This book explores how the Renaissance entailed a global exchange of goods, skills and ideas between East and West. In chapters ranging from Ottoman history to Venetian publishing, from portraits of St George to Arab philosophy, from cannibalism to diplomacy, the authors interrogate what all too often may seem to be settled certainties, such as the difference between East and West, the invariable conflict between Islam and Christianity, and the 'rebirth' of European civilization from roots in classical Greece and Imperial Rome.

JERRY BROTTON Senior Lecturer in Renaissance Studies, Queen Mary, University of London, UK WILLIAM DALRYMPLE Historian and writer CAROLINE FINKEL Historian and writer DEBORAH HOWARD Professor of Architectural History, University of Cambridge, UK ROBERT IRWIN Writer and Research Associate, History Department, School of Oriental and African Studies, UK PHILIP MANSEL Historian and writer NABIL MATAR Professor of English, Head of Department of Humanities and Communication, Florida Institute of Technology, USA BARNABY ROGERSON Historian and writer PHILIP SCHWYZER Lecturer in English, University of Exeter, UK