Elcano - History Lab

The First Trip Around the World

ad_hlab_min — Thu, 01 Dec 2022 12:41:33 +0000

The volume, originally titled “Il viaggio fatto da gli Spagniuoli atorno a’l mondo” and printed in Venice in 1536, collects two accounts of the Spanish expedition around the world by Ferdinand of Magellan and Juan Sebastián de Elcano (1519-1522), including the report written by the Italian Antonio Pigafetta (pp. 33-102), who embarked on the flagship Trinidad and became Magellan’s attendant, and written in an Italian-Venetian language mixed with Spanish words. The document completely describes the historic enterprise, from departure to return; of particular cognitive value are the descriptions of the places and populations (physical characteristics, customs, religious beliefs) while the technical details of the navigation and, therefore, the stages of the Pacific, Indian Ocean and Atlantic crossing are less precise.

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Kunstmann IV Planisphere

ad_hlab_min — Thu, 01 Dec 2022 12:41:24 +0000

The original Kunstmann IV planisphere, now lost, was anonymous and undated but is attributed to Jorge Reinel and his father, Pedro Reinel, who would have made it around 1519, when they were working for the Casa de Contratación (House of Contracts) of Spain. The planisphere constitutes a compendium of the geographical discoveries up to just before the voyage task of Magellan and Elcano. Historiography closely links the making of the planisphere to the preparation of that expedition, due to the assonance between the contents of the map (including the location of the Moluccas and the vast size of the Pacific Ocean) with the measurements indicated in the geographical memory (Lembrança geográfica) sent by Magellan to Charles V in September 1519

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The Padrón Real of Diego Ribero

ad_hlab_min — Thu, 01 Dec 2022 12:41:24 +0000

Hand in hand with geographical explorations progressed the graphic transposition of the real, observed and measured data and, therefore, the production of maps to scale. This is demonstrated by the rich production of the 15th and 16th centuries, exemplified by the Padrão Real, the Lusitanian geographical and nautical map par excellence, promoted by Henry the Navigator in the first half of the 15th century, and the Spanish Padrón Real. These maps, in addition to being working tools, were the figurative representation of a constantly changing world and a seal of the power of two kingdoms that challenged each other in the search for new routes and new acquisitions. Diego Ribero (Diogo Ribeiro), a cartographer from the Casa de Contratación in Seville, but of Portuguese origin, produced the Padrón Real in 1527 (with later copies) based on empirical observations of latitude, starting with those gathered during the voyages of Magellan and Elcano. Compared to previous planispheres of the known lands, Ribero’s map accurately depicts the eastern coasts of Central and South America and, for the first time, the northern coasts as a continuous feature (probably thanks to information from Esteban Gómez’s exploration in 1525), as well as assigning the Pacific Ocean an appropriate, broad extent

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