15 Facts About Niccolao Manucci

Niccolao Manucci was a Venetian writer, a self-taught physician, and traveller, who wrote accounts of the Mughal Empire as a first-hand witness.

Niccolao Manucci's work is considered to be one of the most useful foreign sources for the events that took place in India under Mughal rule.

Niccolao Manucci documented folk beliefs and customs of the period.

Niccolo Manucci was born in Venice to Pasqualino Manucci and Rosa nee Bellin.

Niccolao Manucci joined an uncle in Corfu as a teenager and went aboard an English ship to India.

Niccolao Manucci sent a ring back home with instructions that it should be sold for books on medicine to be sent back to him.

Niccolao Manucci then returned to Mughal service in Lahore as a physician.

Niccolao Manucci lost material in a shipwreck and then worked as a physician for Shah Alam in the Deccan.

Niccolao Manucci then moved to Hyderabad and then to Madras, marrying Elizabeth Hartley Clarke, widow of Portuguese interpreter Thomas Clarke.

Niccolao Manucci lived in Madras with some work at Pondicherry where he obtained a house on the Rue Neuve de la Porte de Goudelour.

Niccolao Manucci maintained good relations with William Gyfford and Thomas Pitt.

Niccolao Manucci remained in India for much of his life and is one of the few supposedly first hand European sources for Shah Jahan, Aurangzeb, Shivaji, Dara Shikoh, Shah Alam I, Jai Singh I and Kirat Singh.

Niccolao Manucci had miniature paintings made of several of the Mughal rulers for his book.

Niccolao Manucci is famous for his work "Storia do Mogor", an account of Mughal history and life.

Niccolao Manucci had first-hand knowledge of the Mughal court, and the book is considered to be the most detailed account of the Mughal court.