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The publications of the Hakluyt Society (founded in 1846) made available edited (and sometimes translated) early accounts of exploration. The first series, which ran from 1847 to 1899, consists of 100 books containing published or previously unpublished works by authors from Christopher Columbus to Sir Francis Drake, and covering voyages to the New World, to China and Japan, to Russia and to Africa and India. This volume, first published in 1897, contains the first English translation of the Greek monk Cosmas Indicopleustes' description of the universe and of his voyages to India, written c.550 C.E. His vivid descriptions of India, Sri Lanka and Ethiopia provide invaluable information on vanished monuments and cultures, though his book also insistently proposes that the earth is flat and denounces the 'Pagans' (mainstream ancient philosophers including Ptolemy) who, like most of Cosmas' Christian contemporaries, argued in favour of a spherical earth.

“It is a fascinating study of a spiritual crisis and of the wisdom and experience of monastic life.” —William Rees-Mogg, editor in chief, The Times (of London) “Pierre de Calan’s choice of subject is remarkable not only because it is a profound study of life in a Cistercian monastery, but because he has had no firsthand knowledge as a monk.” —Elizabeth Berridge in the (London) Daily Telegraph Devout, sensitive, young Cosmas believes that he has a vocation to become a Trappist monk, but the reality of monastic life disappoints him deeply. Fellow monks are hard to live with. The life of the monastery seems worldly. He is disheartened by his own shortcomings and appalled by the weaknesses of others. If he can’t live the life, does that mean God isn’t calling him to it? What should he do? Many people—single, married, vowed, ordained—ask these same questions. Pierre de Calan explores them all in this exquisite tale of a man who learns that sanctity does not mean perfection.