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GIAN BATTISTA (1485-1557)

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Originally appearing in Volume V22, Page 883 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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GIAN BATTISTA (1485-1557) , the eldest son of See also:

Paolo See also:Ramusio and Tomyris Macachio, was See also:born at Treviso in 1485 (See also:June 20). Having been educated at See also:Venice and at See also:Padua, at an See also:early ' Both See also:works are in the See also:British Museum. Ramusii Ariminensis Carmina," in Quinque Illustrium Poetarum . Lusus in Venerem. See also:Girolamo's are grossly erotic. See also:age he entered the public service (1505), becoming in 1515 secretary of the See also:senate and in 1533 secretary of the See also:Council of- Ten. He also served the See also:republic in various See also:missions to See also:foreign states, e.g. to See also:Rome, to See also:Switzerland and to See also:France, travelling over much of the latter See also:country by See also:special See also:desire of the See also:king, See also:Louis XII. He also on several occasions filled the See also:office of cancellier grande. In 1524 he married Franceschina, daughter of See also:Francesco Navagero, a noble—a papal See also:dispensation being required on See also:account of her being See also:cousin to his See also:mother Tomyris. By this See also:lady he had one son, Paolo. In his old age Ramusio resigned the secretaryship and retired to the See also:Villa Ramusia, a See also:property on the See also:river Masanga, in the See also:province of Padua, which had been bestowed on his See also:father in 1504 in recognition of his services in the acquisition of See also:Rimini the See also:year before The delights of this See also:retreat are celebrated in the poems and letters of several of Gian Battista's See also:friends. He also possessed a See also:house at Padua in the Strada del Patriarcato, a See also:mansion noted for its paintings and for its collection of See also:ancient See also:sculpture and See also:inscriptions.

These, too, are commemorated by various writers. A few days before his See also:

death Ramusio removed to this house in Padua, and there died, loth of See also:July 1557, at the age of seventy-two. He was, by his own desire, buried at Venice, in the See also:tomb which he had made for his mother, in See also:Santa Maria dell' Orto. His wife's death had occurred in 1536. In the See also:work called Museum Mazzuchellianum (Venice, 1761, vol. i. pl. lxiv. No. 6) there is represented a 16th-See also:century See also:medal of Ramusio, which looks a genuine likeness, and a See also:bronze example of which, without the See also:reverse,3 is preserved in St See also:Mark's Library. There was a portrait of him, represented as in conversation with See also:Andrea Gradenigo, in the See also:Sala del Maggior Consiglio, but in 1577 this perished in a See also:fire, as did also a portrait of his father, Paolo. A professed portrait of Gian Battista by Francesco Grisellini, in the Sala dello Scudo, appears to be, like the See also:companion portrait of Marco See also:Polo, a work of See also:fancy. A public nautical school at Rimini received from the See also:government the See also:title of the Istituto Ramusio. Ramusio was evidently a See also:general favourite, as he was See also:free from pushing ambition, modest and ingenuous, and, if it be safe to See also:judge from some of the See also:dissertations in his Navigationi, must have been a delightful companion; both his friend Giunti and the historian See also:Giustiniani 4 speak of him with the strongest See also:affection. He had also a See also:great reputation for learning.

Before he was See also:

thirty Aldus See also:Manutius the See also:elder dedicated to him his edition of See also:Quintilian (1514); a few years later (1519) Francesco Ardano inscribed to him an edition of See also:Livy, and in 1528 Bernardino See also:Donati did the like with his edition of See also:Macrobius and Censorinus. To See also:Greek and Latin and the See also:modern See also:languages of See also:southern See also:Europe he is said to have added a knowledge of " See also:Oriental See also:tongues," but there is no See also:evidence how far this went, unless we accept as such a statement that he was selected in 1530 on account of this accomplishment to investigate the See also:case of one See also:David, a See also:Hebrew, who, claiming to be of the royal house of See also:Judah, wished to establish himself at Venice outside of the See also:Ghetto.5 But Ramusio had witnessed from his boyhood the unrolling of that great See also:series of discoveries by See also:Portugal and See also:Spain in See also:East and See also:West, and the love of See also:geography thus kindled in him 3 The reverse is an amorphous See also:map. The See also:book is in the British Museum. 4 Rerum Venetarum . . . Historic, bk. xiv. Ramusio's See also:report on this Hebrew is preserved in the diaries of See also:Marcus Sanudo, and is printed by Cigogna. It is curious. David represented himself as a , rince of the Bedouin See also:Jews who haunt the See also:caravan-road between See also:Damascus and See also:Medina; he claimed to be not only a great See also:warrior covered with wounds but great also in the See also:law and in the cabala, and to have been inspired by See also:God to conduct the dispersed tribes to the See also:Holy See also:Land and to rebuild the See also:temple. In this view he had visited Prester See also:John and the Jews in his See also:kingdom, and then various See also:European countries. David was dark in complexion, " like an Abyssinian, lean, dry and Arab-like, well dressed and well attended, full of pretensions to supernatural cabalistic know-ledge, and with enthusiastic ideas about his See also:mission, whilst the Jews regarded him as a veritable See also:Messiah. made that See also:branch of knowledge through See also:life his See also:chief study and delight.

He is said, with the assistance of friends touched by the same See also:

flame, to have opened a school for geography in his house at Venice. And it appears from a See also:letter addressed to him by his friend Andrea Navagero, that as early as 1523 the preparation of material for his great work had already begun. The task had been suggested and encouraged, as Ramusio himself states in a dedicatory See also:epistle to the famous Girolamo See also:Fracastoro, by that See also:scholar, his lifelong friend; an address to the same personage indeed introduced each of the three volumes, and in the first the writer speaks of his desire to bequeath to posterity, along with his labours, " a testimony to the See also:long and holy friendship that had existed between the two." They were contemporaries in the strictest sense (Ramusio 1485-1557, Fracastorius 1483-1553). His See also:correspondence, which was often devoted to the collection of new material for his work, was immense, and embraced many distinguished men. Among those whose names have still an odour of celebrity were Fracastoro, just mentioned, See also:Cardinal Pietro See also:Bembo, Damiano de Goez, and See also:Sebastian See also:Cabot; among lesser See also:lights, Vettor Fausto, See also:Daniel See also:Barbaro, Paolo Manuzio, Andrea Navagero, the cardinals Gasparo See also:Contarini and Gregorio Cortese, and the printer Tommaso Giunti, editor after Ramusio's death of the Navigationi. Two volumes only of the Navigationi e Viaggi were published during the life of Gian Battista, vol. i. in 1550, vol. iii. in 1556; vol. ii. did not appear till 1559, two years after his death, delayed, as his friend and printer T. Giunti explains, not only by that event but by a fire in the See also:printing-office (See also:November 1557), which destroyed a See also:part of the material which had been prepared. It had been Ramusio's intention to publish a See also:fourth See also:volume, containing, as he mentions himself, documents See also:relating to the See also:Andes, and, as appears from one of the prefaces of Giunti, others relating to explorations towards the See also:Antarctic?. Ramusio's collection was by no means the first of the See also:kind, though it was, and we may say on the whole continues to be, the best. Even before the invention of the See also:press such collections were known, of which that made by a certain Long John of See also:Ypres, See also:abbot of St See also:Bertin, in the latter See also:half of the 14th century was most meritorious, and afforded in its transcription a splendid See also:field for embellishment by the miniaturists, which was not disregarded. The best of the printed collections before Ramusio's was the Novus Orbis, edited at See also:Basel by See also:Simon See also:Grynaeus in 1532, and reissued in 1537 and 1555. This, however, can boast of no disquisitions nor of much editorial See also:judgment.

Ramusio's collection is in these respects far See also:

superior, as well as in the variety and fulness of its See also:matter. He spared no pains in ransacking See also:Italy and the See also:Spanish See also:peninsula for contributions, and in translating them when needful into the racy See also:Italian of his See also:day. Several of the pieces are very rare in any other shape than that exhibited in Ramusio's collection; several besides of importance—e.g. the invaluable travels of Barbosa and Pigafetta's account of See also:Magellan's voyage—were not publicly known in any See also:complete See also:form till the See also:present century. Of two important articles at least the originals have never been otherwise printed or discovered; one of these is the See also:Summary of all the Kingdoms, Cities, and Nations from the Red See also:Sea to See also:China, a work translated from the Portuguese, and dating apparently from about 1535; the other, the remarkable Ramusian redaction of Marco Polo (q.v.). The Prefatione, Espositione and Dichiarazione, which precede this version of Marco Polo's book, are the best and amplest examples of Ramusio's own See also:style as an editor. They are full of See also:good sense and of interesting remarks derived from his large See also:reading and experience, and few pictures in words were ever touched more delightfully than that in which he sketches the return of the Polo See also:family to their native See also:city, as he had received it in the tradition of the Venetian elders. There were several See also:editions of the Navigationi e Viaggi, and ' See in vol. iii. the end of Ramusio's Discorso on the See also:conquest of See also:Peru, and Giunti's " Alli Lettori " in the .zrd edition of the first volume.as additions continued to be made to the several volumes a good See also:deal of See also:bibliographical See also:interest attaches to these various modifications? The two volumes (i. and iii.) published in Ramusio's lifetime do not See also:bear his name on the title-See also:page, nor does it appear in the addresses to his friend Fracastorius with which these volumes begin (a's does also the second and See also:posthumous volume). The editions of vol. i. are as follows: 1550, 1554, 1563, 1588, 16o6, 1613? The edition of 1554 contains the following articles which are not in that of 1550: (I) copious See also:index; (2) " Narr. di un Compagno di Barbosa "; (3) " See also:Information del Giapan "; (4) " Alli Lettori di Giov. de See also:Barros "; (5) " Capitoli estratti da di Barros." The edition of 1563 adds to these a preliminary See also:leaf concerning Ramusio, " Tommaso Giunti alli Lettori." After 1563 there is no See also:change in the contents of this volume, only in the title-page. It should be added that in the edition of 1554 there are three See also:double-page woodcut maps (See also:Africa, See also:India and India extra Gangem), which do not exist in the edition of 1550, and which are replaced by copperplate maps in subsequent editions. These maps are often missing.

The editions of vol. ii. are as follows: 1559, 1574, 1583, 16o6. There are important additions in the 1574 copy, and still further additions in that of 1583. The additions made in 1574 were: (1) " Herberstein, Della Moscovia e della See also:

Russia "; (2) " Viaggio in See also:Persia di Caterino See also:Zeno "; (3) " Scoprimento dell' Isola Frislanda, &c., per due fratelli Zeni "; (4) " Viaggi in Tartaria per alcuni frati Minori "; (5) " Viaggio del Beato Odorico " (two versions). Further additions made in 1583 were: (I) " Navigatione di Seb. Cabota "; (2) at the end 90 if. with fresh pagination, containing ten articles on " Sarmatia, Polonia, Lithuania, See also:Prussia, See also:Livonia, Moscovia, and the Tartars by Aless. Guagnino and Matteo di Micheovo." The two latest " editions " of vol. ii. are identical, i.e. from the same type, with a change of title-page only, and a reprint of the last leaf of the See also:preface and of the last leaf of the book. But the last circumstance does not apply to all copies. In one, whilst the title bears ,6o6, the See also:colophon bears " Appresso i Giunti, 1583." Vol. iii. editions are of 1556, 1565 and ,6o6.4 There is no See also:practical difference between the first two, but that of ,6o6 has See also:forty-five pages of important new matter, which embraces the Travels of Cesare Fedrici or See also:Federici in India, one of the most valuable narratives of the 16th century, and Three Voyages of the Hollanders and Zealanders to Nova Zembla and Groenland. Vol. iii. also contains (omitting maps and figures inserted in the See also:text, or with type on the reverse) a two-page topographical view of See also:Cuzco, a folding map of Terra Nova and Labrador, a two-page map of See also:Brazil, a two-page map of See also:Guinea, &c., a two-page map of See also:Sumatra, a two-page pictorial See also:plan of the See also:town of Hochelaga in New France, and a general map of the New See also:World in a hemisphere. See also:Brunet's statement mentions issues of vol. ii. in 1564, and of vol. iii. in 1613; but these seem to have no existence. It would thus appear that a set of Ramusio, to be as complete as possible, should embrace—for vol. i., 1563 or any subsequent edition; for vol. ii., 1583 or 16o6; for vol. iii., 16o6.

End of Article: GIAN BATTISTA (1485-1557)

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