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The article deals with the perceptions of an important colonial city, the Portuguese Malacca, in the itinerary written by the Venetian merchant and traveler Cesare Federici (Cesare dei Federici, 1521–1601, traveled in Asia in 1563–1581). Federici's Voyage to the East India and beyond India (1587) is a vast description of the states of the Middle East, South Asia and Southeast Asia. The article discusses different aspects of his description of Malacca. From Federici's point of view, Malacca concentrated "innumerable merchandise" from the whole world. Federici described its trade ties and organization of trade navigations by the colonial administration headed by the Captain of the Fortress. The merchant from the "Serenissima" emphasized the immense trade importance of Malacca and the zealous attempts of the Portuguese to control the trade routes. His report of Malacca is also marked by an impression of the constant military threat from the mighty and rich Muslim Sultanate of Acheh in Sumatra, "the worst enemy of the Portuguese". Because of an offensive by the Acheh fleet, Federici had once to flee from Malacca in a rush. Malacca was the easternmost point of Federici's voy-age. In his description of the city, he also included brief information about China and Japan. In Federici's account, the description of the colonial Malacca itself is mostly replaced by the description of trade routes and valuable goods (mainly spices, including mace and nutmeg). The mediatory role of Malacca thus determined its image in the Venetian's report. © 2021, Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (Kunstkamera), Russian Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.

This article observes the imagery of Nusantara in the report of Nicolò Conti (ca. 1395–1469) a Venetian traveller and merchant of the first half of the 15th century. The mer-chant's itinerary contains a brief description of the Malay-Indonesian world — a product of a dialogue between a merchant himself and a humanist Poggio Bracciolini. Conti reported about his visits to Sumatra, "two Javas" (probably, Java and Borneo or Java and Southern Sumatra) and Champa. The merchant perceived Nusantara mainly as a region of violence and unbridled morals, he described a scene of amuk in details. This traveller also paid particular attention to the valuable merchandise of the region: spices and exotic plants and animals, including the Moluccan parrots. However, Conti's account lacks any mentions of the states, rulers or palaces in the Malay-Indonesian region. This distinguishes his account from many other sources on Nusantara (Chinese and Muslim ones). Conti's silence about the political entities or kings of Nusantara makes localization or identifying of some certain features of the region rather diffi-cult. Conti's lack of attention to the religious practices of Nusantara contrast with his deep attention the Hindu traditions of the South Asia. The understanding of Conti's specific social milieu can explain the reasons of his silence about such important issues. In general, Conti's image of Nusantara is mainly an extreme confine of the world, marked with notable but terrifying features. © 2019, Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (Kunstkamera), Russian Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.