Abstract

The London Journal of Alessandro Magno 1562 Edited by CAROLINE BARRON, CHRISTOPHER COLEMAN and CLAIRE GOBBII LESSANDRO MAGNO, whose London journal we print here,2 was a Venetian merchant of patrician birth. When he left Venice in 1557 on his first voyage to Cyprus he was only eighteen: he had been chosen to take the place of his elder brother, Sebastiano, as the family's representative on the merchant ship Bona. Magno was, clearly, determined to investigate, understand A and record everything he saw and he has left a detailed chronicle of his several journeys by sea and land between 1557 and 1563.3 He arrived in England in August 1562 and left for Antwerp at the end of September. The Magno family can be found among the lists of leading patrician families in Venice and its members engaged in a wide variety of joint trading ventures.4 Alessandro points out that he was related by marriage to Alessandro Zorzi and,5 during his travels, he met several officials of the Republic.6 On his second voyage, also to Cyprus, in 1558, he was joined byhis brother Francesco. 7 By the time the journal ends Alessandro had himself become a servant of the Republic having