Online Encyclopedia

JOHANNES LEO (c. 1494-1552)

Online Encyclopedia
Originally appearing in Volume V16, Page 441 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
Spread the word: del.icio.us del.icio.us it!

JOHANNES

LEO (c. 1494-1552)  , in
See also:
Italian GIOVANNI LEO or LEONE, usually called LEO AFRICANUS, sometimes ELIBERITANUS (i.e. of Granada), and properly known among the Moors as Al
See also:
Hassan
See also:
Ibn Mahommed Al Wezaz Al Fasi, was the author of a Descrizione dell' Affrica, or Africae descriptio, which long ranked as the best authority on
See also:
Mahommedan Africa . Born probably at Granada of a noble Moorish stock (his
See also:
father was a landowner; an
See also:
uncle of his appears as an envoy from
See also:
Fez to Timbuktu), he received a
See also:
great
See also:
part of his
See also:
education at Fez, and while still very young began to travel widely in the
See also:
Barbary States . In 1512 we trace him at
See also:
Morocco,
See also:
Tunis, Bugia and
See also:
Constantine; in 1513 we find him returning from Tunis to Morocco; and before the close of the latter
See also:
year he seems to have started on his famous Sudan and
See also:
Sahara journeys (1513-1515) which brought him to Timbuktu, to many other regions of the Great
See also:
Desert and the Niger basin (
See also:
Guinea, Melli, Gago, Walata, Aghadez,
See also:
Wangara,
See also:
Katsena, &c.), and apparently to
See also:
Bornu and Lake Chad . In 1516–1517 he travelled to Constantinople, probably visiting
See also:
Egypt on the way; it is more uncertain when he visited the three Arabias (Deserla, Felix and Pelraea), Armenia and "Tartary" (the last
See also:
term is perhaps satisfied by his stay at
See also:
Tabriz) . His three
See also:
Egyptian journeys, immediately after the
See also:
Turkish
See also:
conquest, all probably fell between 1517 and 152o; on one of these he ascended the Nile from Cairo to
See also:
Assuan . As he was returning from Egypt about 1520 he was captured by pirates near the island of Gerba, and was ultimately presented as a slave to Leo X . The pope discovered his merit, assigned him a pension, and having persuaded him to profess the Christian faith, stood sponsor at his
See also:
baptism, and bestowed on him (as
See also:
Ramusio says) his own names, Johannes and Leo . The new convert, having made himself acquainted with Latin and Italian, taught Arabic (among his pupils was Cardinal Egidio Antonini, bishop of
See also:
Viterbo); he also wrote books in both the Christian tongues he had acquired . His Description of Africa was first, apparently, written in Arabic, but the
See also:
primary text now remaining is that of the Italian version, issued by the author at Rome, on the loth of March 1526, three years after Pope Leo's
See also:
death, though originally undertaken at the latter's
See also:
suggestion . The
See also:
Moor seems to have lived on Rome for some time longer, but he returned to Africa some time before his death at Tunis in 1552; according to some, he renounced his
See also:
Christianity and returned to
See also:
Islam; but the later part of his career is obscure . The Descrizione dell' Affrica in its
See also:
original Arabic MS. is said to have existed for some time in the library of Vincenzo Pinelli (i535—16o1) ; the Italian text, though issued in 1526, was first printed by Giovanni Battista Ramusio in his Navigationi et Viaggi (vol. i.) of 155o . This was reprinted in 1554, 1563, 1588, &c .

In 1556

See also:
Jean Temporal executed at Lyons an admirable French version from the Italian (Historiale description de l'Afrique); and in the same year appeared at Antwerp both Christopher Plantin's and Jean Bellere's rated issues of Temporal's
See also:
translation, and a new (very inaccurate) Latin version by Joannes Florianus, Joannis Leonis Africani de lobos Africae descriptione libri i.-ix . The latter was reprinted in 1558, 1559 (Zurich), and 1632 (
See also:
Leiden), and served as the basis of John Pory's Elizabethan
See also:
English translation, made at the suggestion of Richard Hakluyt (A
See also:
Geographical Historic of Africa,
See also:
London, 16o0) . Pory's version was reissued, with notes, maps, &c., by Robert Brown, E . G . Ravenstein, &c . (3 vols., Hakluyt Society, London, 1896) . An excellent German translation was made by Lorsbach, from the Italian, in 1805 (Johann Leos
See also:
des Afrikaners Beschreebung von Afrika, Herborn) . See also Francis Moore's Travels into the inland parts of Africa (1738), containing a translation of Leo's account of negro kingdoms . Heinrich Barth intended to have made a fresh version, with a commentary,, but was prevented by death ; as it is, his own great
See also:
works on the Sudan are the best elucidation of the Descrizione dell' Affrica . Leo also wrote lives of the Arab physicians and philosophers (De viris quibusdam illustribus apud Arabes; see J . A . Fabricius, Bibliotheca Graeca,
See also:
Hamburg, 1726, xiii .

259-298) ; a

See also:
Spanish-Arabic vocabulary, now lost, but noticed by Ramusio as having been consulted by the famous
See also:
Hebrew physician, Jacob Mantino; a collection of Arabic epitaphs in and near Fez (the MS. of this Leo presented, it is said, to the
See also:
brother of the king) ; and poems, alsolost . It is stated, moreover, that Leo intended writing a
See also:
history of the Mahommedan religion, an epitome of Mahommedan chronicles, and an account of his travels in
See also:
Asia and Egypt . (C . R .

End of Article: JOHANNES LEO (c. 1494-1552)
[back]
HEINRICH LEO (1799-1878)
[next]
LEONARDO LEO (1694–1744)

Additional information and Comments

There are no comments yet for this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Please link directly to this article:
Highlight the code below, right click and select "copy." Paste it into a website, email, or other HTML document.