First Reports of New World Cannibalism in the Italian Mercantile and Diplomatic Correspondence

A great amount of the information about the first stages of early modern European expansion in the Americas was written by and for Italians. Italian trading cities, with their high percentage of literate people and efficient networks for the transmission of political and commercial news, were initially the most receptive audience for reports about the Iberian overseas explorations.¹ The early information exchanged via the Italian network included highly stereotyped and contradictory representations of New World native populations. On one hand, the indigenous peoples of the Americas were portrayed as the innocent and peaceful dwellers of an Edenic paradise; on the