| 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. To pre-order your copy of 1434 please click here.
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A message from
Gavin
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "My profound thanks to the hundreds of people who have
provided the evidence on which '1434' is based. HarperCollins have done superb
structural, copy and production edits. I and the team have greatly enjoyed
incorporating these and we are all very proud of the end product."
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1421 in
Portuguese
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For our Portuguese readers we have
just recently come across an animation package based on 1421 by O Globo, which can be viewed by clicking here. |
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Mark and Laurie
Nickless' research
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We are pleased to announce huge
advances in the groundbreaking independent research of Mark and Laurie Nickless.
To read their fascinating paper on their translation and interpretation of Luo
Mao Deng's Voyages of the San Bao
Eunuch please click here.
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| Liu Gang's paper
published in a distinguished international web
journal
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ We are
delighted to announce that Liu Gang's article on Chinese bi-hemispherical world
maps has been published by e-Perimetron, a well-known e-magazine which
specialises in academic cartography. In his paper Liu Gang outlines how Chinese cartographers mapped the world from the early middle ages. To read the paper, please click here.
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Sample
testing
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Over the years friends of 1421 have collected a wealth of samples
from all over the world which they believe may have some relevance to our
research. The samples have been catalogued and stored in London. We currently have samples of
ceramics, glass, brass, iron and wood, and are hoping to get them analysed in
the near future. We have over 30 samples and more are coming in by the day.
We would like to have all of the samples carbon
dated or analysed by thermoluminescence dating or dendrochronology. We want to
approach this new angle of our research in as scientific a manner as possible, and are appealing for anyone with relevant expertise to advise us
if they feel they can. Sample analysis is not cheap, and to that end if anyone might like to help us fund these tests, their support would also be most welcome! We will publish the results on our website as and when they come through.
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We hope you have enjoyed this
newsletter. If you have, please feel free to forward it on to family, friends and colleagues
who may do so too.
If you have any comments please
email them to zhenghe@1421.tv
We will be in touch soon with more
news, not least regarding the launch of our new website and more details on the
new book.
Best
wishes,
The 1421 / 1434
team!
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