Gasparo Balbi
This article needs additional citations for verification. (August 2021) |
Gasparo Balbi was an Italian jeweller, merchant, and author from Venice, who is best known for his account of his travels to India and the East from 1579 to 1588. He mainly travelled with Portuguese merchant and naval vessels and to forts and trading posts owned by or friendly to that country's commerce. His story, published in 1590 in Venice, was titled Voyage to the Oriental Indies.
Itinerary
His travels began in Cyprus, whence he moved to Aleppo, then to Babylon and Basra, and finally to the Portuguese fort of Hormuz.
From there, he embarked over water past the Portuguese fort of
Selected observations
He visited the temple of Alefanta (
There is little analysis or confession in the account; the account is often a dry businessman's succinct observations of places and their contents. As a merchant at heart discussing the mechanics of trade, he details the various exchange rates for coins in
Near San Thome and other sites in India, he observed on the rites of
Yet his account, often cursory, seems to stress the barbarity of the place, and his abhorrence of non-Christian religions, often deriding them as devil-worship. He finds as much to fear from man as from animals. He noted frequently the danger from man-eating
He describes the four white elephants kept by the king of Pegù.[15] He also describes how they catch and domesticate wild elephants.[16] He described their marriage ceremonies,[17] and festivities.[18] He described the harsh physical punishments, including castration, for different immoral offences.[19] He also described that he witnessed the king of Pegu, after a war, put four thousand inhabitants, men, women, and children, of a town to death by fire. He states he watched it with great compassion and my pain, seeing young blameless angels suffer martyrdom. In another anecdote, in 1583, Nadabayin, then king of Pegu, inquired from Balbi, as to who was the king of Venice. Balbi replied, there was no king, and that it is governed as a republic and not dominated by any king, taken by such a great marvel this king, began to laugh in such fashion that he was overcome with coughing and he said it gave him great displeasure (for me) to have such said to great persons like him.[20]
While
Sources
- Balbi, Gasparo (1610). Notes: Reproduction of original from Goldsmiths' Library, University of London. (ed.). Viaggio dell'Indie Orientali. Venice: Camillo Borgominieri.
- ^ Balbi, G. p. 65
- ^ Balbi, G. p. 71.
- ^ Balbi, G. p. 91.
- ^ Balbi, G. p. 98.
- ^ Balbi, G. p. 115.
- ^ Balbi, G. p. 128.
- ^ Balbi, G. p. 131.
- ^ Balbi, G. p. 134.
- ^ Balbi, G. p. 63.
- ^ Balbi, G. pp. 135–136.
- ^ Balbi, G. p. 90.
- ^ Balbi, G. p. 130.
- ^ Balbi, G. p. 137.
- ^ Balbi, G. p. 133.
- ^ Now in Myanmar.
- ^ Balbi, G. pp. 110–11.
- ^ Balbi, G. pp. 127-128.
- ^ Balbi, G. pp. 120–123.
- ^ Balbi, G. pp. 125–127.
- ^ Quoted in Robert Finlay in immortal republic: the myth of Venice during the Italian wars (1494-1530).