Book of the Marvels of the World (French: Livre des Merveilles du Monde) or Description

of the World (Devisement du Monde), in Italian Il Milione (The Million) or Oriente Poliano and
in English commonly called The Travels of Marco Polo, is a 13th-century travelogue written down
by Rustichello da Pisa from stories told by Marco Polo, describing Polo's travels
through Asia between 1271 and 1295, and his experiences at the court of Kublai Khan.[1][2]
The book was written in Old French by romance writer Rustichello da Pisa, who worked from
accounts which he had heard from Marco Polo when they were imprisoned together
in Genoa.[3] From the beginning, there has been incredulity over Polo's sometimes fabulous stories,
as well as a scholarly debate in recent times. Some have questioned whether Marco had actually
travelled to China or was just repeating stories that he had heard from other travellers.[4]
Economic historian Mark Elvin concludes that recent work "demonstrates by specific example the
ultimately overwhelming probability of the broad authenticity" of Polo's account, and that the book is,
"in essence, authentic, and, when used with care, in broad terms to be trusted as a serious though
obviously not always final, witness."[5]
Ferdinand Magellan (/məˈɡɛlən/[1] or /məˈdʒɛlən/;[2] Portuguese: Fernão de
Magalhães, IPA: [fɨɾˈnɐw
̃ dɨ mɐɣɐˈʎɐj̃ ʃ]; Spanish: Fernando de Magallanes, IPA: [ferˈnando ðe
maɣaˈʎanes]; c. 1480 – 27 April 1521) was a Portuguese explorer who organised the Spanish
expedition to the East Indies from 1519 to 1522, resulting in the first circumnavigation of the Earth,
completed by Juan Sebastián Elcano.
Born into a Portuguese noble family in around 1480, Magellan became a skilled sailor and naval
officer and was eventually selected by King Charles I of Spain to search for a westward route to
the Maluku Islands (the "Spice Islands"). Commanding a fleet of five vessels, he headed south
through the Atlantic Ocean to Patagonia, passing through the Strait of Magellan into a body of water
he named the "peaceful sea" (the modern Pacific Ocean). Despite a series of storms and mutinies,
the expedition reached the Spice Islands in 1521 and returned home via the Indian Ocean to
complete the first circuit of the globe. Magellan did not complete the entire voyage, as he was killed
during the Battle of Mactan in the Philippines in 1521.
Magellan had already reached the Malay Archipelago in Southeast Asia on previous voyages
traveling east (from 1505 to 1511-1512). By visiting this area again but now travelling west, Magellan
achieved a nearly complete personal circumnavigation of the globe for the first time in history.[3][4]
The Magellanic penguin is named after him, as he was the first European to note it.[5] Magellan's
navigational skills have also been acknowledged in the naming of objects associated with the stars,
including the Magellanic Clouds, now known to be two nearby dwarf galaxies; the twin lunar craters
of Magelhaens and Magelhaens A; and the Martian crater of Magelhaens.

Galileo Galilei (Italian: [ɡaliˈlɛːo ɡaliˈlɛi]; 15 February 1564[3] – 8 January 1642) was
an Italian polymath. Galileo is a central figure in the transition from natural philosophy to modern
science and in the transformation of the scientific Renaissance into a scientific revolution.
Galileo's championing of heliocentrism and Copernicanism was controversial during his lifetime,
when most subscribed to either geocentrism or the Tychonic system.[4] He met with opposition from
astronomers, who doubted heliocentrism because of the absence of an observed stellar
parallax.[4] The matter was investigated by the Roman Inquisition in 1615, which concluded that
heliocentrism was "foolish and absurd in philosophy, and formally heretical since it explicitly
contradicts in many places the sense of Holy Scripture."[4][5][6] Galileo later defended his views
in Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems, which appeared to attack Pope Urban
VIII and thus alienated him and the Jesuits, who had both supported Galileo up until this point.[4] He
was tried by the Inquisition, found "vehemently suspect of heresy", and forced to recant. He spent
the rest of his life under house arrest.[7][8] While under house arrest, he wrote one of his best-known
works, Two New Sciences, in which he summarized work he had done some forty years earlier on
the two sciences now called kinematics and strength of materials.[9][10]