Pero Tafur: A Fifteenth-Century Spaniard

Travellers’ tales have been a popular branch of literature for centuries and the fifteenth century is particularly rich in its assortment of observant, adventurous travellers who were eager to share their impressions and opinions with a wider public. Such men were not purveyors of the fabulous, at least not in regard to what they themselves saw. They did pass on some very tall stories derived from other travellers they met, but this was not with the intention of fooling their audience. Rather, they themselves had seen so many things which struck them as beyond belief that it was easy to accept credulously the possible wonders of a still unexplored world.