India in the Fifteenth Century
Being a Collection of Narratives of Voyages to India in the Century Preceding the Portuguese Discovery of the Cape of Good Hope, from Latin, Persian, Russian, and Italian Sources

A compilation (published in 1857) of descriptions of journeys to India in the fifteenth century.

Richard Henry Major (Edited by)

9781108008167, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 2 November 2010

248 pages
21.6 x 14 x 1.4 cm, 0.32 kg

The publications of the Hakluyt Society (founded in 1846) made available edited (and sometimes translated) early accounts of exploration. The first series, which ran from 1847 to 1899, consists of 100 books containing published or previously unpublished works by authors from Christopher Columbus to Sir Francis Drake, and covering voyages to the New World, to China and Japan, to Russia and to Africa and India. This 1857 volume is a compilation, edited by R. H. Major of the British Museum, of narratives of journeys to India 'in the century preceding the Portuguese discovery of the Cape of Good Hope; from Latin, Persian, Russian, and Italian sources'. India was regarded as a fabled source of riches even before the time of Alexander the Great, and Major's introduction surveys the surviving accounts of overland journeys there before the fifteenth century, assessing their validity and where possible matching ancient to modern place names.

Editor's preface
Introduction
Narrative of the journey of Abd-er-Razzak
The travels of Nicolo Conti
The travels of Athanasius Nikiton
The journey of Hieronimo di Santo Stephano
Index.

Subject Areas: Ancient history: to c 500 CE [HBLA]