general history. It ranks with those of Columbus, Marco Polo, and Henry the Navigator. The circumnavigation of the globe is as great an event as the discovery of America. Magellan achieved what Columbus planned—the linking of west Europe with east Asia by direct transit over the western ocean. Had America not intervened, the project of 1492 must have failed; by 1519 European pioneers had formed a more adequate notion of the task and its magnitude.
Magellan’s Straits, the Magellanic clouds (not first observed by him), and Magellan’s Land—a name long given to Patagonia and that hypothetical southern continent of which Tierra del Fuego was considered only a portion, and now again bestowed by Chile on her territory in the extreme south—preserve the memory of the first circumnavigator. The largest of the oceans has also kept the flattering name given to it by the man who first crossed it.
No record of his exploits was left by Magellan himself; and contemporary accounts are less detailed and consistent than could be wished. The best is that of Antonio Pigafetta, a volunteer in the fleet. It is printed in Ramusio, and exists in four early MS. copies, one in Italian and three in French. The latter was perhaps the original language of this work, which was addressed by Pigafetta, as a knight of Rhodes, to the Frenchman Villiers de l’Isle Adam, grand master of the order of the Hospital of St John. But this view is rejected by J. A. Robertson (see below), who believes the Ambrosian MS. to be the ultimate text. See the Primo viaggio intorno al mondo, otherwise the Navigation et descouvrement de la Indie supérieure faicte par moi Anthoyne Pigapheta, Vincentin, chevallier de Rhodes, probably published in 1524 (in August of that year Pigafetta obtained leave to print his book in Venice). Of the three French MSS., two are in the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris (5650 and 24,224 Fr.), the latter is wrongly supposed by Thomassy, followed by Lord Stanley of Alderley, to have been the copy presented by Pigafetta to the regent of France, Marie Louise of Savoy, mother of Francis I. The third French MS., often called the MS. of Nancy, first noticed by Thomassy in 1841, was bought by Sir Thomas Phillipps at Libri’s sale, and became MS. Phillipps 16,405. The Italian MS. is in the Ambrosian library at Milan. From this Carlo Amoretti, prefect of the Ambrosiana, published his Italian edition of Pigafetta in 1800; a French translation of this, by Amoretti himself, was issued by H. J. Jansen, 1801. An English version of Pigafetta was made by Richard Eden in his Decades of the Newe Worlde (London, 1555). The earliest printed edition, apparently a summary of the Italian MS., was issued in French by Simon de Colines of Paris about 1525. The earliest Italian edition is of 1534 (or 1536).
Other authorities are: (1) The narrative of an unknown Portuguese in Ramusio’s Navigationi et viaggi; (2) the Derrotero or Log-Book in the Seville Archives, supposed to be the work of Francisco Albo, contramaestre of Magellan’s flagship, the “Trinidad”: this consists mainly of nautical observations; (3) the narrative of the so-called Genoese pilot, written in excellent Portuguese, and printed in vol. iv. of the Collecão de noticias of the Lisbon Academy; (4) various informaciones and other papers in the Seville Archives, especially bearing on the mutiny; (5) the letter of Maximilian of Transylvania, under-secretary to Charles V., to the cardinal of Salzburg; (6) the references in Correa and Herrera, often based on good information, and adding points of interest to other records. Of these (1)–(3), (5), and an instance of (6) are translated in the Hakluyt Society’s volume. Magellan’s two wills (i) executed at Belem on the 17th of December 1504, on the eve of his departure with Almeida, (ii) executed at Seville on the 24th of August, 1519, just before starting on his voyage round the world, are both of some value for his life.
See also Lord Stanley of Alderley, The First Voyage round the World by Magellan, translated from . . . Pigafetta, &c., Hakluyt Society (London, 1874); Diego de Barros Arana, Vida e viagems de Fernão de Magalhães, a trans. of the Spanish life by Fernando de Magalhães Villas Boas (Lisbon, 1881); F. H. H. Guillemard, Life of Magellan (London, 1890); Magellan . . . the original text of the Ambrosian MS. (of Pigafetta), with English translation, notes, bibliography, &c., by J. A. Robertson (Cleveland, U.S.A., 1906). Before the appearance of this indispensable work, the best edition of Pigafetta had been in vol. iii. part 5 of the Raccolta di documenti e studi pubblicati nella r. commissione colombiana, edited by Andrea da Mosto (Rome, Ministry of Public Instruction, 1894). (C. R. B.)
MAGELLANIC CLOUDS (named after Ferdinand Magellan),
two cloud-like condensations of stars in the southern constellation
of Mensa about 69° S. Dec. and between 5° and 5° 40′ of
R. A. They are remarkable in the resemblance of their stars
as regards spectra and physical constitution to the stars of the
Milky Way, though entirely detached from that object.
MAGENTA, a town of Lombardy, Italy, in the province of Milan, 16 m. by rail W. of Milan city, 364 ft. about sea-level situated in the midst of rice-fields. Pop. (1901), 8012. It manufactures silks and matches, and is famous for the battle (1859) in which the allied French and Piedmontese defeated the Austrians (see Italian Wars). A memorial chapel and a monument were erected on the battle-field in 1862. A crimson-purple aniline dye, discovered about the time of the battle, was given from it the name of “magenta.”
MAGGIORE, LAGO (Lacus Verbanus of the Romans; Fr.
Lac Majeur; Ger. Langensee), the most extensive of the lakes
that extend along the foot of the Alps in Lombardy, N. Italy.
Its area is about 83 sq. m., its length 37 m., its greatest width
512 m., and its greatest depth 1198 ft., while its surface is 646 ft.
about sea-level. It is mainly formed by the Ticino (Tessin)
River, flowing in at the north and out at the south end, on its
way to join the Po, but on the west the lake receives a very
important tributary, the Toce or Tosa River, which flows down
through the Val d’Ossola from the mountains around the
Simplon Pass. Other important affluents are the Maggia (N.W.)
and the Tresa (E.). The upper end of the lake (about 16 sq. m.)
is in the Swiss canton of Ticino (Tessin). Locarno, at the
northern or Swiss end, is 14 m. by rail S.W. of Bellinzona on
the St Gotthard line. There is a railway along the south-eastern
shore, from Magadino (1012 m. S.W. of Bellinzona) to
Sesto Calende (3612 m.), at the southern end of the lake and 20 m.
by rail from Novara. The east shore of the lake is reached at
Luino by a steam tramway from Ponte Tresa on the lake of
Lugano (8 m.), while the direct Simplon line runs along the west
shore of the lake for 1512 m. from near Pallanza past Baveno and
Stresa to Arona, which is 23 m. by rail from Novara. On the
east shore are Luino (Ital. Luvino) and Laveno. On the west
shore are (reckoning from N. to S.) Cannobio, Pallanza, Baveno,
Stresa and Arona. Opposite (S.E.) Baveno are the famous
Borromean Islands, on the largest of which (Isola Bella) are very
remarkable gardens (formed about 1617), wherein many tropical
plants flourish abundantly, while south-west of Baveno rises the
glorious view-point of the Monte Mottarone (4892 ft.) between
Lago Maggiore and the northern end of the Lake of Orta.
In the morning the tramontana wind blows from the north
down the lake, while in the afternoon the inverna, blowing from
the south, prevails. The first steamer was placed on the lake in 1826.
(W. A. B. C.)
MAGIC[1] (i.e. “art magic”; Lat. ars magica), the general term for the practice and power of wonder-working, as depending
on the employment of supposed supernatural agencies.
Etymologically the Gr. μαγεία meant the science and religion
of the magi, or priests of Zoroaster, as known among the Greeks;
in this sense it was opposed to γοητεία (? necromancy) and
φαρμακεία (the use of drugs); but this distinction was not
universally recognized, and γοητεία is often used as a synonym
of μαγεία. There is no general agreement as to the proper
definition of “magic,” which depends on the view taken of
“religion.”
I.—Nature of Magic
Theories of Magic.—Existing theories of magic may be classified as objective or subjective. The objective school regards magic as a thing by itself, entirely distinct from religion, recognizable by certain characteristics, and traceable to a definite psychological origin. Magic, on this view, is a system of savage science based on imaginary laws supposed to operate with the regularity ascribed to natural laws by the science of to-day. If practices prima facie magical form part of the recognized ritual of religion, it is because the older ideas have persisted and at most assumed a veneer of religion. For the subjective school, on the other hand, only those rites are magical which their practitioners qualify with the name of magic; there is no inherent quality which makes a rite magical; practices based on a belief in the law of sympathy may be religious as well as magical; rites may pass from the category of religion to that of magic when public recognition is withdrawn from them.
