An uncompromising study of the fictions, the failures, and the real man behind the myth of Magellan.
With
Straits, celebrated historian Felipe Fernández-Armesto subjects the surviving sources to the most meticulous scrutiny ever, providing a timely and engrossing biography of the real Ferdinand Magellan. The truth that Fernández-Armesto uncovers about Magellan’s life, his character, and the events of his ill-fated voyage offers up a stranger, darker, and even more compelling narrative than the fictional version that has been celebrated for half a millennium.
Magellan did not attempt—much less accomplish—a journey around the globe. In his lifetime he was abhorred as a traitor, reviled as a tyrant, self-condemned to destruction, and dismissed as a failure.
Straits untangles the myths that made Magellan a hero and discloses the reality of the man, probing the passions and tensions that drove him to adventure and drew him to disaster. We see the mutations of his character: pride that became arrogance, daring that became recklessness, determination that became ruthlessness, romanticism that became irresponsibility, and superficial piety that became, in adversity, irrational exaltation. As the real Magellan emerges, so do his real ambitions, focused less on circumnavigating the world or cornering the global spice market than on exploiting Filipino gold.
Straits is a study in failure and the paradox of Magellan’s career, showing that renown is not always a reflection of merit but often a gift and accident of circumstance.
Table of Content
Contents
List of Illustrations
Preface
1. The Globe around Magellan: The World, 1492 to 1521
2. The Education of an Adventurer: Oporto—Lisbon—the Indian Ocean, to 1514
3. The Trajectory of a Traitor: Morocco, Portugal, and Spain, 1514 to 1519
4. The Making and Marring of a Fleet: Seville and Valladolid, 1517 to 1519
5. The Cruel Sea: The Atlantic, September 1519 to February 1520
6. The Gibbet at San Julián: Patagonia, March to October 1520
7. The Gates of Fame: The Strait of Magellan, October to December 1520
8. The Unremitting Wind: The Pacific, November 1520 to March 1521
9. Death as Advertised: The Philippines, March to July, 1521
10. Aftermath and Apotheosis: The World, from 1521
Notes
Index
About the author
Felipe Fernández-Armesto holds the William P. Reynolds Chair of Mission in Arts and Letters at the University of Notre Dame, where he is a professor in the Departments of History and Classics and the Program in the History and Philosophy of Science. His work on exploration and related subjects has won the John Carter Brown Medal, the Caird Medal of the National Maritime Museum in the UK, the Premio Nacional a Investigación of the Sociedad Geográfica Española, and the World History Association Prize (for Pathfinders: A Global History of Exploration), among other prizes. In 2017, the King of Spain awarded him the Gran Cruz de la Orden de Alfonso X el Sabio for services to education and the arts. His most recent books are Out of Our Minds and, as editor, The Oxford Illustrated History of the World.
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