The noble

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

family of Ramusio (also spelled Ramnusio, Rhamnusio, Rannusio) was worth of note for literary and official ability during at least four generations. Its original home was in

Rimini Rimini ( , ; rgn, Rémin; la, Ariminum) is a city in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern Italy and capital city of the Province of Rimini. It sprawls along the Adriatic Sea, on the coast between the rivers Marecchia (the ancient ''Ariminu ...

, and the municipality of that city has set up a tablet on the town hall bearing an inscription which may be thus rendered: :''The municipality of Rimini here records the claim of their city to the family of the Ramusios, adorned during the 15th and 16th centuries by the illustrious jurist and man of letters Paolo the elder, who rendered the work of Valturius, our fellow-citizen, into the vernacular; by the physician

Girolamo Girolamo is an Italian variant of the name Hieronymus. Its English equivalent is Jerome. It may refer to: * Girolamo Cardano (1501–1576), Italian Renaissance mathematician, physician, astrologer and gambler * Girolamo Cassar (c. 1520 – after ...

, a most successful student of Oriental tongues, and the first to present Europe with a translation of

Avicenna Ibn Sina ( fa, ابن سینا; 980 – June 1037 CE), commonly known in the West as Avicenna (), was a Persian polymath who is regarded as one of the most significant physicians, astronomers, philosophers, and writers of the Islamic ...

; and by Giovanni Battista,

cosmographer The term cosmography has two distinct meanings: traditionally it has been the protoscience of mapping the general features of the cosmos, heaven and Earth; more recently, it has been used to describe the ongoing effort to determine the large-scal ...

to the

Venetian republic The Republic of Venice ( vec, Repùblega de Venèsia) or Venetian Republic ( vec, Repùblega Vèneta, links=no), traditionally known as La Serenissima ( en, Most Serene Republic of Venice, italics=yes; vec, Serenìsima Repùblega de Venèsia ...

and secretary to the

Council of Ten The Council of Ten ( it, Consiglio dei Dieci; vec, Consejo de i Diexe), or simply the Ten, was from 1310 to 1797 one of the major governing bodies of the Republic of Venice. Elections took place annually and the Council of Ten had the power to i ...

, who bequeathed to the world that famous collection of voyages and travels, regarded in his own day as a marvellous work, and still full of authority among all civilized nations.'' The best known of the Ramusio was Giovanni Battista Ramusio, who published ''Delle navigationi e viaggi'', a collection of travellers’ accounts and biographies, including the accounts of

Marco Polo Marco Polo (, , ; 8 January 1324) was a Venetian merchant, explorer and writer who travelled through Asia along the Silk Road between 1271 and 1295. His travels are recorded in '' The Travels of Marco Polo'' (also known as ''Book of the Marv ...

Niccolò Da Conti Niccolò is an Italian male given name, derived from the Greek Nikolaos meaning "Victor of people" or "People's champion". There are several male variations of the name: Nicolò, Niccolò, Nicolas, and Nicola. The female equivalent is Nicole. The f ...

Magellan Ferdinand Magellan ( or ; pt, Fernão de Magalhães, ; es, link=no, Fernando de Magallanes, ; 4 February 1480 – 27 April 1521) was a Portuguese explorer. He is best known for having planned and led the 1519 Spanish expedition to the East ...

and Giosafat Barbaro, as well as the '' Descrittione dell’ Africa''. He also published an excerpt of

Tomé Pires Tomé Pires (1465?–1524 or 1540)Madureira, 150–151. was a Portuguese apothecary from Lisbon who spent 1512 to 1515 in Malacca immediately after the Portuguese conquest, at a time when Europeans were only first arriving in Southeast As ...

' work on the Indies, which had come into his hands, though he did not know the name of its author.Armando Cortesão, ''The 'Suma Oriental' of Tomé Pires: An Account of the East, from the Red Sea to China,'' 2 vols, (1944) 1990:xviii.

Notes

References

*{{1911, wstitle=Ramusio, volume=22, pages=882–884 Italian families Roman Catholic families