page_title: Niccolò de' Conti
section_title: Account of voyages
hierarchical_section_title: Niccolò de' Conti / Account of voyages
caption_attribution_description: English: Genoese_map
context_page_description: Niccolò de' Conti was an Italian merchant, explorer, and writer. Born in Chioggia, who traveled to India and Southeast Asia, and possibly to Southern China, during the early 15th century. He was one of the human sources used to create the 1450 Fra Mauro map, which indicated that there was a sea route from Europe around Africa to India.
  De' Conti departed from Venice about 1419 and established himself in Damascus, Syria, where he studied Arabic. Over a period of 25 years, he traveled as a merchant to numerous places in Asia. His familiarity with the languages and cultures of the Islamic world allowed him to travel to many places on board ships owned by Islamic merchants.
  De' Conti's travels followed the period of Timurid relations with Europe. They also occurred around the same time and in the same places as the Chinese expeditions of Admiral Zheng He. His accounts are contemporary, and fairly consistent with those of the Chinese writers who were on Zheng He's ships, such as Ma Huan and Fei Xin.
context_section_description: Poggio Bracciolini's record of de' Conti's account, made in 1444, constitutes one of the best accounts of the East by a 15th-century traveler. It was included in the Book IV of his "De varietate fortunae" ("On the Vicissitudes of Fortune").
  Accounts of Niccolò de' Conti's travels, which first circulated in manuscript form, are said to have profoundly influenced the European geographical understanding of the areas around the Indian Ocean during the middle of the 15th century. They were the first accounts to detail the Sunda Islands and Spice Islands since the accounts of Marco Polo, and there is reason to believe that some of the new information on Fra Mauro's map was gleaned from conversation with Niccolò. His accounts probably encouraged the European travels of exploration of the end of the century.
  de' Conti also influenced 15th century cartography, as can be seen on the Genoese map (1447–1457), and in the work of the mapmaker Fra Mauro, whose influential Fra Mauro map (1450) offered one of the clearest depiction of the Old World. In these two maps, many new location names, and several verbatim descriptions, were taken directly from de Conti's account. The "trustworthy source" whom Fra Mauro quoted in writing is thought to have been de' Conti himself. Mauro's map discusses the travels of a Zoncho de India, a "junk from India" (likely referring to China or kingdoms in the Nusantara archipelago, as both was often referred to as India during this period), beyond the Cape of Good Hope into the Atlantic Ocean around 1420, confirming that it was possible to sail around Africa through the south. In his descriptions of East Asia, de' Conti describes huge junks of about 1,000 tons (some translations have 2,000 tons*), larger than the typical 16th century Western galleons and equal to the large Manila galleons:
  They build some ships much larger than ours, capable of containing 2,000 butts in size, with five sails and as many masts. The lower part is constructed with of three planks, in order to withstand the force of the tempest to which they are much exposed. But some ships are built in compartments, that should one part is shattered, the other portion remaining intact to accomplish the voyage.
  Some translations have 2000 butts (Hakluyt Society), which is around 1,000 tons, while other translations of de' Conti have 2,000 tons (Needham). The translation above is from the Hakluyt Society's translation. A butt was unit of volume that was half a ton.
  The man "from Cathay" whom Paolo Toscanelli, in a 1474 letter to Christopher Columbus, described as visiting Pope Eugenius IV (1431–1447) might have been de' Conti, who, after returning from the east, did meet Pope Eugenius in 1444:
  Also in the time of Eugenius one of them [of Cathay] came to Eugenius, who affirmed their great kindness towards Christians, and I had a long conversation with him on many subjects, about the magnitude of their rivers in length and breath, and on the multitude of cities on the banks of rivers. He said that on one river there were near 200 cities with marble bridges great in length and breadth, and everywhere adorned with columns. This country is worth seeking by the Latins, not only because great wealth may be obtained from it, gold and silver, all sorts of gems, and spices, which never reach us; but also on account of its learned men, philosophers, and expert astrologers, and by what skill and art so powerful and magnificent a province is governed, as well as how their wars are conducted.
  — Extract of the First Letter of Paolo Toscanelli to Columbus.
  De' Conti's book was used by several explorers and travel writers, such as Ludovico di Varthema (1510), and Antonio Pigafetta, who travelled around the world with Magellan's expedition. Alfred Russel Wallace cited de' Conti's account of the peoples of Java and Sumatra in his 1869 book The Malay Archipelago.
caption: The accounts of Niccolò de' Conti influenced the maker of the 1457 Genoese map, in the form of geographic conceptions and several quotes and names taken directly from Conti.[10]
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