Michael Pye

Saints and spies, pirates and philosophers, artists and intellectuals: they all criss-crossed the grey North Sea in the so-called “dark ages,” the years between the fall of the Roman Empire and the beginning of Europe’s mastery over the oceans. Now the critically acclaimed Michael Pye reveals the cultural transformation sparked by those men and women: the ideas, technology, science, law, and moral codes that helped create our modern world. This is the magnificent lost history of a thousand years. It was on the shores of the North Sea where experimental science was born, where women first had the right to choose whom they married; there was the beginning of contemporary business transactions and the advent of the printed book. In The Edge of the World, Michael Pye draws on an astounding breadth of original source material to illuminate this fascinating region during a pivotal era in world history.

The Edge of the World

When the Romans retreated from northern Europe, they left behind lands of barbarians at the very edge of the known world. Yet a thousand years later the countries surrounding the North Sea were at the heart of scientific, mercantile and artistic enlightenments and controlled the first truly global empires. In The Edge of the World, Michael Pye explains how a small but treacherous body of water inspired the saints, spies, fisherman, pirates, traders and marauders who lived beside and journeyed across the North Sea to give birth to our modern world. Hugely enjoyable.' Tom Holland, Guardian 'Pye is a wonderful historian.' Terry Jones 'Astonishing. A treasure chest.' The Times 'A dazzling historical adventure.' Daily Telegraph 'Extraordinary . . . fascinating.' Observer

How the North Sea Made Us Who We Are

Before Amsterdam another North Sea city was the hub of the known world. Antwerp, writes Michael Pye, 'rapidly became a world city, a centre of stories published across Europe, a sensation like nineteenth-century Paris or twentieth-century New York, one of the first cities where anything could happen or at least be believed. Other cities showed the power of kings or dukes or empires, but Antwerp showed only itself: a place of trade, where people wanted, needed to be, or couldn't afford not to be. It was famous on its own terms.' New trade routes into the city brought pepper and diamonds from India, silver from America and gold from Africa that tracked by cart and river to the Ottoman Empire in the East. Antwerp made possible escape routes to Istanbul for Jews facing the Inquisition in Portugal, including for the woman running the largest merchant banking house in Europe. And in just a few generations, the city inspired Thomas More's Utopia, taught Erasmus about money, modelled for Pieter Bruegel's Tower of Babel, protected William Tyndale and smuggled out copies of his bible in English. This glory was erased when the Dutch rebelled against their Spanish masters and mutinous troops burned the city records. Pye uses novels, paintings, schoolbooks and archives from Venice, to London, to the Medici to uncover the hidden story of the years when Antwerp was the 'exception' to all Europe.

The Glory Years

Antwerp

How The North Sea Made Us Who We Are

Wervelende geschiedschrijving over een grootse stad 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 uit alle uithoeken van de wereld naar de stad waar de geldhandel floreerde. Tegelijkertijd kende Antwerpen ook een schaduwkant: rellen, muiterijen en de inquisitie, die als een donkere wolk boven de joodse en protestante inwoners hing, lieten de uitzonderlijke welvaart van korte duur zijn. Desalniettemin blijkt de invloed van Antwerpen blijvend. Met Antwerpen ontsluit bestsellerauteur Michael Pye het verhaal van een stad die tegen alle verwachtingen in opkwam als het kloppend hart van de zestiende eeuw, en in korte tijd de wereld wist te veranderen. Eén ding is volgens Pye zeker: zonder de Antwerpse geschiedenis zou vandaag niets hetzelfde zijn.

De gloriejaren

Antwerpen

Kirsten Dalley

In a series of essays, various authors discuss everything from the Egyptian pyramids to the lost city of Atlantis to Mayan skulls that turned up in the most unlikely of places. Original.

Lost Civilizations & Secrets of the Past

Exposed, Uncovered, and Declassified

Lucia Müller-Rossi, a respected, ninety-year-old antiques dealer in Zurich, finds her reputation on the line when Sarah Freeman discovers a table in her shop that Sarah and her husband had owned before the war, in a novel based on a real-life historical figure, a woman who made a fortune dealing in stolen art in wartime Berlin. Reprint. 17,500 first printing.

The Pieces from Berlin

The film tie-in edition of this compelling thriller

Taking Lives

Reckoning

A rich history of Antwerp and Radio 4 Book of the Week, from the author of the acclaimed bestseller The Edge of the World Even 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 the place for breaking rules - religious, sexual, intellectual. In Antwerp, things changed. One man cornered all the money in the city and reinvented ideas of what money meant. Another gave Antwerp a new shape purely out of his own ambition. Jews fleeing the Portuguese Inquisition needed Antwerp for their escape, thanks to the remarkable woman at the head of the grandest banking family in Europe. Thomas More opened Utopia there, Erasmus puzzled over money and exchanges, William Tyndale sheltered there and smuggled out his Bible in English until he was killed. Pieter Bruegel painted the town as The Tower of Babel. But when Antwerp rebelled with the Dutch against the Spanish and lost, all that glory was buried and its true history rewritten. The city that unsettled so many now became conformist. Mutinous troops burned the city records. Michael Pye sets out to rediscover the city that was lost and bring its wilder days to life using every kind of clue: novels, paintings, songs, schoolbooks, letters and the archives of Venice, London and the Medici. He builds a picture of a city haunted by fire, plague and violence, but learning how to be a power in its own right in the world after feudalism. This is the Antwerp which was the proud 'exception' to all of Europe.

Lynda Myles

Les Enfants Terribles Du Cinéma Américain

A Handbook of Japanese Characters

The Study of Kanji

A blend of history, love story, and memoir, this novel set in the seventeenth century tells the story of Gretje Reyniers, a moneylender, pelt dealer, and town prostitute in New Amsterdam, who rises to fame and fortune

The Drowning Room

Compiles essays on sightings of mysterious objects and UFOs, from the more well-known, including Roswell and Kingman, to the less familiar.

Encounters with UFOs and Extraterrestrial Life

Points out how power in the American film industry was transferred from the legendary moguls to a new generation of filmmakers

How the Film Generation Took Over Hollywood

The Movie Brats

'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 Mayahana Buddhist teachings, whilst tracing its early origins in ancient Japanese and Theravada thought. First published in 1978, and still the best explanation of the concept, it illuminates a core working philosophy essential for any complete understanding of Buddhism.

A Concept in Mahayana Buddhism

Skilful Means

Collects stories and research from people investigating paranormal phenomenon, including poltergeists, cryptids, and haunted houses.

Ghosts, Specters, and Haunted Places

Maximum City is the biography of New York City. It has an exact purpose: to use the past to understand how New York came to be New York, and what we must do about it.

The Biography of New York

Maximum City

A one-volume dictionary of religion based on concepts drawn partly from the various religious traditions and partly from the historical and reflective study of religion as a modern academic discipline. As a dictionary rather than an encyclopedia, there will be concise explanations on a very large number of special terms rather than lengthy essays on selected subjects. Entries will include definitions of terms from various religious traditions which have now entered into current English usage, as well as a wide variety of semi-technical terms from related fields such as philosophy, sociology and social anthropology.

Michael Pye

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