Francisco Bethencourt is Charles Boxer Professor, King's College, University of London. He is the author of O Imaginario da Magia and L'inquisition a l'epoque moderne: Espagne, Portugal, Italie, XVe-XIXe siecles, and the editor of Historia da Expansao Portuguesa (with Kirti Chadhuri), and A Memoria da Naao (with Diogo Ramda Curto). He has been Director of the National Library of Portugal and the Gulbenkian Foundation Cultural Center in Paris.