Page "Indo-European languages" Paragraph 3

The first account by a western European to mention the ancient language Sanskrit came from Filippo Sassetti ( born in Florence in 1540 ), a merchant who traveled to the Indian subcontinent.

Writing in 1585, he noted some word similarities between Sanskrit and Italian ( these included devaḥ / dio " God ", sarpaḥ / serpe " serpent ", sapta / sette " seven ", aṣṭa / otto " eight ", nava / nove " nine ").

However, neither Stephens's nor Sassetti's observations led to further scholarly inquiry.