“The First Voyage around the World by Magellan”

Antonio Pigafetta
Antonio Pigafetta is a famous traveller born in Vicenza around 1490 and died in
the same city in 1534, who is also known by the name Antonio Lombardo or Francisco
Antonio Pigafetta. Pigafetta's work instantly became a classic that prominent literary
men in the West like William Shakespeare, Michael de Montaigne, and Giambattista
Vico reffered to the book in their interpretation of the New World.

Pigafetta's travelogue is one of the most important primarily souces in the study
of the precolonial Philippines. His account was also a major referent to the events
leading to Magellan's arrival in the Philippines, his encounter with local leaders, his
death in the hands of Lapulapu's forces in the Battle of Mactan, and in the departure of
what was left of Magellan's fleet from the islands.

The “First Voyage around the World by Magellan” was published after Pigafetta
returned to Italy. Antonio-Pigafetta's account of the first voyage around the world (1519-
22) is of manifold significance. On the one hand, it is an allusive compendium of
cartographic, historical, political, religious and economic components.

The “First Voyage around the World by Magellan” is one of the most important
primary sources in the study of the pre-colonial Philippines. It is a detailed writing of the
voyage of Ferdinand Magellan around the world.

Pigafetta's work is important not only as a source of information about the voyage
itself, but also includes an early Western description of the people and languages of the
Philippines. Of the approximately 240 men who set out with Magellan, Pigafetta was
one of only 18 who returned to Spain. It helped us understand how Filipinos lived in the
past and how they dealt with Magellan and his men when they arrived in the Philippines.
It also contains the first vocabulary of Visayan words ever presented by a European. It
opened doors in the places where they passed, where people, ideas and goods were
coming and going. It established commercial contacts between East and West that
remained for centuries. Also, it promoted the exchange of multiple sorts of experiences
(scientific, cultural, religious...).