Carletti, Francesco, (Florence, 1573/4-1636).

written in a fine Italian hand, probably late seventeenth-century,  comprising twelve sections ("Ragionamenti") in all, six each describing the author's voyages to the "Indie Occidentali" and the "Indie Orientali", with side-notes and with catchwords throughout, written without division into paragraphs.



270 pages, folio (263 x 190mm.), watermark of Medici coat of arms [but different from Heawood 783-786], together with a title-page written in a later (possibly nineteenth-century) hand: "Viaggio di Francesco Carletti", contemporary vellum, Italian (Florentine?) provenance, probably second half of the seventeenth century, some side-notes cropped, slight foxing, warping to covers

The arms on the booklabel are most probably those of the Codroipo family of Friuli, Italy

This is Francesco Carletti's description of his circumnavigation from Seville to the Americas and the Far East in 1594-1602. This manuscript  diverges frequently from the published version, which appeared long after the author's death: Ragionamenti di F. Carletti...sopra le cose da lui veduti ne' suoi viaggi si dell' Indie occidentali, e orientali come d'altri paesi (1701). It would appear instead to reflect an earlier version of Carletti's text and in our opinion is likely to date from earlier than the 1701 book. 

Carletti wrote his original account shortly after 1619 but the autograph manuscript was lost and is no longer traceable. The version published in 1701 was extensively revised by Lorenzo Magalotti, particularly the second half, dealing with the "Indie Orientali". This manuscript bears a closer resemblance to another source in the Biblioteca Angelica in Rome, which is the basis of Gianfranco Silvestri's modern edition of 1958. Silvestri lists three other early manuscripts in Florence and elsewhere, including one used for the 1701 revision. The present manuscript contains Carletti's twelve separate 'Ragionamenti', or discourses, without the published prelimanaries and index. There are no illustrations or plates either here, nor in the published version.

Carletti was one of the first travellers to give an account of  chocolate, describing its manufacture from cocoa beans, and of coconut.