Antonio Pigafetta

Portrait traditionally believed to represent Antonio Pigafetta (Marasca Collection, Biblioteca Bertoliana of Vicenza), based on a statue in the Civic Museum of Vicenza, originally coming from St. Michael church (where the Pigafettas had a family tomb). It really represents another Pigafetta, Gio. Alberto of Gerolamo (d. 1562, 29 years old).

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 was not published in its entirety until the late eighteenth century. The original document was not preserved.

It was not 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 had 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.

References

• Magellan (Francis Guillemard, Antonio Pigafetta, Francisco Albo, Gaspar Correa) [2008]
• Template:It icon Pigafetta, Antonio. Relazione del primo viaggio intorno al mondo, Zip Text/e-Book http://www.e-text.it/ and Liberliber.it, retrieved on: 13 June 2007
• Zaide, Gregorio F. Documentary Sources of Philippine History (Document 15, First Voyage Around the World (1519-1522), Manila: National Bookstore, 1990, pp. 81-210 and Some of the Cebuano Words Recorded By Pigafetta In 1521 (through a native interpreter Enrique of Malacca) and Jessie Grace U. Rubrico, Language Links, 1998., retrieved on: 13 June 2007

See also

• Enrique of Malacca