Category: Background

We ended last year (2023) with a description of early seventeenth century Algiers written by Jean-Baptiste Gramaye, the Flemish academic[…]

In early May of 1619, Jean-Baptiste Gramaye—a professor at the University of Leuven, in Brabant, in what is now Belgium—had[…]

(This post is a continuation of Privateering — The Business of Piracy: Part 1. If you haven’t done so already,[…]

The early seventeenth century was a wild, violent time. The discovery of the New World a century before—and the riches[…]

When people think about the relationship between North African Barbary corsairs and the European states in the seventeenth century, they[…]

The sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were a time of violent conflict, both on land and at sea. They were also[…]

The term “great ordinance” was used throughout the seventeenth (and the late sixteenth and early eighteenth) centuries to mean “cannon”[…]

This week we’ll look at another excerpt from Turbulent Tines, the new book about the Barbary corsair raids on Iceland[…]

This week we’ll look at another excerpt from Turbulent Times, the new book about the Barbary corsair raids on Iceland[…]

This week we look at the text of the letter written by Jasper Kristjánsson, the well-to-do Dane discussed in last[…]