Joos van Ghistele

Who was Joos van Ghistele?

Joos van Ghistele was a Flemish nobleman who spent four years travelling around in the Middle East and southern Europe, including Italy, Greece, the Balkans, Tunisia, the Levant, Egypt and the Red Sea all the way down to Aden.

His accounts were edited by Ambrosius Zeebout Priestre and posthumously published in 1557 as Tvoyage van Mher Joos van Ghistele, with many later republications. Three editions in Ghent alone in fifteen years show that the book attained considerable popularity in Flanders.