To mark the 500th anniversary of the first circumnavigation of the world (1519-1522) led by Ferdinand Magellan, and concluded - following the death of Magellan - by Juan Sebastián Elcano, in which Vicenza-born navigator and writer Antonio Pigafetta took part, Gallerie d’Italia - Vicenza presents the exhibition Antonio Pigafetta and the first voyage around the world. "No such voyage will ever be repeated".

Scheduled to open on 6 September 2022 (ending on 8 January 2023), the exhibition will celebrate the final leg of the expedition and the return of the ship Victoria to Spain, on 6 September 1522, marking the most important moment of the celebrations that the city of Vicenza has dedicated to the voyage of Magellan and Pigafetta since 2019.
Based on an idea by the Pigafetta 500 cultural association, the exhibition will reserve pride of place to the manuscript of the Report on the first voyage around the world kept at the Veneranda Biblioteca Ambrosiana of Milan, regarded as the oldest version of the original document written by Antonio Pigafetta and a key modern-day reference source.
Together with this precious document, which is joined by examples of 15th and 16th century maps and old printed volumes, there will be a selection of works that symbolically refer back to mankind’s knowledge of the world before the journey. These will sit in contrast with other works that convey the new vision of the world following the journey, also symbolically presenting the most significant legs of the voyage: Brazil, Patagonia, Philippines, Indonesia/Maluku Islands.

Curated by Valeria Cafà, conservator at Museo Correr - Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia and Andrea Canova, full professor of Italian Literature at Cattolica University (Milan and Brescia).

Under the patronage of the Municipality of Vicenza, the National celebratory committee “500 years since the first voyage around the world: Antonio Pigafetta, Vicentine, chronicler of Magellan’s expedition” and Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore.

No such voyage will ever be repeated.
The first voyage around the world, day by day.               

Curated by Valeria Cafà and Andrea Canova

The animated movie tells about the great exploit of the first navigation around the world:  a three years’ journey, 247 sailors coming from different European countries and a fleet of five ships captained by Ferdinando Magellano. The ship called Victoria was the only one to come back to Siviglia with 18 men on board, among whom Antonio Pigafetta from Vicenza, who was both a testimonial and a chronicler of an adventurous journey that has changed the course of history.