ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book starts with an overview of this backdrop, examining the context into which we ought to consider how Christopher Columbus "read" the world and the unfolding of time. It examines the cultural space that Dante's poem, its geography, cosmography and eschatology, enjoyed in late fifteenth century Spain as well as Columbus's own exposure to it. The book also considers the dissemination of the Commedia in Columbus's world. It argues that Columbus used the poem as an itinerary as well as a hermeneutic tool by which to interpret his own role in the unfolding apocalypse with which he associated his journey. The book proposes that the writers as well as artists such as Giovanni Stradano recognized the integral role played by Italian navigators in the Age of Discovery.
