This Earthly Globe: A Venetian Geographer and the Quest to Map the World

by Andrea di Robilant

From the author of the best-selling A Venetian Affair ("A narrative of novelistic resonance...Astonishing" — The Washington Post ), the story of an Italian Renaissance book editor who introduced European minds to the wider world through his passion for geography

In the autumn of 1550, a thick volume containing a wealth of new geographical information, with startling wood-cut maps of Africa, India and Indonesia, was published in Venice under the title Navigationi & Viaggi (Journeys & Navigations). The person who had edited this remarkable collection of travelogues, journals, and classified government reports was unknown. Two more volumes delivered the most accurate information on Asia and the "New" World that was available. The three volumes together constituted an unparalleled release of geographical data into the public domain. It was, Andrea di Robilant writes, the biggest Wikileak of the Renaissance.

In This Earthly Globe , di Robilant brings to life the palace intrigues, editorial wheedling, delicate alliances, and vibrant curiosity that resulted in this coup by the editor G. B. Ramusio. Learned and self-effacing, he gathered a diverse array of both popular and closely guarded narratives, from the journals of Marco Polo (he fact-checked them!) to detailed reports on Northern African cultures from Hasan ibn Mohammad al-Wazzan of Andalusia. Diverse voices spill out from these chapters as di Robilant recounts how Ramusio pursued the sources, and how he understood both the darker episodes of "exploration," which included colonial violence, and the accounts of people from African and Asian lands, who had a great deal to share about their cultures. The result is a far-flung and delightful homage to one of the founding fathers of book publishing.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Geography, Maps, Renaissance, Travel, World History

272 pages, Hardcover

Published June 18, 2024

About the author

Andrea di Robilant was educated at Le Rosey and Columbia University. He now lives in Rome, working as a correspondent for the newspaper La Stampa.

Reviews

[Nancy · Rating 5 out of 5]

In 1550, when most of the world was terra incognita and knowledge from explorers was top secret, one man dared to publish revelatory books drawing from classified material and reports, including up-to-date maps. He published it in his language, Italian, so it was accessible.

The project was the culmination of Giovambattista Ramusio’s life work building a private library of “official documents, top-secret reports, private letters, and a vast array of travel narratives both in manuscript and in printed form.”

It was a time of book banning, and the book’s contents were so inflammatory, the publisher worried that the Inquisition would take him to task. Some of the explorers were impressed by ‘heathen’ cultures, or at least were not dismissive.

Other narratives told of the European explorer’s violence and treachery against the indigenous populations they encountered.

The books became best sellers, in print for a hundred years.

These books shared the world, its geography and people, for all to read. Explorers worked for a specific rulers who financed their journeys, then held confidential the knowledge gained. For this information was vital to trade interests.

Ramusio had a long career in Venetian government. At retirement, instead of merely enjoying his farm and time with his son, he decided to compile all his sources into books, . It was like putting together “the pieces of a grand puzzle,” di Robilant writes. Ramusio literally worked himself to death on the project.

Ramusio’s story is fascinating in itself. He was friends with influential book publishers, scholars, scientists, and the man who ran a public library of rare books. His position in the Senate allowed him access to inside information.

This Earthly Globe is more than a biography, it is also a 16th c travelogue taking readers on the journeys of discovery. I was fascinated by early explorers as a girl and relished these sections.

There is so much in this book! Early publishing, Venetian, European, and world politics, the impact of new trade sources, how Europeans experienced and interacted with foreign cultures, and how exploration shifted our understanding of world geography. It is wonderful to study Ramusio’s included maps. Just a delightful and informative read.

Thanks to the publisher for a free book.

[Liviu · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quite an interesting book about the publication of the first reasonably accurate set of maps and facts about the world around 1550 by a Venetian official and writer who used his position and contacts to collate information, some secret, some difficult to find.

While the author's life and quest to publish this work are of some interest, the actual tales included from many explorers - including Pigafetta who sailed with Magellan and was one of the few survivors of the expedition or Leo Africanus, the Spanish born Moroccan diplomat and explorer who was taken prisoner in the early 1520's and offered to the Pope who treated him very well so he remained in Rome until the tragic sack of 1527 - are extremely fascinating and the book is worth reading for those

[Michael G. Zink · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book. At the center of the story stands Giovambattista Ramusio, a 16th century Venetian diplomat, publisher, geographer, and humanist. During the last decade of his long and productive life - even as he served many of those years on Venice’s ruling Council of Ten - he published the magnificent three-volume work Navigazioni e Viaggi (Journeys and Navigations). It is still available today.

Venice had been a commercial power for centuries but its global network was under threat. During the late 15th century and early 16th century - the exact span of Ramusio’s life - emerging European powers such as Portugal and Spain sponsored Explorers who believed that could discover new trade routes and unlock vast wealth for their sponsors. Many of us are familiar with these explorers. Christopher Columbus, Vasco da Gama, and Ferdinand Magellan were all looking for maritime routes to the fabled Spice Islands that would disrupt Venice’s control of the spice trade. The conquistadors Hernan Cortes and Francisco Pizarro brutally conquered the empires of the Aztecs and the Incas.

Geographic information about these voyages was very valuable to a commercial power like Venice, and it was among Portugal’s and Spain’s most closely guarded secrets.

Through his impressive network of diplomatic and humanist connections, Ramusio managed to assemble much of that information, in the service of Venice. As he approached the end of his life, in the mid 16th century, he decided to publish all he had gathered and learned. Much of it was being made publicly available for the first time. His work contains the first-hand reports of people traveling on journeys with Magellan, Cortes, and others. He also published the work of people such as Leo Africanus, whose writings about his travels through North African and the Sahel revealed another “new world” to 16th century Europeans. While most of the information in the three volumes of Navigazioni e Viaggi focuses on the 15th and 16th century journeys, Ramusio gives pride of place in one volume to the 13th century journeys through Eurasia - all the way to fabled Cathay - by his fellow Venetian Marco Polo.

I have read books about all those explorers and all of those journeys and a few more books about Venice but Ramusio is a revelation to me. He wrote at a time of great intellectual tumult, with figures such as Erasmus of Rotterdam and Martin Luther upending long-held views of the world. The information about these journeys to Asia and to the Western Hemisphere displaced the geographic views of Ptolemy, and created a new world view. Ramusio insisted on publishing his work in vernacular Italian (rather than Latin) so that it would be more accessible to his countrymen. This Earthly Globe weaves all these stories together, trying to present the contemporary 16th century perspective of a world being turned upside down.

[Lisa Konet · Rating 1 out of 5]

Although the content matter of this book and ARC initially excited me, however the actual reading experience was quite different. I suffered reading through this because it was boring and not entertaining. I have read many nonfiction authors like Nathaniel Philbrick, Walter Isaacson and the like that have a knack for a fun narrative that makes for a great read. Robilant was far from this this experience....

Content wise? I have read better books about map mapping like a title I cannot remember by Ken Jennings. Better titles I can remember are, "Longitude" by Dava Sobel and "Maps that Changed the World" by SImon Winschester. Infinitely better world map/mapping books than this one. Id would start with either of those books if this is a subject you are interested in learning about.

Cannot recommend.

Thanks to the Robilant, Netgalley and Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage and ANchot for an ARC in exchange for an honest review..

already available

[Dan Trefethen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book wasn't exactly what I thought it would be.

It was better.

Less than 60 years after Columbus discovered the new world, Giovambattista Ramusio compiled a multi-volume work that purported to represent all known knowledge about the geography and peoples of the world. This story should be more widely known. Ramusio had excellent contacts throughout Europe, was a relentless researcher and fact checker (to the extent facts could be checked), and was able to acquire reports in manuscript that he probably shouldn't have been able to acquire. Much of the geographical information of different parts of the world were considered secret by the nations that collected it. The author describes his efforts as the biggest Wikileaks of that century.

So this story is not so much about the publication of his landmark book, ('Journeys and Navigations' is the English translation), but the story of how the various reports were developed by the explorers and travelers who wrote them. It's a fascinating history of European exploration, politics, religion, and the effects of war in the early 16th century.

Ramusio was determined to show that the Ancients (Ptolemy, Aristotle, etc.) could no longer be trusted to provide accurate information about geography. Ramusio sought to provide a single source of up to date knowledge, and decided to publish it in Italian rather than Latin, so more people (politicians, merchants) could read it, not just the scientific intelligentsia and scholars.

He suffered the problem of the researcher who can't stop researching: He waited almost too long, not starting publication until he was in his 60s. He died just as the third volume was wrapping up, and it became a shortened version of what it could have been. Nevertheless, it was an astounding achievement for the 1550s. Many key people used it, including Mercator in developing his globe.

This book has illustrations from Ramusio's work that are delightful, including the earliest known city plans of Technochtitlan (Mexico City) and Cuzco, Peru. Representations of the coasts of Brazil, Africa and Asia are easily recognizable, although some detail and scale is off.

Unfortunately, it appears that his work has not been translated into English. That's a shame, as he reprints many of the earliest reports from travelers who were dedicated to describing what they saw and experienced, not what was told to them secondhand. Ramusio was insistent on using sources who had actually experienced what they reported.

His is one of those amazing accomplishments that aren't well known now, because inevitably his work was superseded by more accurate information in later decades and centuries. It was a landmark publication of its time and should be celebrated as such.

Now, if anyone wants to take on a humongous translation job, I'd love to read the original, at least in parts; I probably don't love it enough to learn Italian.

[Eliot Powers · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an interesting read, at times it was a bit hard to follow, with too many surface-level examples and not enough of a singular deep dive. Many of the expeditions described were fascinating, but a few were just lists of place name after place name (Marco Polo especially).

The central figure of Ramusio clearly deserves the attention, and it was exciting to catch a glimpse of an era where we still had earth to explore and map.

[Judy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the story of a remarkable geographer, cartographer, translator, and editor named Giovanni Battista Ramusio (1487-1557) who lived and worked in the Venetian Republic during the heady times of the Age of Discovery. He was seven years old when Columbus discovered America, and eleven when Cartier travelled the St. Lawrence Seaway. His life’s work was to produce a book in three volumes called Naviationi et Viaggi - a compilation of maps, navigational charts, eye witness accounts, drawing, and secret government correspondence concerning the great journeys of Europeans to Africa plus the unknown lands to their east and west. In Naviationi et Viagg, Ramusio documented the most consequential geographic discoveries of the Western world.
Much of the globe had been mapped by 1550, but there was no universal knowledge of the cartography because each country was afraid another would use the information to interfere with its lucrative trade routes or steal its overseas holdings. So how Ramusio acquired the source material for this extraordinary book reads very much like a spy story. In his capacity as a Venetian government official, Ramusio created a vast network of connections to ambassadors, church officials, and government officers around the known world. The eye witness accounts, he cherished above all other kinds of documentation. He writes, for example: “Neither the Greeks nor the Latins nor anyone else had written anything worth our consideration about Ethiopia. Now don Francisco Alvarez had opened up that country and made it plain for us to see. Hope to God that we will one day know as much about many parts of the world we still know so little about as we now know about Ethiopia thanks to the writings of this man.”
He tells us of the first time Europeans identified “a cluster of stars clear and shiny in the shape of a cross reclining horizontally in the southern sky.” He relates the first mapping of the interior of Africa along with explorers trying to describe a baobab tree or an elephant. He even goes back to the trips of Marco Polo in the thirteenth century and compiles, from Polo’s own diaries, a fascinating travelogue of Polo’s seventeen years spent as an ambassador of the Great Khan.
Often Ramusio used the narratives of extremely well placed diplomats . Peter Martyr (his name in English) was “the man in charge of supervising the debriefing of Elcano and Pigafetta (members of Columbus’ crew on his fourth voyage )after the return of the Victoria in 1522. Over the years, Martyr had interviewed the major pilots, explorers and conquistadores who had returned from the New Indies, collecting and editing their reports.” Martyr wrote a narrative about Columbus’ “dazzling feats and woeful failures” in the New World, as well as Davila’s founding of Panama City and Cortes’ conquest of Mexico “based on a number of interviews with men who had returned to Spain.” The memoirs of Gonzolo Oviedo, one of the initial Spaniards to live in Panama, and who wrote A Natural and General History of the Indies was also included in Naviationi et Viaggi.
Much of the book is about exploration, but there is also the fascinating personal story of Ramusio’s life in 16th century Venice set against constant European wars, and fear of a Muslim invasion of the continent. Ramusio, made a fortune as a Venetian merchant. He was also at the very core of legislators who ruled the maritime duchy. What he was most proud of in his life, however, was the compilation of all his findings together to reveal the first fully accurate picture of the modern globe, his great and enduring Naviationi et Viaggi.

[Smitchy · Rating 3 out of 5]

What does it take to map the world? 500 years ago Europeans had just encountered the Americas but were still trying to fit their view of the world into the maps left to them by the philosophers of antiquity. Ptolemy (who lived in the 2nd century C.E.) had recorded in his 'Geographica' a world of three continents (Europe, Asia, and Africa) and, even as the renaissance altered art and science, learned men in Europe considered themselves almost heretical to admit the ancients might be wrong. As new discoveries were made they kept trying to fit new information into the old view, in spite of evidence.
Enter Giovambattista Ramusio, a public servant in the Venetian government, keen geographer and natural philosopher, who could read and speak the major European languages and, more importantly, over his lifetime of political intrigue developed connections across the often warring European courts.
Over decades he amassed a personal collection of books, letters and maps of the new worlds being plundered by France, Spain, Portugal, Holland, England. In his retirement Ramusio finally had time to put his collection in order and publish three ground-breaking volumes - one each on Africa, Asia, and the Americas. While Ramusio himself only saw two of the three volumes printed, his work forever changed how we see the world and forever consigned the classical view of the world to history.
In today's age having access to a global map is simple, but in times before photography, accurate timekeeping to measure longitude, or consistent measurements (every superpower did things their own way) how do you create anything that could be considered even vaguely accurate? I had not considered the many roadblocks and issues with turning a written account into a workable map and having to align accounts written at different times (sometimes decades apart) and in different languages into one workable (and hopefully accurate) image. However, for a book about maps I found this particular book lacking in maps. The reproduction of historical maps that are referenced by the book are small and - even as someone with excellent eyesight - hard to read. I would have loved the publisher to invest in some decent colour plates, along with some maps of Europe and the Italian peninsula in the 1500's. Much of the early part of the book is about the various people who influenced Ramusio's life, as well as the lives of the people who were actually out exploring and corresponding with Ramusio (directly and indirectly). So we spend a lot of time learning about the shifting sands of geo-political boundaries as wars remade territories between countries, and city-states changed hands frequently. This meant I spent a lot of time putting the book down to look up things like "Venetian territories in 1505" or "Map of the world 1507". There were times I lost track of who exactly I was reading about and where they fitted into Ramusio's life. A cast of characters and a timeline for quick reference would also have been incredibly helpful, as sometimes the information Ramusio uses comes from decades or even centuries before (The Travels of Marco Polo was published somewhere around 1300) Ramusio got around to publishing. Many parts of this were fascinating and if you have an interest in history, geography, map-making, or printing this book needs to be on your radar. But I do feel it could have been better. This book suffers from what I term "expert syndrome": the author knows this material so well, inside and out, they have lived and breathed it for years, maybe decades, and no longer understands what we, the intended audience, does not know.

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor for an advance copy on this book of exploration geography and biography, dealing with a man who used his power in the best way possible, to further the understanding of the world and those who live in it, for no other reason than his own curiosity.

The age of exploration was a a time of secrets. Governments did not want other monarchs or countries to know what had been discovered. Trading routes were both power, money prestige and well more money. Even as private companies, government backed adventurers, and even the curious set out into the unknown and returned with tales of new people, new ways, many of these stories were locked away. In Venice, there was a man who had access to many of these secrets, or knew the right people to bribe, flatter, or fool to get it. This man was no spymaster or merchant. Just a man with a curious mind, a love of geography, and want to share the world with the world. This Earthly Globe: A Venetian Geographer and the Quest to Map the World by Andrea di Robilant is the story of a man creating an anthology and atlas of great explorers, the first of its kind, and one that changed history and how people looked at it.

Giovanni Battista Ramusio was born in Venice, in 1485, with an interest in a great many things. Ramusio's father was a magistrate and taught his son languages, law and politics, which helped him get a job in the bureaucracy of Venice. Ramusio through skill and being a popular, yet straight ahead man, became translator for the Doge, which gave him access to government files both in Venice and around the world. Ramusio had two other interests. Geography and the people that made up this world, and all forms of publishing, from writing to editing to creating and printing books. Something that Venice was known for. By hook, crook, a kind word, or even a little money Ramusio began to gather the largets collection of maps, charts and more importantly travel adventures from all over the world. Many of these were considered state secrets, and as such were hidden away. However Ramusio was able to track them down. From adventures in Canada, to the people of North Africa. Even the works of Marco Polo, which Ramusio both fact-checked and edited. The final project was released in three volumes, that at least one was posthumous, but still a three volume set that changed the way people looked at the world.

The book is really wonderful, not just a biography on an interesting man, but a series of travel essays from Marco Polo, and Leo Africanius, stretching all over the world, from farthest China, Scandinavia, North and South America, and North Africa. To think that one man, was able to gather all this information from his home in Venice is amazing, and even more to put this all together. Di Robilant balances the exploration tales with how Ramusio came across them, so while the adventure might range in time, the chronology of how Ramusio came across them is consistent. The writing is very good, with a good flow and interesting facts on each page. I book I was not sure if I was going to enjoy, but one I felt very bad about ending.

Recommended for people who love books on exploration and adventure. This is almost an anthology of early exploration tales, and even now hundreds of years later, still are exciting. Also for people who biographies on people who do good things for no other reason than it just seemed right, and people could learn something.

[Sembray · Rating 5 out of 5]

As often mentioned, I am a lover of anything to do with Venice and the Renaissance, and this book is the latest brilliant addition to my beloved if slightly niche genre. Di Robilant uses the life and career of Giovanni Battista Ramusio as a lens through which to view the fascinating and constantly shifting world of the 16th century. He deftly illustrates this Venetian scholar and diplomat's considerable achievement in overturning the millenia-old system of Ptolemaic geography, which quite literally changed the way we view the globe. In addition, this book also delves into the often-bizarre voyages of the explorers and conquerors on whom Ramusio relied in order to craft his epochal narrative. Ranging from familiar names such as Marco Polo and Magellan to those deserving of a broader recognition, such as al-Wazzan and Cadamosto, these quirky and intriguing characters form the emotional and structural backbone of the book. Di Robilant captures both their flaws and eccentricities as well as the monumental discoveries they made, and by the end of the story, these centuries-old individuals and the world they inhabited feel very much alive. As well as compelling characters and staggering geographical studies, I particularly enjoyed this work's focus on the power of knowledge and the need for free and accurate dissemination of valid information. Ramusio strove throughout his life to describe the various corners of the globe in a factually accurate manner, free of many of the biases and prejudices common to his time, and his one-man crusade to publish travellers' tales retains a poignant relevance in the modern age of disinformation and partisan refusals to accept fundamental truths. In conclusion, This Earthly Globe is equal parts history, travel writing and biography, and equally brilliant in all three aspects. It's a stunning retelling of a legendary age of discovery as well as a moving tribute to a man whose drive for knowledge, passion for the wonders of the world and dedication to the publisher's art deserve wider appreciation in the modern world which owes him such a debt.

[Paulina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting. But there were a couple of things that would have made it a LOT better.

1) a current map of the world. Perhaps most people who read a book like this have a mental map of the world in their head. I don't. SO many times they would talk about a general area and I really couldn't picture where it was. Would have been very helpful

2) SO many names. A lot of detail about a lot of people. I couldn't keep it straight. Some major players and some names I know from classes I took long ago. But editting out some of the minor players would have made the book much better.

But over all it was an interesting book and it filled in a lot of holes in what I know about this time period. It was a fascinating time of change with countries and individuals competing to learn what the world actually looked like - and take advantage of the opportunities that were there.

Glad I didn't live back then but it was a time filled with drama and exploration.

[Evonne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting topic - an intelligent, quiet, simple fellow who simply loved travel and knowledge. Di Robilant intersperses Ramusio's biography with historical information, providing context and culture to Ramusio's life and work. In places it's fascinating and in places it's dry as old bones, depending on your love of military history and your ability to keep names straight. Lengthy poetic and cryptic Italian names permeate the narrative, as might be expected, but my goodness, they present challenges. If I could just mispronounce them and not worry about it all would be well but unfortunately I was unable to even remember them and had to continually trace back to figure out who was who. The best was when Di Robilant actually got back to Ramusio and the sections of the text that were truly travelogue.

[Kathryn · Rating 4 out of 5]

A biography of a little known historian and archivist in 16 century Venice - Giovambattista Ramusio. But it is so much more. This well researched book details the man's life and passion for collecting and documenting everything to be found on the findings of navigators and explorers pushing the boundaries of the then known world. His goal was to bring the latest details of exciting and exotic foreign lands, laboriously fact checked, and in a digestible format to the people in their own language, Italian, as opposed to the traditional Latin or Greek common for such writings.

The journey is exciting as the author paints all the famous navigators and explorers as real flesh and blood people and not the dusty old names from my school history classes.

It's a ripping yarn in the golden age of exploration for anyone interested in history.

[Steve George · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading this was a journey, and I'm a sucker for these kinds of tales and glimpses into the past. I was especially drawn to Ramusio's vision and his quest to catalogue the the people, places, and dimensions of the physical world that was breaking free of the constrictures of ancient thought and understanding. The sheer magnitude of effort to collect, edit and publish the definitive collection of information and geography of the world is mind boggling and made for a very interesting read. The best thing I can say about a book is that it's hard to put down, the second best thing is that I learned a lot by reading it. Both of these things are true about This Earthly Globe.

[Mark Fallon · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book weaves the history of age of exploration with the stories of the recorders - the note takers, map makers and chroniclers. And we are introduced to Giovambattista Ramusio - who collected, compiled, edited and printed those histories.

Reading through the book, the constant warring between the nation-states and kingdoms at the time was a helpful reminder of how relatively new the borders of the European states are. While the cities are old, the countries are not.

[Thomas Hall · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just astounding, I could not love this book more. Full of a wonderful and (to me at least) unknown renaissance life in Venice at her height. A vivid portrayal of the revolutions in printing and discovery and one man who through position, intelligence and tenacity was able to gather it all together. I will absolutely be seeking out some of the original source material. Magisterial and captivating, I could not put it down.

[Chrissy Sneddon · Rating 5 out of 5]

A brilliant book, so accessible. I learned so much about Venetian politics of the age of Discovery, and the descriptions of reports from travellers at that time were fascinating. How I would love to see some of the sights they described. Highly recommended. May be my favourite non-fiction book I've read this year.

[Nicolás Marín · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the few books that made me forget I was actually reading. The narrative is involving and has an excellent rhythm, without renouncing to exquisite details that show the erudition of the author. I definitely recommend this for history & geography nerds like me!

[Sevag Sarmazian · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really really wanted to like this book. But there are hundreds of characters and so many side stories of other characters that are friends of the protagonist that they’ve taken over the main story.

I’ve got many other books to get through - this one seemed to be going nowhere.

[Robert Swanson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very much enjoyed this book.
Good narative focusing on Ramusio while introducing us to the world of early far-flung explorers and the geographical view of the world.
I learned a lot, in an enjoyable fashion.

[Stuart · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting insight into the accumulation and discovery of geographical knowledge in Western Europe in the 16th Century. Some super little vignettes plucked from Ramusio’s epic Navigationi et Viaggi.

[Isaac Griffiths · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very interesting narrative angle from a map maker collecting maps and stories of those who made them. Especially when the cartogtapher in question wrote all his own books on the same subject matter way back when. Love the subterfuge angle on getting map information back in the day.

[Sandy · Rating 4 out of 5]

A series of travel logs united by the history of one man's desire to accurately map the world as it was being discovered. He used his connections to maximum effect.

[Bill · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very well written and informative!

[Jan Bright · Rating 3 out of 5]

The writing is little dry, but the history is interesting. Made me want to go back to Venice!

[Jenny · Rating 4 out of 5]

Especially liked reading about Marco Polo.

[Sara Raftery · Rating 3 out of 5]

Highly readable tour of how the findings of the age of exploration were mainstreamed, and changed ancient understandings of geography. The descriptions of journeys to Asia, Africa and the New World are rich and highlight what far-flung cultures were like prior to real colonization.

[Mallory Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

very cool book about a very cool guy!!

[Brian Metz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Phenomenal, comprehensive work on a man I never heard of but now want to meet more than ever.

[Olga Vannucci · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wrote the book about the world,
Info from those who explored.