Updated 10/26/22
Contemporary Sources
Most of the contemporary writings about the Magellan-Elcano expedition are available online, translated into English and for free. These include the accounts of Antonio Pigafetta and others who survived the voyage and Maximilian of Transylvania, who interviewed survivors. Here are links to many of them. (More coming soon.)
Antonio Pigafetta. Journal of Magellan’s Voyage. The original manuscript, believed to be written in a mixture of Italian and Castilian, has not survived. Four early copies were preserved, three in French and one in Italian. Pigafetta’s account gives us the bulk of what we know of the journey.
A digital copy of one of the French manuscripts is available online at Yale University Library, and at the Library of Congress.
An English translation by James Alexander Robertson (1873-1939) can be found in multiple formats at Gutenberg.com (in two parts). A translation of the Italian manuscript, it places the English next to the original Italian in two columns, paragraph by paragraph.
Another translation, by Henry E. J. Stanley (Lord Stanley of Aderley, 1802-1869) is online at WikiSource.org, one of several texts contained there in the book The First Voyage Around the World. The book also has accounts of other survivors and the letter from Maximilian the Transylvan, who interviewed the survivors. Multiple digital formats are available.
Antonio Pigafetta and other contemporary writers. The First Voyage Round the World. Translated and edited by Lord Stanley of Alderley. From WikiSource.org (multiple formats). This comprehensive collection of contemporary writings about the first circumnavigation was first published in 1876 and includes the key sources from the time. It’s perhaps the single best collection.
• Introduction by Henry Edward John Stanley, translator and editor.
• The Genoese Pilot’s Account of Magellan’s Voyage
• Narrative of the Anonymous Portuguese
• Pigafetta’s Account of Magellan’s Voyage
• Pigafetta’s Treatise of Navigation
• Names of the First Circumnavigators
• Magellan’s Order of the Day in the Straits
• Letter of Maximilian, the Transylvan
• Log-Book of Francisco Alvo or Alvaro
• Account of the “Trinity” and her Crew
• Account of the Mutiny in Port St. Julian; Gaspar Correa’s Account of the Voyage
• Appendix
• Index
(Part 1 of Pigafetta’s journal). Editor: Emma Helen Blair. Translator: James Alexander Robertson. This translation of one of the Italian manuscripts has Italian and English side by side. From Gutenberg.org (multiple formats). Part 2 of the manuscript: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/47927.
Duarte Barbosa, The Book of Duarte Barbosa (Portuguese: Livro de Duarte Barbosa). The Duarte Barbosa travelogue was an imperial guide detailing the riches found along the coasts of East Africa and India and beyond—alongside a callous outlook on Portuguese excesses in ports that refused to recognize the Portuguese king.
Historians originally credited this work to the Duarte Barbosa related to Ferdinand Magellan by marriage, a confidant of Magellan's who played a few big roles in the first circumnavigation and who was killed on Cebu days after Magellan's death at Mactan. But three Duarte Barbosas served the Portuguese in India and East Africa at the time the book was written.
More recent studies show that Barbosa the writer was likely not Magellan’s relation. Studies of the original Portuguese manuscript aim to one of the others. Read more on Duarte Barbosa here.
Several versions of Barbosa’s work exist, including an Italian version by Giovanni Battista Ramusio, a Spanish version, and an original Portuguese version. Historians have suggested that Magellan may have contributed to the book and that it may have been among documents and maps presented to Charles V when Magellan proposed the expedition.
An English translation by Mansel Longworth Dames is available in multiple digital formats at Internet Archive (archive.org): The Book Of Duarte Barbosa Vol. 1 and The Book Of Duarte Barbosa Vol. 2. This version includes an introduction by Dames detailing Duarte Barbosa’s history.
The Ramusio translation of Barbosa’s book was translated into English by Henry E. J. Stanley (Lord Stanley of Aderley, 1802-1869) in 1867. The book is available in multiple digital formats at Gutenberg.org. Stanley’s lengthy introduction includes comment on “the piracies of the Portuguese … told without any reticence, apparently without consciousness of their criminality …”
A DESCRIPTION OF THE COASTS OF EAST AFRICA AND MALABAR IN THE BEGINNING OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY (Ramusio translation)
BY DUARTE BARBOSA, A PORTUGUESE
TRANSLATED BY THE HON. HENRY E. J. STANLEY.
Introduction by Henry Edward John Stanley, translator and editor.
From Gutenberg.com.
The Book Of Duarte Barbosa Vol. 1
by Dames, Mansel Longworth, Tr.
From Internet Archive / Archive.org.
The Book Of Duarte Barbosa Vol. 2
by Dames, Mansel Longworth, Tr.
From Internet Archive / Archive.org.
Editor’s note: Originally published 9/14/22. I will continue to update this page with links and resources.
Maps
• Ptolemy World Map
• Fra Mauro Map
• Cantino Planisphere
• Contarini-Rosseli Map
• Johannes Ruysch World Map
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