«Per convenienti rispetti»

Abstract

This article delves into the rhetorical fabric of the discorsi the Venetian humanist Giovanni Battista Ramusio crafted to introduce his collection of travel accounts (Navigazioni e viaggi, 1550-9), with the aim of unearthing some of their deliberately unspoken contents. An analysis of Ramusio’s reticence regarding certain matters, together with a set of broken allusions, and his highly controlled self-presentation, allows a reframing of his locus of enunciation in the light of his self-fashioning within the Venetian social and intellectual environment, his ideological objectives and strategic constraints, and the epistemic stances implied in his editorial choices.