Is Ferdinand Magellan A Fictional Character?

I wanted to take a trip to Tucson and the fabulous destination I chose to travel to was the man who

allegedly circumnavigated the globe: Ferdinand Magellan.

Before consulting Wikipedia and the sources they provide, I typed in google “books on Ferdinand

Magellan” and I found this link.

I find The Portuguese Pioneers by Edgar Prestage on archive.org and read the introduction to the book:

Okay, this indicates that The Portuguese Pioneers is clearly not a primary source document on Ferdinand

Magellan. Let’s follow the Librarian’s tip and see what chapter 2 has to say about Magellan.

Blimey! Did this Librarian even read the book?

That’s alright. I tracked down the author Richard Henry Major and his “First Modern Scholar Account of

Portuguese Exploration by sea in any language” which was a bold statement made by Edgar Prestage.

The book is titled The life of Prince Henry of Portugal…. which was published in 1868, which is allegedly

the first modern account of any Portuguese Exploration by sea in any langue. Prince Henry died about

550 years ago, and the first “Modern Scholarly Account” was written 400 years after his death. Still no

information about Ferdinand Magellan, and still no primary sources about his incredible achievement of

circumnavigating the world.

Time to consult Wikipedia for primary sources.

So Maximilianus Transylvanus who was a 16th century author who allegedly interviewed the survivors on

Magellan’s ship. The book can be found here. It is written in Latin and I attempted to put bits and pieces

in a translator, but it was not helpful. If this book was so monumental why has it not been translated in

several different languages. Scrolling down on the Wikipedia page I see this:

So the “historians” are not in agreement in the origins of this text, when viewed objectively, begs the

question is Ferdinand Magellan a fictional character and whether or not this book was actually written

500 years ago. So we don’t know the origins of this book which is allegedly a primary source document

on Ferdinand Magellan, yet we are taught in school that this character was actually a REAL person who

made these incredible discoveries.

Okay, if this book was so influential, let me check the indexes of The Portuguese Pioneers and The Life of

Prince Henry, and see if there was any mention of Maximilianus Transylvanus since this book was

allegedly the first book accounting Magellan’s circumnavigation. Even though Prince Henry came before

Magellan, since his book was held in such high esteem as the “First Modern Scholar Account of

Portuguese Exploration by sea in any language” I wanted to see if he mentioned one the first ancient

scholarly accounts of Portuguese exploration, assuming Prince Henry of Portugal actually existed.

First, The Portuguese Pioneers:

Next, The Life of Prince Henry:

Out of curiosity, I checked the sources on Prince Henry of Portugal’s Wikipedia page

So. the sources for Prince Henry all come after 1523 when the Maximilianus Transylvanus was published

which was about Magellan’s travels, even though Magellan was born 20 years after Prince Henry died.

So, it seems that Prince Henry of Portugal was a fictional character along with Magellan.

The origins on the stories about Ferdinand Magellan are highly suspect, lets check out if he has any

statues or monuments made in his name. One monument I found was the Magellan Shrine. Here’s what

the first paragraph says:

Hold on a second, the battle took place in 1521, but a statue was not erected until 1866, 345 years later,

several generations would have passed since then. Yet, the statue was still erected in his name when his

memory would have faded from the local population many years prior.

But wait,

I found this Expedia page about the Magellan Shrine travel destination. So not only could the story of

Magellan been contrived to explain the “discovery of new world/America” but it could also have been

contrived to attract tourists.

In conclusion, when you trace the sources to try and find a primary source document, the secondary and

tertiary sources seem to be completely oblivious to the provenance of the stories that they promulgate.

When examining Maximilianus Transylvanus the origins of this document are “in dispute” and the text

has never been translated into any languages although it is allegedly a primary source of Magellan’s

travels. The book was never even mentioned in secondary sources. Most of the secondary sources on

“Portuguese Exploration” appeared in the mid 1800’s. Magellan’s statue wasn’t even built until 1866.

Considering the information, I have presented, I would conclude that Ferdinand Magellan was most

likely a fictional character, along with Prince Henry of Portugal. If these stories are indeed false, they

may have been created as creation myths for the “discovery of America” as well as a tourist attraction.