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Excerpt from The Adventures of Signor Gaudentio Di Lucca: Being the Substance of His Examination Before the Fathers of the Inquisition, at Bologna, in Italy; Giving an Account of an Unknown Country in the Midst of the Desarts of Africa HE prefent turn of 1 affairs which fills the heads of other people with intrigues of flats, gives me an opportunity of returning my bell thanks, for the rich prerent you were pleafed to fend to a perfon who was yours before by the firifiefi ties of gratitude. T e cabinet, with the other curiofities, came fafe to hand, and drew, that whoever is fo happy, as to oblige Signor Rhedi, fowa a feed which returns a hundred fold. The pove of our 1 profeflion, hinders me from being capable of making a fuitable return or your magnificent prefcnt; but nothing on ht to take from me the defire of exprefling my acknowled cuts. In tellimqny 0? It, and to thew that pove itfelf may be grateful, I fen you by the bearer, the account of a man, whol'e li e has filled our Inquifttors with wonder and'afionilhment. He has been in the Inquifition at this place about two years: we have employed 'all our en gines 'to find out the truth of what he is, and can find nothing material againfi him, unlefs it be the unheard-of account he gives of himfelf. Our firll Inquilitor has obliged him to write his own life, with all the particulars, as fuccinelly as his; addtn threats withal, that, if we find him in a faife flory, it {hall be worfs or him. He te sus firange fiories of one of the moll beautiful countries in the world, in the very heart of the valt defarts of Africa, inacceflible to all the world but by one way, which feems as extraordinary as the country it leads to. As you are a perfon Of univerfal knowledge in antiquity, and an admirer of' curiolities of this nature, I fend you a copy of the marinfcript, to have your opinion of it; and to give you as clear a notion of the man as I can, you mull know, that aboutthree years before he was taken $t by the Inquifition, he took a neat houfe at Bologna in quality of a phyfrcian, mg throughqfome flight examination for form fake, and paying his fees as is en omary with! Ngers. His name, as he fays, is Gaudentio dr Lucca, originally of Lucca, but born in Ragufa He is a tall, handfome, clean-built man, as you {hall fee in a thoufand, of a very polite addrel's, and fomething fo very en ging'in his afpe&, as befpealts your favour at firfl fight. He feems to be near 537; is a man of good fenfe and fine difcourfe, though his accent is not pure I ian, from his living, as he fays, fo long in foreign countries. He fpealts almolt all the oriental languages, and has a very competent lhare of other parts of learning, as well as that of his profefiion. We fent to Ragufa and Lucca to enquire abouthim, butcould not get the leaft information ofiis being known in thofe places. The reafon of which he has $11 in his life, as you will fee; only at Ragufa, forne people re membered there been amerchant of that name, about five and Meaty or thirty years ago, who was either loll, or taken by pirates, and never heard of more. The Inquifition, as you know, Sir, has eyes every where, efpecially on (hangers. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
