The Ocean of Glory and Disgrace. The Mysterious Murder of the 16th Century and the Era of Great Geographical Discoveries

Was there an alternative to the creation of European colonial empires in the 16th century? Why did the glorious era of Great Geographical Discoveries turn into the disgrace of plantation, plunder, and slave trade for which European countries now have to apologize? Were there really people in the 16th century who thought not of conquests but of studying and understanding one another? Of course, there were, and one of them was the Portuguese humanist Damian de Gois, whose mysterious death remains uninvestigated. Damian was friends with Erasmus of Rotterdam, carried out secret assignments for kings, and wrote the official chronicle of Portugal, but at the end of his life, he found himself in the dungeons of the Inquisition on charges of heresy and mysteriously perished. This book introduces the Russian reader to a new vibrant personality of the Renaissance era and helps to unravel a 400-year-old murder.