AFRICAE DESCRIPTIO IX LIB. ABSOLUTA.

LÉON L'AFRICAIN [AL-WAZZAN, Hassan dit]

Numéro d'objet:	4573
Date:	1632
Genre:	Livre
Lieu:	Leiden
Sujet:	Voyages

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Traduction latine (éd. orig. : 1556) de cet ouvrage remarquablement détaillé sur l'Afrique par Léon l'Africain (1488-1548), diplomate, géographe et explorateur arabe. Lors d'un de ses nombreux voyages, il fut capturé par des pirates siciliens (ou des chevaliers de l'Ordre de Saint-Jean selon les sources) et vendu (ou offert) au pape Léon X qui le convertit, l'adopte et le baptise de son propre nom "Jean-Léon de Médicis" en 1520. Il s'installe ensuite à Rome où il rédige en italien ses fameuses "Descriptions de l'Afrique" (1525-1527) qui restent une importante source de renseignements sur les us et coutumes du monde musulman du 16e siècle. En 1986, l'écrivain franco-libanais Amin Maalouf reçut le prix de l'Amitié franco-arabe pour sa biographie sur Hassan al-Wazzan dans son roman "Léon l'Africain".
Rel. de l'époque : plein vélin, dos lisse

1632. Ioannis Leonis Africani Africæ Descriptio ix. Lib. Absoluta. Lug. Batav. [Leyden] : Apud Elzevir, Ao.1632. With an engraving of an emblematical character on the title-page. 12mo, pp.80, with 16 pp. index at the end ; in two parts, but with continuous pagination.
This is the Latin edition most frequently met with. It is a verbatim reprint from Floriannus (No.50), but without the slightest acknowledgment of the source where i twas derived. I twas issued in 1639 in 2 vols. By the same publisher, and evidently from the same type.

Notes: THE FIRST ELZEVIER EDITION OF THIS WORK, THE FIRST BOOK ABOUT AFRICA WRITTEN BY AN AFRICAN. Johannes Leo Africanus (circa 1494-1554) was the Christian name of al-Hasan ibn Muhammad al-Wazzan al-Fasi, a Berber. Al Fasi was born at the end of the Caliphate in Granada, Spain, but received his education in Morocco where he grew up and studied diplomacy. Later, as the diplomat of the Sultan of Fez he traveled extensively. On one such journey he was captured by Christian corsairs and brought to Rome. There he was released on the initiative of Pope Leo X and converted to Christianity. The present work was finished in 1526 and printed for the first time in 1550 under the title "Della descrittione dell'Africa et delle cose notabili che iui sono."