Jerry Brottonย is a professor of Renaissance studies at Queen Mary University of London. A renowned broadcaster and critic, he is the author ofย Global Interests: Renaissance Art Between East and Westย (with Lisa Jardine),ย The Renaissance Bazaar,ย The Sale of the Late Kingโs Goodsย (short-listed for the Samuel Johnson Prize and the Hessell-Tiltman Prize),ย Great Maps, andย Theย New York Timesย bestselling, award-winningย A History of the World in Twelve Maps, which has been translated into eleven languages.ย His most recent book, published as The Sultan and the Queenย in the US (andย This Orient Isleย in the UK), tells the fascinated story of Queen Elizabethโs outreach to the Ottoman Sultan and to Muslim rulers in Iran and Morocco, which began shortly after she was excommunicated by the Pope and most of Europeโs markets were closed to her Protestant and Jewish merchants. It describes the birth of the joint stock company, and how trade with the east formed the basis for the future British empire.