Antonio Pigafetta

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Antonio Pigafetta

Statue in Cebu City

Born between 1480 and 1491

Vicenza, Republic of Venice

(in modern Italy)

Died c. 1531 (age about 40–50)

Vicenza, Republic of Venice

Nationality Venetian

Years active 1500s–20s

Known for Chronicling Magellan's circumnavigation

Antonio Pigafetta (Italian: [anˈtɔːnjo piɡaˈfetta]; c. 1491 – c. 1531) was

a Venetian scholar and explorer. He joined the expedition to the Spice Islands led by
explorer Ferdinand Magellan under the flag of King Charles I of Spain and, after
Magellan's death in the Philippines, the subsequent voyage around the world. During
the expedition, he served as Magellan's assistant and kept an accurate journal which
later assisted him in translating the Cebuano language. It is the first recorded document
concerning the language.
Pigafetta was one of the 18 men who returned to Spain in 1522, under the command
of Juan Sebastián Elcano, out of the approximately 240 who set out three years earlier.
These men completed the first circumnavigation of the world. Pigafetta's surviving
journal is the source for much of what is known about Magellan and Elcano's voyage.
At least one warship of the Italian Navy, a destroyer of the Navigatori class, was named
after him in 1931.

Contents

 1Early life
 2Voyage around the world
 3Return
 4The  Relazione del primo viaggio intorno al mondo
 5Works
 6Exhibition
 7References
 8Sources
 9External links

Early life[edit]
Pigafetta's exact year of birth is not known, with estimates ranging between 1480 and
1491. A birth year of 1491 would have made him around 30 years old during Magellan's
expedition, which historians have considered more probable than an age close to 40.
[1]
 Pigafetta belonged to a rich family city of Vicenza in northeast Italy. In his youth he
studied astronomy, geography and cartography. He then served on board the ships of
the Knights of Rhodes at the beginning of the 16th century. Until 1519, he accompanied
the papal nuncio, Monsignor Francesco Chieregati, to Spain.

Voyage around the world[edit]

Map of Borneo by Pigafetta.

Nao Victoria, Magellan's boat Replica in Punta Arenas

In Seville, Pigafetta heard of Magellan's planned expedition and decided to join,

accepting the title of supernumerary (sobresaliente), and a modest salary of
1,000 maravedís.[2] During the voyage, which started in August 1519, Pigafetta collected
extensive data concerning the geography, climate, flora, fauna and the native
inhabitants of the places that the expedition visited. His meticulous notes proved
invaluable to future explorers and cartographers, mainly due to his inclusion of nautical
and linguistic data, and also to latter-day historians because of its vivid, detailed style.
The only other sailor to maintain a journal during the voyage was Francisco
Albo, Victoria's last pilot, who kept a formal logbook.

Return[edit]
Casa Pigafetta, his palace in Vicenza.

Pigafetta was wounded on Mactan in the Philippines, where Magellan was killed in

the Battle of Mactan in April 1521. Nevertheless, he recovered and was among the 18
who accompanied Juan Sebastián Elcano on board the Victoria on the return voyage to
Spain.
Upon reaching port in Sanlúcar de Barrameda in the modern Province of Cadiz in
September 1522, three years after his departure, Pigafetta returned to the Republic of
Venice. He related his experiences in the "Report on the First Voyage Around the
World" (Italian: Relazione del primo viaggio intorno al mondo), which was composed
in Italian and was distributed to European monarchs in handwritten form before it was
eventually published by Italian historian Giovanni Battista Ramusio in 1550–59. The
account centers on the events in the Mariana Islands and the Philippines, although it
included several maps of other areas as well, including the first known use of the word
"Pacific Ocean" (Oceano Pacifico) on a map.[2] The original document was not
preserved.
However, it was not through Pigafetta's writings that Europeans first learned of the
circumnavigation of the globe. Rather, it was through an account written by a Flanders-
based writer Maximilianus Transylvanus, which was published in 1523. Transylvanus
had been instructed to interview some of the survivors of the voyage when Magellan's
surviving ship Victoria returned to Spain in September 1522 under the command of
Juan Sebastian Elcano. After Magellan and Elcano's voyage, Pigafetta utilized the
connections he had made prior to the voyage with the Knights of Rhodes to achieve
membership in the order.

The Relazione del primo viaggio intorno al mondo[edit]

Statue of Antonio Pigafetta in Vicenza

Antonio Pigafetta also wrote a book, in which a detailed account of the voyage was
given. It is quite unclear when it was first published and what language had been used
in the first edition. The remaining sources of his voyage were extensively studied by
Italian archivist Andrea da Mosto, who wrote a critical study of Pigafetta's book in 1898
(Il primo viaggio intorno al globo di Antonio Pigafetta e le sue regole sull'arte del
navigare[3]) and whose conclusions were later confirmed by J. Dénucé. [4]
Today, three printed books and four manuscripts survive. One of the three books is in
French, while the remaining two are in Italian language. Of the four manuscripts, three
are in French (two stored in the Bibliothèque nationale de France and one
in Cheltenham), and one in Italian.[4]
From a philological point of view, the French editions seem to derive from an Italian
original version, while the remaining Italian editions seem to derive from a French
original version. Because of this, it remains quite unclear whether the original version of
Pigafetta's manuscript was in French or Italian, though it was probably in Italian. [4] The
most complete manuscript, and the one that is supposed to be more closely related to
the original manuscript, is the one found by Carlo Amoretti inside the Biblioteca
Ambrosiana, Milan and published in 1800 (Primo viaggio intorno al globo terraqueo,
ossia ragguaglio della navigazione alle Indie Orientali per la via d'Occidente fatta dal
cavaliere Antonio Pigafetta patrizio vicentino, sulla squadra del capitano Magaglianes
negli anni 1519-1522). Unfortunately, Amoretti, in his printed edition, modified many
words and sentences whose meaning was uncertain (the original manuscript contained
many words in Veneto dialect and some Spanish words). The modified version
published by Amoretti was then translated into other languages carrying into them
Amoretti's edits. Andrea da Mosto critically analyzed the original version stored in
the Biblioteca Ambrosiana and published this rigorous version of Pigafetta's book in
1894.[3]
Regarding the French versions of Pigafetta's book, J. Dénucé extensively studied them
and published a critical edition.[5]
At the end of his book, Pigafetta stated that he had given a copy to Charles V.
Pigafetta's close friend, Francesco Chiericati, also stated that he had received a copy
and it is thought[by whom?] that the regent of France may have received a copy of the latter. It
has been argued that the copy Pigafetta had provided may have been merely a short
version or a draft. It was in response to a request, in January 1523, of the Marquis
of Mantua that Pigafetta wrote his detailed account of the voyage. [4]

Works[edit]
Antonio Pigafetta wrote at least two books, both of which have survived:

 Relazione del primo viaggio intorno al mondo (1524-1525);

 Regole sull'arte del navigare (1524-1525) (contained
in Andrea Da Mosto, ed. (1894). Il primo viaggio intorno al
globo di Antonio Pigafetta e le sue regole sull'arte del
navigare.).

Exhibition[edit]
In June 2019, in the context of the quincentenary of the circumnavigation, an exhibition
entitled Pigafetta: cronista de la primera vuelta al mundo Magallanes Elcano opened in
Madrid at the library of the Spanish Agency for International Development
Cooperation (AECID). AECID was also involved in the publication of a book about the
expedition La vuelta al mundo de Magallanes-Elcano : la aventura imposible, 1519-
1522 (ISBN 978-84-9091-386-4).[6]

References[edit]
1. ^ Nowell, Charles E. (1962).  Magellan's voyage around the world :
three contemporary accounts : Antonio Pigafetta, Maximilian of
Transylvania, Gaspar Corrêa. Northwestern University Press.
p. 79.  OCLC 154183092.
2. ^ Jump up to:a b Quanchi, Max (2005). Historical Dictionary of the
Discovery and Exploration of the Pacific Islands.  The Scarecrow
Press. p.  207. ISBN 0810853957.
3. ^ Jump up to:a b andrea-da-mosto-1894
4. ^ Jump up to:        "PIGAFETTA, Antonio in "Enciclopedia
a b c d

Italiana"".  www.treccani.it (in Italian). Archived from  the original on

2018-10-02. Retrieved 2018-12-25.
5. ^ denuce-1923
6. ^ "Pigafetta: cronista de la primera vuelta al mundo Magallanes
Elcano"  (Press release) (in Spanish). AECID. Retrieved 10
November 2019.

Sources[edit]
  Lord Stanley of Alderley, The first voyage round the world,
by Magellan, London: The Hakluyt Society (1874) -
includes Pigefetta's journal and his treatise of navigation.
(also available at the Internet Archive)
 Magellan's Voyage around the World by Antonio Pigafetta
– The original text of the Ambrosian ms. translated
by James Alexander Robertson, Cleveland : The Arthur H.
Clark Company (1906); Vol 1, Vol. 2, Vol. 3
 Murphy, Patrick J.; Coye, Ray W. (2013). Mutiny and Its
Bounty: Leadership Lessons from the Age of
Discovery. Yale University Press. ISBN 9780300170283.
Archived from the original on 2015-06-27.

External links[edit]
Wikimedia Commons has
media related to Antonio
Pigafetta.

Wikisource has original
text related to this article:

it:Relazione del primo

viaggio intorno al mondo

 Works by Antonio Pigafetta at Project Gutenberg

 Works by or about Antonio Pigafetta at Internet Archive
hide

Magellan–Elcano circumnavigation

Ferdinand Magellan

Juan Sebastián Elcano

Antonio Pigafetta

Duarte Barbosa

Juan Carvalho

Martín de Ayamonte

Juan de Cartagena

Ginés de Mafra
 Gaspar de Quesada

Andrés de San Martín

Esteban Gómez

Juan Serrano

Slave Enrique of Malacca

Concepción

Trinidad

Victoria

Seville

Sanlúcar de Barrameda

Tenerife, Canary Islands

1519
Land of Brazil 
Cabo de Santo Agostinho

Rio de Janeiro

Río de la Plata

Puerto San Julián 

"Patagonian giants"

1520 Santa Cruz River

Cape Virgenes

Strait of Magellan

Pacific Ocean

1521 Islands of the Thieves 

Islands of the Lateen Sails

Islands of Saint Lazarus 

Homonhon

Mazaua

First Mass in the Philippines

Cebu

Mactan

Battle of Mactan

May 1 Massacre

Quipit

Cagayan
 Paragua

Moluccas/Spice Islands 
Tidore

Timor

Cape of Good Hope

1522 Santiago, Cape Verde

Sanlúcar de Barrameda

Seville

King Charles I

Juan Rodríguez de Fonseca

Rui Faleiro

European Christopher de Haro

Jorge Reinel

Diego Ribero

Maximilianus Transylvanus

Bastiam

Lapulapu
Asian
Rajah Ache

Rajah Humabon

Magellan Shrine

Magellan's Cross

Santo Niño de Cebú

In Over the Edge of the World (2003 book)

media Elcano & Magellan: The First Voyage Around the World (2019 film)

BIBSYS: 90527546

BNE: XX889523

BNF: cb12002909h (data)

GND: 119316498

ISNI: 0000 0001 2096 717X

LCCN: n50036742

NKC: jn19981001980

NLA: 35422951
NLI: 001476484

NTA: 069567379

RERO: 02-A003694097

SELIBR: 262394

SUDOC: 028134060

Trove: 947270

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WorldCat Identities: viaf-24611390
Categories: 
 1491 births
 1531 deaths
 16th-century historians
 16th-century explorers
 Authors of Spanish ethnographic accounts of the Philippines in
the 16th century
 Circumnavigators of the globe
 Explorers from the Republic of Venice
 Italian chroniclers
 Italian explorers of South America
 Italian explorers of the Pacific
 Knights of Malta
 Magellan–Elcano circumnavigation
 People from Vicenza
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