BIBLIOGRAPHIES
No general bibliography of the whole field of this volume exists, although two comprehensive publications (both described below) have special bibliographic sections: The Cambridge Modern History has full lists of books, less well analyzed than the systematic and useful bibliographies in Lavisse et Rambaud, Histoire Generale.
GENERAL SECONDARY WORKS
Several general histories of Europe covering the field of this volume have been published in recent years or are now appearing. The most important are: Lavisse et Rambaud, Histoire Generale (12 vols., 1893- 1901), of which vols. III. and VI. apply most nearly to the subjects included in this book; The Cambridge Modern History (to be in 12 vols., 1902-), especially vols. I.-IV.; H. H. Helmolt, History of the World, translated from the German (to be in 8 vols., 1902-), especially vols. I. and VII. Helmolt differs from all other general histories by its arrangement in accordance with ethnographical and geographical divisions rather than historical epochs; he pays also especial attention to economic phenomena. The following three volumes in the series entitled Periods of European History, give an account of this period in somewhat shorter form: Richard Lodge, The Close of the Middle Ages, 1272-1494 (1901); A. H. Johnson, Europe in the Sixteenth Century, 1494-1598 (1897); H. O. Wakeman, Europe, 1598-1715 (1904).
Two excellent histories of the period of discovery are O. F. Peschel,
Geschichte des Zeitalters der Entdeckungen (1858), and Sophus Ruge,
Geschichte des Zeitalters der Entdeckungen (1881). More recent works
are S. Gunther, Das Zeitalter der Entdeckungen (1901), and Carlo
Errera, L'Epoca delle Grandi Scoperti Geografiche (1902).
SPECIAL QUESTION ON COLUMBUS
The seemingly well-established view that Columbus when he discovered America was in search of a direct western route to the East Indies and Cathay, and that he had been led to form this plan by correspondence with the Florentine scholar Toscanelli, was attacked by Henry Vignaud, La Lettre et la Carte de Toscanelli sur la Route des Indes par L'Orient (1901), and in a translation and extension of the same work under the title Toscanelli and Columbus (1902). Vignaud considers the letter of Toscanelli a forgery, and the object of Columbus in making the voyage the discovery of a certain island of which he had been informed by a dying pilot. His work elicited many replies in the form of book reviews or more extended works. Of the former may be mentioned those of E. G. Bourne (American Historical Review, January, 1903) and Sophus Ruge (Zeitschrift der Gesellschaft fur Erdkunde zu Berlin, 1902); among the latter, the monumental work, Christopher Columbus, His Life, His Work, His Remains, by John Boyd Thacher (I., 1903). Few scholars seem to have been convinced by the arguments of Vignaud, but the whole question must be considered as still undetermined. The last word is E. G. Bourne, Spain in America (The American Nation, III., 1904).
SOURCES
A large number of the contemporary accounts of the early expeditions of discovery and adventure are published by the Hakluyt Society. These volumes are provided with introductions of great value and with numerous maps, glossaries, and other material illustrative of the time. They cover a long period of time and include many lines of travel not referred to in this book; but many of them refer to the early expeditions to the southeast, west, and northwest which had much to do with the discovery and exploration of America. Some of the most important publications of this character in the series are the following: Select Letters of Columbus, edited by R. H. Major (II, and XLIII, 1849 and 1870); Narratives of Early Voyages to the Northwest, edited by Thomas Rundall (V., 1851); India in the Fifteenth Century, edited by R. H. Major (XXII., 1859); The Commentaries of the Great Afonso Dalboquerque, edited by Walter de Gray Birch (LIII., LV., LXII., LXIX., 1875, 1880, and 1883); The Voyage of John Huyghen van Linschoten to the East Indies, edited by A. C. Burnell and P. A. Tiele (LXX. and LXXI., 1884); The Journal of Christopher Columbus, edited by C. R. Markham (LXXXVI., 1892); The Discovery and Conquest of Guinea, Written by Gomes Eannes de Azurara, edited by C. R. Beazley and Edgar Prestage (XCV. and C., 1896 and 1900); The First Voyage of Vasco da Gama, edited by E. G. Ravenstein (XCIX., 1898); Texts and Versions of John de Piano Carpini and William de Rubruquis, edited by C. R. Beazley (1903).
The standard editions of the narratives of the early land travellers in eastern Asia are those of the Recueil de Voyages et de Memoires publie par la Societe de Geographie, including (IV., 1839) Relations des Voyages de Guillaume de Rubruk, Jean du Plan Carpin, etc. (edited by M. A. R. D'Avezac); and Schafer et Cordier, Recueil de Voyages et de Documents pour Servir a L'Histoire de la Geographie, especially "Voyages en Asie … du … Odoric de Pordenone" (edited by Henri Cordier). English translations of Rubruquis and Pordenone also appear as an appendix in Travels of Sir John Mandeville, edited by A. W. Pollard (1900). Sir John Mandeville is worthless as an historical source, as his genuine material is all drawn from these sources and from Marco Polo, and there is no probability that he ever travelled in the East. His own additions are usually mendacious. The standard edition of Marco Polo is that of Sir Henry Yule (2 vols., 1871). This has just been reprinted with additional editorial notes by Henri Cordier, under the title, The Book of Ser Marco Polo the Venetian, Concerning the Kingdoms and Marvels of the East, etc. (1903). A valuable collection of narratives of early discovery is M. F. de Navarrete, Coleccion de los Viages y Descubrimientos (5 vols., 1825- 1837). Those of particular interest to England are in Richard Hakluyt, Principal Navigations, Voyages, and Discoveries (1589, reprinted 1903, to be in 12 vols.).