The expedition of the Genoese navigators Vadino and Ugolino Vivaldi represented a mythical episode, shrouded in great mystery, undertaken in the spring of 1291 with the transoceanic purpose of reaching the Indies through the circumnavigation of Africa. The news of the traveling company of the Vivaldi brothers had reached us, until now, only through the Annals of Genoa written by the chronicler Jacopo Doria, articulated in the following passage:
“In the aforementioned year, Tedisio Doria, Ugolino de 'Vivaldi and his brother, along with some other navigators from Genoa, embarked on a journey that no one had attempted before. They fully armed two galleys, loaded them with provisions, water and everything necessary heading to the Strait of Ceuta: Their purpose was to reach India by sailing the ocean, to bring useful products from there. In these galleys the two Vivaldi brothers and two Franciscans departed. The enterprise seemed an extraordinary event not only to those who saw it, but also to those who heard about it. They passed through the town of Gozora; but since then we have not heard anything about them. May God protect them and bring them home safe and sound.”
Well, a new source unearthed recently makes us aware of a different destiny for the Vivaldi brothers: They, contrary to what has always been thought, would not shipwreck and lose with their galleys during the oceanic crossing beyond the Colonne d'Hércules, but they would never return home voluntarily, due to the great danger that lurked for them to face the return trip. This is the “Cronica Generalis sive universalis” of the Dominican friar Galvano Fiamma, an unfinished manuscript, apparently written around 1340, which represents, in the author's intentions, a history of the world from its origin - the Creation - and is currently in the possession of a private collector in the United States.
Where does the Dominican friar get his news, including the fate of the Vivaldi brothers? He himself reveals the source of his narration as it is in his usual way of writing: a “Tractatus de mappa Ianuensi quam composuit sacerdos Sancti Marchi de Ianua” written by another Dominican friar, Giovanni da Carignano, an illustrious pioneer in the history of medieval cartography, Rector of the Church of San Marco in Molo, located inside the port of Genoa until his death in 1329. This work by Giovanni da Carignano, although known for being mentioned in the Supplementum cronicarum by Giacomo Filippo Floresti (in turn a probable source of Galvano Fiamma) seemed lost. Galvano, therefore, takes his information from the Tractatus de mappa by Giovanni da Carignano, which constitutes an additional and complementary writing to the maps or planispheres, which contains information that, due to its extension and number, could not be reported on nautical maps, pilot books or globes.
But the illustrious cartographer, in turn, from whom did he obtain the news? And here Galvano Fiamma reveals to us, about a hundred years in advance, that in the year of the MCCC domains (year 1300, to be understood indicatively) the first diplomatic contact occurred between the so-called "Ethiopia" of the medieval era and Western Europe, through a letter from the Emperor of Ethiopia addressed to the King of Spain, entrusted to thirty ambassadors, which contained a proposal for a military alliance against the Muslims, a letter that, due to the death of the King of Spain, (identified without a doubt as Fernando IV of Castile and León, reigning from 1295 to 1312) was delivered in Avignon to Pope Clement V (in office from 1307 until his death in 1314).
In the account of Galvano Fiamma, referring to the expedition of the Vivaldi brothers, a commander of unknown name appears, this Uberto di Savignone and the story of the ambassadors is told, as already mentioned, who said that the Genoese Vivaldi brothers had arrived in their land, but had given up returning home due to the difficulties of the trip. Here is the passage, translated from Latin: “It was not only those Ethiopian ambassadors who came to us, but once some of ours also came to them; those thirty ambassadors told it in the city of Genoa. It is known that in the year 1290 two Genoese galleys, with more than 600 Christians and some clerics on board; the commanders were Uberto di Savignone and... they crossed the Strait of Spain and, sailing through the Atlantic, arrived in Ethiopia, south of the Equator. They had no more provisions; they went ashore and began to loot everything they found, because they were starving. They were captured and brought by the emperor who has been said, and knowing that they were Christians and subjects of the Roman Church, he received them with pleasure, honored them greatly and conferred great dignity upon them. They never returned to Genoa: they did not want to return by sea, due to the dangers that go beyond all imagination, and they could not return to land, because in the middle are the Muslims, who try to prevent with all their might that Christians go to Ethiopia and that the Ethiopians come to us, because they fear that they will unite against them, which would be their end. All this was said by the ambassadors of the Emperor of Ethiopia who were in Genoa, and who saw the Genoese in Ethiopia".
There is no doubt that the expedition that Galvano Fiamma speaks of is the one that Lacopo Doria speaks of in his Annales.
There are some points in which there is not a perfect coincidence in the details (the year related in the manuscript is 1290, and not 1291; the crew members are indicated in number of 600, perhaps they were quite less; the commander is not a Vivaldi, but a certain Uberto di Savignone (locality near Genoa).
The most interesting thing, however, lies in what Galvano Fiamma says about the fate of the sailors: they did not disappear in the ocean due to shipwreck, but landed in a land called "Ethiopia", where they were well received. The sailors of the crew, having finished their provisions, disembarked, surrendered to looting and were captured by the soldiers of the Emperor of Ethiopia; he, having ascertained that they were Christians, welcomed them with many honors and allowed them to remain in his kingdom.
Another important aspect for the purposes of historical reconstruction, in relation to the news related by Giovanni di Carignano about the result of the expedition of the Vivaldi brothers, is given by the fact that the events related seem to be well reconciled with some news from other sources considered fanciful and unreliable by scholars, who also insinuate the survival of the Vivaldi navigators in Africa and the great dangers of navigation.
In this regard, it should be mentioned here that The Book of Knowledge of All ….., (a collection of imaginary travel stories) written around 1375 by an anonymous religious man, speaks of the journey undertaken years later by a Genoese named Sorleone, who embarked in search of his father Ugolino Vivaldi: here is the translation of the passage: “According to what they told me in the city of Graçiona, the Genoese who had escaped from the sinking of their galley in Amenuan had been taken there; of the other galley, which had been saved, they did not know the fate... In the other city of Magdasor they told me about a Genoese, called - they said - Sorleone, who had gone there in search of his father, who had left with the galleys we have spoken of. They had given him all the honors; Sorleone wanted to go to the Graçiona empire to look for him, but the emperor of Magdasor prevented him because the trip was too uncertain, due to the dangers of the road".
Again: in the year 1453 the so-called Itinerary of Antoniotto Usodimare mentions the Vivaldi expedition, highlighting the survival in Africa of people who were part of the crew:
"In the year 1290 two galleys left Genoa, armed by the brothers Vadino and Guido de 'Vivaldi, who wanted to go to the East, to the regions of India. The galleys made a long journey; but when they arrived at the sea of Ethiopia, one of the two ran aground on a shoal, and could not continue. The other continued the journey and crossed that sea until they reached a city in Ethiopia called Mena. There they were captured and held captive by the inhabitants, who are Christians of Ethiopia, subject to the priest Gianni. That city is located on the sea, next to the Sión River. Their imprisonment was such that none of them could return from there. All this was told by Ethiopian merchants in the city of Cairo”.
In conclusion, we can now believe that, in all probability, this news already known for some time goes back to the knowledge of the Tractatus de mappa by Giovanni da Carignano: the manuscript of Galvano Fiamma, which is inspired by it, opens, therefore, another window to the knowledge of history and, after the in-depth analysis of the ongoing research, could reserve other sensational revelations for us.
Alfonso Licata
President of the Dante Alighieri Society – Canary Islands Committee
President Comitè VII Centenario rediscovery of Lanzarote and Canary Islands by the Italian navigator Lanzarotto Malocello