Valle, Pietro della

Valle, Pietro della

(pyĕ`trō dĕl`lä väl`lā), 1586–1652, Italian traveler in Asia. He sailed (1614) from Venice; spent a year in Constantinople, where he studied Turkish and Arabic; then traveled in Egypt, the Holy Land, Arabia, Persia, and India, returning to Italy in 1626. An account of his travels based on his letters appeared in two volumes (1650–58); a part appeared in English, with a life of Della Valle as The Travels of Pietro della Valle in India (ed. by Edward Gray, Hakluyt Society, Vol. LXXXIV and LXXXV, 1892).