Allusions To History and Geography
Erasmus of Rotterdam, the Dutch scholar and humanist, taught at Cambridge for a time, and was associated with the Venetian publishing house the Aldine Press and its founder Aldus Manutius. The author states: "Whenever possible, I have used actual opinions of Aldus and Erasmus in the dialogue." Marcus Musurus, Aldus's Cretan assistant, was a Greek scholar who taught at the University of Padua and was closely involved with the publication of Greek texts. Alexis the playwright is a fictional character, not to be confused with the real Greek writer of this name who lived somewhat later, but he represents the many ancient authors whose work was lost.
The novel starts in Cambridge and moves to the Republic of Venice, then to Dalmatia and the mountainous central Balkans. The monastery at Varna is a fictional place, not connected with the real town of Varna or Lake Varna in Bulgaria.
Read more about this topic: The Hills Of Varna
Famous quotes containing the words history and/or geography:
“There has never been in history another such culture as the Western civilization M a culture which has practiced the belief that the physical and social environment of man is subject to rational manipulation and that history is subject to the will and action of man; whereas central to the traditional cultures of the rivals of Western civilization, those of Africa and Asia, is a belief that it is environment that dominates man.”
—Ishmael Reed (b. 1938)
“Where the heart is, there the muses, there the gods sojourn, and not in any geography of fame. Massachusetts, Connecticut River, and Boston Bay, you think paltry places, and the ear loves names of foreign and classic topography. But here we are; and, if we tarry a little, we may come to learn that here is best. See to it, only, that thyself is here;—and art and nature, hope and fate, friends, angels, and the Supreme Being, shall not absent from the chamber where thou sittest.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)