This earthly globe A Venetian geographer and the race to map the world

Journalist and author di Robilant (Autumn in Venice, 2018) recounts the life's work of Venetian civil servant and geographer Giovanni Ramusio, whose monumental three-volume Navigationi et Viaggi (1550--59), a compendium of eyewitness reports of exploration across Africa, India, Asia, and the Americas, transformed the map of the world. Shrewd, self-effacing Ramusio tapped into Venice's far-flung network of diplomats, spies, and travelers to amass an extensive collection of personal papers and closely guarded government documents that debunked age-old models of global geography and fantastical tales of exotic locales. Di Robilant combines Ramusio's story of scholarly curiosity and intrigue with vivid retellings of Navigationi's astounding accounts of the people and places in distant lands, such as the Muslim scholar Muhammed al-Wazzan, who diligently chronicled his travels across Northern Africa until his capture by pirates and imprisonment by the Pope. Navigationi was an "unparalleled" release of contemporary, rigorously vetted primary sources--a priceless commodity in an era of fierce geopolitical competition for trade and empire. It was, di Robilant tells us, "the biggest WikiLeak of the Renaissance."

A deeply researched look at the editor and author of one of the "great publishing feats" of the 16th century. Born in the age of discovery, Venetian scholar Giovanni Battista Ramusio (1485-1557) worked in official capacities as a minister, but he also tirelessly organized information that seeped out in the form of journals and letters of new discoveries across the globe. These accounts described Magellan's circumvention of the world, Cadamosto's journey along the West Coast of Africa, Jacques Cartier's travels in Canada, and Pizarro's conquest of the Incas in Peru. Published in three volumes from 1550 to 1559, Ramusio's Navigationi et Viaggi introduced much of the heretofore unknown geographical knowledge about three continents, covering Africa and Southeast Asia; then the New World; then Asia and the Muslim lands. In this elegant history, di Robilant, author of Irresistible North and A Venetian Affair, engagingly traces Ramusio's vast scholarship, which began with his position as an editing assistant to Aldus Manutius, the legendary Venetian publisher of the classics. Working as a clerk in the chancery, then as the secretary to the senate, Ramusio moonlighted as a geographer, helping to publish Strabo's Geography, and he was highly knowledgeable about classical scholars, who knew little of the layout of the globe. Over decades, Ramusio kept up with dramatic changes in exploration, including works by Antonio Pigafetta, one of the few to return from Magellan's venture; Muslim convert John Leo, who traveled extensively in Africa; contemporaries Ludovico di Varthema and Cazazionor, who chronicled India and Ceylon; Andrea Navagero, who left a "treasure trove of first-rate material" about the bloody excursions of the Spanish in the New World. Among other richly detailed topics, di Robilant also examines Ramusio's revisitation of Marco Polo's journal. An erudite work that shows how one devoted scholar opened up an entire realm of knowledge. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.