Edoardo Albert

In 2000, archaeologist Paul Gething rediscovered a sword. An unprepossessing length of rusty metal, it had been left on a shelf for thirty years. But Paul had a suspicion that the sword had more to tell than appeared, so he sent it for further tests. When the results came back, he realised that he had in his possession what was...

An extraordinary account of how one man defied the most powerful ruler of his age and in doing so changed the course of European history. Throughout the 16th century, wars raged across Europe as kings and republics jostled for wealth and power. Yet one man exceeded all these medieval princes of Christendom: Suleiman the Magnificent. As ruler of the Ottoman...

Ibn Sina, who is referred to as Avicenna in Latin, was a true polymath. Born in Persia in the tenth century, his passion for knowledge was unbound, and he made lasting contributions to medicine, math, and philosophy. Due to the scope and brilliance of his work, he can be compared to the great Leonardo da Vinci. With illustrations, photographs, and...

What is England, and who are the English? The man who first posed and answered these questions lived 1,200 years ago in Northumberland. The Venerable Bede spent almost his whole life in two monasteries looking over the North Sea, far from the centres of civilisation. Yet he became the foremost scholar of the first millennium, writing a history that continues...