La “mia Africa” di Alessandro Geraldini di Amelia († 1524)

Abstract

Alessandro Geraldini was born in 1455 in Amelia (near Terni). In 1469, he traveled to Spain
with his brother Antonio, accompanying their maternal uncle Angelo, the chief diplomatic
aide to King John II of Aragon. When the episcopal seat of Santo Domingo became vacant,
Pope Leo X appointed Geraldini as bishop on January 26, 1516. He assumed his position in
Santo Domingo in October 1519 and passed away on March 8, 1524.
Geraldini wrote an odoporic work, Itinerarium ad regiones sub equinoctiali plaga constitutas,
an account of his journey, particularly focused on the beginning of his stay in America, at
least according to the title. This interpretation has been upheld by subsequent criticism,
which considered the narrative as interesting and significant only when Geraldini discusses
his episcopate in the unknown territories beyond the Ocean. This article aims to demonstrate
the superficiality of such an ‘event-based’ reading of the text, proposing instead a literary
perspective. The Itinerarium is an account of a journey where America serves as a pretext
to speak of Africa, which becomes the Humanist’s dream: a demonstration of the return, or
rather the persistence, of (Roman) Antiquity in the present.

Key-words: Travel Literature, Alessandro Geraldini, Africa, America.