Girolamo Sernigi (1453- after 1510) was an Italian merchant, originally from

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany Regions of Italy, region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilan ...

, based in Lisbon, Portugal. Circa 1500, Florentine merchants were the most prominent foreign group active in Lisbon's economic life and played an important role in the financing of Portuguese maritime expeditions in search of new products and markets. Sernigi himself was a part owner of one of the ships of

Pedro Álvares Cabral Pedro Álvares Cabral ( or ; born Pedro Álvares de Gouveia; c. 1467 or 1468 – c. 1520) was a Portuguese nobleman, military commander, navigator and explorer regarded as the European discoverer of Brazil. He was the first human in ...

fleet Fleet may refer to: Vehicles *Fishing fleet *Naval fleet *Fleet vehicles, a pool of motor vehicles *Fleet Aircraft, the aircraft manufacturing company Places Canada * Fleet, Alberta, Canada, a hamlet England * The Fleet Lagoon, at Chesil Beach ...

, and was in contact with members of the first Portuguese expeditions sailing to India around the Cape of Good Hope, such as

Gonçalo Coelho Gonçalo Coelho (fl. 1501–04) was a Portuguese explorer who belonged to a prominent family in northern Portugal. He commanded two expeditions (1501–02 and 1503–04) which explored much of the coast of Brazil. Biography In 1501 Coelho was se ...

and

Gaspar da Gama Gaspar da Gama also known as Gaspar da India and Gaspar de Almeida (c. 1444 – c. 1510) was an interpreter ("Língua", in old Portuguese) and guide to several fleets of the Portuguese discoveries, Portuguese maritime explorations. He was of Jewis ...

. Sernigi is remembered today as the author of letters in which he reported news of the overseas exploration to his relatives and associates back in Florence, and which became some of the most detailed accounts of the Portuguese expeditions of the period. In 1510, he personally commanded a ship going to Malacca.

Notes

Portuguese exploration in the Age of Discovery Businesspeople from Florence Economic history of Portugal Maritime history of Portugal 15th-century travel writers Italian travel writers Italian male non-fiction writers Year of death unknown 1453 births 16th-century deaths {{portugal-business-bio-stub