The Description of Africa is the first comprehensive book about Africa, written by Leo Africanus, an African scholar trained in the Islamic intellectual tradition, in 1526, during the Italian Renaissance. A skillful mixture of anthropology and geography, as well as a travelogue and biography, it became the only source material for early modern Europeans about the African continent.
More about: The Description of AfricaDefinition
Timeline
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1527Leo Africanus completes his most important work: The History and Description of Africa.
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1556The History and Description of Africa by Leo Africanus is translated into French and Latin.
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1600The History and Description of Africa by Leo Africanus is translated into English by John Pory of London's Hakluyt Society.
