• Title
  Andrea Corsali - Letter to Giuliano de Medici, 1516, with additional material, 1989
• Creator
  Andrea Corsali, active 1517
• Call number
  Safe 1/239
  
• Level of description
  fonds
• Date
  
  1516, 1989
• Type of material
  Textual Records
• Reference code
  439838
• Issue Copy
  Digitised
• Physical Description
  0.04 metres of textual material (2 boxes) - manuscript on vellum (contemporary copy) and typescript (additional material)
  
• ADMINISTRATIVE/ BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY
  
  Andrea Corsali was a Florentine under the patronage of the Medici family in the service of the Portuguese.
• Scope and Content
  BOX 1
  The manuscript is a contemporary copy of "Lettera di Andrea Corsali allo Illustrissimo Signore Duca Juliano de Medici, Venuta Dellindia del mese di Octobre Nel M.D. XVI". It was prepared for Andrea Gritti, Doge of Venice from 1523. It provides the only known narrative of a Portuguese voyage in 1515 down the African coast, around the Cape of Good Hope, and into the Southern and Indian Oceans, making landfall at Goa on the Indian coast, later travelling down to Cochin at the foot of India. After rounding the Cape, Corsali observed the curious behaviour of an unrecorded group of Stars (the Southern Cross) which he described and illustrated. The letter was sent from Cochin to his patron, Giuliano de Medici, in Florence (15 pages, the last page blank).
  BOX 2
  Two volumes of research material: 'The Corsali manuscript', Hordern House, 1989 and 'The Corsali manuscript research notes', Hordern House, 1989.
• Copying Conditions
  Out of copyright: published in 1516
  Approval for reproduction required: of the Bruce & Joy Reid Foundation
  Please acknowledge:: Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales and Courtesy Bruce and Joy Reid Foundation
• General note
  
  For a complete translation of the letter, its broader contextual history and biographical information about Corsali, see Sergio Sergi, "Andrea Corsali: Fiorentino. A watcher of the Austral Skies", Canberra, 2013.
  Microfilm copy: CY 4477, frames 21 - 111
  Digital order no:a1185001
• Name
  Medici, Giuliano de
  
• Subject
  Constellations.
  East Indies--Discovery and exploration--Portuguese.
  India--Description and travel.
  India--Discovery and exploration.
  Travelers--Diaries.
  
• Exhibited in
  
  National treasures from Australia's great libraries - Council of Australian State Libraries (1 December, 2005 - 31 December, 2006)
  Mapping our World: terra incognita to Australia - National Library of Australia (October, 2013 - February, 2014)
• Open Rosetta viewer
  IE1077125

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