1434 (35 page)

The duchess's family, hugely wealthy landowners in fifteenth-and sixteenth-century Spain, backed Christopher Columbus and inherited his papers. These describe Columbus's several visits to the Americas before 1492.

The Arquivo Nacional, Torre do Tombo, Lisbon

The repository of records of pre-Columbian Portuguese voyages to the New World. In my submission this will be a gold mine for future research.
My thanks also to the Bodleian Library, Oxford; the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS); and the London School of Economics.

Museums, Institutions, and Universities

The British Museum holds a superb collection of Yuan and Ming dynasty ceramics and works of art, not least the Chinese map of the twelfth century that accurately depicts China overlaid with latitude and longitude lines. Some of the ceramics were excavated from remote parts of the world, for example, a fine blue-and-white early-Ming teapot buried in Australia.

 

Much evidence of the Chinese visits to Venice has been and will continue to be found in the Louvre, Paris—for example, Pisanello's sketches and drawings.

 

The Musée Pierre-Nöel contains collections of Waldseemüller and his friends and colleagues' memorabilia, the repository of records of Vespucci's voyages, and is the best place to base research on Waldseemüller and his globes and maps.

 

The Doge's Palace, Venice, holds the world map from India to America, constructed according to notations on the map itself, from information brought to Venice by Niccolò di Conti and Marco Polo. This was copied and given to Dom Pedro in 1428. The map is upside down—as some Chinese maps of that era were.

 

Chicago University has sponsored the superb electronic database system JSTOR, which has been invaluable to me and the
1421
team.

 

Surrey University has pioneered a nondestructive system of analysis of materials employing Rutherford backscattering techniques. In broad terms, this enables dating within 5 percent and the capacity
to analyze material with sufficient accuracy to determine its origin. Surrey University has kindly advised us how to utilize this valuable resource, which we believe will prove of great assistance in analyzing artifacts found in or near wrecked junks around the world.

Classic Works Relied Upon for
1434

Professor Joseph Needham,
Science and Civilisation in China
, Cambridge University Press (various dates past 50 years)

The monumental work of thirty-five volumes is to me one of the most extraordinary pieces of human endeavor ever created. I have read all the volumes over the past fifteen years; without them I would not have started
1421
or
1434
. Needham was a genius; his mind can cover the span of human knowledge from how the Chinese fermented liquor to more obscure aspects of Chinese cryptoanalysis. He has no peer.

 

John L. Sorenson, emeritus professor of anthropology at Brigham Young University, and Martin H. Raish are authors of the majestic work
Pre-Columbian Contact with the Americas Across the Oceans
. This is an annotated bibliography that briefly describes written works that discuss the transmission of fauna and flora across continents before Columbus. There are some six thousand entries. It seems to me this book demolishes any idea that Europeans can claim to have discovered the New World, and furthermore it seems extraordinary that this book is not in every school in the world. Every time that I give a talk, I do my best to acknowledge Sorenson and Raish. The research team and I are extraordinarily lucky to have had this invaluable resource.

 

University of Oregon emeritus professor Carl Johannessen, has collaborated with John Sorenson to write and present “Biology Verifies Ancient Voyages.” As they say:

To me it is no longer arguable to claim any justification whatsoever that Europeans discovered the New World. Sorenson, Raish, and Johannessen have demolished that legend forever.

 

In
The Art of Invention: Leonardo and Renaissance Engineers,
Professor Paolo Galluzzi describes in 251 pages the contributions that Sienese engineers made to Leonardo da Vinci's work. The book was used by me and the
1434
team as a bible when drawing up chapters 15–20. Galluzzi has an astonishing ability to analyze this fabulous era in Florence. I hope he will not be annoyed by the revelations of the contributions made by the Chinese delegation.

 

Frank D. Prager and Gustina Scaglia, savants of Italian Renaissance engineering, have written a splendidly readable book,
Mariano Taccola and His Book “De Ingeneis,”
published in 1972. Before Prager and Scaglia's book, only Taccola's books 3 and 4 (
ca.
1438) had been identified. They have reconstructed for the first time Books 1 and 2. In doing so they have shown how much Francesco di Giorgio adapted from Taccola and the influence that Francesco's work had on Leonardo da Vinci. The book is profusely illustrated, showing the apparently extraordinary explosion of new mechanical and military machines after 1433. We have compared these with those shown in printed Chinese books published before 1420.

 

Ernst Zinner's great book
Regiomontanus: His Life and Work,
provides a readable, lucid, and comprehensive account of the amazing life of Regiomontanus, whose ideas were later adapted by Copernicus and Galileo—to such an extent that perhaps the Copernican revolution should
be renamed. I have quoted and abridged extensively from Zinner.

 

Joan Gadol has written a fascinating, and illuminating book,
Leon Battista Alberti: Classical Man of the Early Renaissance
. Alberti was notary to Pope Eugenius IV and would have met the Chinese delegation in that capacity. He possessed an enormous intellect and charisma and had a profound influence on Toscanelli, Regiomontanus, Nicholas of Cusa, Taccola, Francesco di Giorgio, and eventually on Leonardo da Vinci. I have quoted extensively from Joan Gadol's wonderful book.

Academic Support

Academic support for the
1421
and
1434
theories are of course of great importance. The following have e-mailed with their interest in
1421
and/ or
1434,
for which I offer my thanks: Professor Yao Jide, Professor Yingsheng Liu, and Professor Fayuan Gao, Professor Liu Xiaohong, Yunnan University; Professor John Coghlan, Melbourne–La Trobe University; Professor Miguel Lizana, University of Salamanca; Professor Arnaiz Villena, Madrid University; Professor Drewry, University of Hull; Professor Ng Chin Keong, director and Professor Yeen Pong Lai, Chinese Heritage Center, Singapore; Professor Ethan Gallogly, Santa Monica College; Professor Hwa-Wei Lee, chief, Asian Division, Library of Congress; Professor Hua Linfu, Remin University, Beijing; Professor Xin Yuan-Ou, Shanghai University; Professor Shi Ping, Naval Command College, China; Professor D. Hendrick, University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne; Professor Zhiguo Gao, China Institute for Marine Affairs; adjunct Professor John S. Lee, Utah Valley State College; Associate Professor Ted Bryant, associate dean of science, University of Wollongong; Professor Bi Quan Zhong; Professor Dobroruka, University of Brasilia; Assistant Professor J. David Van Horn, University of Missouri–Kansas City; professor emeritus of geology Dr. John W. Emerson, Central Missouri State University; Professor Peter N. Peregrine, associate professor and
chair, Department of Anthropology, Lawrence University; emeritus professor of anthropology Peter M. Gardner, University of Missouri; Professor Gudrun Thordardottir, University of Reykjavik; J.R. Day, associate professor, division head, Science, Mathematics and Computer Studies, the University of Hong Kong; Professor Goran Malmquist, University of Stockholm; Professor Alex Duffey, chief curator, University of Pretoria; professor of architecture Richard Frewer, University of Hong Kong; Emeritus Professor Peter Gardner, University of Missouri-Columbia; Professor Peter Roepstorff, University of Southern Denmark; Professor Shuxuejun, JiangXi Normal University; Professor Susan Langham, visiting Shenyang University professor of quaternary geology; Professor Jack Ridge, Tufts University; professor of history and political science, Henry Pierson “Pete” French, Jr., State University of New York and Monroe Community College; Adjunct Professor Linda d'Argenio-Cruz, Brooklyn College; Professor Peter L. P. Simpson, Graduate Center, City University of New York; Richard Kanek, retired professor of physics; visiting professor Robin Pingree, Mombassa, University of Plymouth; Professor Jules Janick, James Troop Distinguished Professor in horticulture, Purdue University; Adjunct Professor Anthony Fazio, Graduate Division for Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine, New York Chiropractic College; R. Thomas Berner, professor emeritus of Journalism and American studies, Pennsylvania State University; professor of political science John Lawyer, Bethel University, Saint Paul, Minn.; Paul Winchester, clinical professor of neonatology at Indiana University Medical School; Rosa E. Penna, professor of English literature, Catholic University of Argentina and the University of Buenos Aires; Professor Victor M. Rivera, Baylor College of Medicine; retired professor of anthropology and the founder and director of the Overseas Research Center at Wake Forest University, D. Evans; Patti Grant-Byth, professor of English at Korea University, University of Minnesota; John Splettstoesser, retired professor of geology and president, American Polar Society, Minnesota; Daniel Mroz, assistant professor of theater, University of Ottawa; Professor John Preston, Eastern Michigan University College of Technology; Professor P. A. McKeown, emeritus professor Cranfield University, U.K.; Niels West, research professor, Department of Marine Affairs,
University of Rhode Island; David Greenaway, pro–vice chancellor, professor of economics, University of Nottingham; Dr. Chris Gleed-Owen, research and monitoring officer, the Herpetological Conservation Trust, Bournemouth; Edwin M. Good, professor emeritus of religious studies and (by courtesy) of classics, Stanford University; Adjunct Professor Pedro Augusto Alves de Inda, University of Caxias do Sul; Associate Professor Anthony Nieli, Pennsylvania College of Technology; Rear Admiral Zheng Ming, adjunct professor of the Naval Engineering University, Beijing; Professor Carol Urness, curator of James Ford Bell Library, University of Minnesota; Professor Roderich Ptak, Munich University; Professor Zheng Wei, director of the Underwater Archaeology Center at the National Museum of Chinese History, Beijing; Professor Chen Xiansi, Professor Chao Zhong Cheng, and Professor Fan Jingming, Nanjing University; Professor Zheng Yi Jun, Shandong University; Professor Zhu Yafei, Beijing University; Professor Tao Jing Yi, Sri Lanka; Professor Xu Yuhu, Taiwan University; Professor Li Dao Gang, Thailand; Professor Sir John Elliott, Oxford University; Professor Mike Baillie, University of Belfast; Dr. Philip Woodworth, visiting professor, University of Liverpool; Professor Sue Povey, University College, London; Professor Christie G. Turner II, Arizona State University; Professor George Maul, Florida Institute of Technology; Professor Jane Stanley, Australian National University; Robert S. Kung, Hong Kong Zheng He Research Association; Dr. John P. Oliver, Department of Astronomy, University of Florida; Dr. Eusebio Dizon, director of underwater research, Museum of Manila; Dr. Joseph McDermott, University of Cambridge; Dr. Konrad Hirschler, London, School of Oriental and African Studies, SOAS; Dr. Taylor Terlecki, Oxford University; Dr. Ilenya Schiavon, the State Archives, Venice; Dr. Marjorie Grice-Hutchinson, University of Malaga; Dr. Linda Clark, University of Westminster; Dr. Robert Massey, Royal Observatory, Greenwich; Dr. Bob Headland, Scott Polar Research Institute, Cambridge; Dr. Muhamed Waley, British Library, London; J. M. Nijman, Amsterdam Polytechnic; Dr. Alan Leibowitz, University of Arizona; Dr. Edgardo Caceres; Dr. Tan Koolin, University of Malaya; Dr. Leo Suryadinata, Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore.

Visitors to Our Website, www.1421.tv

We cannot possibly mention everybody who has contributed to our research, be it by providing new evidence, ideas for new research, corrections for future editions of books, and constructive criticism. However, we have tried to incorporate as many as possible here, in no particular order. We are most grateful to the following:

Geoff Mandy, who kindly dedicated a great deal of his spare time to organizing the “
1421
Friends” database. Thanks to Geoff, we hope, fingers crossed, that we have not left anyone off the list of acknowledgments either here or on our website.

Those who have kindly agreed to manage independent websites within the
1421
website. This concept was developed to enable people who are interested in specific aspects of the
1421
story to have a chance to advance knowledge in these areas, independently of the
1421
team. All time and effort was dedicated at their own expense, and we are particularly grateful to the following people: Joseph Davis, Mark and Laurie Nickless, Juan Carlos Hoyos, Cathie Kelly, Heather Vallance, Paul Lewis, and Anne Usher.

Those who have helped us out in the field with research include:

Dave Cotner, as mentioned previously; Laszlo, who has found a number of wrecks in the Caribbean, over the past twenty years, which were verified as being
not
of any Spanish, English, or Danish ships yet had Chinese characteristics and bore Chinese artifacts; Dr. John Furry and Dr. Michael Broffman, who set up the “China Landing” website, which has furthered exploration into the mystery of the “Sacramento Junk.” For more information please visit www.pinestreetfoundation.org/chinalanding.