Travelling East, Writing in Italian

Abstract

The paper analyses the use of Italian as a literary language in the literature of European travel to the Ottoman Empire during the late Ranaissance. The choice of Italian will be explained as the link between its diffusion in Europe as a language of culture and its practical uses in the Mediterranean as a diplomatic and commercial code or as a tool of religious propaganda. During the late Renaissance, travels to the Ottoman Empire were the continuation of theperegrinatio academicaand theGrand Tourto Italy of high-educated European scholars. In light of this premises, I will present different versions, both manuscripts and in print, of the multilingualrelationeby the Pole Wojciech Bobowski (1610-1675), musician and dragoman in the Ottoman Empire, who wrote a description of the Topkapi Palace for European readers in Italian.