On 10 August 1519, five ships departed from Seville for what was to
become the first circumnavigation of the globe. 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. A narrative and cartographic record of the journey
(including 23 hand-drawn watercolour charts) from Patagonia to
Indonesia, from the Philippines to the Cape of Good Hope, Pigafetta's
The First Voyage around the World is a classic of discovery and
exploration literature.
This volume is based on the critical edition by Antonio Canova. It
includes an extensive introduction to the work and generous annotations
by Theodore J. Cachey Jr who discusses the marvelous elements of the
story through allusions to Magellan's travels made by writers as diverse
as Shakespeare and Gabriel García Márquez. However, Cachey is careful to
point out that Pigafetta's book is far from just a marvel-filled travel
narrative. The First Voyage around the World is also a remarkably
accurate ethnographic and geographical account of the circumnavigation,
and one that has earned its reputation among modern historiographers and
students of the early contacts between Europe and the East Indies.
Expertly presented and handsomely illustrated, this edition of
Pigafetta's classic travelogue is sure to enlighten new readers and
invigorate the imagination as the story has done since it first
appeared.
