Pietro Della Valle

Pietro della Valle (1586–1652) was an Italian nobleman, traveller, and writer whose letters from the East rank among the most important travel accounts of the early modern period. Born in Rome into a distinguished aristocratic family, he was classcally educated and active in the city’s literary and musical circles before embarking on a journey that would take him across the Ottoman Empire, Safavid Iran, and as far as India. Beginning in 1614, della Valle travelled through Constantinople, Egypt, the Holy Land, Syria, Mesopotamia, Persia, and India, recording with exceptional attentiveness the political life, religious practices, architecture, commerce, and everyday customs of the societies he encountered. His descriptions of Safavid Iran—especially Isfahan under Shah ʿAbbās the Great—remain among the most vivid and detailed eyewitness accounts of the period. During his travels he married the Assyrian Christian Sitti Maani Gioerida, whose death in Persia deeply shaped his later writings. After returning to Rome in 1626, he was honored by Pope Urban VIII and devoted the remainder of his life to scholarship and music, contributing both compositions and theoretical writings. Della Valle’s letters were published posthumously as the Viaggi, a work that combines autobiography, ethnography, and historical reportage. This English edition, Travels in Persia, 1617–1622, presents for the first time a complete translation of all his writings relating to Iran, offering modern readers direct access to one of the most perceptive European observers of Safavid society.