What did John Cabot and Christopher Columbus truly achieve - and what did they inherit? In this compelling reassessment, Lydia Towns characterizes their voyages not as radical departures, but as chapters in a much older story of Atlantic navigation and commerce. Beginning with Celtic and Viking seafarers, she outlines the long prelude to the so-called Age of Exploration, showing how knowledge, ambition and trade routes shaped the journeys of Cabot and Columbus. Drawing on rec...