Andrea Corsali (1487—?) was an Italian explorer who worked in the service of
Giuliano di Lorenzo de' Medici People with the Italian name, Italian given name or surname Giuliano () have included:
Origin and meaning
Giuliano is an Italian form of Julian (given name), Julian, a masculine name meaning "youthful". A patronymic Italian surname derived from G ...
of
Florence
Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025.
Florence ...
and
Lorenzo II de' Medici
Lorenzo may refer to:
People
* Lorenzo (name)
Places Peru
* San Lorenzo Island (Peru), sometimes referred to as the island of Lorenzo
United States
* Lorenzo, Illinois
* Lorenzo, Texas
* San Lorenzo, California, formerly Lorenzo
* Lorenzo State ...
, duke of
Urbino
Urbino ( , ; Romagnol: ''Urbìn'') is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Italy, Italian region of Marche, southwest of Pesaro, a World Heritage Site notable for a remarkable historical legacy of independent Renaissance culture, especially und ...
. Corsali traveled to
Asia
Asia ( , ) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometres, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which ...
and the south seas aboard a Portuguese merchant vessel, sending home written accounts of the lands and peoples which he encountered along the way. Two of Corsali’s letters from the '
East Indies
The East Indies (or simply the Indies) is a term used in historical narratives of the Age of Discovery. The ''Indies'' broadly referred to various lands in Eastern world, the East or the Eastern Hemisphere, particularly the islands and mainl ...
' were published in Florence in 1518, and again in
Giovanni Battista Ramusio
Giovanni Battista Ramusio (; July 20, 1485 – July 10, 1557) was an Italian geographer and travel writer.
Born in Treviso, Italy, at that time in the Republic of Venice, Ramusio was the son of Paolo Ramusio, a magistrate of the Venetian ...
, ''Delle navigationi et viaggi'' (
Venice
Venice ( ; ; , formerly ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 islands that are separated by expanses of open water and by canals; portions of the city are li ...
, 1550), along with accounts by other travelers and merchants such as Giovanni da
Empoli
Empoli () is a town and ''comune'' in the Metropolitan City of Florence, Tuscany, Italy, about southwest of Florence, to the south of the Arno River, Arno in a plain formed by the river. The plain has been usable for agriculture since Ancient Ro ...
(1483-1518). He also noted that
Sumatra
Sumatra () is one of the Sunda Islands of western Indonesia. It is the largest island that is fully within Indonesian territory, as well as the list of islands by area, sixth-largest island in the world at 482,286.55 km2 (182,812 mi. ...
and
Ceylon
Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...
(Sri Lanka) are two distinct islands (ancient geography confused them with the name of Taprobane). Corsali’s death date is unknown.
Corsali is known in Italy for having identified
New Guinea
New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; , fossilized , also known as Papua or historically ) is the List of islands by area, world's second-largest island, with an area of . Located in Melanesia in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is ...
, previously unknown to the Italians, and for having hypothesized the existence of
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...
, although he never disembarked there himself.
On a voyage in 1516 from Lisbon to India, Corsali was the first European to describe, locate and illustrate the asterism of five stars now known as the Southern Cross (
Crux
CRUX is a lightweight x86-64 Linux distribution targeted at experienced Linux users and delivered by a tar.gz-based package system with BSD-style initscripts. It is not based on any other Linux distribution. It also utilizes a ports system ...
).
References
*Andrea Corsali, Fiorentino, A watcher of the Austral skies. La Lettera dalla India, translated and edited by Sergio Sergi, National Library of Australia 2013
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16th-century Italian explorers