Carlo Maggi (Latinized Carolus Magius, d. c. 1587) was a Venetian citizen ("cittadino originario") and traveller. During 1568–1573, he visited much of the Near East, then under Ottoman control, including the city of Jerusalem, where he was made a Knight of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre. He was captured by the Turks during the siege of the city of Nicosia in the Cyprus War of 1570-1571, being able to free himself and to get back to Venice only after the Battle of Lepanto in 1572.

Portrait from the Codex Maggi (Voyages et aventures de Ch. Magius, Bibliothèque nationale de France, département Estampes et photographie, RESERVE 4-AD-134, miniature no. 4)

He compiled a short travelogue in manuscript form in 1578, known as the Codex Maggi, now kept in the Bibliothèque nationale de France. The manuscript consists of 18 miniatures by a Flemish or a Venetian master, showing scenes of Maggi's travels. A French commentary on the manuscript was published by Louis César de La Baume Le Blanc in 1761.

References

edit
  • Ariane Isler-de Jongh, François Fossier, Le voyage de Charles Magius, 1568-1573, 1992, ISBN 9782904420566.
  • Description historique d'un volume composé des tableaux peints en miniatures qui représentent les Voyages & les Aventures de CHARLES MAGIUS [...], Paris, 1761 (online facsimile at bnf.fr)
  • Baldan Ilaria, Codex Magius, in Chypre, entre Byzance et l'Occident IVe - XVIe siècle, catalogue of the exhibition at the Musée du Louvre (28/10/2012 - 28/1/2013), Musée du Louvre éditions, Parigi, 2012, n. 159. ISBN 9782757205914.
edit

  Media related to Carlo Maggi at Wikimedia Commons