Description

An uncompromising study of the fictions the failures and the real man behind the myth of Magellan

With Straits celebrated historian Felipe FernndezArmesto subjects the surviving sources to the most meticulous scrutiny ever providing a timely and engrossing biography of the real Ferdinand Magellan The truth that FernndezArmesto uncovers about Magellans life his character and the events of his illfated 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 attemptmuch less accomplisha journey around the globe In his lifetime he was abhorred as a traitor reviled as a tyrant selfcondemned 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 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 Magellans career showing that renown is not always a reflection of merit but often a gift and accident of circumstance