The Transoceanic Voyages of Ippolito Desideri in the Pages of His Report: Reflections on an Unexplored Source

The article explores some episodes from the odoporeutic experience of Ippolito Desideri, SJ. These episodes are taken from the Relazione published by Luciano Petech in the Nuovo Ramusio edition, from which are taken all original citations. The chosen episodes concern the navigation in the Mediterranean toward Portugal, the crossing of the Gulf of Lion, life—and the various sanitary problems—on board the ships traveling to India and returning to Europe, the trafficking of African slaves, the Mascarene Islands, and the cull of land turtles and sea turtles. From all these episodes, we gain quite a few insights about Desideri: the strength of his faith; the originality of his logical inferences, which are grounded on empirical observation and are assessed against scientific knowledge; and finally, his reflections about ethical issues such as human trafficking and the hypocrisy of the secular clergy.