Filippo Pigafetta

In it Pigafetta explains that he was ordered by Pope Sixtus V to transcribe the account of Duarte Lopez, a Portuguese trader who had spent twelve years in the Congo.

Lopez had hoped that the pope would give him support in his mission to the Congolese, but this was not forthcoming: he returned to Africa, and was not heard from again.

Lopez's narrative gives a detailed account of his voyage on his uncle's ship, and the history and geography of the kingdom of Congo and its six administrative regions under the rule of its king (named by Lopez 'Don Alvarez').

In 1608 Pigafetta published an Italian version of the Theatrum Orbis Terrarum of Abraham Ortelius.

[1] Pigafetta's Regnum Congo plays an important role in H. P. Lovecraft's short story "The Picture in the House".

Map of Vicenza country. From Filippo Pigafetta, Novam hanc et accuratissima Territorii Vicentini descriptionem , in Abraham Ortelius , Theatro del mondo , Anversa, 1608. Vicenza, Biblioteca Civica Bertoliana.
Discorso d'intorno all'historia della aguglia et alla ragione del muoverla , 1586