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Dutch.

The Novus Orbis of Grynæus was again translated, and this time into Dutch by Cornelis Ablijn, and printed at Antwerp in 1563 in folio. The translator addresses his work to William Prince of Orange, and, speaking of the original, announces his own labours. in the following words :

"Dwelek ich Cornelis Ablijn openbaer notarius residerende inder vermaerder coopstadt van Antwerpen, door bede van sommige vrienden wt der Hoochduytscher in deser Nederduytscher oft Brabantsche taclen getranslateert ende oveghesedt hebbe."

This translation, therefore, is further removed from the original than any of the others. The privilege is dated 1561.

De uytnemende en seer wonderlijcke zee-en-Landt-Reyse vande Heer Ludowyck di Barthema, van Bononien, Ridder, &c., gedaen Inde Morgenlanden, Syrien, Vrughtbaer en woest Arabien, Perssen, Indien, Egypten, Ethiopien, en andere. Uyt het Italiens in Hoogh-duyts vertaelt door Hieronymum Megiserium, Cheur-Saxsens History schrijver. En vyt den selven nu eerstmael in't nederdeuyts gebracht door. F. S. Tot Utrecht, 1654. 4°.

A copy of this edition is in the British Museum.

Meusel, "Bibliotheca Historica," vol. 2, pt. 1, p. 340, says that the German translation of Megiserus was translated into Dutch, and printed at Utrecht in 1615 in 4o; and Ternaux Compans inserts in the "Bibliothèque" the title of another edition printed at Utrecht in 4° by W. Snellaert in 1655.

English.

In 1577 Richard Eden published a collection of voyages and travels in 4°, which he entitled "The History of Travayle in the West and East Indies," &c., in which he included the Itinerary of Varthema with the following title:

"The navigation and vyages of Lewes Vertomannus, Gentleman, of the citie of Rome, to the regions of Arabia, Egypte, Persia, Syria, Ethiopia, and East India, both within and without the ryver of Ganges, etc. In the yeere of our Lorde 1503 conteynyng many notable and straunge thinges, both hystoricall and naturall. Translated out of Latine into Englyshe by Richarde Eden. In the yeare of our Lord 1576."

A short extract, greatly abridged, from Varthema's work, is also inserted in "Purchas his Pilgrimage." London, 1625-6. Fol.

J. WINTER JONES.

Dec. 10, 1863.

INTRODUCTION,

BY THE EDITOR.

WHO WAS LUDOVICO DI VARTHEMA? Unfortunately, scarcely any record of him is forthcoming except what he tells us himself. I have searched every available repository of such information, to learn something of his antecedents, and have searched in vain. Zedler finds no place for him in his Universal Lexicon; our own Biographical Collections pass him over; and all that the French have to say is this:"Vartomanus, gentilhomme Bolonais, et patrice Romain, fut un voyageur célèbre dans le xvi° siècle. Il est presque inconnu dans le nôtre, parce que l'abbé Prévost, et ceux qui ont écrit l'histoire des voyages, ont négligé de parler du sien, quoiqu'il soit un des plus importants pour l'histoire de la géographie, et pour l'histoire en général." I had hoped to glean some stray notices of him in the writings of his own countrymen; but they are as barren of what we wish to know as the rest. Zurla2 does not even mention him in his Dissertation on the most illustrious Italian

1 Biographie Universelle, Ancienne et Moderne, Paris, 1827. 2 Di Marco Polo e degli altri Viaggiatori più illustri, Dissertazione da P. AB. D. PLACIDO ZURLA, 2 vols. Venezia, 1818.

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travellers; and Fantuzzi, the only Italian historian who devotes more than a few lines to him, begins his article on "Lodovico Bartema" with an admission which I have been obliged to imitate, and ends it by erroneously stating that our author's Itinerary was first published at Venice, and by hazarding a doubt respecting his return to Italy,—a fact which is plainly stated at the conclusion of his narrative. Fantuzzi's notice is as follows:-" Of this person, we know nothing beyond what the Co. Valerio Zani has written in the Preface to the Genio Vagante, tom. i. p. 32, viz., that Lodovico Bartema, a Bolognese by birth, flourished in the sixteenth century,-that he left Bologna for Venice, from whence he crossed over into Asia, and arrived first at Alexandria,” etc. "This is all we learn from the Co. Valerio Zani in the abovenamed Preface, subsequent to which we possess no information about Lodovico Bartema hence, we do not know whether he returned to Italy, or where he died, except that, inasmuch as his Itinerary was printed for the first time in Venice, we are led to believe that he did return thither; for it is not easy to suppose that he sent his manuscripts from Portugal to be printed in Italy, which they appear to have been during his lifetime."1

The following is appended to the foregoing extract in a footnote:-"This writer's name is spelt in different ways. In his Itinerary comprised in the edition of Ramusio, by Ferdinando Leopoldo del Migliore in the Firenze Illustrata, p. 310, and in P. D. Abondio Collina's Dissertation De acus nautica inventore, contained in the Commentarj dell' Accadem. dell' Instituto, tom. ii.

This is very unsatisfactory, and the deficiency is not supplied by any incidental allusions in the author's dedicatory epistle. Agnesina, the illustrious lady to whom he dedicates his Itinerary, was the fourth daughter of Federico di Montefeltro, Count and second Duke of Urbino, by his second wife Battista Sforza, and was married in 1474 to Fabrizio Colonna, Lord of Marino, Duke of Albi and Tagliacozza. Of the lady Agnesina, Dennistoun says: "She inherited the talents and literary tastes which had descended to her mother, and transmitted them to a still more gifted daughter, the illustrious Vittoria Colonna, Marchioness of Pescara."1 Her brother, whose

part iii. p. 382, he is called Lodovico Bartema; but in the titlepage of the edition of the said Itinerary, from the edition of 1535, of Bumaldi, in the Biblioth. Bonon., p. 158, of Orlandi's Notizia degli Scritt. Bologn., he is styled Lodovico Vartema. This is noticed by the Co. Mazzuchelli; but it must be borne in mind, that the permutation of the letters B and V, in pronunciation, is very common with the Portuguese and Spaniards, as has been the case, moreover, among almost all nations in almost every age. So, likewise, the ancient Florentines used to say Voce and Boce, Voto and Boto, and so forth. By Konig, in the Biblioth. Vetus et Nova, p. 831, he is called Lodovicus Vartomannus, alias Varthema. Doni, in his Libreria, p. 33, styles him merely Lodovico Bolognese; and Simlero, in his Epit. Biblioth. Gesneri, p. 121, has Lodovico da Bologna. Besides Mazzuchelli, who speaks of him in his Scrittori d'Italia, he is also mentioned by Sig. Ab. Tiraboschi, in his Storia della Letter. d'Italia, tom. vii. part i. p. 211." FANTUZZI'S Notizie degli Scrittori Bolognesi, Bologna, 1781.

Memoirs of the Dukes of Urbino, vol i. p. 277. Writing of Battista, Agnesina's mother, the same author remarks:-"She was a remarkable instance of the transmission of talent by female descent. Her great grandmother, Battista di Montefeltro [daughter

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