From the intelectual revival of the europeans

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The thirteenth and fourteenth centuries were a period of growing, independent or quasi-independent cities: Venice, Florence, Genoa, Lisbon, Paris, Bruges, London, Antwerp, Hamburg, Nuremberg, Novgorod, Wisby and Bergen for example. They were all trading cities with many travellers, and when men trade and travel they talk and think.

A Short History of the World, H. G. Wells, London, 2006

Herbert George Wells (Bromley 21 de Setembro de 1866 - Londres 13 de Agosto de 1946)