Ludivico de Varthema was an Italian adventurer who traveled to the east of the Mediterranean Sea extensively and chronicled his journeys. The first European to visit many parts of Asia and the Middle East, he traveled overland, learned Arabic, pretended to convert to Islam, and penetrated the local culture of the places he visited. In the volume shown here, first published in 1510, he detailed his travels through Egypt, Syria, Arabia Deserta and Arabia Felix, Persia, India, and Ethiopia between 1503 and 1508. He wrote, “the testimony of one eye-witness is worth more than ten hear-says.”