"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