Books, ‘Pigafetta and Magellan, a journey to the end of the world’ by Vittorio Russo tomorrow in Rome

2024-01-09 20:58:33

“It is a great book of navigations, explorations, discoveries of people and customs, of travels and adventures. The author travels the skies, waters, forests and deserts of the fantastic: a fantasy which, when nourished by reality, is still more incredible and fascinating”. Thus Franco Cardini, historian of relations between the Muslim, Jewish and Christian world, as well as an internationally renowned medievalist, on the new volume “Pigafetta and Magellan, a journey to the end of the world” by Vittorio Russo, just published by Sandro Teti editor, of which Cardini he edited the introduction.

The essay will be presented in Rome tomorrow, Wednesday 10 January, at 3.30 pm at the Italian Geographical Society in Palazzetto Mattei in Villa Celimontana, Aula Giuseppe della Vedova, in via della Navicella 12. For the occasion, in addition to the author, speakers Annalisa D’Ascenso, professor at the University of Roma Tre; Francesco Vallerani, professor at Ca’ Foscari in Venice; Giovanni Modaffari of the University of Milan; Franco Fatigati, writer. Moderated by Claudio Cerreti, president of the Italian Geographic Society,

Antonio Pigafetta was the first man to circumnavigate the globe. Of the 265 sailors who left Spain in 1519, only 18 returned, after sailing over 100,000 kilometres. The Vicenza native had the extraordinary merit of writing the detailed diary, which makes him the first author of travel literature and without which the events of that adventure would only be a faded legend. Magellan himself, who was unable to complete the journey, saw his fame increase thanks to this work. (continued)

Pigafetta was the first to circumnavigate the globe

Drawing on a large number of sources, Vittorio Russo reconstructs the figure of this extraordinary and multifaceted character, man of arms, cartographer, navigator animated by a voracious curiosity for everything that fell under his gaze, passionate writer. The text is enriched by historical maps and biographies of the protagonists of the expedition and the amazement of the one who went to discover the unknown world today becomes the amazement of the reader who discovers these pages of history.

Russo is a journalist, traveler and writer of essays and short stories; he has published research on the origins of religions and Christianity and his travels have given rise to books that intertwine geography, myth and history, including “Mystical and mysterious India” (2008), “In the footsteps of Alexander the Great” (2009). For Sandro Teti Editore he published “Transiberiana” (2017), “L’Uzbekistan di Alessandro Magno” (2019) and “Stories of travel, geographies, stories and things” (2021).