Leonardo Frescobaldi – författare

The Florentine nobleman Leonardo Frescobaldi (fl. 1384-1405) travelled with two compatriots, and at the urging of the king of Naples, to the Holy Land in 1384-5, and he wrote this account on his return. It was published in 1818 by the librarian of the Barberini Library in Rome, Guglielmo Manzi (1784-1821), who prefixed to his edition an essay (also in Italian) on the activities of Italian merchants abroad in the fourteenth century. Frescobaldi and his companions went first to Venice, whence they sailed to Alexandria in Egypt, in order to visit St Catharine's monastery on the way to Jerusalem. Frescobaldi describes the churches and holy places in great detail, and then describes their route home, via Damascus and Beirut, thence by ship (and after enduring a terrible storm) to Venice. Frescobaldi's lively curiosity about everything he saw makes this account of his pilgrimage a fascinating read.