Viaggio e viaggiatori italiani nel Seicento: relazioni odeporiche per una nuova geografia del vecchio continente

Abstract

After the Age of Discovery (XV-XVI), new types of travelers began to replace the great ocean routes to the Indies, with the overland, and more restricted, itineraries of an Old Continent that appeared as a land of new discoveries. Within this process – generally widespread across Europe – the contribution offered by the Italians is still to be defined, often classified as a niche phenomenon, especially compared to the mobility expressed by the rest of the Europeans.

Through a quick review of some published and unpublished texts of Seventeenth-century Italian travelers, the article intends to reflect on the Italian participation in travel culture during the early modern age. A completely new image emerges: Italians as dynamic people. Well-integrated in the continental European circuit, they were confident also with the itineraries of Central-Eastern and Northern Europe, lands well-known to them and part of an Italian geography much more extended than we usually know.