From the Editor
As school children, my generation thrilled to the stories of European explorers who set out in small wooden ships to cross uncharted seas. These men represented the curiosity, imagination, and desire for new experiences, exotic goods and luxury wares that seemed to sweep across western Europe in the fifteenth, sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. These explorers flew the flags of any King who would finance their journeys: the Italian Christopher Columbus and the Portuguese Ferdinand Magellan sailed for Spain while the Englishman Henry...More »