Maximilianus Transylvanus

Who was Maximilianus Transylvanus?

Maximilianus Transylvanus, also Maximilianus of Transylvania and Maximilian von Sevenborgen, was a sixteenth-century author based in Flanders who wrote the earliest account published on Magellan and Elcano's first circumnavigation of the world. Written after he interviewed the survivors of the Victoria, and being a relative of sponsor Christopher de Haro, his account De Moluccis Insulis is a main source about the expedition along with that of Antonio Pigafetta.

In 1520, Transylvanus had published, at Augsburg, a work in Latin that describes the reception that nominated Charles I, King of Spain, as Holy Roman Emperor in 1519 at Molins de Rei, in Spain. This is the Legatio ad sacratissimum ac invictum Caesarem divum Carolum .... ab reverendissimis et illustrissimis principibus ... qua functus est ...Federicus comes palatinus in Molendino regio vlt. Novembris Anno MDXIX. At this point, Maximilianus seems to have already been serving as personal secretary to Charles V, as well as accompanying the monarch on his travels.

As Secretary to Charles V, the Holy Roman Emperor, for whom Magellan had sailed, Transylvanus interviewed the survivors of the voyage when Magellan's surviving ship Victoria returned to Spain in September 1522. This group included Juan Sebastián Elcano, Francisco Albo, and Hernando de Bustamante. The result was Maximiliani Transyluani Caesaris a secretis epistola, de admirabili & novissima hispanoru in orientem navigatione, que auriae, & nulli prius accessae regiones sunt, cum ipsis etia moluccis insulis, published in Cologne in 1523.