Everything about Antonio Pigafetta totally explained
Antonio Pigafetta (c.
1491), was an
Italian scholar born in
Vicenza. He was engaged to accompany and assist the
Portuguese captain
Ferdinand Magellan and his Spanish crew on their trip to the
Maluku Islands. During the voyage, he kept an accurate journal which later assisted him in translating one of the
Philippine languages,
Cebuano. It is the first recorded document concerning this language.
Out of approximately 240 men who set out with Magellan in
1519, Pigafetta was one of only 18 who returned to
Spain in
1522, having completed the
circumnavigation under the captainship of
Juan Sebastián Elcano after Magellan's death.
His journal is the source for most of what we know about Magellan and Elcano's voyage.
Youth
Pigafetta belonged to a rich family of
Vicenza. In his youth he studied
astronomy,
geography and
cartography. He served on board the galleys of the
Knights of Rhodes at the beginning of the
16th century. Until
1519, he accompanied the
papal nuncio,
Monsignor Chieregati, to Spain.
Voyage
In
Seville, he heard of Magellan's planned expedition and elected to embark, accepting the title of
sobrasaliente (supernumerary) and a modest salary of 1,000 maravedís. During the trip, Pigafetta collected extensive data about the geography, climate, flora, fauna and the inhabitants of the places that the expedition visited. His meticulous notes were invaluable to future explorers and cartographers, mainly due to his inclusion of nautical and linguistic data, and to later-day historians because of its vivid, detailed style. The only other sailor to maintain a journal during the voyage was Francisco Albo, last Victoria's
pilot, who kept a formal
logbook.
Return
Pigafetta was wounded on
Mactan in the Philippines, where Magellan was killed. 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 (
Province of Cadiz) in September of 1522, three years after his departure, Pigafetta returned to Italy. He related his experiences in
Relazione del Primo Viaggio Intorno Al Mondo (Report on the First Voyage Around the World), which was composed in
Italian. Although parts were published in
Paris in
1525, the manuscript wasn't published in its entirety until the late eighteenth century. The original document wasn't preserved.
It wasn't through Antonio Pigafetta's writings that Europeans learned of the first circumnavigation of the globe. Rather, it was through an account written by
Maximilianus Transylvanus, which was published in
1523. Transylvanus had been instructed to interview the survivors of the voyage when Magellan’s surviving ship
Victoria returned to Spain in September 1522.
After Magellan's voyage, Pigafetta utilized the connections he'd made prior to the voyage with the Knights of Rhodes to himself achieve membership in the order.
Cinematic references
Filipino actor
Bob Soler as
Antonio Pigafetta is depicted in the movie
Lapu Lapu (2002) as a member of Magellan's expedition in
Cebu.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Antonio Pigafetta'.
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