antonio pigafetta was an italian scholar and explorer.

he joined the expedition to the spice

islands led by explorer ferdinand magellan under the flag of the emperor charles v and after
magellan's death in the philippine islands, the subsequent voyage around the world. during the
expedition, he served as magellan's assistant and kept an accurate journal, which later assisted
him in translating the cebuano language. it is the first recorded document concerning the
language. pigafetta was one of the 18 men who made the complete trip, returning to spain in
1522, under the command of juan sebastián elcano, out of the approximately 240 who set out
three years earlier. these men completed the first circumnavigation of the world. others mutinied
and returned in the first year. pigafetta's surviving journal is the source for much of what is
known about magellan and elcano's voyage. at least one warship of the italian navy, a destroyer
of the navigatori class, was named after him in 1931.