FEDERICI, Cesare de (Fedrici). Erbanno (Brescia) c. 1530 — 1600/03. Italian (Venetian) Merchant and Traveller in India. Left Venice in 1567 (Charpentier & Lach 1563, long stay in the Near East), travelled via Aleppo and Basra to Ormuz, by ship to Diu and Goa. From Goa he went by land to Vijayanagara (1566) and described the ruins, conquered by Muslims in 1565. Back in Goa he then went to Cochin, Quilon, Ceylon, Negapatnam and St.Thome, then to Orissa, Bengal, Pegu, etc. In 1580 he was again in Ormuz and going via Basra and Aleppo, and after a visit to Jerusalem, arrived at Venice in 1581. He is rather vague about his own journeying and concentrates on describing the places he visited. Hakluyt and Purchas call him Cæsar Frederick.
Publications: Viaggio di m. Cesare dei Fedrici nell’India Orientale et oltra l’India, nel quale si contengono cose dilettevoli dei riti et dei costumi di quei paesi et insieme si descriveno le spetiarie, droghe, gioie et perle che d’essi si cavano, con alcuni avertimenti utilissimi a quelli che tal viaggio volessero fare. 8+174 p. Venetia, Andrea Muschio 1587, and several editions, English transl. T. Hickock, The voyage and travaile into the East India. London 1588, republ. by Hakluyt 1599, facs. ed. 9+41 p. Amsterdam 1971.
Sources: J. Charpentier, “C.di F. and Gasparo Balbi”, Geografiska annaler 2, 1920 146-161 & IA;53, 1924, ??–?? Donald F. Lach, Asia in the making of Europe. 1. Chicago 1965, 469-473; *long account in www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/cesare-federici; Wikipedia.
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