Vespucci's Expedition, New Horizons, Sunlit Seas, Vibrant World, Discovery, Adventure.
“Your Magnificence shall know that the motive of my coming into his realm of Spain was to traffic in merchandise: and that I pursued this intent about four years: during which I saw and knew the inconstant shiftings of Fortune: and how she kept changing those frail and transitory benefits: and how at one time she holds man on the summit of the wheel, and at another time drives him back from her, and despoils him of what may be called his borrowed riches: so that, knowing the continuous toil which main undergoes to win them, submitting himself to so many anxieties and risks, I resolved to abandon trade, and to fix my aim upon something more praiseworthy and stable: whence it was that I made preparation for going to see part of the world and its wonders: and herefor the time and place presented themselves most opportunely to me: which was that the King Don Ferrando of Castile being about to despatch four ships to discover new lands towards the west, I was chosen by his Highness to go in that fleet to aid in making discovery: and we set out from the port of Cadiz on the 10th day of May 1497, and took our route through the great gulf of the Ocean-sea: in which voyage we were eighteen months (engaged): and discovered much continental land and innumerable islands, and great part of them inhabited: whereas there is no mention made by the ancient writers of them: I believe, because they had no knowledge thereof: for, if I remember well, I have read in some one (of those writers) that he considered that this Ocean-sea was an unpeopled sea: and of this opinion was Dante our poet in the xxvi. chapter of the Inferno, where he feigns the death of Ulysses, in which voyage I beheld things of great wondrousness, as your Magnificence shall understand.”
~ The Italian Explorer Amerigo Vespucci; Excerpt from Letter to Pier Soderini (1497)
Below is the complete list of Prerequisites, Co-requisites, & Supplements necessary to start this Project on sound know-how & foundations. Enjoy, Dear Listeners! Happy Reading!
Prerequisites
Mortimer Adler, How to Read a Book: The Art of Getting a Liberal Education, (1940) OCLC 822771595
1967 edition published with the subtitle A Guide to Reading the Great Books ISBN 978-0-671-21209-4 OCLC 500166716
1972 revised edition, coauthor Charles Van Doren, New York: Simon and Schuster. ISBN 1-567-31010-9 OCLC 788925161
[Note: Any edition is fine; my taste would be the 1972 revised edition!]
Mortimer Adler, We Hold These Truths: Understanding the Ideas and Ideals of the Constitution (1987). ISBN 0-02-500370-4 [Amazon Page]
Mortimer Adler, Six Great Ideas: Truth–Goodness–Beauty–Liberty–Equality–Justice (1981) ISBN 0-02-072020-3 [Amazon Page]
Co-requisites
Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy: the Lives and Opinions of the Greater Philosophers (1926) New York: Simon & Schuster, revised edition 1933
1962 Time Reading Program Special Edition (Time, Inc., New York)
1967 Touchstone paperback: ISBN 0-671-20159-X
1983 Simon and Schuster paperback (out of print): ISBN 0-671-69500-2
1991 Pocketbooks mass market paperback: ISBN 0-671-73916-6
1999 Tandem Library binding: ISBN 0-8085-7769-7
[Note: The Mass Market Paperback is also a good choice here!]
Will & Ariel Durant, The Lessons of History, 1st ed., New York, Simon & Schuster, 1968. [Note: Here is the Amazon page for the 2010 Paperback reprint]
Supplements
Charles Van Doren, Webster's American Biographies (1984) (editor, with Robert McHenry, associate editor). ISBN 978-0877792536 [Amazon Page]
Charles Van Doren, A History of Knowledge: Past, Present and Future. (1991) ISBN 978-1559720373 [Amazon Page]
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