Maximilian van Sevenbergen, Latinized inMaximilianus Transylvanus (Transilvanus, Transylvanianus), alsoMaximilianus ofTransylvania andMaximilian (Maximiliaen) von Sevenborgen (between 1485 and 1490 – 1538,Brussels), was a courtier ofEmperor Charles V who is mainly known for having authored the earliest account published on theMagellan andElcano expedition, the firstcircumnavigation of the world (1519–22). Written after he interviewed the survivors of theVictoria, and being a relative of its sponsorChristopher de Haro, his accountDe Moluccis Insulis is a main source of information about the expedition along with those ofAntonio Pigafetta andPeter Martyr.[1]
I) Steven (Stephanus) van Sevenbergen (His family may have come from the village ofZevenbergen in North Brabant, which was also the native town ofErasmus's mother), married Joanna Meers.
II) Lucas van Sevenbergen, bourgeois of Brussels, goldsmith, living in Brussels,valet de chambre and engraver of seals ofMaximilian king of the Romans, married Jeanne Meerte, born around 1466, daughter of the goldsmith Guillaume Meerte, from theSeven Noble Houses of Brussels, and Gertrude Schuelens.Lucas van Sevenbergen and Jeanne Meerte had three children:[2]
III) Maximilian van Sevenbergen according to Maximilianus Transylvanus married in 1521 Françoise de Haro, daughter of Diego, Antwerp merchant and friend ofMagellan, and Jeanne Pynapel, deceased in 1530. In 1531 he married Catherine de Mol, daughter of Roland, squire, lord of Loupoigne and of Grambais, alderman and burgermeister of Brussels, member of the Serroelofs lineage. With her he had two daughters:
He had two recognized natural children:
Maximilianus Transylvanus had built a sumptuous Italian-style palace in Brussels opposite the Sablon church, which was celebrated in Latin verses by the poetJanus Secundus.
He acquired in 1537 theBouchout Castle inMeise, near Brussels.
Maximilianus Transylvanus' origins and paternity are a matter of dispute among historians.
In spite of his surname, Transylvanus is said to have come from Flanders, not Transylvania, and to have been a natural orbastard son of ArchbishopLang von Wellenburg, which is impossible because when he was born in 1490, Mathäus Lang was a poor student inTübingen, and the father of Transylvanus was then a wealthy goldsmith, living in Brussels. Lang von Wellenberg, born in 1469 to a burgher family, took holy orders much later in life (in 1519).
Scholars point to a Flemish provenance due to the fact that:
In an 1891 letter toNotes and Queries, a scholar (identified only as "L.L.K.") wrote:
In 1916, the same scholar wrote in to state:
One of the main arguments in favor of Maximilianus' Transylvanian origin: The renowned humanist and Bishop ofPécs (later archbishop ofEsztergom,Hungary)Nicolaus Olahus' 1534 dated letter mentions "noster Maximilianus Transylvanus", that is "our Transylvanian Maximilianus", with whom he became a close friend in Brussels bonded by the shared heritage: "Based on our common fatherland we are in great intimacy with one another, as he says, and I believe (pro ea, quae inter nos ob patriam communem intercedit familiaritas ut ipse dicit, ergo qouque ita credo, non vulgaris)"[5]. It is also well known that Nicolaus Olahus was born in Hermannstadt (in Hungarian: Nagyszeben; today in Rumanian:Sibiu) in Transylvania.
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In 1520, Transylvanus had published, atAugsburg, a work inLatin that describes the reception that nominatedCharles I, King of Spain, asHoly Roman Emperor in 1519 atMolins de Rei, in Spain. This is theLegatio 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 (Augsburg: Sigismund Grimm und Marx Wirsung, 1520). 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 shipVictoria returned to Spain in September 1522. This group includedJuan Sebastián Elcano,Francisco Albo, andHernando de Bustamante. The result wasMaximiliani 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 inCologne in 1523.
Maximilianus, a pupil ofPeter Martyr Vermigli, interviewed the surviving members of the expedition when they presented themselves to the Spanish court atValladolid in the fall of 1522. Eager to acquire fame as a writer, he produced his tractDe Moluccis Insulis as a letter toMatthäus Lang von Wellenburg, theCardinal-Archbishop of Salzburg, who had suggested that he perform the interviews in the first place.[6] It may have also been Vermigli who suggested the project to the young courtier. Vermigli, was, after all, very interested in overseas exploration.
Maximilianus' letter is dated 24 October 1522, and his account was sent to Lang, whom he calls ambiguouslydomine mi unice ("my sole lord"), while the cardinal-archbishop was attending theDiet of Nuremberg. This diet was concerned with pacifying the firstProtestants, which resulted in the sending of a letter of appeal toPope Adrian VI.
Maximilianus' letter reached the hands of aCologne printer,Eucharius Cervicornus (a Latinized rendering of "Hirtzhorn"), and the first edition ofDe Moluccis Insulis was printed in January 1523. Despite the war that had erupted between Charles V andFrancis I of France (seeItalian War of 1521), this first edition reached Paris, where it was printed anew byPierre Viart in July 1523. A subsequent edition was printed at Rome byMinutius Calvus (Minizio Calvo), in November 1523.
Transylvanus had a lively interest in Magellan's expedition around the world. However, his information should not be entirely accepted at face value, as Transylvanus uncritically accepted the testimony he took down from the surviving crew members. He was also in a hurry to get his letter published.[7]
The account written byAntonio Pigafetta, the expedition's official chronicler and one of the survivors of the voyage, did not appear in print until 1525, in Paris, and was not wholly published until the last year of the 18th century; this was the edition byCarlo Amoretti published in 1800. This edition is now famously called the Ambrosiana codex.[citation needed] It is through Transylvanus' account that Europe was informed of the first circumnavigation of the globe.
Transylvanus recorded gossip on board about the mutiny that occurred during Magellan's voyage, calling it a "shameful and foul conspiracy" among the Spanish officers and men.[8] Pigafetta and Transylvanus differ on who was responsible for the massacre that occurred atCebu in thePhilippines. Transylvanus states that it wasJoão Serrão who mistreatedEnrique de Malacca, Magellan's former slave, thereby causing Enrique to plot the massacre; Pigafetta, who did not attend the banquet that served as the trap, blamesDuarte Barbosa.
Transylvanus' text also includes a fairly accurate description of howspices were grown. "The natives share groves of this tree among themselves," he writes, "just as we do vineyards".[9]
A surviving copy of the first edition of his work can be found in theBeinecke Library (Yale University). A second edition can be found at theNederlands Scheepvaartmuseum (Amsterdam).Princeton University Library has copies of the Cologne and Rome printings. TheNational Library of the Philippines' Permanent Gallery hasDe Moluccis Insulis, a 1520s pocket-sized book with a black cover.[4]
Media related toMaximilianus Transylvanus at Wikimedia Commons