This is an encyclopaedic guide to the world Dorothy Dunnett describes, illuminating the tapestry of fact and allusion, of historial personages and places, events and politics, literary references and music that colour her books. It covers both her Lymond sequence, which explores the intricacies of 16th-century history, and the House of Niccolo series, set in the 15th-century world of trade and war and banking. Arranged alphabetically, this book provides a concise, complete yet idiosyncratic picture of the period.