4 Antonio Pigafetta Bio.
4 Antonio Pigafetta Bio.
4 Antonio Pigafetta Bio.
Italian scholar and explorer from the Republic of Venice. He joined the expedition to the
Spice Islands led by explorer Ferdinand Magellan under the flag of King Charles I of
Spain and, after Magellan's death in the Philippines, the subsequent voyage around the
world. During the expedition, he served as Magellan's assistant and kept an accurate
journal which later assisted him in translating the Cebuano language. It is the first
recorded document concerning the language.
Pigafetta was one of the 18 men who returned to Spain in 1522, under the command
of Juan Sebastián Elcano, out of the approximately 240 who set out three years earlier.
These men completed the first circumnavigation of the world. Pigafetta's surviving
journal is the source for much of what is known about Magellan and Elcano's voyage.
EARLY LIFE
Pigafetta's exact year of birth is not known, with estimates ranging between 1480 and
1491. A birth year of 1491 would have made him around 30 years old during Magellan's
expedition, which historians have considered more probable than an age close to 40.
Pigafetta belonged to a rich family city of Vicenza in northeast Italy. In his youth he
studied astronomy, geography and cartography. He then served on board the ships of
the Knights of Rhodes at the beginning of the 16th century. Until 1519, he accompanied
the papal nuncio, Monsignor Francesco Chieregati, to Spain.