Excerpt from The World's Progress, Vol. 10 The Travels of Marco Polo had stimulated Europeans with a desire to know more of a land which had impressed the illustrious Venetian as so remarkable and full of resources. The invention of printing led to the more general diffusion of such literature, and, take it all in all, many were pondering upon various plans which might lead to the working out of a new route thither. Christopher Columbus, a native of Genoa, Italy, studied the writings of Polo and all the maps and charts ...
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Excerpt from The World's Progress, Vol. 10 The Travels of Marco Polo had stimulated Europeans with a desire to know more of a land which had impressed the illustrious Venetian as so remarkable and full of resources. The invention of printing led to the more general diffusion of such literature, and, take it all in all, many were pondering upon various plans which might lead to the working out of a new route thither. Christopher Columbus, a native of Genoa, Italy, studied the writings of Polo and all the maps and charts then avail able. He was persuaded that if one should sail due west, he must come at last to the countries visited by Polo on his pro longed journey to the Orient - to Cathay (china), and Cipango (japan). The story of his weary striving to enlist the interest of kings in his enterprise is well known, - how he wandered from court to court, vainly trying to procure funds necessary for the fitting out of an expedition. The truth was that European monarchs were concerned with matters vitally affecting their kingdoms and had scant time for men like Columbus, who appeared to his contemporaries to be almost mentally unbalanced, so intense was he in promoting his scheme. It was Isabella of Castile who finally offered to aid Colum bus, and every child in America who has had even a few years in school remembers the names of the three small vessels at last placed at his command - the Pinta, the N iha and the Santa Maria. Slight, fragile crafts they were, in the like of which no one would attempt an ocean voyage today. And yet the discovery of two unknown continents fell to the Share of those who sailed in the three light barks. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at ... This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
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PLEASE NOTE, WE DO NOT SHIP TO DENMARK. New Book. Shipped from UK in 4 to 14 days. Established seller since 2000. Please note we cannot offer an expedited shipping service from the UK.
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PLEASE NOTE, WE DO NOT SHIP TO DENMARK. New Book. Shipped from UK in 4 to 14 days. Established seller since 2000. Please note we cannot offer an expedited shipping service from the UK.
