Five hundred years ago an Italian was among the few members of Magellan’s expedition who returned to Spain. In his “Report” he told of fantastic animals and walking leaves
They also said that under Java Maggiore, towards the north wind, in the gulf of China, which the ancients call Signo Magno, there is a very large tree in which birds called garuda live, so large that they bring a buffalo and an elephant to the place where it is the arbore called puzathaer and the arbore campangaghi … ». Of course, Antonio Pigafetta himself, writing about it in his Report of the first trip around the worldwritten at the turn of 1524-1525 to fill the void left by his Logbook original donated to Charles V and immediately disappeared because Spain was not so enthusiastic as to praise the enterprise led by that Portuguese Fernão de Magalhães (Ferdinando Magellano), he pointed out that he had not seen him directly, that majestic king of the birds. And other details too, such as the “leaves that when they fall are alive and walk” and “have two feet” and he himself had kept one for “nine days in a box” and “when he opened it, it went around the box »by convincing him that« they live on nothing but air », should not be taken too seriously.
Skidding, moreover, happened a little to all the great navigators of the past, including the legendary Marco Polo, who narrated that the Great Khan, as the historian Giulio Busi noted delightfully, went hunting lying on the sofas of an elegant hut brought by four elephants, or that «Angaman is an island, and not a king. They are idols, and they are like rescued beasts. And all those on this island have it like dogs and teeth and noses like big mastiffs “. What was the point? His contemporaries were convinced that this was indeed the case. And if he hadn’t confirmed, they might have doubted: “Who knows if Marco el xé really went so far away …”
Antonio Pigafetta’s account of the expedition which left Sanlúcar de Barrameda (Seville) on 20 September 1519 and returned on 6 September 1522, five hundred years ago, with eighteen men aboard the Victoria, the only one of the five ships (with Trinidad, Santiago, San Antonio and Concepción, 235 crewmen) to have concluded the entire circumnavigation of the planet, is however, explains the historian of the Cattolica Andrea Canova, author of various books and essays on the life and works of the explorer from Vicenza, «It is by far the most complete, the most detailed, the most credible of the reports of the great historical enterprises. What’s more: it is a real book, in which the story of events and the description of places and people are combined in a literary work in all respects ».
Example? The ecstasy with which he recounted the naval passage between the Atlantic and the Pacific which will take its name from Magellan: «I don’t think it’s the most beautiful and the best tight in the world, like this one. In this ocean you see a very delightful hunting of fish. There are three sorts of longhi fish, one arm and more, which if they call doradi, albacore and boniti, which are followed by flying fish, called colondrini … “And” at the time of summer there is no night, and, if it is, it is few and so in the winter day … When we were in this strait, the nights were only three hours. And it was in October ».
Or the description of those whom “our captain general” (as Magellan called them) had named the “Patagonian peoples”. “Everyone wears the skin of that animal already mentioned. They have no houses, if not overflowing with the skin of the same animal and with those they go mo ‘here, mo’ there, as the Cingani do. They live on raw meat and a sweet root which they call chapae. Each one of the two we took ate a bag of biscuit and drank half a bucket of water in one gulp. And they ate them without skinning them ». But what kind of animals were these from which they got a little bit of everything? The guanaco, apparently. An animal which, not knowing its name, described it thus: «It has the head and ears as large as a mule, the neck and body like a camel, the legs of a deer and the tail of a horse; and neighs like him ».
Born at the end of 1492, in the months in which Columbus discovered America, grew up in the myth of great voyages, rushed to Spain hoping to be embarked on the enterprise of circumnavigation of the planet, welcomed thanks to a recommendation from the powerful Cardinal Francesco Chiericati, he had earned Magellan’s trust until he became his “criado”. The attendant. Always beside, always faithful. Even in the most dangerous moments. Until dawn on April 27, 1521, when the “Captain”, for once more adventurous than wise, went into a fierce battle and fell into the trap of a pair of rival kings on the island today of Mactan, in the Philippines. He thought sixty men were enough, he was faced with 1,500. A disaster. And it was he, Pigafetta, who was the author of the “war report”: having seen himself now lost, “the captain general sent some to rake his houses to frighten them. When they saw his houses toasting, they became more ferocious. Near the houses two of ours were killed, and twenty or thirty houses we burned; so many came on him, that they passed the captain’s straight leg with a shudder: for which reason he commanded that if we retire… ». Too late.
Orphans of their legendary leader who would prove definitively how right those who claimed the earth was round were and how wrong the flat-earthers were, the survivors skidded. But under the guidance of Basque Juan Sebastián Elcano they decided to go straight. And after leaving the port of Seville for the Canary Islands, Rio de Janeiro, Patagonia, French Polynesia, the Equatorial Spodari, the Mariana Islands, the Philippines, they continued on to Indonesia, Timor, the Cape of Good Hope, Cape Green and finally Sanlúcar de Barrameda. Decimated, wounded, exhausted. But winners.
September 8 – The commemorative evening in Vicenza
To remember “their” great traveler, the people of Vicenza organized an opera evening at the Theater on 8 September, thanks to the generosity of the “Pigafetta 500” association animated by Stefano Soprana, for three years the promoter of a series of events on the theme. Municipal: «Pigafetta and the first trip around the world». Music by maestro Pierangelo Valdinoni, libretto by Paolo Madron, director Alex Betto, director Luca Valentino. Unforgettable the meeting between Magellan, Pigafetta and the giant Patagon: «Omo twenty spans tall: / gnudo was, red in the face. / Thick dark fur, / long teeth like fangs. // Women with strange shapes: / tete longhe mezo brazo, / meze alte, meze nane, / black oci, grande nazo … ».
The map
At this link you can consult the interactive map with the ports touched by Magellano and Pigafetta, created by the Pigafetta 500 Association
August 29, 2022 (change August 30, 2022 | 10:21)
© Time.News