"The Book of Nycolao Veneto"

The first collection of accounts written by European travellers in Asia was published in Lisbon in February 1502. Collected and with a preface by Valentim Fernandes, it contains the earliest printed information in Portuguese on Eastern Asia. The book serves today as a kind of progress report on the state of European knowledge of Asia prior to the information revolution which was just beginning to take place as a result of the Portuguese voyages of discovery.
In addition to the introductory texts written by Valentim Fernandes and a letter, dating from 1499, from the Genovese traveller Jerónimo de Santo Estevão, the book contains accounts by two famous Venetians: the book of Marco Polo's travels from 1271-1295, written up in 1298 by Rusticiano de Pisa, and the book of Nicolò di Conti's travels from 1424 to 1444, written and published by Poggio Bracciolini in 1492.