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First edition of the first appearance in print of the full text of Pigafetta's famous eyewitness account detailing Magellan's circumnavigation. One of the sailors on Magellan's voyage was Francisco Pigafetta, an Italian nobleman who was one of the few survivors of the voyage. The journal he kept while at sea was given to Charles V and later disappeared. Four contemporary manuscript copies of Pigafetta's complete narrative are known to exist: three in French and one in Italian. They were written at the request of Pope Clement VII and Villiers de l'Isle Adam, Grand Master of the Order of Rhodes. Primo Viaggio Intorno al Globo Terracqueo, the first complete published edition, is a modernized version of the Italian manuscript in the Ambrosian Library at Milan. It was discovered by Father Carlo Amoretti, who transcribed it, correcting the language, and adding a preface. Though Sabin notes that the Italian manuscript seems to be a paraphrase, Hill cites it to be the original of the four. An abridgement of one of the French manuscript copies was published in French c.1525, which is known in only a handful of copies. Pigafetta was not only highly literate, but also a meticulous observer, providing a remarkably accurate ethnographic and geographic narrative of the circumnavigation which is recognized as such by modern authorities on early encounters between Europeans and the East Indies. Pigafetta's carefully gleaned vocabularies included not only Cebuano, the language of the southern Philippines, the geographic centre of his narrative, but also words from Brazil, Patagonia, and importantly Malay, a wordlist of over 400 entries. Ferdinand Magellan (1480-1521) was born in Portugal and served his country in East Asia and Africa. In 1517 he offered his services to King Charles V of Spain, arguing that the Moluccas Islands were within the region of discovery assigned to Spain by Pope Alexander VI. Magellan and 265 sailors aboard five ships left Spain in August 1519, sailing through the straits off the southern coast of South America that now bear his name and into the Pacific Ocean, which Magellan himself named due to its tranquil nature. He sailed across the unexplored Pacific with no charts, and equipment consisting only of a compass, an hourglass, and an astrolabe, relying on the sun for his calculations of latitude, and with no knowledge of longitude. He arrived at the Philippines (which he had visited earlier while sailing from west to east), where he was killed by natives in April 1521. The command of the voyage devolved to Sebastiano del Cano, who led the remaining ships and crew across the Indian Ocean, around the Cape of Good Hope, and back to Spain. They arrived at Seville in September 1522 with only one ship, Victoria, and with 18 sailors still alive. READ MORE Quarto (265 x 195 mm): *-5*4 6*6 A-Z4 2a-2c4 2c-2f4 (gathering 2c repeated); 146 leaves, pp. lii, 237, [3] (blanks). Contemporary speckled sheep, brown morocco label to second compartment, remaining compartments decorated with central gilt flower and gilt floral border, marbled endpapers, edges red. With 2 folding maps, 4 coloured plates. Contemporary manuscript slip loosely inserted, containing note on North American indigenous language. Edges lightly rubbed with very minor stripping in places, top corners slightly rounded, front cover with short split and creasing at foot, small hole to front flyleaf, faint offsetting from coloured plates, occasional slight soiling, contents crisp. A very good copy. Borba de Moraes p. 667; Hill 1355; Howgego I, M16; Sabin 62803.