Abstract
The Cosmographia & geographia dell’Africa (later simply Descrittione dell’Africa) of the Arab-born author Al-Ḥasan ibn Muḥammed al-Wazzān (after his conversion to Christianity Leo Africanus) is one of the most important historical sources of the early exploration of Africa. The original Italian manuscript dates from 1526, the Editio princeps appeared in 1550, translations have been published in 1556 (French), 1600 (English), 1665 (Dutch), 1805 (German) and 1952 (Spanish). The vocabulary of the text is extraordinarily rich, but until today only few studies have been conducted on this subject. The present article aims to illustrate the fundamental interest of the work from the point of view of lexicology and lexicography, focussing on the historical documentation and analysis of selected loanwords from Arabic (amir cabir, amiralf, amiri achor, amirmia, amirsileh, chazendare, chetebeessere, eddaguadare, muachih, muhtesib, nadheasse, nai bessan, ostadar, testecana).
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