Giosafat Barbaro (1413-1494) was a member of the Venetian Barbaro family. He was a diplomat, merchant, explorer and travel writer. From 1436 to 1452 Barbaro traveled as a merchant to Tana on the Sea of Azov, with the hopes of excavating what he thought was the burial mound of the last King of the Alans. Modern scholarship concludes that it was not a burial mound, but a kitchen midden that had accumulated over centuries of use. In 1472 Barbaro was also selected as an ambassador to Persia, due to his experience in the Crimean, Muscovy, and Tartary. His instructions included urging admiral Pietro Mocenigo to attack the Ottomans and attempting to arrange naval cooperation from the Kingdom of Cyprus and the Knights of Rhodes, but was largely unsuccessful.

Ambrogio Contarini (1429-1499) was a Venetian nobleman, merchant and diplomat known for an account of his travel to Iran. The Republic of Venice sought to forge a larger alliance against the Ottoman Empire and sent Contarini with a diplomatic mission to Uzun Hassan, the Iranian ruler of the Aq Qoyunlu clan. He left Venice in February 1474, traveled through central Europe, Kiev, and Georgia and reached Tabriz in August 1474. In October, he met Uzun Hassan at his capital of Isfahan. He was kindly received, but the Venetian proposal of alliance was declined. Contarini returned to Venice only in April 1477, after many delays and a difficult return voyage. On his journey home from Iran, Contarini stopped in Moscow, where he had an audience with the Russian tsar Ivan III.

Hakluyt Society First Series, XLIX; 8vo (22.5 x 15 cm); ex libris Inner Temple Library with bookplates and stamps, withdrawn stamp to titles, occasional light waterstaining not affecting legibility, some soiling to lower margin; original publisher's gilt blue cloth, boards slightly dampstained and spotted, spine a little darkened with small chips to head, otherwise a good copy; [2], xi, 173, [7], xvii, 229, [2]pp.