Folio. pp. Continua del titulo: sulla Squadra del Capit. Magaglianes negli anni 1519-1522. Ora pubblicato per la prima volta e corridato di note da Carlo Amoretti. Con un Transunto del Trattato di Navigazione dello stesso Autore.
FIRST PRINTED EDITION OF PIGAFETTA'S ACCOUNT OF HIS JOURNEY WITH MAGELLAN | FINE COLOR WOODCUT MAPS | INCLUDES ONE OF THE FIRST ATTEMPTS OF A DICTIONARY OF NATIVE WORDS IN THE SOUTH SEAS. 2 folding charts, 4 hand-coloured woodcut maps, illustrations in text. FIRST EDITION. Antonio Pigafetta sailed with Magellan and his account of the journey, which remained unpublished until 1800, is of prime importance and forms our chief authority for the voyage. He was present at Magellan's death in the Philippines and was one of only 18 men to survive the expedition and reach Spain again. His early maps of the Magellan Straits form an important early contribution to cartography and he was also one of the first to attempt a dictionary of native words in the South Seas.
"Prints for the first time one of a few copies of Pigafetta's diary, kept during Magellan's circumnavigation. The maps and most of the vignettes are from the ms. originals in the Ambosin Library in Milan. One of four known contemporary mss. relating to Magellan's voyage, and the only one in Italian; this is therefore presumed to the the original. Pigafetta was the official historian of the voyage, and "had it not been for the pen of Pigafetta, knowledge of Magellan's circumnavigation would be far more limited." -Fenrose, Travel and discovery in the Renaissance, p. 305. At the end are MOST INTERESTING vocabularies of native words- Raccolta di vocaboli del Brasile, de' Patagoni, delle Isole del Mar Australe. Borba pp. 667-8. JCB III, 4114. Hill p. 235. Palau 225742.