VIVALDI, UGOLINO and VADINO. — Genoese navigators who in 1291 undertook a voyage “quod aliquis usque nunc minime attemptavit” to reach “per maria oceana ad partes Indiae,” as the only chronicler to mention them, the contemporary Genoese annalist Iacopo Doria, states.
They anticipated a long absence from Genoa, perhaps up to ten years. After passing through the Strait of Gibraltar, the two ships that made up the expedition and were laden with merchandise for trade were seen for the last time on the coast of southern Morocco at Gozora (near Cape Juby opposite the Canaries). These are the only certain details surrounding the much-discussed attempt. Every other element is uncertain or fanciful. It is uncertain how far the ships advanced: a late report according to which they, having sailed around Africa, would have been shipwrecked on the coasts of Somalia, whence the Vivaldis would have been led captive into Abyssinia, deserves little credence. Nor is another report reliable, according to which some ten years later, Sorleone Vivaldi, son of Ugolino, would have pushed forward with a ship along the coasts of the Indian Ocean in search of the missing men. Incredible is the tale that a disbeliever survived still 170 years later on the coast between Senegal and Gambia. The hypothesis advanced by Alberto Magnaghi, according to which the Vivaldis would have attempted to reach the Indies not by circumnavigating Africa but by crossing the Ocean to the west, and thus would have to be considered as precursors of Columbus, although supported by the learned scholar with thorough arguments, does not appear sufficiently substantiated.