The Italian Capuchin Girolamo da Montesarchio spent twenty years in the mid-17th century in the

Kingdom of Kongo The Kingdom of Kongo ( kg, Kongo dya Ntotila or ''Wene wa Kongo;'' pt, Reino do Congo) was a kingdom located in central Africa in present-day northern Angola, the western portion of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and the Republic of the ...

West Africa West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of Africa. The United Nations defines Western Africa as the 16 countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, Maurit ...

. His manuscript account, ''Viaggio al Congho'', provides modern historians a rich source of information on the region's history and society. The manuscript, preserved in the Archivio Provinciale dei Cappucini di Provincia di Toscana, Montughi Convent, Florence, was first edited and published in 1976.Montescarchio, Calogero Piazza, ed. ''La Prefettura Apostolica del Congo alla' Meta del XVII secolo: la relazione inedita di Girolamo da Montesarchio'', noted in John Kelly Thornton, 1998. ''Africa and Africans in the making of the Atlantic world, 1400-1800'' p 79 note 22. Montesarchio's account supplements the material in Giovanni Cavazzi da Montecuccolo's ''Istorica descrizione'', printed in 1687. Largo Girolamo da Montesarchio in

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

commemorates his name.

Notes

17th century in Africa Travel autobiographies Books about Africa Kingdom of Kongo Capuchins 17th-century Italian Christian monks {{Africanist-stub