This may have some bearing on the way we understand Renaissance Architecture onwards.(The book, 1421, was a rather good read.)
Excerpt from it's latest newsletter:
1434!
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We have been keeping it under wraps for the last year, but are today delighted to announce the forthcoming publication of Gavin's new book, 1434 - The Year a Magnificent Chinese Fleet Sailed to Italy and Ignited the Renaissance.
In the new book Gavin presents evidence that it was Chinese advances in science, art and technology that formed the basis of the European Renaissance and our modern world. Until now, scholars have considered that the Italian Renaissance came about as a result of a re-examination of the ideas of classical Greece and Rome. However, through a detailed analysis of recently uncovered source material, Gavin describes the visit of a sophisticated Chinese delegation to the Papal Court at Florence, Italy, in 1434 - a visit which sparked the Renaissance, forever changing the course of Western civilization and global history. After that date the authority of Aristotle and Ptolemy was overturned and artistic conventions challenged, as was Arabic astronomy and cartography.
The book will be published by HarperCollins in the U.S.A. and U.K. in June 2008. Needless to say we are very excited about the prospect! It has been years in the making and we hope you will enjoy reading it as much as we did preparing it.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
We have been keeping it under wraps for the last year, but are today delighted to announce the forthcoming publication of Gavin's new book, 1434 - The Year a Magnificent Chinese Fleet Sailed to Italy and Ignited the Renaissance.
In the new book Gavin presents evidence that it was Chinese advances in science, art and technology that formed the basis of the European Renaissance and our modern world. Until now, scholars have considered that the Italian Renaissance came about as a result of a re-examination of the ideas of classical Greece and Rome. However, through a detailed analysis of recently uncovered source material, Gavin describes the visit of a sophisticated Chinese delegation to the Papal Court at Florence, Italy, in 1434 - a visit which sparked the Renaissance, forever changing the course of Western civilization and global history. After that date the authority of Aristotle and Ptolemy was overturned and artistic conventions challenged, as was Arabic astronomy and cartography.
The book will be published by HarperCollins in the U.S.A. and U.K. in June 2008. Needless to say we are very excited about the prospect! It has been years in the making and we hope you will enjoy reading it as much as we did preparing it.
1 comment:
you know what, Chinese's technology back then was 100 years ahead of those western countries. i think it's written somewhere in the book. maybe should go and check it out. hoho...
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