Talk:Gatighan

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[edit] Merge into Limasawa, Southern Leyte

It seems to me that this content should be merged into the article for Limasawa, since the conclusion clearly says that they are one and the same. Most non-Filipinos know of the island as Limisawa, and those people would benefit from learning about this part of its history. They wouldn't even think to look for 'Gatighan,' so let's put them together. BaseballBaby 01:08, 16 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Correcting a historical blunder

The above suggestion will help put to rest a grand historical blunder that started with the butchering by 16th century travel writer Giovanni Battista Ramusio of the eyewitness account of Antonio Pigafetta who replaced Mazaua with Butuan, the invention by 17th century chronicler Fr. Francisco Combés of the word Limasawa which is not found in any language much less in any eyewitness account of Magellan's voyage none of which Combés had read, and the final error by 19th c paleographer-writer Carlo Amoretti who had not read Combés and used the neologism Limasawa as identical to Mazaua. Mazaua had an excellent port which provided safe harbor to Magellan's fleet in 1521, to Ginés de Mafra's galeota in 1543, to other ships of the Spanish and Portuguese during the Age of Sale.

Limasawa has no anchorage. It does not possess one property of Mazaua including name, size, shape, latitude, myths and tradition, language, flora and fauna, is not reached by tracks drawn by Antonio Pigafetta and Francisco Albo, and every other possible feature one can think of that describes Mazaua. It is the waystation of Magellan's fleet named Gatighan. 03:35, 1 April 2007 (UTC)Vicente C. de Jesus

[edit] Is Gatighan an island or a Cape?

Vandalism is rampant in Wikipedia and someone, who did not sign his name, tried to vandalize this article by asserting a negation of the entire article itself. He refuses to accept Pigafetta's testimony that Gatighan is an island. Here is what Pigafetta said about Gatighan: "We remained seven days in this place, then we laid course to the southwest, passing through five islands, namely, Ceylon(Panaon), Bohol, Canighan, Baibai, and Gatighan. In this island of Gatighan are a kind of birds called Barbastigly, who are as large as eagles." This comes from page 73 of the English translation by R.A. Skelton of the Nancy-Libri-Phillipps-Beinecke-Yale codex, one of four extant manuscripts of Antonio Pigaftta. Here's the same passage in another surviving manuscript, MS 5650, on page 83 of the English translation by Lord Stanley of Alderley: "We remained seven days in this place; then we took the tack of Maestral, passing through the midst of five isles, that is to say, Ceylon, Bohol, Canighan, Baibai, and Satighan. In this island of Satighan is a kind of bird called Barbastigly, which are large as eagles." Note, as I pointed out in my main article, that Lord Stanley misread Gatighan and saw Satighan. The explanation for this error is the difficulty of reading the Renaissance longhand. Paleographic errors abound of Magellanic documents--not to speak of other manuscripts during the entire 16th century--foremost example of which was the mistranscription of the word Mazaua which came out as Maçangor in the Lisbon manuscript of The Genoese Pilot, and Maquamguoa in his Madrid MS. In the Ginés de Mafra account, Mazaua is spelled two different ways, Maçagua and Maçaguaba and in the same page at that! Let me quote directly from the French transcription/edition by J. Denucé of Pigafetta's MS 5650, page 110: "Nous demourasmes sept jours en cedit lieu, puys prismes la volte du maestral en passant par le millieu de cinq Isles, c'est assavoir Ceylon, Bohol, Canighau, Baibai, et Gatighan. En la quelle Isle de Gatighan est une maniere d'oyseaulx nommez Barbastigly, qui sont grandz comme aigles.." Let us go to the more universally known Pigafetta manuscript, the Italian Ambrosiana codex, whose English translation by James Alexander Robertson was called by Martin Torodash "one of the triumphs of American scholarship." Here is the same passage: "We remained there seven days, after which we laid our course toward the northwest, passing among five islands, namely, Ceylon, Bohol, Canigao, Baybay, and Gatighan." This is found on page 43 of the Theodore J. Cachey, Jr. edition (Marsillo Publishers, New York: 1995) whose English comes from Robertson's translation.

The person who tried to vandalize my article has been waylaid by the title of the map found in the Nancy-Yale codex, R.A. Skelton edition, where the title of the map says, "Figure of the Cape of Gatighan, of the islands of Mazzaua, Bohol, Ceilon, Baibai, Canighan, Tigobou, and Pozzon." By a strange twist, the island of Gatighan is omitted in the enumeration above and the map has scrolls that are empty of placenames, thus one will not find the name Gatighan. The vandal ignores totally the text of Pigafetta. He also ignores the map of the other extant manuscripts--Ambrosiana, MS 5650, and MS 24224--where the maps show the names of islands including Gatighan. In another forum, I have advised him to read Pigafetta's text in all four extant manuscripts and the maps found in the other manuscripts. He obviously refuses to do so, and if he has read these now wants to foist his ignorance if not willful ignorance on an unsuspecting world.

I hope the editors of Wikipedia will be on guard. Vandalism is a disease that eats up the patience of earnesst scholars as well as the integrity of this grand human enterprise. Vicente C. de Jesus 02:08, 25 August 2007 (UTC)203.167.16.220 01:56, 25 August 2007 (UTC) 203.167.16.220 02:05, 25 August 2007 (UTC)Vicente C. de Jesus 06:58, 27 August 2007 (UTC)