Magellan – Pigafetta, Antonio. Magellan’s Voyage. A Narrative Account of the First Circumnavigation (1519-1522). Manuscript of 1525 of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library of Yale University in French on vellum in black, red, and blue. 2, 99 ll.

and innumerable colored initials, the larger ones decorated. Facsimile in the original size and the original colors. English translation and commentary by R. A. Skelton (5 ll., 195 pp., double full-page map + 23 full-page ills.). Facsimile + text vol. New Haven + London 1969. Sm. fol. Beige orig. cloth with red backstamping and blindtooled frontboards in subdivided red orig. cloth dual slipcase with mounted color ills.

on the inside of the front boards of each volume. See Bonacker, Kartenmacher aller Länder und Zeiten, 1966, p. 132. – professor em. for cartography at Utrecht University, i. a. author of the monumental 6-vol. Atlantes Neerlandici, 1967/85. – See, too, below from his review of the publication here.

Dedicated to Edwin J. Beinecke who made this edition possible. – Title in red + black and with colored ills. – Splendidly arranged edition on heavy paper, printed by Enschedé en Zoonen, Haarlem. – The fine decorative slipcase slightly pushed at the back edges, most minimally touched the back board of the text volume lower left, otherwise impeccable.

Prince’s  Copy  and “certainly the finest of all the manuscripts … as well as the most complete of the three French manuscripts existent”. Whether it is the one worked for the Grand Master of Rhodes must be left undecided. Former pre-possessor was Jean Cognet, chamberlain and pharmacist of the cardinal of the Lorraine, who dedicated it to Christophe de Gastinois, the secretary of the cardinal. 1720 in the possession of the abbey of St. Leopold in Nancy the further provenance should be quite complete up to Ed Beinecke in 1945. The manuscript in itself perfectly readable.

Pigafetta – see the large illustration of his monument on Mactan within Witzani’s report in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung of Aug. 13, 1992, p. R 3 – belonged to the only 18 survivors of the 270 setting out on Maghellan’s expedition. And “Just this one little Rhodes knight, this odd and useless man, has brought Magellan’s great deed to our knowledge … Shakespeare uses a scene of Pigafetta’s logbook for his ‘Tempest’” (Stefan Zweig, Magellan – The Man and his Deed). The journal itself has not been preserved.

“ … welcome the appearance of this very first facsimile reproduction … which is also the first translation into English of one of the French manuscripts still existing … Readers of journals … will now have access to original sources,

recording  such  fundamental  facts  as  the  establishing  of  the  Pacific  Ocean ,

the  position  of  the  Moluccas ,

and the remarks on earlier representations of Magellan Strait with its implications … (And the) appearance (of the book itself) is in perfect harmony with the beauty of the original manuscript and with the importance of its contents … Apart from its scientific value this work is a precious object for book-lovers … (And) having started reading the Introduction and proceeding with the translation … the scale turns to the part for which Dr. Skelton was responsible, for his masterly analysis of the origin and transmission of Pigafetta’s Relation … reading it is fascinating … Magellan’s voyage itself was not prolific for chartproduction. Presumably the material got lost in the Moluccas. Pigafetta had 23 pages with maps copied in his Relation, but they are sketches, in the ‘Isolario style’, without geographical grid and topographical details … In many ways the publication of this work is of great interest for a wide circle of students, scholars and bibliophiles … Against this background the publication … will render a great service to civilisation ”

(Imago Mundi XXIV, 1970, p. 151).
Offer no. 28,576 / EUR  690. / Export price EUR  656. (c. US$ 982.) + shipping