By sea and land. Image of the Mediterranean in the early 17th century, with drawings and stories from a diary

An unpublished manuscript talks about real-life events and visited or merely observed lands over the course of 15 voyages. The author embarked on one of the gal- leys of the Order of Santo Stefano and navigated into the Mediterranean Sea between 1602 and 1616. His handwritten descriptions are not limited only to the physical characteristics of the sites, but also concern the social structure, customs and traditions, local economy and major productive resources. The descriptions are completed by about 200 drawings. The unreserved independence of the author, who, rather than on commission, writes for himself, leads us believe that the provided information is impartial. For this reason, it is possible to reconstruct a realistic, precise image of Mediterranean lands and peoples in relation to a very important historical period: the age of the Corsair wars and the conflicts among the great Powers (France, Spain, Ottoman Empire) and their allies for supremacy in the Mediterranean and the East. In the manuscript, the description of Hellenic lands, where Christians coexisted, quite peacefully, with the Ottoman enemy, is particularly interesting. A varied background comes to light and the author highlights both the peculiarity and the "strangeness" of urban systems and anthropologic and social aspects, far from his own culture and traditions.

Keywords: Cartography, Mediterranean sailing Order of Santo Stefano Sailing directions

Giuseppina Scamardì, Per mare e per terra. L’immagine del mediterraneo nei primi anni del xvii secolo, tra i disegni e i racconti di una cronaca manoscritta in "STORIA URBANA " 135/2012, pp 5-26, DOI: 10.3280/SU2012-135001