Alessandro Zorzi
Eight decades after Fra Mauro drew his Mappaemundi, a Venetian erudite by the name of Alex Zorzi started to collect information about the overseas; however, unlike a monk, he did not turn the information he collected into maps, nor would he enjoy much fame. Instead, he simply left behind itineraries and cartographical sketches of disparate faraway places and proto-ethnographic information that remained unpublished until modern times. Zorzi assembled explorers dispatched back to Europe from the least-known corners of the earth, and eyewitness accounts of visitors to Venice. His efforts resulted in two collections, one regarding the New World and the other regarding the Old World. The latter included a section on the African continent and the Muslim world in which, along with previously published travelogues of more renowned travelers of the time, one can find eight itineraries dedicated to Ethiopia's connection to the Holy Land.
