Magellan
Books:
Laurence Bergreen, the author of the essay you’ve just read in History Now, provides us with a long overdue book length study of Magellan his voyages in:
Over The Edge Of The World: Magellan's Terrifying Circumnavigation of the Globe. New York: William Morrow, 2003.
Here are some books on Portugal’s role in the age of discovery and exploration:
Bell , Christopher Richard Vincent. Portugal and the Quest for the Indies. New York: Barnes & Noble, 1974.
Diffie, Bailey W. and George D. Winius. Foundations of the Portuguese Empire, 1415-1580. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1977.
Newitt, Malyn. A History of Portuguese Overseas Expansion, 1400-1668. New York: Routledge, 2004.
Boorstin, Daniel J. The Portuguese Discoverers. Lisbon: The National Board for the Celebration of Portuguese Discoveries, 1987.
Sebastian Elcano, Magellan’s rival for honors in Portugal, was the subject of a biography in the 1950s:
Mitchell, Mairin. Elcano: The First Circumnavigator. London, Herder Publications, 1958.
Here are two recent biographies of Sir Francis Drake:
Cummins, John G. Francis Drake: The Lives of a Hero. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1995.
Sugden, John. Sir Francis Drake. New York: Henry Holt, 1991.
You’ll find substantial excerpts from contemporary accounts of Magellan’s voyages in the anthologies I’ve suggested for our essay by Ted Widmer.
Samuel Eliot Morison’s two-volume, The European Discovery of America (New York: Oxford University Press, 1971 and 1974) was republished by the same press in 1993. The single volume, slightly abridged version of this famous work The Great Explorers: The European Discovery of America (Oxford University Press, 1978) is now out of print.
I think you’ll also enjoy the essays by Morison and other modern historians of discovery and exploration in this anthology:
Lamb, Ursula, ed. The Globe Encircled And The World Revealed. Brookfield, VT: Variorum, 1995.
There are two twentieth century editions of Pigafetta’s account of Magellan’s voyage. Both are out of print now, but you may be able to find one at a local library or get it on interlibrary loan:
Cachey, Theodore J., ed. The First Voyage Around The World (1519-1522): An Account of Magellan's Expedition by Antonio Pigafetta. New York: Marsilio Publishers, c1995.
Sanderlin, George, ed. First Around The World: A Journal Of Magellan's Voyage. New York: Harper & Row, 1964.
Websites:
Here, too, the online sites for exploration and discovery I list for Ted Widmer’s article will provide you with materials on members of Magellan’s crew and contemporary accounts of his voyages. In addition, you may want to look at this excerpt from Correa’s account:
http://www.historyguide.org/earlymod/calecut.html
Wikipedia has good entries on Magellan:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferdinand_Magellan
And on Elcano:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juan_Sebasti%C3%A1n_Elcano
The blockbuster is their entry on the Portuguese Empire. I only wish Wikipedia guaranteed this level of quality in all their articles:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portuguese_Empire
For briefer sketches of Magellan and his voyages, visit the Catholic Encyclopedia:
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09526b.htm
The Mariners Museum website on Magellan also offers links to briefer sketches of Elcano and Pigafetta:
