Since Gavin’s talk at the Royal Geographical Society, the world-wide publications of the hardback and softback editions of ‘1421’, the publication of ‘1434’, and the considerable publicity that was generated by these events, a wealth of new supporting evidence has poured in regarding the Chinese contribution to pre-Columbian voyages of discovery, and the Renaissance in Europe. Please feel free to explore our website and find out more!
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In 1434, Gavin Menzies offers a stunning reappraisal of history, presenting compelling new evidence on the European Renaissance, tracing its roots to China
In this provocative, highly readable history, Gavin Menzies makes the startling argument that China provided the spark that set the Renaissance ablaze. Based on years of research, this marvellous history argues that a Chinese fleet, official ambassadors of the emperor, arrived in Tuscany in 1434, where they met with Pope Eugenius IV in Florence. The delegation presented the pope with a wealth of knowledge, from a diverse range of fields: geography (including world maps that the author believes were passed on to Christopher Columbus), astronomy, mathematics, art, printing, architecture, steel manufacturing, civil engineering, military weaponry, surveying, cartography, genetics, and more. This gift of knowledge sparked the inventiveness of the Renaissance, including da Vinci’s mechanical creations, the Copernican revolution, Galileo’s discoveries, and more.
From 1434 onward, Europeans embraced Chinese intellectual ideas, discoveries, and inventions – all which have formed the basis of European civilisation just as much as Greek philosophy and Roman law. Erudite and brilliantly reasoned, 1434 is sure to make headlines and change the way we see ourselves, our history, and our world.
To browse inside ‘1434’ please click here
In this provocative, highly readable history, Gavin Menzies makes the startling argument that China provided the spark that set the Renaissance ablaze. Based on years of research, this marvellous history argues that a Chinese fleet, official ambassadors of the emperor, arrived in Tuscany in 1434, where they met with Pope Eugenius IV in Florence. The delegation presented the pope with a wealth of knowledge, from a diverse range of fields: geography (including world maps that the author believes were passed on to Christopher Columbus), astronomy, mathematics, art, printing, architecture, steel manufacturing, civil engineering, military weaponry, surveying, cartography, genetics, and more. This gift of knowledge sparked the inventiveness of the Renaissance, including da Vinci’s mechanical creations, the Copernican revolution, Galileo’s discoveries, and more.
From 1434 onward, Europeans embraced Chinese intellectual ideas, discoveries, and inventions – all which have formed the basis of European civilisation just as much as Greek philosophy and Roman law. Erudite and brilliantly reasoned, 1434 is sure to make headlines and change the way we see ourselves, our history, and our world.
To browse inside ‘1434’ please click here
1421
1421: The Year China Discovered the World
Gavin MenziesPublished by Bantam Press, London
“…On the 8th of March, 1421, the largest fleet the world had ever seen sailed from its base in China. The ships, huge junks nearly five hundred feet long and built from the finest teak, were under the command of Emperor Zhu Di’s loyal eunuch admirals. Their mission was ‘to proceed all the way to the end of the earth to collect tribute from the barbarians beyond the seas’ and unite the whole world in Confucian harmony. The journey would last over two years and circle the globe.
When they returned Zhu Di lost control and China was beginning its long, self-imposed isolation from the world it had so recently embraced. The great ships rotted at their moorings and the records of their journeys were destroyed. Lost was the knowledge that Chinese ships had reached America seventy years before Columbus and circumnavigated the globe a century before Magellan. They had also discovered Antarctica, reached Australia three hundred and fifty years before Cook and solved the problem of longitude three hundred years before the Europeans…”
