Imagine you lived in the 16th century and dreamed of seeing new sights—just like we do today, especially if we’ve spent more time at home than we’d have preferred.
If you were a 16th-century European, how would you learn about distant places?
While we can look online or browse books, photos, or films to find out what we’re likely to experience, our ancestors had few options:
- Fortunate listeners at a village inn might hear stories from returned travelers
- Literate people might have access to guides for pilgrims—to places like the Holy Land, Greek holy sites, or the Spanish pilgrim route to the shrine of St. James
- Only the most privileged and rich (kings, popes, and their associates) had access to travelers’ journals (described below)
Why did people travel?
Merchants, explorers, diplomats, soldiers, pilgrims, and missionaries — all needed to travel to succeed in their careers and religious callings
What appealed to readers about travel writing?
Wonderful, terrible, or amazing new information about the sights and peoples of the world stimulated people’s curiosity, spirit of adventure, quest for riches, and religious passion, and also allowed people to travel vicariously from the safety of their homes.
What did they learn? A few highlights from this vast genre:
Marco Polo—the son of a Venetian merchant, his Book of the Marvels of the World described his travels through Asia between 1271 and 1295, and his experiences at the court of Kublai Khan. Even though this book had to be hand-copied (no printing press yet!), it became wildly popular. His description of Japan provided a goal for Columbus in his 1492 journey; his identification of spice-producing areas encouraged Western merchants’ new ventures; European explorers of the late 15th and the 16th centuries used the abundant new geographic information he recorded during their voyages of discovery.
Christopher Columbus—after his (1492) first voyage to the West Indies, he wrote a letter to King Ferdinand of Spain describing the wonders of the island he called Hispana: many great rivers and high, beautiful mountains; many trees bearing fruit; full of spices, cotton, aloe-wood, gold, and metals (except iron). Inhabitants were fearful, reverent, and friendly, and open to conversion to Christianity
Niccolò de’ Conti (1395–1469)–an Italian merchant, he explored India, China and Indonesia from 1419 to 1444. He wrote an account of his travels, including details about the Spice Islands, huge ships (1000-2000 tons) built in Asia, and confirmed it was possible to sail around the tip of Africa.
Antonio Pigafetta (c. 1491 – c. 1531)–a Venetian explorer who traveled with Magellan in the first circumnavigation of the globe. He wrote Relazione del primo viaggio intorno al mondo (1524) (The First voyage Around the World). Of the two hundred thirty-seven men who left Spain, he was one of only eighteen who returned. His account mentions: sharks, fierce storms, cannibals, giants, near starvation, wild boars, crocodiles; execution, robbery by natives, near drowning, and the killing of Magellan in 1521 by islanders of Matan.
Giovanni Battista Ramusio (1485–1557)–a Venetian geographer, he didn’t travel widely but compiled Navigationi et Viaggi (“Navigations and Travels”) (1555-1559), a large collection of explorers’ first-hand accounts of their travels around the world, the first one of its kind. They were translated into Italian from Spanish, French, and Latin, plus some from works never before published.
Religious pilgrims wrote guides to the Holy Land and Greek pilgrimage sites
Missionaries wrote about lands they visited
Which of these accounts would have motivated you to travel?
Would you have wanted to travel if your options were ships, horses, mules, camels?
How about if you had no resources but your own two feet?
Would you have risked attacks by robbers or pirates along the way?
These brief examples reveal that however enticing travel seemed, it was difficult for most people in the 16th century. As I research my characters’ travel options for my upcoming novel, I constantly admire the courage and strength of people who lived 500 years ago.
Have you recently wished you could get away and see a new or faraway place? What inspired you to visit?