1434 - The Year a Magnificent Chinese Fleet Sailed to Italy and Ignited the Renaissance
Gavin Menzies
Published by Bantam Press, London

Two years ago, a Chinese Canadian scholar, Tai Peng Wang, discovered Chinese and Italian records showing that Chinese delegations had reached Italy during the reigns of Zhu Di (1403-1425) and the Xuande Emperor (1426-1435). ‘1434’ is based around the highly significant meeting of that year and the great transfer of knowledge which Gavin Menzies argues it resulted in. The consequences, Menzies argues, were of great importance because this transfer took place just as Europe was emerging from a millennium of stagnation following the fall of the Roman Empire. While the ideals, engineering and civilisations of Greece and Rome undoubtedly played an important role in the Renaissance, Menzies submits that the transfer of Chinese intellectual capital to Europe was the spark that set the Renaissance ablaze.

Read an extract from 1434