The age of European Exploration of the Americas, which made its big debut from the late fifteenth century to the mid-sixteenth century, encouraged many European explorers to write diaries and journals of their encounters of the New World. Almost everybody knows about Christopher Columbus, the Italian explorer that was sent by Spanish rulers King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, and how they sent him to the New World in search of gold. However, there is a less-known Italian explorer named Girolamo Benzoni, who made the decision to go to the New World himself in 1541 to participate in a slave trade of Indians.  Benzoni’s mission was to bring these Indians back to Spain to sell as slaves. Unlike Columbus, who was on assignment, Benzoni was motivated to go to the New World himself. His inspiration came about while reading about other famous explorers’ voyages about discovering and exploring foreign lands. Coming from a poor family, Benzoni was the first of his clan to go on an adventure with other Spaniards. As he was making this journey, Benzoni wrote his journeys down to create <i>History of the New World, </i>a book that was not published until 1565. The work <i>History of the New World </i>by Giralmo Benzoni should be preserved because this explorer came from a poor family, and became a wealthy man by trading with the Spaniards.<!--more-->

The book <i>History of the New World </i>was fortunate for readers because it was published during the invention of the printing press. This is an innovation to this era because this invention resulted in a larger audience of readers, specifically in the wealthy class. Also, illustrations started to become increasingly large as the printing press produced these images with an essence of extravagance. This was beneficial to European readers because the large images gave them a vivid picture of life in the Americas. Benzoni’s illustrations are called woodcuts, which are carved images using wood blocks. However, these simple drawings were over exaggerated by the literary interests of the De Brys. Without Benzoni’s approval, these people used exotic graphics using concepts such as nudity and violence to take away the peacefulness of Benzoni’s simple artwork. They also made an effort to exaggerate scenes by adding buildings and other distracting miscellaneous detail. The De Brys, as one can see, liked to emphasize the literary illustrations by adding graphic information to each painting to increase the work’s attraction to its readers.

When this book was published in Italy in 1565, it was published in French, German, Latin, and it had excerpts in English. The Spanish, however, did not take light of the offensive content taken toward their native heritage. Thus, the Spanish people did not have this book published until the twentieth century. In fact, Benzoni’s hatred of the Spanish was recorded later by the Jesuit official and Spanish historian. However, ultra-philanthropists found Benzoni’s book to be of great assistance with their studies. This book, unfortunately, has very little credibility because it is considered to be controversial. This is because the book contains violence and hostility. <i>History of the New World </i>loses its source of credibility because it does not focus on less-threatening situations. A man of little education, Benzoni only had limited views that included the negativity of these situations. Therefore, this book’s content is not positively looked upon due to its many understatements about historically correct information about the New World.

Ann Rosalind Jones, in her article <i>Ethnographer's Sketch, Sensational Engraving, Full- Length Portrait: Print Genres For Spanish America In Girolamo Benzoni, The De Brys, And Cesare Vecellio</i> , points out that Italian naturalist Ulisse Aldrovani believed that “…wonder was a cognitive passion as much about knowing as feeling.” (2) The concept of wonder can be applied today as students, for the most part, know very little about Benzoni and his voyage to the Americas. <i>History of the New World </i>can be a fascinating narrative to learn about because it gives insight into another explorer’s adventure to the Americas, which can help us learn more about the era of European Exploration. This was not the scenario for the era in which this book was written. The Spanish culture, in particular, found this narrative to be offensive to their customs and beliefs. Thus, the first Spanish edition did not get published until the twentieth century. Benzoni’s major attacks and hatred of the Spanish culture had a major impact on the publication process, and the offenses were to the point that this book would have to be censored many times. When all the slavery between countries was over with, this book was ready to be published in the Spanish language.

While researching and learning about Benzoni, I thought he was a very unique explorer to this time period. Although he had little knowledge about the New World, I admire that his observations were impressive considering his social status. Coming from a poor family, I found it interesting that Benzoni made a fourteen-year voyage to the New World to explore what the Spaniards were doing to the Indians. I consider this to be a remarkable journey because I would have never imagined a poor boy going to the New World with complete strangers during this era. I feel like Benzoni stood out from his people by embarking on this journey because it would have likely been impossible for his relatives due to the fact that there was little money to do anything for themselves.

There are many similarities between Benzoni and thirteenth century Italian explorer Marco Polo. Compared to Benzoni, Polo also made his journey to a foreign land. Polo went east and Benzoni made his journey west, but both explorers encountered people of separate cultures. Benzoni was from a poor family, but he still managed to become a successful merchant explorer like Polo. He earned his money by participating in a Spanish slave trade in the New World. Both explorers managed to be successful by investing in activity that dealt with trading in a foreign land.

Unlike Benzoni’s lower class family background, Polo had already come from a family of wealthy merchants. Polo’s father and uncle, Niccolo and Maffeo Polo, had been making their three-and-a-half year journey to China since 1262. When Marco began to learn about the merchant’s trade, he decided to join his relatives on their journey to China. This voyage to China was direct unlike Benzoni’s fourteen-year journey to the New World with stops to multiple countries. Another difference is Polo’s and Benzoni’s level of compassion to foreigners. While Polo was making amends with the Chinese, Benzoni participated in a slave trade in which he captured four-thousand Indians to sell to the Spanish. He was fortunate enough to show remorse for his slave-trading days in the West. In the end, both explorers succeeded in gaining wealth as merchants on their voyages to international foreign lands.

I highly suggest that Girolamo Benzoni’s <i>History of the New World </i>should be restored because I think the idea of an individual from a poor family becoming a successful merchant explorer is interesting. The experience Benzoni witnessed and gained, I believe, should be of interest to today’s students and scholars because they could gain insight and knowledge from this explorer’s remarkable journey to the New World. It is surprising to me that this explorer is not popular in any history textbooks because I believe all explorers’ journeys should be included in the exploration of our native land. In future generations, I think it would be wonderful to see this book as well as its author popularized as a source of research in numerous libraries, and to be more participatory in the building blocks of the stage of the exploration era.

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