The First Voyage Around the World (1519-1522) - Softcover

On August 10, 1519, five ships departed from Seville for what was to become the first circumnavigation of the earth. Linked by fame to the name of its captain, Magellan, much of the expedition is known through the travelogue of one of the few crew members who returned to Spain: Antonio Pigafetta. At the beginning of his 1982 Nobel Lecture, Gabriel Garcia Marquez provided a memorable introduction to Pigafetta's book when he evoked the Renaissance traveler "who went with Magellan on the first voyage around the world," and wrote "a strictly accurate account that nonetheless resembles a venture into fantasy." But Pigafetta's book is far from being just a marvel-filled travel narrative. Indeed, its remarkably accurate ethnographic and geographical account of the circumnavigation has guaranteed its status among modern historiographers of the earliest contacts between Europeans and the East Indies.