Page:General History of Europe 1921.djvu/406

296 General History of Europe their own particular fashion. About a century after painting be- gan to develop in Italy two Flemish brothers, Van Eyck by name, not only showed that they were able to paint quite as excellent pictures as the Italians of their day but also discovered a new way of mixing their colors superior to that employed in Italy. Later, when painting had reached its height in Italy, Albrecht Durer and Hans Holbein the Younger in Germany vied with even Raphael and Michael Angelo in the mastery of their art. III. EARLY GEOGRAPHICAL DISCOVERIES 496. Medieval Commerce on a Small Scale. The business and commerce of the medieval towns even of the Italian cities, such as Venice and Genoa was on what would seem to us a rather small scale. There were no great factories, like those which have grown up in recent times since the introduction of steam and machinery, and the ships which sailed the Mediterranean and the North Sea held only a very light cargo compared with modern merchant vessels. The gradual growth of a world commerce began with the sea voyages of the fifteenth century. These led to the exploration by Europeans of the whole globe, most of which was entirely unknown to the Venetian merchants and those who car- ried on the trade of the Hanseatic League. The Greeks and Romans knew little about the world beyond southern Europe, northern Africa, and western Asia, and much that they knew was forgotten during the Middle Ages. The Crusades took many Europeans as far east as Egypt and Syria. 497. Marco Polo. About 1260 two Venetian merchants, the Polo brothers, visited China and were kindly received at Peking by the emperor of the Mongols. On a second journey they were accompanied by Marco Polo, the son of one of them. When they got back to Venice in 1295, after a journey of twenty years, Marco wrote an account of his experiences which filled his readers with wonder. Nothing stimulated the interest of the West more than his fabulous description of the abundance of gold in Zipangu (Japan) and of the spice markets of the Moluccas and Ceylon.