Scurvy during Magellan's voyage around the world (1519-1522)

Scurvy during Magellan’s voyage around the world (1519-1522) by Antonio Pigafetta and Harri Hemilä Scurvy broke out during Magellan’s circumnavigation, which is one of the earliest documented episodes of scurvy during long sea voyages. The symptoms of scurvy were recorded by Pigafetti in his account of the voyage. Four versions of the manuscript survive, but none is the original. In addition, several English translations exist, each based on different selections of the manuscripts. This report examines the sections of six English translations that describe the occurrence of scurvy during Magellan’s voyage. Contents Page Biographies of Magellan 4 English translations of the Antonio Pigafetta manuscript Translation by James Alexander Robertson (1906) 6 An edited version of the Robertson (1906) translation: Theodore J. Cachey (2007) 7 An earlier edited version of the Robertson (1906) translation: Charles E. Nowell (1962) 8 Translation by Raleigh Ashlin Skelton (1969) 9 Translation by Henry Stanley (1874) 10 Translation by Richard Eden (1555) 11 Translation by Paula Spurlin Paige (1969) 12 Sections on scurvy in Pigafetta’s manuscript Scurvy in the Robertson’s translation edited by Cachey (2007) 13 Scurvy in the original translation by Robertson (1906) 18 Scurvy in the original translation by Raleigh Ashlin Skelton (1969) 24 Scurvy in the translation by Henry Stanley (1874) 28 Scurvy in the Ambrosian manuscript in Bull NY Acad Med (1967) 30 Scurvy in the translation by Richard Eden (1555) 31 Scurvy on Magellan’s voyage summarized by Guillemard (1891) 32 Background to the translations of Pigafetti’s manuscripts Note on the Text and Translation by Cachey (2007) 34 Preface to Robertson’s translation (1906) 35 Martin Torodash. Magellan Historiography (1971) 38 Introduction to Henry Stanley’s translation (1874) 40 Yellow is used to indicate more important sections such as the symptoms of scurvy. This text is available at: https://doi.org/ 10.5281/zenodo.18001194 2025-12-20 This annotated version was prepared by: Harri Hemilä, University of Helsinki, Finland https://www.mv.helsinki.fi/home/hemila https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4710-307X https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=hemila+h https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=2mkomzUAAAAJ https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17085738 Reports on scurvy uploaded to Zenodo by Hemilä 1 “Antonio Pigafetta,1 a Florentine navigator who went with Magellan on the first voyage around the world, wrote, upon his passage through our southern lands of America, a strictly accurate account that nonetheless resembles a venture into fantasy. In it he recorded that he had seen hogs with navels on their haunches, clawless birds whose hens laid eggs on the backs of their mates, and others still, resembling tongueless pelicans, with beaks like spoons. He wrote of having seen a misbegotten creature with the head and ears of a mule, a camel’s body, the legs of a deer and the whinny of a horse. He described how the first native encountered in Patagonia was confronted with a mirror, whereupon that impassioned giant lost his senses to the terror of his own image…” Gabriel García Márquez 1982 Nobel Prize lecture https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/1982/marquez/lecture William Shakespeare’s use of Pigafetta’s libretto (or ‘little book,’ as the author terms it) in The Tempest is perhaps the best known manifestation of Pigafetta’s literary fame during the Renaissance: Caliban [Aside]: I must obey – his art is of such power, It would control my Dam’s god, Setebos, And make a vassal of him. (1.2. 372–4) And later, Caliban: Oh Setebos, these be brave spirits indeed! How fine my master is! I am afraid He will chastise me. (5.1. 261–3) Shakespeare’s ‘Setebos’ derived from his reading of Richard Eden’s 1555 Tudor English translation of Pigafetta’s narrative. Pigafetta had first introduced the Tuhuelche name into European circulation when he described a pair of Patagonian giants who, upon realizing Magellan had them placed in irons through subterfuge, ‘raged like bulls, calling loudly for Setebos to aid them’ … Theodore J. Cachey 2007, p.x-xi https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.3138/9781442684928.3?seq=2 https://archive.org/details/magellans-voyage-pigafetta/page/n9/mode/2up 1https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonio_Pigafetta Bio-bibliographical Note by Cachey (2007): https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.3138/9781442684928.4 2 The earliest recorded occurrence of scurvy on long sea voyages appears to have been during Vasco da Gama’s first voyage to India (1497-1499).2 Thereafter, large numbers of sailors suffered from the disease throughout the Age of Sail.3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 In the English Navy, the incidence of scurvy declined dramatically at the end of the 1700s when lime and lemon juice were made obligatory to sailors.9, 10 In his authoritative book “The History of Scurvy and Vitamin C”, Kenneth Carpenter (1986; p.4)4 summarized the symptoms of scurvy during Magellan’s voyage as follows: Magellan himself was Portuguese and had gained his experience in Portuguese expeditions, but was then in disgrace at home and had transferred his allegiance to Spain. His five ships left Seville in August 1519. After fifteen continuous weeks at sea, including a stormy navigation of the “Straits of Magellan” and a long journey into the ocean that he named “Pacific,” they were in a desperate state, but “above all other calamities this was the worst: in some men the gums grew over the teeth, both lowers and uppers, so that they could not eat in any way and thus they died of this sickness; nineteen men died and … 25-30 became sick, some in the arms, in the legs or other places, so that few remained healthy.” However, their condition differed from that of the men in da Gama’s expedition, because they were short of any kind of food, and chewing on leather or swallowing sawdust in their desperation. Finally they reached the island of Guam and were able to obtain rice and fruit, on March 9. Ten days later they were in the Philippine Islands, and the sick were put to shore to enjoy exotic fresh foods that included bananas and coconuts. Magellan himself was killed in the following month. 2 Scurvy during Vasco da Gama’s first voyage (1497-1499). https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17781205 https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/46440 3 Lind J (1772) A Treatise on the Scurvy. https://archive.org/details/treatiseonscurvy1772lind/page/n5/mode/2up 4 Kenneth J Carpenter (1986) The History of Scurvy and Vitamin C: The explorers’ sickness; p.1-28. https://www.cambridge.org/fi/universitypress/subjects/history/history-medicine/history-scurvy-and-vitamin-c 5 Scurvy on John Davis’ voyage (1591-1593). https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17884408 6 Scurvy during Richard Hawkins’ voyage (1593). https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18001138 https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/57502 7 Thomas Stephens, S. J., the First Englishman in India. Scurvy on p.238. https://www.jstor.org/stable/607122 p. 8 Scurvy on Anson's voyage round the world (1740-1744). https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17397300 https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/16611 https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/47130 9 Budd G (1840) Scurvy. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17455962 10 Between the years 1779 and 1813, the diminution of sick and of deaths in the British navy was in the proportion of four to one. In 1779, 1:2.45 were sick, and in 1813, 1:10.75 were sick, corresponding to decline by ratio 4.4. Table 1, p.539-540 in: Blane G (1815) Statements of the comparative Health of the British Navy, from the year 1779 to the year 1814. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2129027 3 Biographies of Magellan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferdinand_Magellan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magellan_expedition https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_the_Magellan_expedition https://www.biography.com/history-culture/ferdinand-magellan https://exploration.marinersmuseum.org/subject/ferdinand-magellan/ https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9262276 Magellan Historiography by Torodash (1971) https://doi.org/10.2307/2512478 So Noble a Captain. The Life and Times of Ferdinand Magellan by Parr (1953) https://doi.org/10.2307/2509712 https://www.jstor.org/stable/42720332 “Charles MeKew Parr’s So Noble a Captain is the first full-length biography of Magellan in English to appear since the publication of Guillemard’s, over sixty years ago. It is based on a fresh overhaul of Spanish and Portuguese archives, an examination of all the printed sources, and a study of the best modern secondary works. As a result, Parr presents a life of the famous navigator offering several new interpretations and many original points of view.” 11 “The most noteworthy attempt at a ‘definitive’ biography in English which has been made in recent years is that by Charles McKew Parr whose study, So Noble A Captain (the title is from Pigafetta’s moving eulogy to Magellan), first appeared in 1953. It is perfectly true that Mr. Parr, because he does not conform to the standard practices of academically trained historians, has received a portion of undeserved criticism; undeserved, because his biography is based upon years of study of his subject, careful examination of primary sources in Portugal and Spain, and a command of the necessary languages. However, the historian is hard put to prevent himself from railing at Parr for not providing any documentation whatsoever after having had unparalleled access to archival material.… Nevertheless, after all has been said in criticism, the biography by Parr is probably the best of the genre done in English since Guillemard.” 12 The Life of Ferdinand Magellan and the First Circumnavigation of the Globe by Guillemard (1891) “Guillemard’s own Life [of Ferdinand Magellan], published in 1890, is almost universally regarded by scholars as the best ‘modern’ account and one of the best works in English on the subject of Magellan and the circumnavigation.” 13 https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_h1km40HsV9wC/page/n9/mode/2up https://archive.org/details/cu31924032340402/page/n9/mode/2up https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.181857/page/n9/mode/2up https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.46836/page/n9/mode/2up https://archive.org/details/lifeferdinandma00guilgoog/page/n12/mode/2up https://archive.org/details/lifeofferdinand00guil/page/n7/mode/2up https://archive.org/details/lifeofferdinandm00guil/page/n9/mode/2up https://archive.org/details/lifeofferdinandm00guilrich/page/n9/mode/2up https://archive.org/details/lifeofferdinandm90guil/page/n5/mode/2up https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001876378 https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/100771180 https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/101179805 11 https://doi.org/10.2307/2509712 p.72-73. 12 https://doi.org/10.2307/2512478 p.328. 13 https://doi.org/10.2307/2512478 p.327. 4 Ferdinand Magellan by Charles E Novell (1962), p.39-55. https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=txu.059173001899092&seq=53 https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015008001532&seq=53 https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015008001532&seq=53 Introduction and Life of Magellan by Henry Stanley (1874) https://archive.org/details/firstvoyageround00piga/page/n11/mode/2up https://archive.org/details/magellan-pigafetta-2010/page/n13/mode/2up https://archive.org/details/firstvoyageroun00pigagoog/page/n14/mode/2up https://reader.library.cornell.edu/docviewer/digital?id=sea061#page/19/mode/1up https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/74723 Magellan Historiography by Torodash (1971), p.329. “Most of the other biographies which have been published in England and the United States during this century constitute a sorry lot. The most recent example of this sort of work [by Hawthorne Daniel] was published in 1964 by a major house and was wrapped in a jacket which proclaimed it to be a ‘definitive biography based on material newly discovered… in the ancient archives of Portugal.’ This ‘definitive’ work contains no bibliography and few footnotes, some of which are to encyclopedia articles. Two predecessors of similar low quality were the biographies by [Edward F.] Benson and [Arthur Sturges] Hildebrand. The former is not very well-written – the first half of the book is sheer drudgery to read – and contributes nothing to the subject. The book by Hildebrand, as well as three articles he wrote on Magellan also are stylistically deficient, are not contributions to the subject, and can be dismissed as worthless to serious students.” https://doi.org/10.2307/2512478 The route of the Victoria, which completed the world's first recorded circumnavigation over about 3 years. From Wikipedia. 5 English translations of the Antonio Pigafetta manuscript Translation by James Alexander Robertson14 (1906) [the Ambrosian manuscript] Magellan’s Voyage around the World by Antonio Pigafetta. “Mr. Robertson’s book gives the reader for the first time the true text of Pigafetta, with a sufficiently good working translation, edited and annotated in the fullest manner, and with the Italian text throughout collated with that of the earlier of the two French manuscripts in the Bibliotheque Nationale and the Eden version as published by Arber. Not least in value, too, is the excellent critical bibliography of Pigafetta MSS. and the printed books relating to the voyage.” 15 “Mr. Robertson has carefully transcribed the earliest known manuscript, which is in the Biblioteca Ambrosiana at Milan and is written in Italian, and he has at the same time collated the text with that of the earlier of the two French manuscripts in the Bibliotheque Nationale and with the Eden version. In his notes, which with the bibliography occupy nearly 200 pages, he deals at considerable length with the different readings, and discusses the comments of previous writers on the events of the voyage and the various debatable points of geographical identification, etc.” 16 “As stated, this is the first complete version in English of this relation; and it is, moreover, the most complete and accurate presentation of the Pigafetta manuscript and the data appertaining to it that has ever been made in any language. In the introduction and in his excellent bibliography, Mr. Robertson has brought together the most complete array of data on the subject yet available. He has given the history of the four oldest manuscripts of this relation and extracts from them illustrating the variance of the three French manuscripts (from which the early English versions of Pigafetta were drawn); also an account of the early printed versions of this relation in Italian, French and English, dating back to the first half of the sixteenth century; and has justified his adherence to the manuscript in the Ambrosian Library as, though, in all probability, not the original itself, at least the nearest to it and the manuscript from which the other and more or less altered versions were drawn. The Pigafetta relation has suffered, even more than most such documents, from the ‘editing’ of its various versions; even the Amoretti edition of Pigafetta in Italian and French, taken directly from the Ambrosian manuscript as late as 1800, which has commonly passed as authoritative, has an ‘edited’ and altered text, so that Lord Stanley’s translation for the Hakluyt Society, besides other defects, was thereby vitiated. In the Italian government publications for the Columbus celebration … Andrea da Mosto edited the first complete version of the Ambrosian manuscript, but he altered punctuation, spelling, etc. The editor of this version made the transcript himself at Milan, and took pains to preserve the original in literal form, with all peculiarities of abbreviation, punctuation, etc. This text is presented exactly as copied in the work before us, page for page with the translation into English. In fact, one must repeat the word ‘painstaking’ as the best characterization of the way in which the editor has performed his task; and must add that it was evidently a labor of love and enthusiasm with him. The annotations are most copious, drawing much help from the Mosto edition, and comparing the text passage for passage with the older Paris manuscripts, the Eden version (as published by Arber) and other variant readings. A most elaborately made index accompanies the work…” 17 14 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Alexander_Robertson 15 https://doi.org/10.2307/1776411 p.84. 16 https://www.jstor.org/stable/549586 p.147. 17 https://doi.org/10.2307/1832899 p.126. 6 The Robertson (1906) translation is available: https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001270831 https://archive.org/details/magellansvoyagea01piga/page/n5/mode/2up Vol. 1. Translation. https://archive.org/details/magellansvoyagea02piga/page/n5/mode/2up Vol. 2. Translation and Notes. https://archive.org/details/magellansvoyagea03piga/page/n5/mode/2up Vol. 3: Index. The Robertson translation was originally published in a series of the Philippine islands: The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898, Volume 33, 1519-1522 by Antonio Pigafetta. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Philippine_Islands,_1493%E2%80%931898 https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/42884 https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File%3AThe_Philippine_Islands%2C_1493-1803_(Volume_33).djvu&page=11 Book reviews: https://doi.org/10.2307/1776411 https://doi.org/10.2307/1832899 https://www.jstor.org/stable/549586 An edited version of the Robertson (1906) translation: Theodore J. Cachey (2007) First Voyage Around the World (1519-1522): An Account of Magellan’s Expedition, Antonio Pigafetta. Book available: https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.3138/9781442684928 https://archive.org/details/magellans-voyage-pigafetta/page/n3/mode/2up https://archive.org/details/the-first-voyage-around-the-world-1519-1522-an-account-of-magellans-expedition-a_202506/page/n3/mode/2up Book reviews: https://doi.org/10.1086/598376 https://doi.org/10.1177/084387140802000266 “Although short, Cachey’s introduction is extremely valuable because it puts Pigafetta’s account into its full literary context and carefully defines the kind of book it is and how it compares to the works of other contemporaries… Equally useful is the information in his ‘biobibliographical note’ where Cachey provides an excellent summary of what little is actually known of Pigafetta. This is followed by Cachey’s short but exhaustive treatment of the issue of editions. In these essays Cachey has produced one of the best-introduced age of exploration texts that this reviewer has seen; that he does so briefly is icing on the cake. Cachey clearly has a masterly command of his topic, and it shows. The main text is highly readable and well cross-referenced. Cachey has successfully produced what will surely become the standard edition – I doubt it will be replaced any time soon. His notes are brief, to the point and well done… Thus, Cachey has not only produced his own edition but clearly provides doorways to the rich literature on Magellan’s voyage, its discoveries and the ethnographic detail… In short, Cachey has given us a superb, reliable edition of Pigafetta that can be read profitably by both the beginner and the advanced scholar.” 18 “Although not acknowledged by the editor or publisher, the present edition is a minimally revised reissue of a work released under the same title in 1995… It is therefore surprising and regrettable to find such a great number of editorial problems: errata; incorrect accents and misspellings in nonEnglish words and names; inconsistencies in the names of places and historical figures… and no notes for non-English terms…” 19 18 https://doi.org/10.1177/084387140802000266 19 https://doi.org/10.1086/598376 p.174. 7 An earlier edited version of the Robertson (1906) translation: Charles E. Nowell (1962) Magellan’s Voyages around the World: Three Contemporary Accounts by Antonio Pigafetta, Maximilian of Transylvania, Gaspar Corrêa. “The Pigafetta text, translated by J. A. Robertson, was first published in a 1906 limited ed. That version included some 650 footnotes, deleted in the present work [by Nowell] and replaced by fewer and briefer notes (totaling 118) only where N. felt a crucial need for clarification.” 20 “… another edition will better serve the needs of scholars and others interested in the voyage of Magellan, and at a cost of less than one-tenth of the Yale publication. I refer to the English translation by James A. Robertson of the Ambrosiana Manuscript, edited by Charles E. Nowell…” 21 Book available: https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.31822013755558&seq=9 https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015008001532&seq=9 https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=txu.059173001899092&seq=9 Book reviews: https://doi.org/10.2307/1918974 https://doi.org/10.2307/2511875 https://www.jstor.org/stable/1874652 https://www.jstor.org/stable/30145644 https://www.jstor.org/stable/44941426 20 https://www.jstor.org/stable/44941426 p.431. 21 https://doi.org/10.2307/2512332 p.771-772. https://doi.org/10.1215/00182168-50.4.770 8 Translation by Raleigh Ashlin Skelton 22 (1969) [the Beinecke-Yale manuscript] Magellan’s Voyage. A Narrative Account of the First Circumnavigation by Antonio Pigafetta https://archive.org/details/magellansvoyage0002unse/page/n7/mode/2up https://archive.org/details/magellansvoyagen0000piga/page/n3/mode/2up https://archive.org/details/magellansvoyagen0002piga/page/n7/mode/2up Book reviews: https://doi.org/10.2307/1796192 https://doi.org/10.2307/2512332 https://doi.org/10.2307/363260 https://www.jstor.org/stable/1150470 https://www.jstor.org/stable/564094 https://www.jstor.org/stable/672624 Comments on the translation by Skelton: “One wonders, however, whether a less pretentious and expensive format would not have better served the interest of scholarship. Not many libraries or individuals, even in these affluent times can spare $100 for a fresh document on a great voyage which adds nothing of importance to our knowledge of its history… He admits that the Ambrosian Ms. printed by Robertson [1906] is the oldest and most complete of Pigafetta’s narrative, and that the Beinecke-Yale Ms. is a translation of it, or of another copy thereof, at second hand… In his notes, Skelton adds nothing to Robertson's, and those could easily have been augmented by anyone cognizant of Philippine and Indonesian history. The new editor, however, occasionally differs from the old. For instance, Pigafetta at the end of his touching tribute to the fallen Magellan, writes (Robertson I 176) ‘piu Justamente que homo fosse aL mondo carteaua et nauigaua.’ Robertson translates this correctly… The Yale-Beinecke Ms. (end of chap. xxvii) says baldly (wrongly attaching the comparison to his bearing hunger)… makes an unmerited slur on Robertson’s translation from the Italian, which is correct. Cartear then did not mean to make charts, but to steer by chart and compass; i.e., dead reckoning…” 23 “This is an edition which seems to have been prepared for the delectation of bibliophiles, not scholars… I cannot forbear adding that another edition will better serve the needs of scholars and others interested in the voyage of Magellan, and at a cost of less than one-tenth of the Yale publication. I refer to the English translation by James A. Robertson of the Ambrosiana Manuscript, edited by Charles E. Nowell…” 24 22 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raleigh_Ashlin_Skelton 23 https://doi.org/10.2307/363260 p.325-326, 328. 24 https://doi.org/10.2307/2512332 p.771-772. https://doi.org/10.1215/00182168-50.4.770 9 from which they derive a powder that is useful to them. Under that shell there is a white marrowy substance one finger in thickness, p.31 which they eat fresh with meat and fish as we do bread; and it has a taste resembling the almond, and it could be dried and made into bread. There is a clear, sweet water in the middle of that marrowy substance that is very refreshing, and when that water stands for a while after having been collected, it congeals and becomes like an apple. When the natives wish to make oil, they take that coconut, and allow the marrowy substance and the water to putrefy; then they boil it and it becomes oil like butter. When they wish to make vinegar, they allow only the water to putrefy, and then place it in the sun, and a vinegar results like [that made from] white wine. Milk can also be made from it, for we made some: we scraped that marrowy substance and then mixed the scrapings with its own water, which we strained through a cloth, and so obtained milk like goat’s milk. Those palms resemble date palms, and although not smooth they are less knotty than date palms. A family of ten persons can support itself on two trees, by utilizing one for eight days and then the other for eight days for the wine, for if they did otherwise, the trees would dry up; and they last one hundred years. [53] Those people became very familiar with us; they told us many things, their names and those of some of the islands that could be seen from that place. Their island was called Suluan and it is not very large. We took great pleasure with them, for they were very pleasant and conversable. In order to show them greater honour, the captain-general took them to his ship and showed them all his merchandise: cloves, cinnamon, pepper, ginger, nutmeg, mace, gold, and all the things in the ship. He had some mortars fired for them, which greatly frightened them, and they tried to jump out of the ship. They made signs to us that the articles just mentioned grew in that place where we were going. When they were about to retire they took their leave very gracefully and neatly, saying that they would return according to their promise. The island where we were is called Homonhon; but since we found two springs there of the clearest water, we called it ‘the watering-place of good signs,’ for there were the first signs of gold, which we found in those districts. We found a great quantity of white coral there, and large trees with fruit a trifle smaller than the almond and resembling pine seeds, and also many palms, some of them good and others bad. There are many p.32 islands in that district, and therefore we called them ‘the Archipelago of San Lazaro,’ as they were discovered on the Sunday of St Lazurus; they lie in ten degrees of latitude toward the Arctic Pole, and in a longitude of 161 degrees from the line of demarcation. 16 [54] At noon on Friday, 22 March, those men came as they had promised us in two boats with coconuts, sweet oranges, a jar of palm wine, and a cock, in order to show us that there were fowls in that district. They exhibited great signs of pleasure at seeing us; we purchased all those articles from them. Their lord was an old man who was tattooed, and he wore two gold earrings in his ears, and the others many gold armlets on their arms and kerchiefs about their heads. We stayed there eight days, and during that time our captain went ashore daily to visit the sick, and every morning gave them coconut water39 from his own hand, which comforted them greatly. There are people living near that island who have holes in their ears so large that they can carry their arms in them. Those people are Kaffirs, that is to say, heathen; they go naked, with a cloth woven from the bark of a tree about their private parts, except some of the chiefs who wear cotton cloth embroidered with silk at the ends by means of a needle. They are olive skinned, fat, and tattooed, and they anoint themselves with coconut and with beneseed oil as a protection against sun and wind; they have very black hair that falls to the waist, and they use daggers, knives, and spears ornamented with gold, large shields, focine, javelins, and fishing nets that resemble rizali. Their boats are like ours. [55] On the afternoon of Holy Monday, the day of our Lady, 25 March [Feast of the Annunciation], while we were on the point of weighing anchor, I went to the side of the ship to fish, and, putting my feet upon a yard leading down into the storeroom, they slipped, for it was rainy, and consequently I fell into the sea, so that no one saw me, and when I was all but under, my left hand happened to catch hold of the clew garnet of the mainsail, which was dangling in the water. I held on tightly, and began to cry out so lustily that the small boat came to rescue me. I was aided, not, I believe, indeed, through my merits, but through the mercy of that font of charity [the Virgin]. That same day we shaped our course p.33 toward the west-south-west between four small islands, namely, Cenalo, Hiunanghan, Ibusson, and Abarien. 39 According to the USDA (2025-12-18), vitamin C concentration of coconut water is 9.9 mg/100 ml. https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/food-details/174831/nutrients 17 Scurvy in the original translation by Robertson (1906) https://archive.org/details/magellansvoyagea01piga/page/82/mode/2up https://www.gutenberg.org/files/42884/42884-h/42884-h.htm#r168 … That giant whom we had in our ship told me those p.79 words; for when he, upon asking me for capac, that is to say, bread, as they call that root which they p.83 use as bread, and oli, that is to say, water, saw me write those words quickly, and afterward when I, with pen in hand, asked him for other words, he understood me. Once I made the sign of the cross, and, showing it to him, kissed it. He immediately cried out “Setebos,” and made me a sign that if I made the sign of the cross again, Setebos would enter into my body and cause it to burst. When that giant was sick, he asked for the cross, and embracing it and kissing it many times, desired to become a Christian before his death. We called him Paulo. When those people wish to make a fire, they rub a sharpened piece of wood against another piece until the fire catches in the pith of a certain tree, which is placed between those two sticks. Wednesday, November 28, 1520, we debouched p.83 from that strait, engulfing ourselves in the Pacific Sea. We were three months and twenty days without getting any kind of fresh food. We ate biscuit, which was no longer biscuit, but powder of biscuits swarming with worms, for they had eaten the good. It stank strongly of the urine of rats. We drank yellow water that had been putrid for many days. We also ate some ox hides that covered the top of the mainyard to prevent the yard from chafing the shrouds, and which had become exceedingly hard because of the sun, rain, and wind. We left them in the sea for four or five days, and then placed them for a few moments on top of the embers, and so ate them; and often we ate sawdust from boards. Rats were sold for one-half ducado apiece, and even then we could not get them. But above all the other misfortunes the following was the worst. The gums p.85 of both the lower and upper teeth of some of our men swelled, so that they could not eat under any 18 circumstances and therefore died.40 Nineteen men died from that sickness, and the giant together with an Indian from the country of Verzin. Twenty-five or thirty men fell sick [during that time], in the arms, legs, or in another place, so that but few remained well. However, I, by the grace of God, suffered no sickness. We sailed about four thousand leguas during those three months and twenty days through an open stretch in that Pacific Sea. In truth it is very pacific, for during that time we did not suffer any storm. We saw no land except two desert islets, where we found nothing but birds and trees, for which we called them the Ysolle Infortunate [i.e., the Unfortunate Isles]. They are two hundred leguas apart. We found no anchorage, [but] near them saw many sharks. The first islet lies in fifteen degrees of south latitude, and the other in nine. Daily we made runs of fifty, sixty, or seventy leguas at the catena or at the stern. Had not God and His blessed mother given us so good weather we would all have died of hunger in that exceeding vast sea. Of a verity I believe no such voyage will ever be made [again]. When we left that strait, if we had sailed continuously westward we would have circumnavigated the world without finding other land than the cape of the xi thousand [10000] Virgins. The latter is a cape of that strait at the Ocean Sea, straight east and west with Cape Deseado of the Pacific Sea. Both of those capes lie in a latitude of exactly fifty-two degrees toward the Antarctic Pole. … About seventy leguas on the above course, and p.91 lying in twelve degrees of latitude and 146 in longitude, we discovered on Wednesday, March 6, a small island to the northwest, and two others toward the southwest, one of which was higher and larger than the other two. The captain-general wished to stop at the large island and get some fresh food, but he was unable to do so because the inhabitants of that island entered the ships and stole whatever they could lay their hands on, so that we could not pro40 Note by Robertson: “This was the scurvy. Navarrete (iv, p. 54) following a document conserved in Archivo general de Indias, says that only eleven men died of scurvy during the voyage from the strait to the Ladrones.” 19 tect ourselves. The men were about to strike the sails so that we could go ashore, but the natives very deftly stole from us the small boat that was fastened to the poop of the flagship. Thereupon, the captain-general in wrath went ashore with forty armed men, who burned some forty or fifty houses together with many boats, and killed seven men. He recovered the small boat, and we departed immediately pursuing the same course. Before we landed, some of our sick men begged us if we should kill any man or woman to bring the entrails to them, as they would recover immediately. … On Monday afternoon, March 18, we p.99 saw a boat coming toward us with nine men in it. Therefore, the captain-general ordered that no one should move or say a word without his permission. When those men reached the shore, their chief went immediately to the captain-general, giving signs of joy because of our arrival. Five of the most ornately adorned of them remained with us, while the rest went to get some others who were fishing, and so they all came. The captain-general seeing that they were reasonable men, ordered food to be set before them, and gave them red caps, mirrors, combs, bells, ivory, bocasine, and other things. When they saw the captain’s courtesy, they presented fish, a jar of palm wine, which they call uraca [i.e., arrack], figs more than one palmo long [i.e., bananas], and others which were smaller and more delicate, and two cocoanuts. They had nothing else then, but made us signs with their hands that they would bring umay or rice, and cocoanuts and many other articles of food within four days. Cocoanuts are the fruit of the palmtree. Just p.101 as we have bread, wine, oil, and milk, so those people get everything from that tree. They get wine in the following manner. They bore a hole into the heart of the said palm at the top called palmito [i.e., stalk], from which distils a liquor which resembles white must. That liquor is sweet but somewhat tart, and [is gathered] in canes [of bamboo] as thick as the leg and thicker. They fasten the bamboo to 20 the tree at evening for the morning, and in the morning for the evening. That palm bears a fruit, namely, the cocoanut, which is as large as the head or thereabouts. Its outside husk is green and thicker than two fingers. Certain filaments are found in that husk, whence is made cord for binding together their boats. Under that husk there is a hard shell, much thicker than the shell of the walnut, which they burn and make therefrom a powder that is useful to them. Under that shell there is a white marrowy substance one finger in thickness, which they eat fresh with meat and fish as we do bread; and it has a taste resembling the almond. It could be dried and made into bread. There is a clear, sweet water in the middle of that marrowy substance which is very refreshing. When that water stands for a while after having been collected, it congeals and becomes like an apple. When the natives wish to make oil, they take that cocoanut, and allow the marrowy substance and the water to putrefy. Then they boil it and it becomes oil like butter. When they wish to make vinegar, they allow only the water to putrefy, and then place it in the sun, and a vinegar results like [that made from] white wine. Milk can also be made from it for we made some. p.103 We scraped that marrowy substance and then mixed the scrapings with its own water which we strained through a cloth, and so obtained milk like goat’s milk. Those palms resemble date-palms, but although not smooth they are less knotty than the latter. A family of x [10] persons can be supported on two trees, by utilizing them week about for the wine; for if they did otherwise, the trees would dry up. They last a century. Those people became very familiar with us. They told us many things, their names and those of some of the islands that could be seen from that place. Their own island was called Zuluan and it is not very large. We took great pleasure with them, for they were very pleasant and conversable. In order to show them greater honor, the captain-general took them to his ship and showed them all his merchandise – cloyes, cinnamon, pepper, ginger, 21 nutmeg, mace, gold, and all the things in the ship. He had some mortars fired for them, whereat they exhibited great fear, and tried to jump out of the ship. They made signs to us that the abovesaid articles grew in that place where we were going. When they were about to retire they took their leave very gracefully and neatly, saying that they would return according to their promise. The island where we were is called Humunu; but inasmuch as we found two springs there of the clearest water, we called it Acquada da li buoni Segnialli [i.e., “the Watering-place of good Signs”], for there were the first signs of gold which we found in those districts. We found a great quantity of white coral there, and p.105 large trees with fruit a trifle smaller than the almond and resembling pine seeds. There are also many palms, some of them good and others bad. There are many islands in that district, and therefore we called them the archipelago of San Lazaro, as they were discovered on the Sabbath of St. Lazurus. They lie in x degrees of latitude toward the Arctic Pole, and in a longitude of one hundred and sixty-one degrees from the line of demarcation. At noon on Friday, March 22, those men came as they had promised us in two boats with cocoanuts, sweet oranges, a jar of palm-wine, and a cock, in order to show us that there were fowls in that district. They exhibited great signs of pleasure at seeing us. We purchased all those articles from them. Their seignior was an old man who was painted [i.e., tattooed]. He wore two gold earrings [schione] in his ears, and the others many gold armlets on their arms and kerchiefs about their heads. We stayed there one week, and during that time our captain went ashore daily to visit the sick, and every morning gave them cocoanut water from his own hand, which comforted them greatly. There are people living near that island who have holes in their ears so large that they can pass their arms through them. Those people are caphri, that is to say, heathen. They go naked, with a cloth woven from the bark of a tree about their privies, except some of the chiefs who wear cotton cloth embroidered 22 with silk at the ends by means of a needle. They are dark, fat, and painted. They anoint themselves with cocoanut and with beneseed oil, as a protection against sun and wind. They have very black hair p.109 that falls to the waist, and use daggers, knives, and spears ornamented with gold, large shields, fascines, javelins, and fishing nets that resemble rizali; and their boats are like ours. On the afternoon of holy Monday, the day of our Lady, March twenty-five, while we were on the point of weighing anchor, I went to the side of the ship to fish, and putting my feet upon a yard leading down into the storeroom, they slipped, for it was rainy, and consequently I fell into the sea, so that no one saw me. When I was all but under, my left hand happened to catch hold of the clew-garnet of the mainsail, which was dangling [ascosa] in the water. I held on tightly, and began to cry out so lustily that I was rescued by the small boat. I was aided, not, I believe, indeed, through my merits, but through the mercy of that font of charity [i.e., of the Virgin]. That same day we shaped our course toward the west southwest between four small islands, namely, Cenalo, Hiunanghan, Ibusson, and Abarien. 23 Scurvy in the translation by Raleigh Ashlin Skelton (1969) These words were spoken to me by that giant whom we had in the p.55 ship. For when he, asking me for Capac, that is bread (for so they call the root which they use for bread), and Oli that is water, saw me write down these names and afterward when I asked him for others, pen in hand, he understood me. Another time I made the sign of the cross, and kissed the cross, showing it to him. But at once he cried out Setebos, and he made signs to me that, if I made the sign of the cross again, it would enter my stomach and cause me to burst. When this giant was sick, he asked for the cross, and embraced and kissed it often. And he wished to become a Christian before his death. And we named him Paul. When those people wish to make a fire, they take a pointed stick which they rub against another, until they cause fire to catch between these two sticks in the pith of a tree which is like cotton. The captain in the Pacific Sea. The troubles which he and his men suffered there. Of the malady in their gums. Of the dead and the sick men. Of the Isles of Misfortune, and in what degree they lie. CHAPTER XII On Wednesday the twenty-eighth of November, one thousand five p.57 hundred and twenty, we issued forth from the said strait and entered the Pacific Sea, where we remained three months and twenty days without taking on board provisions or any other refreshments, and we ate only old biscuit turned to powder, all full of worms and stinking of the urine which the rats had made on it, having eaten the good. And we drank water impure and yellow. We ate also ox hides which were very hard because of the sun, rain, and wind. And we left them four or five days in the sea, then laid them for a short time on embers, and so we ate them. And of the rats, which were sold for half an écu apiece, some of us could not get enough. Besides the aforesaid troubles, this malady was the worst, namely that the gums of most part of our men swelled above and below so that they could not eat.41 And in this way they died, inasmuch as twenty-nine of us died, and the other giant died, and an Indian of the said country of Verzin. But besides those who died, twenty-five or thirty fell sick of divers maladies, whether of the arms or of the legs and other parts of the body, so that there remained very few healthy men. Yet by the grace of our Lord I had no illness. During these three months and twenty days, we sailed in a gulf where we made a good four thousand leagues across the Pacific Sea, which was rightly so named. For during this time we had no storm, and 41 Skeltons note: This was scurvy. The official list of deaths recorded only seven between Straight and the Ladrones. 24 we saw no land except two small uninhabited islands, where we found only birds and trees. Wherefore we called them the Isles of Misfortune. And they are two hundred leagues distant one from another. And there is no place for anchoring because no bottom can be found. And we saw there a very large kind of fish which they call Tiburoni. The first island is in fifteen degrees of latitude going by the south wind, and the other island is in nine degrees. By this wind we made each day fifty or sixty leagues or more, sometimes at the stern, at others at the windward side, or otherwise. And if our Lord and the Virgin Mother had not aided us by giving good weather to refresh ourselves with provisions and other things we had died in this very great sea. And I believe that nevermore will any man undertake to make such a voyage. … After sailing sixty leagues on the aforesaid course, and being in twelve p.60 degrees of latitude and one hundred and forty-six of longitude, on Wednesday the sixth of March we discovered a small island to the northwest, and two others toward the southwest. One of these islands was larger and higher than the other two. And the captain-general wished to approach the largest of these three islands to replenish his provisions. But it was not possible, for the people of those islands entered the ships and robbed us so that we could not protect ourselves from them. And when we wished to strike and take in the sails so as to land, they stole very quickly the small boat called a skiff which was fastened to the poop of the captain’s ship. At which he, being very angry, went ashore with forty armed men. And burning some forty or fifty houses with several boats and killing seven men of the said island, they recovered their skiff. The Captain’s sick men ask for the entrails of the enemy dead. The said enemies follow the Captain. Of the men and women, and manners of those people. Of their houses and accoutrements. Of their sports and boats. CHAPTER XV Soon after, we left, taking the same course. And before we landed several of our sick men had begged us, if we killed man or woman, to bring them their entrails. For immediately they would be healed. And know that whenever we wounded any of those people with a shaft which entered their body, they looked at it and then marvelously drew it out, and so died forthwith. Soon we left the said island going on our way. And when those people saw that we were departing they followed us for a league in one hundred boats or more and came near our ships, showing us fish and making signs that they wished to give it to us. But they threw stones, then fled away, and in their flight they passed between the boat towed astern and the ship in full sail. But this was done so nimbly and 25 Scurvy on Magellan’s voyage summarized by Guillemard (1891), p.220-222. https://archive.org/details/lifeofferdinandm00guil/page/220/mode/2up Leaving Shark Island on the 4th February, a steady N.W. course was held. The disappointment felt at not being able to obtain provisions was great, for the condition of the majority of those in the fleet was now most pitiable. The rations were reduced to the smallest limits. “Such a dearth of bread and water was there,” writes Gomara, “that they ate by ounces, and held their noses as they drank the water for the stench of it.” The Italian historian [Pigafetta] gives a still more vivid account of their sufferings. “We ate biscuit, but in truth it was biscuit no longer, but a powder full of worms, for the worms had devoured its whole substance, and in addition it was stinking with the urine of rats. So great was the want of food that we were forced to eat the hides with which the main yard was covered to prevent the chafing against the rigging. These hides, exposed to the sun and rain and wind, had become so hard, that we were obliged first to soften them by putting them overboard for four or five days, after which we put them on the embers and ate them thus. We had also to make use of sawdust for food, and rats became such a delicacy that we paid half a ducat apiece for them.” The result of such privations may be easily imagined. Scurvy broke out, and broke out in its worst form. The sufferings of the invalids were aggravated by the lack of any reserve of suitable food for them, and many died.44 Others suffered greatly from pains in the arms and legs. Few were altogether well, but Pigafetta was one of them, “I ought to thank God,” he says, “for not having had the slightest illness during the whole of the period.” 44 Guillemard’s note: According to Herrera twenty men perished, but a consultation of the official “List of deaths” reveals the fact that only seven were recorded between the departure from the straits and the arrival of the fleet at the Ladrone Islands. Vide Medina, i. p. 173. 32 Background to the translations of Pigafetti’s manuscripts. Introduction by Cachey (2007): https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.3138/9781442684928.3 Bio-bibliographical Note by Cachey (2007): https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.3138/9781442684928.4 Bibliography of Pigafetta Manuscripts and Printed Books by Robertson (1906), see: https://archive.org/details/magellansvoyagea02piga/page/240/mode/2up p.241-313. Introduction by Nowell (1962) https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.31822013755558&seq=17 https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015008001532&seq=17 https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=txu.059173001899092&seq=17 “Nowell has provided an excellent introduction of more than seventy pages, parenthetically corrects some of Pigafetta's errors, and contributes an Afterword.” 45 45 https://doi.org/10.2307/2512478 p.326. 33 Note on the Text and Translation by Cachey (2007), p.lvii-lviii https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.3138/9781442684928.5 https://archive.org/details/magellans-voyage-pigafetta/page/n57/mode/2up This edition is based on the recent authoritative Italian edition of the Ambrosiana manuscript prepared by Andrea Canova (Padua: Antenore: 1999). The paragraphing and the spacing between the paragraphs follow those of the Ambrosiana manuscript. The numbering of the paragraphs was an innovation introduced by Mariarosa Masoero in her edition of the text (Rovereto: Longo, 1987), which was followed by Mario Pozzi in his facsimile edition of the Ambrosiana manuscript (Vicenza: Neri Pozza, 1995). This presentation and paragraph numbering of the text has been adopted here. In addition, we have utilized the numbering of the periods introduced by Canova, and it is to these that the references in the notes refer. The twentythree maps are included in the edition at the appropriate place, that is, at the point where they appear in the Ambrosiana manuscript. All bracketed material, in the text and accompanying the maps, are interpolations of the editor. The classic Robertson translation (Cleveland: Arthur H. Clark, 1906) has been thoroughly revised for this edition. Besides the general updating which has been effected by revising the translation against the most currently authoritative text of the original, numerous and in some cases crucial errors of the Robertson translation have been corrected. For example, quite inexplicably, Robertson has translated Pigafetta’s nationality as ‘Venetian’ instead of ‘of Vicenza’ at the works very outset. Another example is the expression in the work’s final paragraph where according to Robertson’s rendering Pigafetta reports his return to Italy ‘where I established my permanent abode’. This was an unfortunate and misleading interpolation based upon the translator’s misunderstanding of the original… The translation has been revised for both style, content, and occasionally for interpretation, as when in Pigafetta’s eulogy to Magellan, the word fortuna, meaning ‘tempest’ or ‘fortune,’ is taken in its more literal sense by the present editor. Contrary to Robertson’s practice, place names, including the many toponyms for the Philippines and Moluccas as well as proper names, when clearly identifiable, have been rendered with their modern equivalents. The Robertson translation’s principal virtue, however, has been maintained, that is, its accurate portrayal of Pigafetta’s prose style, achieved primarily through a highly literal rendering… 34 PREFACE to Robertson’s translation (1906) https://archive.org/details/magellansvoyagea01piga/page/n17/mode/2up Of all the accounts of the first circumnavigation, by far the most important is that of the Venetian, Antonio Pigafetta, who accompanied Fernào Magalhàes, the greatest navigator, perhaps, of the modern age, on the expedition that disclosed secrets that had been so long hidden from man. Pigafetta’s account is not only the most valuable and authentic of the few contemporary and early relations of the famous voyage, but is also the only source of information for many details of that voyage. Probably no other historical document is more universally accepted by students as the final authority regarding the actual events with which it deals. Pigafetta’s account is herewith presented for the first time in complete form. The value and interest of the relation are evident by its various manuscript versions, and were recognized by its publication in condensed form in both French and Italian during the first quarter-century after the return of the “Victoria” to Spain, and in English as early as 1555. These publications, however, are very unsatisfactory, for much of great value to the modern historical student has been hurriedly slurred over, or entirely omitted. At the dawn of the nineteenth century, Dr. Carlo Amoretti, prefect of the Biblioteca Ambrosiana, at Milan, Italy, recognizing to a slight degree the value of the original manuscript which he discovered among the treasures entrusted to his care, published the relation in both Italian and French, but committed the sin of editing the precious document, almost beyond recognition in places. In the latter half of the same century, Lord Stanley of Alderley translated and edited the relation for the Hakluyt Society; but, unfortunately, in his translation he omitted passages of importance to ethnologists, and in addition, relied for his text, not on the original Italian, but in part on the older of the two French manuscripts of the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, and in part on Amoretti’s garbled publication. Consequently, Stanley’s, as well as Amoretti’s edition, is unsatisfactory to students who prize accuracy. The text of the Italian manuscript, 35 edited by Andrea da Mosto (part v, voi. iii, of Raccolta di documenti e studi, published by the Italian government – Rome, 1894 – in honor of the fourth centenary of the discovery of America) has proved, all things considered, the most useful edition of Pigafetta’s relation hitherto given to the public. Its usefulness is limited, however, as it is available to only Italian readers. Mosto’s transcript, although in general tolerably faithful, contains a few errors and some serious blemishes from the standpoint of historical accuracy, such as the spelling out of all abbreviations, the rendering of the frequently occurring Spanish abbreviation “q” (for “que”) by the Italian “che,” and the arbitrary insertion of punctuation not in the original. The present edition first gives the English reader access to a translation of the true text of Pigafetta, edited and extensively annotated. This, together with the original Italian of Pigafetta, places before the student abundant material, both for a study of the relation itself and of the wonderful voyage. The transcript of the Italian manuscript (the oldest and most complete of the four existing manuscripts) which is conserved in the Biblioteca Ambrosiana, Milan, was made personally by the editor, who enjoyed in that library full privileges for the work of transcription and reference. In the printing, great care has been taken to represent correctly the many peculiar characters and abbreviations occurring in the old Italian, and for this purpose many special characters have been designed and type specially cast. The peculiarities of the manuscript have been carefully preserved, even to the spacing, except that paragraphs in the original have a hanging indention, and the punctuation at the end of paragraphs is usually a dash or a series of dashes and dots. Throughout the document, the Italian text has been collated with the text of the earlier of the two French manuscripts of the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, and with the Eden version, as published by Arber, and all the variant readings are incorporated in the notes. The annotations have been made very extensive, and include not only a large amount of original matter gathered from the best sources, 36 but also the most valuable comments of the various editors of former editions of the relation. Mosto’s edition, mentioned above, has been of especial assistance in elucidating many matters. The bibliography is as complete as possible at the present time; in its preparation, the editor has had the advantage of personal assistance from librarians of many great libraries, public and private, both in Europe and America, where rare Pigafetta manuscripts or books are conserved. He would call especial attention to the fact that more complete and definite details are presented of the four existing manuscripts than has yet appeared anywhere, especially of the Nancy Manuscript. An exhaustive analytical index has been added, which has been carefully prepared to meet the requirements of modern historical research. Pigafetta’s numerous charts were photographed especially for this work from the original manuscript: of other illustrations only those of distinct historical value have been admitted. Pigafetta’s account, as here published, was prepared for issue in Blair and Robertson’s The Philippine Islands: 1493-1898.46 The decision of the publishers a few months since to limit the edition of The Philippine Islands: 1493-1898 to about one-half the edition originally announced, and the fact that more than half of the sets issued are permanently located in the large European and other foreign libraries, has led many scholars, and some librarians, to urge the editors and publishers to make this work more widely accessible to students. In response to this demand the present small separate edition is published. … Madison, Wisconsin, October, 1905. J. A. R. 46 The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898, Volume 33, 1519-1522 by Antonio Pigafetta. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Philippine_Islands,_1493%E2%80%931898 https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/42884 https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File%3AThe_Philippine_Islands%2C_14931803_(Volume_33).djvu&page=11 37 Martin Torodash. Magellan Historiography (1971) The Hispanic American Historical Review, 51(2), 313–335. https://doi.org/10.2307/2512478 [p.323] The Relation of Antonio Pigafetta is considered to be the single most important source of our knowledge of the circumnavigation. Penrose wrote that “as the first-hand narration of one of history’s three greatest voyages, Pigafetta’s book rivals Columbus’s Journal and da Gama’s Roteiro.” It is as nearly definitive–and is almost universally accepted as such–as any historical document about the actual events of the voyage. Indeed, it is the only source of information for many of the details although it is very weak on navigational aspects of the voyage, on the mutiny which took place at San Julian Bay, and never even mentions del Cano toward whom Pigafetta obviously bore an animadversion. [p.324] If it were not for the notes which he made almost daily for his Relation the only role of any importance which Pigafetta may be said to have filled on the voyage was that of an occasional emissary to native kings and chieftains. He was a young gentleman of Vicenza who sailed with Magellan as a sobresaliente (supernumerary) and thus had plenty of time, a good ear (the native vocabularies contain words which are recognizable today), an inquisitive mind, and a larger than usual thirst for immortality which prompted him to write about everything he saw or heard of on the voyage for the benefit of posterity. Four manuscripts of the Relation, none of which is the original, are extant. Two French versions are conserved at the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris. The older and longer of the two Paris manuscripts, Ms. No. 5,650, has 114 folio leaves, was roughly executed, and is replete with erasures. An edition, collating this manuscript with the other three, was published in 1923. The second Bibliotheque Nationale manuscript, No. 24,224, probably was copied from Ms. No. 5,650. It has 103 folio leaves, is illuminated on vellum, and is a considerably abridged and more chaste version. Lord Stanley occasionally utilized it, but it is useless to the serious scholar. The third French version, the Nancy Ms., now more properly known as the Nancy-LibriPhilipps-Beinecke-Yale Ms., was originally found in the Convent of St. Leopold at Nancy about 1840. It is now conserved at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library of Yale University whose Press published an English translation by R. A. Skelton together with a beautiful facsimile volume in 1969. The translation, the first in English from any of the French manuscripts, is excellent. This manuscript is divided into forty-eight chapters, each preceded by a summary, and is collated with Ms. 5,650, Ms. 24,224, and the Ambrosiana Ms. It contains some details which are [p.325] not in the Ambrosiana Ms., although the latter contains material missing from the Nancy-Beinecke Ms. The fourth manuscript is known as the Ambrosiana Ms. from its place of conservation in the Biblioteca Ambrosiana at Milan. This Italian version is probably the oldest of the surviving texts. It was published in what may charitably be termed garbled form by Carlo Amoretti at Milan in 1800 and in a French version soon after. Unfortunately, Lord Stanley 38 utilized the Amoretti version for his English translation for the Hakluyt Society47 in 1874, and this is the edition which has been before the English-reading public for years.48, 49 The Ambrosiana manuscript was given a respectable translation into modem Italian by Andrea da Mosto in 1894. It is to this edition by da Mosto that we are indebted for one of the triumphs of American scholarship, the translation by Robertson.50 The Robertson translation is collated with the two Paris manuscripts (he never saw the Nancy Ms.), and is very extensively annotated. All of the variant readings are incorporated in the notes (of which there are 650). It contains full and complete bibliographical discussions and descriptions of all manuscripts and editions known at that date and is replete with information and tables from other primary sources and collections such as Navarrete’s. The Robertson translation, a paradigm of modem bibliographical and historical scholarship, appeared in a limited edition of only 350 copies with the English translation accompanied by the original Ambrosiana manuscript on facing pages. It is rarely available to researchers today; this writer fortuitously discovered a set on the shelves of a rare book dealer a few years ago. However, scholars [p.326] are singularly fortunate in that Northwestern University Press decided to publish a reasonably priced, well-edited version of the Robertson translation by Charles E. Nowell.51 This volume contains the complete translation by Robertson, albeit without his 650 footnotes and without the eighty-two page index (which constitutes the third volume of the Robertson translation). Nowell has provided an excellent introduction of more than seventy pages, parenthetically corrects some of Pigafetta’s errors, and contributes an Afterword. A fine contribution by a distinguished scholar. 47 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hakluyt_Society https://www.hakluyt.com 48 Note by Torodash (1971): “Stanley, First Voyage, pp. 35-163. The material from page 35 until the end of the first sentence on page 94 is from Ms. 5650; what follows is from the Amoretti edition. Stanley also utilized Ms. 24,224 when his Victorian sensibilities were offended by the less chaste versions in the other Mss.” https://doi.org/10.2307/2512478 Footnote 45, p.325. 49 https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/74723 50 https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/42884 51 https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.31822013755558&seq=9 https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015008001532&seq=9 https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=txu.059173001899092&seq=9 39 INTRODUCTION to Henry Stanley’s translation (1874) https://archive.org/details/firstvoyageround00piga/page/n25/mode/2up [p.xv] Magellan has not had the good fortune of Vasco da Gama, whose exploits have been narrated by Camoens and Gaspar Correa; he did not survive to give his own account of his great voyage, and the only accounts preserved were written by two Italians of very small literary capacity. There are, however, more documents concerning Magellan in existence than are to be found with respect to Gama. https://archive.org/details/firstvoyageround00piga/page/n61/mode/2up [p.l] This volume contains six contemporary accounts of Magellan’s voyage for the circumnavigation of the globe: one was written by a Genoese pilot of the fleet; the second by a Portuguese companion of Duarte Barbosa, which has been preserved by Ramusio; the third by Antonio Pigafetta of Vicenza; and the fourth is a letter of Maximilian Transylvanus, a Secretary of the Emperor Charles V; the fifth a log book of a pilot named Francisco Albo or Alvaro; the sixth is taken from Gaspar Correa’s Lendas da India. Of Pigafetta’s account, four manuscripts are known, three of them are in French, and one in Italian. Two of the French manuscripts are in the Bibliothèque Impériale of Paris; one of these, numbered [p.li] 5,650, is on paper; the other, numbered 68, of the Lavallière collection, is on vellum, and is richly illuminated; it does not contain the Brazilian and Patagonian vocabularies given in No. 5,650, and some rather indecent details are omitted or softened down, which leads to the conclusion that this copy was the one presented by Pigafetta to the Regent, Louise of Savoy. The third French manuscript, and the most complete, was in the possession of M. Beaupré of Nancy till 1855, it then passed into the Solar collection, and in 1861 was sold for 1,650 francs to a London book-seller, and, later, was bought by Sir Thomas Phillipps at Libri’s sale. M. Rd. Thomassy published a memoir in the Bulletin de la Société de Géographie of Paris, September 1843, in which he examines the question whether Pigafetta composed his account of his voyage in French. He has come to a conclusion (which M. Ferdinand Denis has also adopted) in favour of the French manuscript having been originally composed by Pigafetta,52 and not translated from the Italian, on the grounds of its being addressed to the grand master of Rhodes, Villiers de l’Ile-Adam, who was himself a Frenchman, and that Pigafetta had recently been made a Knight of Rhodes; and that Pigafetta used the French language for the device which he set up over his paternal house in the street of la Luna in Vicenza, “Il n’y a pas de roses sans épines”; that other Italians of the time had written in French; that the Italian MS. of the Ambrosian Library of Milan, published in 1800 by Amoretti, is in bad Italian, mixed with Venetian and [p.lii] Spanish, so that M. Amoretti saw in it rather a copy than the original of the relation presented to the Pope or to the Grand 52 Martin Torodash (1971) “As to the language in which Pigafetta wrote, Harrisse, The Discovery of North America, stated that ‘it is unquestionable that Pigafetta’s account was originally written in the French language,’ p. 438n. As can be imagined, others differ. The argument may be said to have begun with Raymond Thomassy, ‘La relation du premier voyage autour du monde a-t-elle ete composee en francais par Antoine Pigaphete, compagnon de la navigation de Magellan?’ Bulletin de la Societe de geographic (Paris), 2e serie, XX: 117 (Septembre 1843), 165-183. It continues, unprofitably, to the present day.” https://doi.org/10.2307/2512478 p.326n. 40 Master; these defects M. Amoretti removed by translating them into good Italian: also that the French edition of Fabre, though stated to be a translation from the Italian, was used in 1536 to publish an Italian edition; whereas if an Italian edition had existed before, that of Fabre would not have been required. Fabre’s edition, moreover, is very imperfect; and he puts what Pigafetta says in the third person. M. Thomassy concludes, therefore, that the version of Fabre was made from some Italian resumé. In addition to the motives urged by M. Thomassy for believing that Pigafetta himself composed the French manuscripts, there is evidence of it in the phraseology of the MSS.; had these been translations from the Italian, every word would have been translated into French, whereas, instead of that, we find a great many Italian words used, especially in the vocabularies, also some Italian idioms. It was natural that Pigafetta, if he had not the French word at command, should write down an Italian one, such as “calcagno” for “talon”. For the same reason, I should be inclined to believe that the Ambrosian MS., with its mixture of Spanish words, was composed by Pigafetta himself, in whom such a mixture of words would be more natural after so long a voyage in a Spanish ship, than in an Italian scribe. That Pigafetta did compose a work in Italian appears [p.liii] from a document in the archives of Venice, containing a petition of Pigafetta to the Doge and Council of Venice, dated August 5th, 1524, applying for leave to print his account of his circumnavigation of the globe, and to have a privilege for twenty years. This is followed by a statement that the prayer of the petition was granted by the Doge and 152 of the Council, six members of which voted against Pigafetta. The text of this document is given in the Appendix; it was communicated to me by the Geographical Society of Paris, which has published a translation of it in its bulletin of February 1869. Until M. Amoretti published his edition of Pigafetta from the Ambrosian MS. in 1800, there never was a complete or an original Italian edition of Pigafetta; for the quarto edition of 1536 (Grenville, 6,977), without name of author or printer, is, as is mentioned in the address to the reader, a translation from the edition of Jacques Fabre. This edition of 1536 had a privilege for fourteen years; it must be by Ramusio, for the address to the reader is almost the same as his more abridged “discourse” in his collection of travels of Venice, 1550, and Venice, 1613, folio, 346 v. In Ramusio’s collection, and in the edition of 1536, Pigafetta’s voyage is preceded by the letter of Maximilian Transylvanus, Secretary of the Emperor Charles V, to the Cardinal of Salzburg. This letter of Maximilian’s is not quite the same in the two books in the division of the paragraphs; in Pigafetta’s voyage there is greater similarity, and the paragraphs are numbered [p.liv] identically in the edition of 1536 and in Fabre’s French edition. Ramusio says: “Magellan’s voyage was written, with details, by Don Pietro Martire, of the Council of the Indies of the Emperor, and that he had examined all those who had survived the voyage, and returned to Seville in the year 1522; but, having sent it to be printed at Rome, in the miserable sack of that town it was lost, and it is not yet known where it is. One who saw it and read it gives testimony of it, and amongst the other things worthy of recollection which the abovenamed Don Pietro noted in this voyage, was that the Spaniards having navigated about three years and a month, and the greater part of them (as is the custom of those who navigate on the ocean) having noted down each day of each month, when they rejoined Spain they found they had lost one day; that is, when they reached the port of Seville, which was on the 7th of 41