ANTONIO da GRADISCA. - Capuchin missionary born in Gradisca in 1663, to the Zucchelli barons. He entered the Gradisca convent and departed as a missionary from Genoa (1697), arriving a year later in Brazil and then in Loanda, capital of the kingdom of Angola. In the city, A. was detained by a serious illness; upon recovery, he obtained permission to go on mission in the province of Sogno, an area populated by indigenous peoples (whom he calls Ethiopians) given to concubinage, witchcraft, and idolatry, practices that persisted even after baptism. He also attempted to work in the nearby kingdom of Angoy, where he fought, often successfully, the slave trade carried out by English merchants. Seriously endangered in his health, he returned to Loanda and then to his homeland, where he died on July 13, 1716.
His reputation rests on the book in which he describes his missionary activity: *Relazioni del viaggio e Missioni di Congo nell'Etiopia inferiore occidentale* (1710). It offers a very rich, though little scrutinized, repertoire of historical, geographical, and political information about the regions known to the author, particularly in the Congo. It was also translated into German.