The Portuguese discoveries are truly epic material, combining individual feats in a vast and evolving design. In the present account, which inaugurates the new series, Europe and the World in the Age of Expansion, Diffie (chapters 1-13) traces the development of knowledge of the physical world from classical times and the voyages of exploration up to the discovery of Brazil, and Winius (chapters 14-22) covers the Portuguese in the East from Ethiopia to Macau from the time of Gama to the loss of Portuguese independence. Both are competent scholars who strike the appropriate chord of critical admiration. The first part, following lines traced by Duarte Leite, Damião Peres and Magalhães Godinho, incorporates modern work on the technology of navigation and the growth of international trade. The second part takes account of recent publications in English from Asian sources (which are rather disappointing). The emphasis on technology sheds light on the problems confronted by the discoverers, who looked toward experience rather than theory for guidance. Prince Henry, stripped of some scientific laurel leaves, remains the central figure of the first part, and Albuquerque of the second.

The main controversies are skillfully summarized. The “policy of secrecy,” inherently plausible despite evident excesses, is treated with polite skepticism: the Vinland map, a scandal, escapes with a mild “now held by some to be a forgery.” In the profusion of themes some perspectives are lost. The conquest of Seville is barely mentioned, though it enabled peaceable Christian shipping to use the Straits of Gibraltar, which made Lisbon a great international port. Most known voyages are carefully commented, but there is no mention of Alfonso X’s campaign against Salé, or of the Christian mercenaries in the Maghrib. The explanation of how the key conquest of Ceuta fell to the Portuguese relies on Azurara, an excellent writer, but one who collected his information a generation after the events: the real “conjuncture” is indicated by the modest articles of M. Arribas Palau (for example, Tamuda, 1955, 1956). Nor is there any account of the dealings with the Kingdom of Congo, then seen as a model for relations with a non-Christian African state.

When a work attempts so much and achieves much of what it attempts, it is hard to criticize without caviling. Minor blemishes are not lacking: the Almohads were not recent converts to Islam (p. 13); modius has nothing to do with (p. 305). Gil Vicente is incorrectly spelled, quoted, and translated (p. 218). The Roman writer Macrobius is reduced to Microbius (p. 7) and the Argentine Levillier is leveled to Levellier (p. 563). In the massive book list (pp. 480-516), the proof-reading falls short of what might be expected in so substantial and useful a work.