La mer Noire et la Géorgie vues par les voyageurs italiens aux xve-xviie siècles
The Black Sea viewed by Italian voyagers in the 15th - 17th centuries

Author(s): Gerardo Acerenza
Subject(s): History, Anthropology, Social Sciences, Language and Literature Studies, Customs / Folklore, Middle Ages, Modern Age, Cultural Anthropology / Ethnology, 15th Century, 16th Century, 17th Century, Italian literature
Published by: Сдружение „Транспонтика“
Keywords: Black Sea; Mingrelia (Megrelia); Georgia; Italian travellers; Republic of Venice
Summary/Abstract: The purpose of this article is to give an overview on the trips to Georgia of three Italian navigators between 15th and 17th centuries: The Venetians Iosaphat Barbaro and Ambrogio Contarini, and Pietro della Valle who was originally from Rome. These travellers in particular left long descriptions of their travels in the territories around the Black Sea which included short descriptions of their passages through Georgia. There is much work today on the journeys of these three figures and for this reason we will focus only on one lesser-known aspect, which is the impressions they left of Georgia. “Zorzania”, or “Giorgiania”, as they refer to it in their writings, was not the main destination for these travellers. However, several of them entered Georgia through the Black Sea, from the mouth of the Phasis River (today Rioni), and will then set foot on the territory of Mingrelia and Georgia to reach the Caspian Sea or Persia where it was necessary, in the case of Contarini, to convince Uzun Hasan (called by the Venetians in particular Usuncassan) to help the Republic of Venice to fight against the Turks.

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