De stad die Antwerpen ooit geweest is, is vandaag de dag haast onherkenbaar. Verwoest door de vlammen en bombardementen van de wereldoorlogen is haar geschiedenis goed verstopt achter een façade van herbouwde monumenten. Toch was de havenstad ooit het middelpunt van de wereld. Als handelscentrum kende Antwerpen in de zestiende eeuw geen evenbeeld, en haar rijkdom en weelde leken ongeëvenaard. De stad van Plantijn en Brueghel stond bol van de bedrijvigheid. Bezoekers kwamen met hun koopwaar...

DWDD-BOEK VAN DE MAAND NOVEMBER 2014 Dat de middeleeuwen geen lege donkerte tussen het Romeinse Rijk en de renaissance waren, wisten we al langer. Maar nooit slaagde iemand erin het rijke middeleeuwse leven zo dichtbij te brengen als Michael Pye. Hij beschrijft hoe volkeren rond de Noordzee de eerste grote stappen zetten richting ons hedendaagse monetaire systeem, een rechtvaardige justitie, de moderne wetenschap, een opener visie op liefde en seks. Door overzees contact konden deze ideeën...

An epic adventure: from the Vikings to the Enlightenment, from barbaric outpost to global hub, this book tells the dazzling history of northern Europe's transformation by sea.'Pye writes like a dream. Magnificent' Jerry Brotton, author of A History of the World in Twelve Maps______________This is a story of saints and spies, of anglers and pirates, traders and marauders - and of how their wild and daring jou...

This rich history of Antwerp was a Times Book of the Year and Radio 4 Book of the WeekEven before Amsterdam there was a dazzling North Sea port at the hub of the known world: the city of Antwerp.Antwerp was sensational like nineteenth-century Paris or twentieth-century New York, somewhere anything could happen or at least be believed: killer bankers, easy kisses, a market in secrets and every kind of heresy. For half the sixteenth century, it was t...

In the great disorder of wartime Berlin, Lucia Muller-Rossi was an unofficial star: mistress to an Ambassador, the whole world to her young son, and guardian of all the lovely things her Jewish friends were forced to leave behind as they took the trains tothe death camps. Sixty years later, one of those fine pieces sits for sale in the window of Lucia's antiques shop-- and its true owner happens to pass by. In that moment, a whole lifetime of silence cracks open and Lucia's family face the...

Martin Arkenhout found his true calling on a lonely Florida highway -- with a sharp rock to the skull of an injured friend. He didn't just take the boy's life; he went on to live it. When that life became too risky, he found another, and another, changing his name, papers and style at will, until he chose the wrong life -- a scholarly thief on the run from the determined and troubled John Costa. The two men will meet, and there will be murder. But there is something much worse: the sweet s...

Au seizième siècle, le cœur battant du monde connu était un port sur la mer du Nord : Anvers. Éblouissante et bouillonnante, telles Paris au dix-neuvième ou New York au vingtième siècle, son opulence semblait sans précédent. S’y croisaient marins et aventuriers venus de tous horizons, négociants richissimes, banquiers avides, artistes géniaux et criminels de toute espèce. Un monde de secrets et d’intrigues, de tolérance et de violence, et le berceau de multiples hérésies. Véritable Babylon...

In this volume, Michael Pye uses a chronological approach to present the multifaceted religious landscape of the Japanese archipelago. He traces a narrative trajectory from the available archaeological evidence of the earliest beginnings to today=s dazzlingly pluralistic culture. Special attention is given to the internal branching and interpenetration of religious traditions of various origins, such as Shinto and Buddhism. Featuring up-to-date scholarly findings while remaining easily acc...

In ›Am Rand der Welt‹ erzählt Michael Pye anschaulich, farbig und unterhaltsam die reiche Geschichte der Nordsee.Die Nordsee ist das Meer der Wikinger und der Hanse. Aber sie ist noch viel mehr. Bereits im Mittelalter überquerten Heilige und Spione, Philosophen und Piraten, Künstler und Händler die graue See. Michael Pye erzählt uns die spannendsten Geschichten der Nordsee bis hin zum 17. Jahrhundert: der Zeit, in der sie Europa zu dem machte, was es heute ist. Es sind Geschichten ü...

'Skilful Means' is the key principle of Mahayana, one of the great Buddhist traditions. First described in the Lotus Sutra, it originates in myths of the Buddha's compassionate plans for raising life from the ceaseless round of birth and death. His strategies or interventions are 'skilful means' - morally wholesome tricks devised for the purpose of enabling nirvana or enlightenment. Michael Pye's clear and engaging introductory guide investigates the meaning and context of skilful means in...

A collection of original essays exploring controversial archaeological theories, alternative history, and ancient mysteries.Were Atlantis and Lemuria factual places? Who built the pyramids and for what purpose? How advanced was the technology of ancient cultures?All this and more is covered in Exposed, Uncovered, & Declassified: Lost Civilizations & Secrets of the Past.Erich von Däniken, best-selling author of Chariots of the Gods,...

What are ghosts, spirits, and other apparitions?Why do they visit, and what do they want from us?Are OBEs, NDEs, and PDEs real?Exposed, Uncovered, and Declassified: Ghosts, Spirits, & Hauntings tackles these questions and more, as some of the world's best-known paranormal experts come together in a tour de force of investigative journalism. Ghosts have been an integral part of the folklore of almost every culture; indeed, extant references to them stretch as far back as the ancient civiliz...