This story appears in the March/April 2017 issue of National Geographic History magazine ... more assiduously coveted by European nations in the early 16th century than the information recorded ...

Christopher Columbus was a 15th and 16th century explorer credited for connecting the Old World (Europe, Africa, and Asia) and the New World (North America and South America). Born in Genoa ...

A 16th-century secret passageway built for the ruling family of Florence, Italy, has opened to the public for the first time in history ... all the courts of modern Europe.” ...