David Abulafia - The Boundless Sea: A Human History of the Oceans

The Two Italies

Frederick II: A Medieval Emperor

A Mediterranean Emporium

The Western Mediterranean Kingdoms

The Discovery of Mankind: Atlantic Encounters in the Age of Columbus

The Great Sea: A Human History of the Mediterranean

PENGUIN BOOKS

UK | USA | Canada | Ireland | Australia
India | New Zealand | South Africa

Penguin Books is part of the Penguin Random House group of companies whose addresses can be found at global.penguinrandomhouse.com.

First published in the United States of America by Oxford University Press 2019
First published in Great Britain by Allen Lane 2019

Copyright David Abulafia, 2019

The moral right of the author has been asserted

Cover: Detail from Landscape with The Fall of Icarus, c. 1558, by Pieter Bruegel, in the Muse des Beaux Arts, Brussels. (Photo Bridgeman Images)

ISBN: 978-0-141-97209-1

This ebook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorized distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the authors and publishers rights and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.

My bounty is as boundless as the sea
(Shakespeare)

Praeceptoribus Paulinis

PNB CED TEBH AHM JRMS PFT

necnon INRD

Every effort has been made to contact all copyright holders. The publishers will be pleased to amend in future editions any errors or omissions brought to their attention.

Tepuke, a modern canoe based on ancient Polynesian design, built by the Vaka Taumako Project. (Photo: Wade Fairley, 2008)

Rock carving of a boat with a claw sail, possibly dating back to the early settlements, Olowalu, Maui. (Photo: Bill Brooks/Alamy)

Relief carving of the Egyptian fleet during the expedition to the Land of Punt, 18th Dynasty. Funerary temple of Hatshepsut, Deir El-Bahri, Egypt. (Photo: Prisma Archivo/Alamy)

Drawing of relief carving of the Egyptian fleet in the expedition to the Land of Punt. (Photo: Interfoto/Alamy)

Seal depicting four gazelles, Dilmun (Bahrain), late third millennium BC . National Museum, Bahrain. (Photo: by kind courtesy Harriet E. W. Crawford, author of Early Dilmun Seals from Saar: Art and Commerce in Bronze Age Bahrain)

Seal showing a sewn-plank ship, India (probably Bengal or Andhra Pradesh), 4th5th century AD , found in Thailand. National Museum, Bangkok. (Photo: Thierry Ollivier)

Coin of the Emperor Victorinus, minted in Cologne, c. AD 270, found in Thailand. National Museum, U Thong, Suphanburi, Thailand, bequeathed by Air Vice Marshal Montri Haanawichai. (Photo: Thierry Ollivier)

Terracotta head of a Persian or Arab merchant, Western Thailand, 7th or 8th century AD . National Museum, Bangkok. (Photo: Thierry Ollivier)

Porcelain ewer, China (possibly Guangdong), c. AD 1000. British Museum, London. (Photo: The Trustees of the British Museum)

Three Intaglios, Oc-o site, My Lam Village, An Giang Provence, Fu Nan Period 6th century. Museum of Vietnamese History, Ho Chi Min City. (Photo: Kaz Tsuruta)

19th-century copy of an original copper plate from Kollam, south India, AD 849. Cambridge University Library, MS Oo.1.14. (Photo: By kind permission of the Syndics of Cambridge University Library)

Modern reconstruction of The Jewel of Muscat, a 9th-century Arab ship wrecked off the coast of Belitung, Indonesia. (Photo: Alessandro Ghidoni, 2010)

Changsha Bowl, Tang dynasty, Hunan province, 9th century, from the Belitung shipwreck. (Photo: Tilman Walterfang, 2004 / Seabed Explorations New Zealand Ltd)

14th-century wooden cargo tags from a Chinese junk wrecked off the coast of Sinan, Korea, 1323. (Photo: National Museum of Korea)

Celadon vase with dragon handles, China, Yuan Dynasty, 14th century, from the Sinan shipwreck. (Photo: National Museum of Korea)

Medieval Chinese currency, Northern Song Dynasty. (Photo: Scott Semens)

Mongol ship attacked by Japanese warriors in 1281, detail from the Mko Shrai Ekotoba scroll, facsimile of the late 13th-century original in the Museum of the Imperial Collections, Imperial Palace, Tokyo, Japan. (Photo: Pictures from History/Bridgeman Images)

Sailing chart showing India, Ceylon and Africa, based on the voyages of Zheng He, woodblock illustration from Mao Yuanyi, Wubei Zhi, 1621. (Photo: Universal History Archive/Bridgeman Images)

Miniature from Maqamat Al-Hariri, 1237. Bibliothque nationale de France, Paris. (Photo: Heritage Image Partnership Ltd / Alamy)

Miniature of St Brendan and monks, c.1460, English school. University Library, Augsburg, Germany. (Photo: Picture Art Collection/Alamy)

Golden boat, first century BC or AD , found Broighter, Northern Ireland. (Photo: Werner Forman/Getty Images)

Iron Age settlement, Santa Luzia, Viana do Castelo, Portugal. (Photo: Joo Grisantes)

Carps Tongue swords, 800850 BC , from a hoard found in the Bay of Huelva, south-western Spain. (Photo: Miguel ngel Otero)

Viking ship, c.820, found at Oseberg. Kulturhistorisk Museum, Oslo, Norway. (Photo: 2019 Kulturhistorisk museum, UiO / CC BY-SA 4.0)

Detail of a sail from a Viking memorial stone from Gotland, Sweden, 8th-9th century. Gotland Museum, Visby, Sweden. (Photo: W. Carter/Wikimedia Commons)

Coin from Haithabu in southern Denmark found in Birka in central Sweden. (Photo: Heritage Image Partnership/Alamy)

Inuit carvings from Greenland. (Photo: National Museum of Denmark, Copenhagen)

Crozier of Bishop Olafur of Gardar, 13th century. (Photo: National Museum of Denmark, Copenhagen)

15th-century clothing from Greenland, reflecting current European fashions. (Photo: National Museum of Denmark, Copenhagen)

The Kingigtorssuaq Runestone, inscribed by two Norse Greenlanders, 13th century or later. (Photo: National Museum of Denmark, Copenhagen)

Merchants houses, Lbeck, Germany. (Photo: Thomas Radbruch)

Miniature of Jonah and the Whale from Spiegel van der Menschen Behoudenisse, Dutch school, early 15th century. British Library, London, Add. 11575, f.65v. (Photo: British Library Board. All Rights Reserved / Bridgeman Images)

Jaume Ferrer, detail from the Catalan atlas of the world, attributed to Abraham Cresques, 1375. (Photo: Bibliothque Nationale de France, Paris)

Native inhabitant of La Gomera, illustration from Leonardo Torriani, Descripcin e historia del reino de las Islas Canarias, 1592. (Photo: Universidade de Coimbra. Biblioteca Geral)

Bowl showing a Portuguese caravel, from Mlaga, Spain, 15th century. (Photo: Victoria & Albert Museum, London)

Madeira archipelago, detail from the Corbitis Atlas, Venetian school, c.1400. (Photo: Bibloteca Nazionale Marciana Ms. It. VI 213, page 4)

Elmina, Ghana, miniature from Georg Braun and Frans Hogenberg, Civitates Orbis Terrarum, 1572. (Photo: Chronicle/Alamy)

Portuguese padro