Magellan/Pigafetti
The book The Voyage of Magellan: The Journal of Antonia Pigafetta, translated by Paula Spurlin Paige, is the first-hand account of an observer who sailed with Magellan's ships on their famous circumnavigation of the globe. Magellan's expedition. from 11519-1522, was the first time this feat had been accomplished. The expedition demonstrated conclusively not only that the Earth was a sphere, but that it could be extensively explored using the best technology of the day: sailing ships. Occurring as it did during the Renaissance, Pigafetta's accounts of the voyage were widely read. His book fueled the growing interest in learning as much as could be learned about virtually everything that could be studied.
In this expedition, Paige reports, Magellan managed to do what Columbus had tried to do but failed (p. vi). Dramatic shifts happened in multiple fields. Just as Ptolemaic thinking had been overturned in astronomy, now it had been proven wrong for the study of geography as well (p. vi). Such developments encouraged new ways of thinking, looking forward via exploration and experimentation rather than to the past to answer important questions about the world.
The voyage also gave Spain a world presence. The honor could have been Portugal's except that after Magellan was injured fighting for Portugal, he believed his honor had been impugned (p. vii) and he renounced his Portuguese citizenship in favor of Spain.
In reading this book, the reader has to keep the times in which it was written in view. This is demonstrated early in the book. On page 4, he reports that they saw birds with no anuses. He recounted how the females lay their eggs on the back of the male as he floats on the water, and that these birds have no legs. The footnote indicates that Pigafetta was talking about storm petrels, who although they spend long times at sea, most definitely have both anuses and legs, and who nest on islands to raise their young. This indicates that Pigafetta did what all people tend to do -- he interpreted what he saw through his own established worldview. What he wrote about the petrels was widely believed at the time but could not have been confirmed by his observations, because it wasn't true. However, he believed it to be true and reported it as fact.
One of the most interesting parts of the book may be the introduction, where Paige describes the difficulties faced in deciding which manuscript to translate. The author reports how rare the original manuscripts are, and how the manuscript was produced in several forms, as well as how she finally settled on the manuscript she chose to use as her source. This discussion highlights the difficulties historians face as they evaluate primary sources.
Many of the growing interests of the Renaissance are covered in Pigafetta's account. Religion is interwoven throughout Pigafetta's account of this expedition, as the explorers believed that spreading Christianity was an important task when they encountered new cultures. Pigafetta's reports of conversions of native populations are particularly interesting because he describes native customs, particularly those that clashed with Christianity. For instance, he reports many conversions in the port of Zubu on a Pacific island. However, the natives' first approach was to combine Christianity with their other beliefs, so the explorers found one day that although the natives had been baptized, they were praying to their old idols to try to help a sick man heal. This kind of cultural interaction is described in detail and gives detailed insight regarding what it was like when Western culture met these natives for the first time.
Pigafetta showed great interest in many of the cultural variances he saw. He described cultural practices in great detail, describing how the various groups prepared their food and how they dressed. Ceremonies involving the death of individuals were described in details.
Pigafetta also described in detail how initial good contacts with one group of natives...
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