GEOGRAPHY AND COMMERCE
Among the standard histories of mediaeval and modern geography are Joachim Lelewel, Geographie du Moyen Age (4 vols., 1852-1857); Vivien de St. Martin, Histoire de la Geographie et des Decouvertes Geographiques (1873); M. F. Vicomte de Santarem, Essai sur L'Histoire de la Cosmographie pendant le Moyen Age (3 vols., 1849-1852); and C. R. Beazley, The Dawn of Modern Geography (vols. I. and II., 1897 and 1901). A full account of the history and development of maps, especially of the form known as portolani, is to be found in the two works translated from the Swedish of A. E. Nordenskiold: Facsimile Atlas to the Early History of Cartography (1889), Periplus, an Essay on the Early History of Charts and Sailing-Directions (1 vol. and an atlas, 1897); G. Wauverman, Histoire de L'Ecole Cartographique Belge et Anversois du 16 degrees Siecle (2 vols., 1895).
The state of geographical knowledge at the beginning of the period of explorations is well described in C. R. Beazley, Introduction to the volume of the Hakluyt Society's publications for 1899. F. Kunstmann, Die Kenntniss Indiens in XV. Jahrhunderts (1863); and G. H. Pertz, Der Aelteste Versuch zur Entdeckung des Seeweges nach Ostindien (1859), describe two important phases of that subject.
The fullest and best work on the relations between the Orient and the Occident, the trade-routes, the objects of trade, and the methods of its administration is Wilhelm Heyd, Geschichte des Levantehandels im Mittelalter (2 vols., 1879). There is a French translation of this work (1885-1887), which is later and has been corrected by the author. There is a valuable article on ancient trade in Encyclopaedia Biblica, IV., 48, etc. Much that is suggestive and informing concerning Eastern commerce and trade-routes can be found in Sir W. W. Hunter, History of British India, I. (1899), and on the products of the East in Sir George Birdwood, Report of Commissioners for the Paris Exhibition of 1878 (1878). Some information concerning trade organization in the Mediterranean Sea and throughout Europe can be found in William Cunningham, An Essay on Western Civilization in Its Economic Aspects (2 vols., 1898-1900). H. H. Helmolt, General History, VII., pt. i., pp. 1- 139, has a long and valuable chapter on "The Economic Development of Western Europe Since the Time of the Crusades," by Dr. Richard Mayr. John Fiske, The Discovery of America (2 vols., 1892), contains an interesting popular account of the trade conditions of the time and of those explorations which were directed westward.
The formation of the later commercial companies is described and the provisions of their charters analyzed in P. Bonnassieux, Les Grandes Compagnies de Commerce (1892). This work is somewhat superficial, being based, apparently, entirely on works in the French and Latin languages, and using secondary materials where primary sources are attainable; but it stands almost alone in its subject, and has, therefore, considerable importance.
Naval architecture is described in Auguste Jal, Archeologie Navale (2 vols., 1840); and J. P. E. Jurien de la Graviere, Les Manns du XV. et du XVI. Siecle (1879); Sir William Stirling-Maxwell, Don John of Austria (2 vols., 1883).
ITALY AND THE EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN
The best general account of Italy during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries is in Lavisse et Rambaud, Histoire Generale, III., chaps, ix. and x., and IV., chap. i. For the intellectual and artistic history of Italy as a whole, J. Burckhardt, The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy (1860, English translation, 2 vols.), is the most satisfactory work. J. A. Symonds, Renaissance in Italy (7 vols., 1875-1886), takes up many sides of the period. A good general history of Venice in small compass is H. P. Brown, Venice: a Historical Sketch of the Republic (1893).
M. G. Canale, Storia del Commercio dei Viaggi, … degl' Italiani (1866), and Storia della Republica di Genoa (1858-1864), contain much information about Mediterranean trade and voyages, especially of the Genoese.
The commerce of Venice is described in H. F. Brown, Calendar of State
Papers, Venetian, Introduction, I. (1864).