ABSTRACT
This chapter begins with a discussion of the reconfiguration of travel in early modern Europe’s changing political and cultural zeitgeist. An in-depth examination of the unique impetus that drove each Italian voyager to set forth on a global journey follows. To gain insight on Pigafetta’s, Carletti’s, and Gemelli Careri’s motives for travelling, it is imperative to contemplate them as educated subjects in an era where travel represented a pedagogic tool to the individual (Monga, 1996: 19) and an instrument of commerce and conquest to continental powers (Leed, 1991:159). The widening of the individual’s intellectual horizons is thus intimately bound with the continent’s geographical expansion. Contextualising travel as journey paves the way for the following chapters which aim to scrutinise travel as text.
