Niccolò de' Conti

Timeline

1. 1395–1410Chioggia · VeniceBorn at Chioggia at the southern end of the Venetian Lagoon, he grew up within the Venice–Mediterranean trade network of the early fifteenth century, receiving commercial and nautical training that accumulated the language and trading experience for his later journeys east.
2. 1419–1444Vijayanagara · KarnatakaLeaving Venice around 1419, he passed through Syria and the Persian Gulf into the Indian Ocean, trading and settling in Gujarat, Vijayanagara, Bengal, Malacca, Java, and elsewhere, learning local languages and observing politics, religion, and products, becoming one of the few European travelers with deep knowledge of South and Southeast Asia.
3. 1444–1469Florence · TuscanyOn his return he reached Florence in 1444, and because he had traveled far with wife and concubines he confessed to Pope Eugenius IV, dictating his Eastern experiences, which the humanist Poggio Bracciolini compiled as 'Indiae Notitia' (Historia de varietate fortunae). He later returned to Venice and died around 1469.