Travels of Ludovico de Varthema in Egypt, Syria, Arabia Deserta and Arabia Felix, in Persia, India, and Ethiopia, A. D. 1503 To 1508

This volume is a modern reprint of the Hakluyt Society's 1863 edition, which featured the translation and editorial work of John Winter Jones. Ludovico de Varthema’s original account, first published in Italian in 1510, remains a vital primary source for early modern European perceptions of the Middle East and South Asia. Varthema was a singular adventurer whose unauthorized journey took him through Ottoman territories and into the Indian Ocean, often under significant personal risk.

The 1863 edition was meticulously prepared by Jones, a noted scholar and future Principal Librarian of the British Museum, to make this rare travelogue accessible to a 19th-century audience interested in the history of exploration. The work is celebrated for its observational detail, capturing cultural nuances of the regions visited at the turn of the 16th century. By reissuing this text, Taylor & Francis provides a scholarly window into the historical methodology and geographic curiosity that defined the Victorian era's engagement with classical exploration narratives.