The cosmography and geography of Africa
Leo (Author), Anthony Ossa-Richardson (Translator), Richard J. Oosterhoff (Translator)
"This guide to the lands and people of Africa was the first book about the continent, and the first book written by a modern African, to reach print. Its author, a Moroccan diplomat named al-Hasan ibn Muhammad al-Wazzan, was captured by pirates in the Mediterranean in 1518, brought before Pope Leo X and baptised Johannes Leo. His great Italian book, completed in 1526, was published in 1550 and became an immediate bestseller. Its descriptions of urban bustle and desert settlements, magical herbs and strange animals shaped the European understanding of Africa for centuries, influencing writers from Shakespeare to Melville and Yeats. This is its first new English translation in over 400 years." -- back cover
Print Book, English, 2023
Penguin Books, United Kingdom, 2023