The period from the reign of Constantine to the great voyages of discovery - or from the fourth to the fifteenth century - was once seen merely as the long, slow decline and fall of the Roman Empire. Yet, for Europeans, it is also a ' supreme story of defeat turned into victory ' The author's pioneering atlas, revised and expanded for this new edition, treats as one unit the Mediterranean, Europe and the nomads' steppeland to the East. Illuminating maps and lively commentaries present the towns and trade routes, the changing population patterns, the boundaries of Christendom and the ever-shifting political units.
