Today scientific, technological and cultural knowledge is shared worldwide. The extent to which globalized knowledge also existed in the past is an open question and, moreover, a question that is important for understanding present processes of globalization. This book, the result of an interdisciplinary cooperation launched in 2007 by a Dahlem Conference, offers surprising answers to this question. Long-distance and intercontinental connections with an attendant spread of knowledge are as old as Homo sapiens. Since its inception, the globalization of knowledge has been a process with its own dynamics, interfering significantly with other processes of intercultural transmission. The four parts of this volume address historical phases in which production, transmission and transformation of knowledge were crucial for advancing these processes.