Vivaldi, Ugolino and Vadino

VIVALDI, UGOLINO AND VADINO. - Genoese navigators who in 1291 undertook a voyage "quod aliquis usque nunc minime attemptavit" in order to reach "per maria oceana ad partes Indias," as says the only chronicler who speaks of it, the contemporary Genoese annalist Iacopo Doria.

They anticipated a long absence from Genoa, perhaps as much as ten years. Having left the Strait of Gibraltar, the two ships that made up the expedition and were laden with goods to sell 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 reports concerning this most daring attempt. Every other element is uncertain or fanciful. It is uncertain how far the ships went: a late report according to which they, having rounded Africa, would have shipwrecked on the coasts of Somalia, whence the V. would have been taken prisoner into Abyssinia, deserves little credence. Nor is another report certain either, according to which, about ten years later, Sorleone Vivaldi, son of Ugolino, would have ventured with a ship to the coasts of the Indian Ocean in search of the vanished men. Incredible is the tale that a descendant still survives 170 years later on the coast between Senegal and the Gambia. The hypothesis formulated by Alberto Magnaghi, according to which the V. would have attempted to reach the Indies, not by circumnavigating Africa, but by crossing the Ocean toward the West, whence they would have to be considered as precursors of Columbus, although upheld by that able scholar with learned arguments, does not appear sufficiently supported.

Roberto Almagià