Vermeer"s Hat: The Seventeenth Century and the Dawn of the Global World is a book by the historian Professor Timothy Brook in which he explores the roots of world trade in the 17th century, through six paintings by the Dutch Golden Age painter Johannes Vermeer.[1] It focusses especially on growing ties between Europe and the rest of the world and the impact of China on the world, during what Brook sees as an "age of innovation" and improvisation.[2] From Wikipedia