City Libraries, City of Gold Coast

Straits, beyond the myth of Magellan, Felipe Fernández-Armesto

Label
Straits, beyond the myth of Magellan, Felipe Fernández-Armesto
Language
eng
Illustrations
mapsillustrations
Index
index present
Literary Form
non fiction
Main title
Straits
Nature of contents
bibliography
Responsibility statement
Felipe Fernández-Armesto
Sub title
beyond the myth of Magellan
Summary
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, that renown is not always a reflection of merit, but the gift and accident of circumstance
Table Of Contents
Preface -- The globe around Magellan: the world, 1492 to 1521 -- The education of an adventurer: Oporto - Lisbon - the Indian Ocean, to 1514 -- The trajectory of a traitor: Morocco, Portugal, and Spain, 1514 to 1519 -- The making and marring of a fleet: Seville and Valladolid, 1517 to 1519 -- The cruel sea: the Atlantic, September 1519 to February 1520 -- The gibbet at San Julián: Patagonia, March to October 1520 -- The gates of fame: the Strait of Magellan, October to December 1520 -- The unremitting wind: the Pacific, November 1520 to March 1521 -- Death as advertised: the Philippines, March to July, 1521 -- Aftermath and apotheosis: the world, from 1521
Classification

Incoming Resources