Magalhães. 500 years later, a Franco-Swiss explorer recounts the journey of the Portuguese
The legendary voyage of circumnavigation of Fernão de Magalhães is now recounted in a comic book by Christian Colt, a Franco-Swiss explorer who followed the footsteps of the Portuguese 500 years ago.
The author begins by leaving a kind of warning to navigation. “Fernão de Magalhães is an enigma. It is one of the greatest explorers of all time, revolutionized the navigation world. And yet nobody knows his life, “writes Christian Clot in the opening lines of the preface to the comic book ‘Magalhães – Hasta el End of the World’, which he dedicated to the Portuguese explorer who, precisely 500 years ago, made the circum- navigation. The date is, moreover, the pretext for the comic book edition that the Franco-Swiss author – who presents himself as “explorer, adventurer and writer” – edited in France and is preparing to launch in Portugal next week with the seal of Gradiva and the partnership of the Cultural Commission of Navy.
The book ‘Magalhães – Until the End of the World’ is a Gradiva edition, in cooperation with the Cultural Commission of the Navy. Presentation is on October 1, in Lisbon, at the Galeotas Pavilion of the Navy Museum, at 5:30 p.m. The author Christian Clot will be present.
The daring expedition that Fernão de Magalhães led at that time, between 1519 and 1522, was the motto that inspired Christian Clot to recount his adventure – the mystery surrounding this historical figure only reinforced his intention. “Is it because he is sometimes presented as an austere, cold and unkind being? On what basis, since there is practically no line, no writing, of its own? Everything has been destroyed, “asks the author of the book. “According to most of his biographers, he never thought about going around the world: he went only to discover a new route to the islands of spices, for riches”, recalls Clot who writes the texts of the book illustrated by Thomas Verguet and Bastien Orenge.
The book seeks to illustrate key moments of this maritime adventure of almost three years, at a time when the Inquisition still dictated the contours of the Earth and punished with the fire the heresy of those who considered it round. Christian Clot recalls what Magellan had to sacrifice to follow his ideals: he had to “renounce everything: to his ideals, to his love of youth and to his country” until his life.
