India in the Italian Renaissance : Visions of a Contemporary Pagan World 1300-1600

India in the Italian Renaissance surveys the changing representations of pagan Indians in Italian culture from the late medieval period to the end of the 16th century. Curiosity for the world well beyond Italy, and the freedom to decide what one thought of it, were important features of Italian Renaissance culture. Therefore the response to the challenge of contemporary pagan worlds was one of twists and turns. Although contemporary pagan India was never endorsed by Italian humanist culture, this study shows that there are indications that, as the image of contemporary India evolved, so its ancient pagan past began to be mythologized as on a par with the classical world.

India in the Italian Renaissance provides a systematic, chronological survey of early Italian representations of India and Indians from the late medieval period to the end of the 16^th century, and their resonance within the cultural context of Renaissance Italy. The study focuses in particular on Italian attitudes towards the inhabitants of the Indian subcontinent and questions how Renaissance Italians, schooled in the admiration of classical antiquity, responded to the challenge of this contemporary pagan world.

Meera Juncu draws from a wide-ranging selection of contemporary travel literature to trace the development of Italian ideas about Indians both before and after Vasco Da Gama’s landing in Calicut. After an introduction to the key concepts and a survey of inherited notions about India, the works of a diverse range of writers and editors, including Marco Polo, Petrarch and Giovanni Battista Ramusio, are analysed in detail. Through its discussion of these texts, this book examines whether ‘India’ came in any way to represent a pagan civilization comparable to the classical antiquity celebrated in Italy during the Renaissance.

India in the Italian Renaissance offers a new and exciting perspective on this fascinating period for students and scholars of the Italian Renaissance and the history of India.