Andrea Corsali (1487—?) was an Italian explorer who worked in the service of

Giuliano di Lorenzo de' Medici Giuliano di Lorenzo de' Medici KG (12 March 1479 – 17 March 1516) was an Italian nobleman, the third son of Lorenzo the Magnificent, and a ruler of Florence. Biography Born in Florence, he was raised with his brothers Piero and Giovanni ...

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

and

Lorenzo II de' Medici Lorenzo di Piero de' Medici (; 12 September 1492 – 4 May 1519) was the ruler of Florence from 1516 until his death in 1519. He was also Duke of Urbino during the same period. His daughter Catherine de' Medici became Queen Consort of France ...

, duke of

Urbino Urbino ( ; ; Romagnol: ''Urbìn'') is a walled city in the Marche region of Italy, south-west of Pesaro, a World Heritage Site notable for a remarkable historical legacy of independent Renaissance culture, especially under the patronage of F ...

. Corsali traveled to

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an are ...

and the south seas aboard a Portuguese merchant vessel, sending home written accounts of the lands and peoples which he encountered along the way. Two of Corsali’s letters from the '

East Indies The East Indies (or simply the Indies), is a term used in historical narratives of the Age of Discovery. The Indies refers to various lands in the East or the Eastern hemisphere, particularly the islands and mainlands found in and around ...

' were published in Florence in 1518, and again in Giovanni Battista Ramusio, ''Delle navigationi et viaggi'' (

Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 ...

, 1550), along with accounts by other travelers and merchants such as Giovanni da

Empoli Empoli () is a town and ''comune'' in the Metropolitan City of Florence, Tuscany, Italy, about southwest of Florence, to the south of the Arno in a plain formed by the river. The plain has been usable for agriculture since Roman times. The comm ...

(1483-1518). He also noted that

Sumatra Sumatra is one of the Sunda Islands of western Indonesia. It is the largest island that is fully within Indonesian territory, as well as the sixth-largest island in the world at 473,481 km2 (182,812 mi.2), not including adjacent i ...

and

Ceylon Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

(Sri Lanka) are two distinct islands (ancient geography confused them with the name of Taprobane). Corsali’s death date is unknown. Corsali is known in Italy for having identified

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; id, Papua, or , historically ) is the world's second-largest island with an area of . Located in Oceania in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is separated from Australia by the wide Torres ...

, previously unknown to the Italians, and for having hypothesized the existence of

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...

, although he never disembarked there himself. On a voyage in 1516 from Lisbon to India, Corsali was the first European to describe, locate and illustrate the constellation of five stars now known as the Southern Cross (

Crux Crux () is a constellation of the southern sky that is centred on four bright stars in a cross-shaped asterism commonly known as the Southern Cross. It lies on the southern end of the Milky Way's visible band. The name ''Crux'' is Latin f ...

References

*Andrea Corsali, Fiorentino, A watcher of the Austral skies. La Lettera dalla India, translated and edited by Sergio Sergi, National Library of Australia 2013 {{DEFAULTSORT:Corsali, Andrea Italian explorers