The book begins by looking at the Mediterranean world as the new seaborne empires were being formed, surveying the visual arts and principal intellectual and spiritual currents in major political centers from Portugal to Turkey. Next it takes the reader on Columbus’s proposed route east to the fabled lands of Cathay, presenting essays about and illustrations of paintings, sculpture, calligraphy, and decorative art that document the venerable civilizations of the Far East. Finally it surveys the great empires and chiefdoms of the Americas that the Europeans suddenly and unexpectedly encountered, focusing on major works of Aztec sculpture, textiles from the Inca Empire, works in gold from Colombia and Costa Rica, and objects from the pre-Columbian cultures of North America.