ABSTRACT
Bonsignore Bonsignori was a well-connected Florentine ecclesiastic who, aged 29 at the time, travelled to the Levant in 1497–1498 in the company of Bernardo Michelozzi, another Florentine cleric. A number of letters written by them during their travels survive, as do Bonsignori’s memoirs, written years later. They spent about forty days on Rhodes in the summer of 1498 on their way to the Holy Land and a further week there on their way back in September 1498. The letters make no detailed references to the island, but the memoirs provide an evocative account of their initial stay on Rhodes. The memoirs have hitherto not been published, although extracts appeared in a 1973 article by Eve Borsook. 1 The article included a one paragraph summary of their stay on the island, together with three short extracts from the memoirs.
