Fretum Magellannicum, und dessen eigentliche Beschreibung. So die hollender durch Schifft und auch der leng beschrieben

Title

Fretum Magellannicum, und dessen eigentliche Beschreibung. So die hollender durch Schifft und auch der leng beschrieben

Chart of the Strait of Magellan, showing Tierra del Fuego and Patagonia. Cartographic elements include profile of the geography of the strait, sea banks or shoals, scale, dividers, and compass rose. Includes four native American figures: a Patagonian giant, a woman giving a bird to a child, a man wearing feathered headdress and garment, and a woman wearing a cloak. Also includes penguin, snail, spear, bow and arrow. Items in image lettered for identification in a key below. De Bry’s Grand Voyages, an illustrated collection of accounts of the Americas, defined the early European picture of the New World.

ca. 1612

Artist

Bry, de (1528-1598)

Theodor de Bry (1528–1598) was a Frankfurt-based engraver and publisher who, beginning in 1590, produced two of the most important early modern travel collections: the West Indian (America) and East Indian voyages. Richly illustrated with copper engravings and published in both German and Latin, these works were aimed at a European audience. With the help of his sons, Johann Theodor and Johann Israel, de Bry published six volumes before his death. The project was continued by his descendants until 1634, ultimately comprising 25 volumes with over 1,500 engravings. In 1594, he famously depicted Columbus's arrival in the New World. The West Indian series (1590–1618) chronicled the European discovery and conquest of the Americas, while the East Indian series followed the rise of Dutch trade power in Asia around 1600.

Historical Description

Ferdinand Magellan (1480 –1521) was a Portuguese explorer who organised the Spanish expedition to the East Indies from 1519 to 1522, resulting in the first circumnavigation of the Earth, completed by Juan Sebastián Elcano. Born into a Portuguese noble family in around 1480, Magellan became a skilled sailor and naval officer and was eventually selected by King Charles I of Spain to search for a westward route to the Maluku Islands (the "Spice Islands"). Commanding a fleet of five vessels, he headed south through the Atlantic Ocean to Patagonia, passing through the Strait of Magellan into a body of water he named the "peaceful sea" (the modern Pacific Ocean). Despite a series of storms and mutinies, the expedition reached the Spice Islands in 1521 and returned home via the Indian Ocean to complete the first circuit of the globe. Magellan did not complete the entire voyage, as he was killed during the Battle of Mactan in the Philippines in 1521.Tierra del Fuego is an archipelago off the southernmost tip of the South American mainland, across the Strait of Magellan. The archipelago consists of the main island, Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego. Europeans first explored the islands during Ferdinand Magellan's expedition of 1520; Tierra del Fuego and similar namings stem from sightings of the many bonfires that the natives built.