The stamp issue “End of the First Circumnavigation Voyage 1519-1522: 500 Years” rounds off the series with which CTT Correios de Portugal marked the 5th centenary of the great voyage, not just as a way of highlighting the feat, but also in order to participate, at institutional level, with the official programme of commemorations.
Issued in four instalments, linked to the same number of significant moments in the expedition, CTT Correios de Portugal presented a stamp collection of exceptional quality, in terms of both its shape and the content included, with which the Task Group for the Celebrations of the 5th centenary of the First Circumnavigation Voyage commanded by Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan | 2019-2022 has been associated since the outset.
This final issue marks the end of the expedition and, as well as summarising the landmark moments that served as inspiration for the previous issues – with content alternating between text and images to describe these occasions –, it is presented in a circular format, which, although unusual for this type of support, alludes brilliantly and imaginatively to one of the main scientific achievements of the expedition – proving that the planet is spherical.
Contemporary understanding of all the logistics involved, the level of confidence in the existing scientific and technological knowledge and the consequences of the feat itself justify the conviction that the expedition planned and led by Ferdinand Magellan – which, after being completed by Juan Sebastián Elcano, became the first circumnavigation of the Earth – was, in fact, the greatest, most fascinating nautical exploit in the history of humankind. It is a perfect symbol of all the exploratory voyages that broadened our vision and understanding of the world during the 15th and 16th centuries.
The stamp issue “End of the First Circumnavigation Voyage 1519-1522: 500 Years” rounds off the series with which CTT Correios de Portugal marked the 5th centenary of the great voyage, not just as a way of highlighting the feat, but also in order to participate, at institutional level, with the official programme of commemorations.
Issued in four instalments, linked to the same number of significant moments in the expedition, CTT Correios de Portugal presented a stamp collection of exceptional quality, in terms of both its shape and the content included, with which the Task Group for the Celebrations of the 5th centenary of the First Circumnavigation Voyage commanded by Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan | 2019-2022 has been associated since the outset.
This final issue marks the end of the expedition and, as well as summarising the landmark moments that served as inspiration for the previous issues – with content alternating between text and images to describe these occasions –, it is presented in a circular format, which, although unusual for this type of support, alludes brilliantly and imaginatively to one of the main scientific achievements of the expedition – proving that the planet is spherical.
Contemporary understanding of all the logistics involved, the level of confidence in the existing scientific and technological knowledge and the consequences of the feat itself justify the conviction that the expedition planned and led by Ferdinand Magellan – which, after being completed by Juan Sebastián Elcano, became the first circumnavigation of the Earth – was, in fact, the greatest, most fascinating nautical exploit in the history of humankind. It is a perfect symbol of all the exploratory voyages that broadened our vision and understanding of the world during the 15th and 16th centuries.
In discovering the strait that bears his name, the point of entry to the great sea he called the Pacific, Ferdinand Magellan gave more sea to the sea and more world to the world. He presented humankind with an oceanic globe, allowing different peoples and cultures to come together, with different ways of looking at life, and giving us a hitherto unknown “Ocean Planet”.
Five centuries later, Ferdinand Magellan’s legacy is a true work of heritage shared by all humankind and a symbolic and intellectual capital, the universality of which, still echoing today, is demonstrated by the fact that his name appears in diverse locations around the globe, in two galaxies close to the Milky Way, a species of penguin, and a space probe sent to orbit Venus, to name but a few.
Revisiting this historic milestone provides, more than anything, an opportunity to deepen, spread and enhance the universal scientific-cultural dimension of the first circumnavigation voyage, as a work of common heritage of humanity.
On this journey, we would like to thank and praise the invaluable contribution, partnership and dedication of CTT Correios de Portugal, with emphasis on the set of stamps created, which, as well as enriching the artistic heritage relating to the first circumnavigation voyage, also constitutes an excellent contribution to philately and is of unmistakeable patrimonial value in the context of the commemorations.
José Marques
President of the Task Group for the Celebrations of the
5th centenary of the First Circumnavigation Voyage commanded
by Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan | 2019-2022
