“From the third of February to the 14th of May 1432 we were in the first circle of paradise, to the shame and disgrace of the kingdoms of Italy.” The nobleman Pietro Querini set out with his merchant ship from Crete, heading for Flanders.
A winter storm drove them out into the Atlantic, and in December, 29 of the original crew of 64 men staggered ashore from one lifeboat to an uninhabited island off Rost. They were eventually rescued by the locals, whose lives are depicted in admiring yet cautionary terms by the well-travelled gentleman. An important source book about Northern Norway in the Middle Ages, but in itself a vivid and dramatic account.
