Published: 2007
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Nicolo de Conti was a Venetian merchant and explorer who travelled to India and South East Asia during the early 15th century. He left Venice in about 1419 and established himself in Damascus, where he studied Arabic. Over the next 25 years he travelled as a Muslim merchant to numerous places in Asia, including Baghdad, Basra, Persia, Cambay in Gujarat, the Deccan, Maliapur, Quilon, Kochi and Calicut in Kerala, Madras and Burdwan, Java, Sumatra, Malaysia, Arakan in Burma, Champa, Socotra, Aden, Berbera in Somalia, Cairo and Jidda in Egypt. He learnt Persian and other Islamic languages and immersed himself in Islamic culture. Throughout his travels he abandoned Christianity for Islam. As a penance he was requested by Pope Eugene IV to provide a detailed account to the papal secretary, Poggio Bracciolini. This constitutes one of the best accounts of the East by a 15th century traveller and this record of his voyages can be found in Bracciolini's De varietate fortunae, book IV. First circulated in manuscript form this work profoundly influenced European geographical understanding of the areas around the Indian Ocean, gave the first accounts of the Malay Archipelago and the Spice Islands since Marco Polo, and encouraged further European exploration.