo in the Sinai peninsula, near the Monastery of St Catherine’s. Nicolò told him the story of his life and travels, in a version substantially different from that he later told Poggio, and related many wonders concerning Prester John, which Pero Tafur faithfully transcribed.

Nicolò continued on to Cairo, where his wife and two of his children fell victim to the plague. In 1439, he returned to Italy with his two surviving children, Maria and Daniele, and visited Florence, where an important Church council was taking place, to beg the Pope’s forgiveness for his conversion to Islam. The Pope commanded him to relate his travels to his secretary Poggio, and it is thanks to this fortuitous circumstance that this most important account has been preserved. Although very brief in the version that has reached us, it contains important and interesting observations, not only on trade, but on local customs, religious practices, coinage, hairstyles and costume. Early scholars like Valentim Fernandes in Portugal and Roderigo Santaella, founder of the University of Seville, recognized its importance not only in vindicating many passages in Marco Polo, but as a valuable source for areas not yet reached by the Portuguese.

Nicolò died in 1469 in his native Chioggia, after having held a number of important civic positions.