Giovanni Battista Ramusio facts for kids
Giovanni Battista Ramusio (born July 20, 1485 – died July 10, 1557) was an Italian geographer and writer of travel books. He collected and published many stories from explorers.
Ramusio was born in Treviso, Italy. At that time, Treviso was part of the Republic of Venice, a powerful city-state. His father, Paolo Ramusio, was a magistrate, which is like a government official. In 1505, young Giovanni started working as a secretary. He worked for Aloisio Mocenigo, who was from an important family called the Mocenigo family. Mocenigo was the Republic of Venice's ambassador to France. An ambassador is a representative of a country in another country.
Giovanni Battista Ramusio spent his whole career working for Venice. He loved learning about geography, which is the study of Earth's features. His job meant he heard about all the new discoveries from explorers across Europe. These explorers sent their reports back to Venice. Ramusio was very smart and spoke many languages. He started gathering these reports and translating them into Italian. Italian was a language many people in Europe understood back then. He passed away in Padua.
Amazing Travel Books
Even though Ramusio did not travel much himself, he created a famous collection of books. It was called Navigationi et Viaggi, which means "Navigations and Travels." This collection was the first of its kind. It brought together first-hand stories from explorers about their journeys.
His collection included exciting accounts from famous travelers like Marco Polo. It also featured stories from Niccolò Da Conti, Magellan, Alvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca, and Giosafat Barbaro. The books also had a description of Africa from a work called Descrittione dell’ Africa. The part about China was the first time tea was mentioned in European writings.
Ramusio also published a part of a work by Tomé Pires about the Indies. He found this work but did not know who wrote it.
The first volume of Navigationi et Viaggi came out in 1550. The third volume quickly followed in 1556. The second volume was delayed because the original papers were burned in a fire. It was finally published in 1559, two years after Ramusio died. Navigationi et Viaggi was translated into many languages. It was also printed again many times. This shows how popular these kinds of travel books were becoming in Europe. Ramusio's work helped open the way for many other similar collections, like those by Richard Hakluyt.
See also
- Ramusio family
