The First Voyage Around the World (1519-1522) An Account of Magellan's Expedition

It was Gabriel Garcia Marquez who provided a memorable introduction to Pigafetta's book when he evoked, at the beginning of his 1982 Nobel Lecture, 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". Marquez's citation of Pigafetta is certainly the most resonant in a long line of prestigious literary responses. From Shakespeare's Tempest to contemporary "magical realism", such allusions have enabled the editor of this new translation to trace an intriguing continuity in the literary category of the marvelous. But Pigafetta's book is far from being just a marvel-filled travel narrative or a hagiographic text honoring the legendary explorer. Indeed, The First Voyage is much more: its remarkably accurate ethnographic and geographical account of the circumnavigation has guaranteed its status among modern historiographers and students of the earliest contacts between Europeans and the East Indies.