WRITING, READING AND SILENCE: MAXIMILIANO TRANSILVANO'S LETTER AND THE MAGELLANIC VOYAGE TO THE CONFINES OF THE EMPIRE

The Magellanic voyage not only meant finding the passage that joined both oceans, but also managed, for the first time, to circumnavigate the world. This paper aims to analyze a letter by Maximiliano Transilvano, Secretary of the Emperor Carlos V, written in Latin and finished a few days after the survivors' return from their almost imposible voyage (5th October 1522). The letter, addressed to the Archbishop of Salzburg, immediately transcends from manuscript to print: three editions in 1523 (Cologne, Paris and Rome). The account introduces hunger and despair. We recuperate the scenes of the stay in Bahia de San Julian in order to put in contrast the Latin text and the translated version that integrates the IV volume of the Coleccion de los viages y descubrimientos que hicieron por mar los espanoles desde fines del siglo XV published by Martin Fernandez de Navarrete in 1837.