This book has been the result of many of years of research and study. It took its present form in the West Midlands – first at the University of Keele where I began to teach the subject of Europe and the Wider World in the early modern period to students, but mostly it was formed in the University of Birmingham where I owe a great deal of gratitude to my colleagues. It would be difficult to mention them all, but I cannot refrain from thanking the following in particular: Alex Gadja, Sadia Qureshi and David Gange who all read portions of the book, and Richard Cust, Simone Laqua-O’Donnell, Jonathan Willis and Elaine Fulton. Tara Hamling has also read large sections and given me huge encouragement and advice. I also owe thanks to Sheila Christie at Cape Breton University and Madeleine Hron at Wilfrid Laurier for their support and advice on specific chapters. I must acknowledge a special debt of gratitude to Catherine Delano-Smith, editor of Imago Mundi who has been a good friend and counsellor, and to Surekha Davies who gave invaluable advice in helping the book take its present shape.

The book has had a long conception. I have always been fascinated by the interplay between history and geography and by the history of geographical ideas. At the University of Alberta, I read a joint honours degree in classics and history. The combined studies helped me to realise how important was the role played by ancient texts in the history of geography, and I was particularly fortunate to be able to take a course on early modern history of geography with Lesley Cormack, an expert in the field. I wrote an honours thesis on geographical boundaries in Herodotus which complemented my work in early modern geography. This led me on to study for a Master's degree on the geography of Herodotus and Pre-Socratic influences on his conceptualisation of the world under Gordon Shrimpton at the University of Victoria. The thesis confirmed to me the important role philosophy played in the history of geography. At Oxford I was able to develop these interests further in my doctoral thesis, Boundaries and Balance, Classical Influence on Sixteenthcentury Geographical Thought (2004) supervised by Nicholas Davidson.