Gemelli Careri

Giovanni Francesco Gemelli Careri (* 1651 in Radicena, today Taurianova, † 1725 in Naples ) was an Italian lawyer, adventurer and world traveler.

Life

A native of the Principality of Terra Nova young commoners attended a Jesuit College and earned a doctorate of jurisprudence in Naples. He tried in Neapolitan justice to take root, but saw his career hampered and went traveling. He was involved in the fight against the Turks who besieged then Ofen (Buda ) and was wounded. On his return to Naples, he published, together with Matteo Egizio, a Neapolitan scholar, a report in letters about the campaign in Hungary ( Relazione delle Campagne d' Ungheria, 1689) as well as the travelogue Viaggi in Europe ( 1693).

Gemelli Careri again tried to make a career in the Neapolitan court system, but found himself hampered by his bourgeois origins. So he decided in 1693 to take a trip around the world that led him from Malta, Egypt, the Holy Land, Constantinople Opel, Armenia, Persia, and India to China, the Philippines and Mexico. From there, he returned with a Spanish ship to Europe.

In 1699 he published in his six-volume Naples Travelogue Travel around the world (current intorno al mondo ).

Gemelli Careri is often referred to as the first tourist. His world tour was long considered fictional, it is now, however, not least because of their precise detailed descriptions as authentic.