conti
conti — noun
1. Niccolò de' Conti (c. 1395–1469), a 15th-century Venetian merchant and explorer
Niccolò de' Conti (c. 1395–1469), a 15th-century Venetian merchant and explorer who traveled widely across the Middle East, India, and Southeast Asia, and whose accounts helped shape European knowledge of Asia before the Portuguese voyages.
Niccolò de' Conti spent more than twenty years traveling through India and Southeast Asia before returning to Venice in 1444.
historical fact: specific years and regions
Travelers like Conti gave Europeans some of their earliest detailed descriptions of the spice markets of Calicut.
role: source of geographical knowledge
The Portuguese explorer looked for the same pepper ports that Conti had written about decades earlier.
Historians compare Conti's travel accounts to those of Marco Polo, though Conti reached farther south in Asia.
Conti's voyage through Burma and Java was documented after his return to Venice in the 1440s.