First Voyage Around The World

Authors Background Antonio Pigafetta

He was also known as Antonio Lombardo or
Francisco Antonio Pigafetta who was an
Italian traveller, linked to the order of
Rhodes. He promoted the company initiated
by the Catholic Monarchs in the Atlantic and
went to an expedition with Magallanes to the
Moluccas and returned safely in Spain. In
years later, he travelled by land from France
to return to Italy in 1523. He wrote the
relation of the trip around the world, which
was first and an important source of a voyage
circumnavigation. His report was rich in
ethnographic details. Pigafetta also wrote a
treatise of navigation mainly Ptolemaic
inspiration, but that contains the description
of three methods to determine the length,
probably derived from the Francisco Faleiro.
These methods were: 1) by calculating the
distance from a point of known length by
observation of the distance of the Moon from
the ecliptic; 2) by observation of the
conjunction of the moon with a star or planet,
and 3) through the use of the compass.
Pigafetta also describes how to take the
altitude of the pole star to determine latitude,
know the wind direction and other minor
navigation problems. Mistakenly believed
that the direction of the compass coincided
with the meridian of iron island. His
description of the trip also includes details of
the own navigation, as the description of the
 Sun at the Zenith, and forwards to readers
interested in his own treatise on navigation
and Aristotle.
Historical Background of the DocumentS