Synopses & Reviews
Between the year 1000 and the mid-14th century, several remarkable events unfolded as Europeans made contact with a very substantial part of the inhabited world, much of it never previously known or suspected to exist by them. Leif Ericsson and other Vikings discovered North America; European crusading armies established themselves in Syria and Palestine; Marco Polo and other Italian merchants, and missionaries such as John of Monte Corvino, penetrated the dominions of Mongolia and China; the Vivaldi brothers sought to open a sea route to India; Jaime Ferrer was lured by dreams of locating the source of West African gold; and the Atlantic island groups, the Canaries, Madeira, and the Azores, were all discovered. In this detailed survey, Phillips describes these exciting quests while also exploring their closely related myths and legends, all the while setting the stage for the even greater exploits of Christopher Columbus, Vasco da Gama, and their successors.
For this new Clarendon Paperback edition, Phillips has added both an introduction and a bibliographical essay, the latter of which surveys recent work in what is becoming a thriving area of new research.
Review
"The best available survey of medieval knowledge of, and contact with, the lands beyond Europe before 1492."--Journal of World History
"The accumulation of valuable information, leavened by many acute and illuminating observations...is quite breath-taking in its scope....Here is the ideal, comprehensive survey we have all been waiting for."--Irish Historical Studies
"An excellent and fascinating book....Phillips has covered an enormous range....At once an extremely able work of synthesis and a book with a clear and persuasive thesis of its own."--Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies
"The reader is...teased with old and new problems. How genuine is the Vinland Map? Were the Genoese Vivaldi brothers trying to anticipate Vasco da Gama or Columbus when they sailed West through the Straits of Gibraltar in 1291?...Phillips's book is full of fascinating detail, as well as being clear, wide-ranging, and equipped with a useful bibliography."--Welsh History Review
Description
Includes bibliographical references (p. [247]-268) and index.
About the Author
J. R. S. Phillips is Head of the Department of Medieval History at University College, Dublin.
Table of Contents
Maps
Preface
Preface to the Second Edition
Introduction
The Beginnings of the Medieval Expansion of Europe
Europe and Asia
Two Continents and an Ocean
Europe and the World c.1100-1450
The Fifteenth-Century Expansion of Europe
Conclusion
Bibliography
Some Recent Writings
Index