'Imperial Unknowns is a thoroughly fascinating book. Zwierlein has succeeded in linking the history of mercantilism, religion, historical knowledge and science in the Mediterranean, and he has demonstrated convincingly that a study of what historical actors did not know is as important as the study of what they did know. … In addition, Imperial Unknowns represents an important contribution to Mediterranean historiography.' Dzavid Dzanic, Mediterranean Historical Review
'Cornel Zwierlein's Imperial Unknowns is the first detailed study of British-French relations in the Mediterranean basin. … The book is lucid and carefully referenced: it is magisterial in its breadth. … it remains essential reading for every student of the early modern Mediterranean.' Nabil Matar, American Historical Review
'This book is a highly ambitious, complex, challenging, and genuine attempt at engaging with interdisciplinary developments within the investigation of the 'history of ignorance(s) in late medieval and early modern times'.' Maria Fusaro, German Historical Institute London Bulletin
'The approach to take the Mediterranean space as the starting point for a comparative French-British history of knowledge has many merits without doubt, the amount of findings is impressive.' Christian Windler, translated from Historische Zeitschrift
'This study demonstrates in an impressive way and with a stupendous [or amazing] erudition [or scholarship] that the question for forms of ignorance and how men and women of the past were coping with the borders of their knowledge can lead to new research questions.' Mark Häberlein, translated from Zeitschrift für Historische Forschung