Premodern Places Calais to Surinam, Chaucer to Aphra Behn

Premodern Places invites readers to recover histories that move far beyond the traditional recital of dates and treaties. All of the places explored in this book were once of European or global importance: Calais (English from 1347-1558); Flanders (world leader in technological innovation); Somerset (home to Dante); Genoa (hub of the slave trade); the Canary or Fortunate Islands (the limits of western dreaming); Surinam (traded for Manhattan in 1667). Using songs and poems, maps, and pictures - and featuring pioneering travelers such as Dante and Chaucer, Columbus and St Brendan, Margery Kempe and Aphra Behn - this book restores place to historical and imaginative understanding. And in tracing the origins of New World slavery and black/white divides, Premodern Places discovers hidden pasts that continue to shape our complex, divided present.Wallace, David is the author of 'Premodern Places Calais to Surinam, Chaucer to Aphra Behn', published 2006 under ISBN 9781405151528 and ISBN 1405151528.