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Secondary sourceBook1920

The Discovery of the Pacific Ocean: Magellan and His Companions, Documents

José Toribio Medina · 1920

A 1920 compilation of documents about Magellan's Pacific voyage, gathered by historian José Toribio Medina.

A compilation of documents about Magellan's Pacific voyage, assembled by a later historian as a research resource.

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The Discovery of the Pacific Ocean: Magellan and His Companions, DocumentsPDF · 328 pages
José Toribio Medina (ed.), El descubrimiento del Océano Pacífico: Hernando de Magallanes y sus compañeros, documentos, 1920. Scanned book, Internet Archive.

About this source

What it is

This book, compiled by José Toribio Medina and published in 1920 in Santiago, Chile, brings together documents relating to Ferdinand Magellan and his companions during the voyage that crossed the Pacific Ocean. Medina had begun collecting such material decades earlier.

Why it matters

Though published long after Magellan's death, this compilation preserves and organizes older documents connected to his voyage, making primary material accessible through the work of a later historian. It shows how historians piece together the story of famous voyages using scattered original sources.

Look closer

  • Why might a historian spend decades collecting documents about one voyage?
  • How is a compiled collection of documents different from a single firsthand account?
  • What questions would you ask about where Medina found these documents?

This book is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Ferdinand Magellan on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

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