Hacia un mundo único y diverso. Los relatos de viaje quinientistas de Pigafetta y Mendes Pinto

Abstract

This article analyzes the stories of Antonio Pigafetta and Fernão Mendes Pinto in two moments of the 16th century, highlighting their vision of a world that, with all its enormous diversity, is no longer but one. Both accounts point to the first globalization as a process of contrasts and surprises. While Pigafetta accompanies the first world circumnavigation of 1519-1522 with Magellan and Elcano, Mendes Pinto describes numerous kingdoms and customs of Southeast Asia and the Far East, visited between 1537 and 1558. Pigafetta’s view is anthropological. Mendes Pinto, the Portuguese adventurer, admits to relying not only on what he could see, but also on oral and written information of all kinds, adding his own imagination. With this, both travelers linked to Portugal enrich the view of European early modernity.