Praises To Magalhães

Discover the praises given to Magalhães by personalities from his time to the present day.

ANTÓNIO PIGAFETTA

Italian nobleman, chronicler, geographer. He accompanied Magalhães on his circumnavigation and wrote the main account of the expedition.

"Among the many virtues bestowed upon him, was the most permanent, through tight vicissitudes, his strength to withstand hunger better than all, just as he also knew nautical charts and navigated like no one else in the world." 


Antonio Pigafetta, 1521

FREI LUÍS DE LEÓN

Religious, poet and humanist of the Spanish Renaissance period.

"Nothing can be found more admirable in navigation, because they opened the way to find the new orb. Setting out from Seville, in Andalusia, Spain, not far from the noble city of Cadiz and the Strait of Gibraltar, they headed west, from there they doubled south and through the Antarctic Sea headed east. They continued sailing across the immense sea until they returned to their starting point. The Spaniards had turned the whole earth."

Frei Luís de Léon, 1577

ALONSO DE ERCILLA

Spanish poet, best known for being the author of the epic poem "La Araucana".

"And these two wide seas that want, when passing their borders, to join, the rocks beat and their waves tend but they are prevented from connecting; at last, on this side, the earth cleaves and can communicate here: Magalhães, sir, was the first man who, by opening this path, gave it a name." 


Alonso de Ercilla, 1578

Manuel de Faria y Sousa (1639) by AnonymousOriginal Source: Wikimedia

MANUEL DE FARIA E SOUSA

Portuguese writer, historian and moralist. Most of his works were written in Castilian.

 "It does not seem at all that Fernão de Magalhães is to blame for the fact that Portugal plucked his beards after the discovery of the Straits, since Portugal did not value it, and the fact that he went to look for it by those who valued it, did not deprive him of honour."
Manuel de Faria e Sousa, 1640

Adam Smith (About 1795) by UnknownNational Galleries Scotland: Portrait

ADAM SMITH

Scottish economist and philosopher, considered the father of modern economics.

"The two most important facts for the economy of the world were maritime feats: rounding the Cape of Good Hope and crossing the Straits of Magalhães and the Pacific to reach the Moluccas. In the hands of the Portuguese and Spaniards was the frontier of knowledge and it was they who taught navigation on the high seas to others." 


Adam Smith, 1776

Bronze relief of the Magellan Monument (1520) by Guillermo CordovaThe Portuguese Task Force for the Commemorations of the V Centenary of Circumnavigation

MARTÍN FERNÁNDEZ DE NAVARRETE

Spanish nobleman, politician and historian. He was director of the Royal Spanish Academy of History.

"This was the undertaking of Magalhães, Portuguese knight whose boldness and great constancy in inquiring this secret and no less happy success in finding it, with eternal memory, put name to the strait that with reason is called Magalhães by its inventor.” 


Martín Fernández de Navarrete, 1837

Porvenir Street, Tierra del Fuego (2012) by José M. NuñezThe Portuguese Task Force for the Commemorations of the V Centenary of Circumnavigation

JOSÉ MARIA LATINO COELHO

Better known as Latino Coelho, he was a Portuguese military officer, writer and journalist.

"The glorious drama of the transatlantic discoveries has an eminent character and Portugal a name revered by modern civilization. 

Magalhães generously paid us the dismay and affront of disowning us, it is true that he served Castile when circumnavigating the globe, but the name of Magalhães has always remained Portuguese and the glory of his navigations will be forever glory also of Portugal." 


José María Latino Coelho, 1856

Lord Stanley of Alderley (1872) by AnonymousOriginal Source: Wikimedia

LORD STANLEY OF ALDERLEY, 1874

He was a historian specializing in 16th-century European exploration and expansion. He was Vice-President of the Hakluyt Society, which published his editions and translations, including the 1874 edition of Antonio Pigafetta's The First Voyage Round the World.

"Although Magalhães’ enterprise is acknowledged as the greatest ever attempted by any navigator, yet he was deprived of his due fame by the envies which have always existed between the two peoples inhabiting the Peninsula, for the Spaniards could not tolerate being sent by a Portuguese, and the Portuguese have not yet forgiven Magalhães for abandoning them to serve Castile." 


Lord Stanley of Alderley, 1874

Ferdinand Magellan, 16th century (1584) by André ThevetOriginal Source: Wikimedia

HEZEKIAH BUTTERWORTH

American author and poet. He is the author of the 1899 book "The Story of Magalhães and The Discovery of the Philippines".

"Magalhães reveals to us a character very much in the vanguard of his age; an authentic and disinterested man, awash with the enormous passion of discovery, always seeking the welfare of mankind and the glory of the cross rather than wealth and fame. The vicissitudes of his life were not only noble, but imbued with the spirit of chivalry."


Hezekiah Butterworth, 1899

Battista Agnese Worldmap (1544) by Battista AgneseOriginal Source: Wikimedia

P. PABLO PASTELLS

Pablo Pastells was a Spanish Jesuit priest.

"Magalhães may be considered one of the most intrepid navigators in history. His gigantic work will remain in the annals of the past among the great audacities of the human spirit."


P. Pablo Pastells, 1920

"Magellan" by Stefan Zweig (1935/1935) by Publishing by ClaridadOriginal Source: Libros Maravilhosos

STEFAN ZWEIG

He was a poet, playwright, historian and one of the most important European authors of the 20th century.

"Among all the figures and all the routes, my admiration turns to the deeds of the man who, in my opinion, achieved the most extraordinary thing in the history of geographical discoveries: Magalhães. His navigation is perhaps the greatest odyssey in the history of mankind, and it is true that, when I decided to write it, mindful of the reliable documents at my disposal, I had the feeling I was telling something invented, one of those sacred legends of humanity, because nothing is more excellent than a truth that seems unreal!"


Stefan Zweig, 1938

500 years later... an eternal hero

Between 2019 and 2022, we will celebrate five centuries of the great circumnavigation initiated by Magalhães. His namecontinues to make people talk and his legacy is an inspiration in areas as diverse as astronomy, nautical science, fauna and flora.

The First Man to Unite The Oceans by Mission Structure of the V Centennial of the First Voyage of Circum-NavigationThe Portuguese Task Force for the Commemorations of the V Centenary of Circumnavigation

Credits: Story

 Curatorship and scientific supervision of: José Manuel Núñez de La Fuente

Technical support: Mito + Rito

Credits: All media
The story featured may in some cases have been created by an independent third party and may not always represent the views of the institutions, listed below, who have supplied the content.
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