Magellan's Great Expedition

This Italian map of the world illustrates the last and greatest expedition of Spanish explorer and navigator Ferdinand Magellan. The map is an example of a portolan chart, a type of nautical map that usually includes detailed coastlines and representations of the winds, depicted here with cherubic faces. This chart, illuminated in gold leaf and ornamental colors, appears in an atlas produced by Italian cartographer Battista Agnese in the mid-1540s. Agnese's atlases were intended for the Venetian elite and were probably never used at sea.

The heavy line on this map traces Magellan's route as he set out from Spain in 1519 to reach the Moluccas, or Spice Islands (of present-day Indonesia), from the east. Many people doubted whether the voyage was possible—up to that time, sailors had always approached these islands from the west. Magellan sailed southwest along the South American coast, passed through what was later named the Strait of Magellan, and continued northwest across a calm ocean that he called the Pacific. He first landed in what are now known as the Mariana Islands. Magellan then continued on to the Philippines, where in 1521 he died in a battle between rival chieftains of the islands. One of Magellan's captains continued westward, forced by prevailing winds, and returned a single ship to Spain, completing the voyage around the world.

Appears in these articles:

Navigation; Exploration, Geographic; Spain; Magellan, Ferdinand; Map

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