Giovanni Francesco Gemelli Careri (1651–1725) was an Italian adventurer and traveler. He was among the first Europeans to tour the world by securing passage on ships involved in the carrying trade; his travels, undertaken for pleasure rather than profit, took him through the Middle East, India, China and the New World within a span of five years. Some suspected him of spying for the Vatican (or rather for the Jesuits) on his journey. The reliability of his travel accounts were once doubted, but are now considered to be authentic due to the details observed in his writings.
Biography Gemelli Careri was born in Taurianova, 1651, and died in Naples, 1725. He obtained a doctorate in law at the College of Jesuits in Naples. After completing his studies, he briefly entered the judiciary. In 1685 he took time off to travel around Europe (France, Spain, Germany, and Hungary). In Hungary he was wounded during the siege of Buda. In 1687, he returned to Naples and re-entered the judiciary. He also began work on his first two books: "Relazione delle Campagne d'Ungheria" (1689) with co-author Matteo Egizio, and "Viaggi in Europa" (1693). At this time, Gemelli encountered frustrations with his legal profession. He was denied certain opportunities because he did not have an established aristocratic origin. Eventually, he decided to suspend his career for a round-the-world trip across the globe. This five-year trip led to his best known six-volume book, Giro Del Mondo (1699).
World voyage Gemelli Careri realized that he could finance his trip by carefully purchasing goods at each stage that would have enhanced value at the next stage: at Bandar-Abbas on the Persian Gulf, he asserts, the traveler should pick up "dates, wine, spirits, and all the fruits of Persia, which one carries to India either dried or pickled in vinegar, on which one makes a good profit". Gemelli Careri started his world trip in 1693, with a visit to Egypt, Constantinople, and the Holy Land. At the time, this Middle Eastern route was already becoming a standard route for an excursion into foreign lands, a journey so normalized that it was almost not worth writing home about. However, from there he took the less traveled routes. After crossing Armenia and Persia, he visited Southern India and entered China, where the Jesuit missionaries assumed that such an unusual Italian visitor could be a spy working for the pope. This fortuitous misunderstanding opened for Gemelli many of the most tightly closed doors of the country. He visited the emperor at Beijing, attended the Lantern Festival celebrations and toured the Great Wall. "Most of the structure, as has been said, is of brick, so well built that it does not only last but looks new after several ages. It is above 1800 years since the Emperor Xi-hoam-ti caused it to be built against the incursions of the Tartars. This was one of the greatest, and most extravagant works that ever was undertaken. In prudence the Chinese should have secured the most dangerous passes: But what I thought most ridiculous was to see the wall run up to the top of a vast high and steep mountain, where the Birds would hardly build much less the Tartar horses climb... And if they conceited those people could make their way climbing the clefts and rocks it was certainly a great folly to believe their Rage could be stopped by so low a wall." From Macau, Gemelli Careri sailed to the Philippines, where he stayed two months while waiting for the departure of a Manila galleon, for which he carried quicksilver, for a 300% profit in Mexico. In the meantime, as Gemelli described it in his journal, the half-year-long transoceanic trip to Acapulco was a nightmare plagued with bad food, epidemic outbursts, and the occasional storm. In Mexico, he became friends with the Mexican creole patriot and savant Don Carlos de Sigüenza y Góngora, who took the Italian traveler to the great ruins of Teotihuacan. Sigüenza spoke with Gemelli about his theories of the ancient Mexicans and entrusted him with information about the Mexican calendar, which had appeared in Gemelli's account. As well as having visited the pyramids at Teotihuacan, he also visited several mining towns. After leaving Mexico city, he visited the city of Puebla de Los Angeles and several towns as he traveled to the port city of Veracruz, where he joined a Spanish fleet headed toward Cuba. Gemelli finally returned to Europe after five years of travel when he joined the Spanish treasure fleet in Cuba.
Publications
Relazione delle Campagne d'Ungheria (1689) Viaggi in Europa (1693) Giro Del Mondo (1699) Part 1 (Turkey and Middle East) Part 2 (Persia) Part 3 (Hindustan) Part 4 (China) Part 5 (Philippines) Part 6 (New Spain) Voyage Round the World (1704, London: English Translation - a.k.a. John Francis Gemelli Careri) Voyage du Tour du Monde (1719, Paris: French Translation - a.k.a. Jean Francois Gemelli Careri)
… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.
