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Authors: Gavin Menzies

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Chapter 23: The Conquistadores' Inheritance: Our Lady of Victory

This chapter relies heavily on a series of lectures on Medieval Spain given by Dr. Christopher Pollard at Dillington House near Taunton, Somerset, which the author was privileged to attend in 1999. Please refer to the acknowledgments section.

A. Bibligraphy for Chapters 1–5 inclusive

Dreyer, Edward L.
Zheng He: China and the Oceans in the Early Ming Dynasty, 1405
–
1433.
London: Pearson Longman, 2006.

Mote, Frederick, and Denis C. Twitchett, eds.
The Cambridge History of China.
Vol. 7,
The Ming Dynasty, 1368
–
1644.
New York: Cambridge University Press, 1988.

Tsai, Shih-Shan Henry.
Perpetual Happiness: The Ming Emperor Yongle.
Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2001.

Twitchett, Denis C., ed.
The Cambridge History of China.
Vol. 3,
Sui and T'ang China, 589
–
906 AD.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1979.

Dreyer, Edward L.
Early Ming History: A Political History, 1355
–
1435.
Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1982.

———.
Zheng He: China and the Oceans in the Early Ming Dynasty, 1405
–
1433.
London: Pearson Longman, 2006.

J. J. L. Duyvendak. “The True Dates of the Chinese Maritime Expeditions in the Early Fifteenth Century.”
T'oung Pou
(Leiden), no. 34 (1938).

Needham, Joseph.
Science and Civilisation in China.
7 vols. 30 sections. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1956–.

Reid, Anthony.
Southeast Asia in the Age of Commerce, 1450
–
1680.
Vol. 2,
Expansion and Crisis.
New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1993.

Tai Peng Wang. Research papers available on www.gavinmenzies.net.

———. “Foreigners in Zheng He's Fleets,” Apr. 2006.

———. “A Tale of Globalisation in Ancient Asia,” Dec. 3, 2006.

———. “The Real Discoverer of the World,” ed. Lin Gang—Zheng He,” giving explanations relating to Zheng He 1418 map.

———. “The Most Startling Discovery from Zheng He's Treasure Shipyards by Prof. Pan Biao and My Response.”

———. “What Was the Route Taken by the Chinese Delegation to Florence in 1433.”

———. “Zheng He and His Envoys' Visits to Cairo in 1414 and 1433.”

Temple, Robert.
The Genius of China: 3,000 Years of Science, Discovery & Invention.
London: Prion, 1998.

Needham, Joseph.
Science and Civilisation in China
. Vols. 27 and 30. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1956–.

Paul Lunde.
The Navigator Ahmed Ibn Majid.
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia: Saudi Aramco, 2004.

“A history of the Oversees Chinese in Africa.”
African Studies Review,
vol. 44, no. 1, April 2001.

Gang Den. “Yuan marine merchants and overseas voyages.” In
Minzu Shi Yanju,
Beijing 2005.

Hall, Richard.
Empires of the Monsoon: A History of the Indian Ocean and Its Invaders.
New York: HarperCollins, 1996.

Ibn Battuta.
The Travels of Ibn Battuta, AD 1325
–
1354,
Vol. 4. London: Hakluyt Society, 1994.

Poole, Stanley Lane.
A History of Egypt in the Middle Ages.
Frank Cass London 1894.
Yingzong Shi-lu.

Tai Peng Wang research papers, available on www.gavinmenzies.net.

———. “A Tale of Globalisation in Ancient Asia”

In this paper Tai Peng Wang argues that global trade from the Mediterranean to Australia existed in the Tang dynasty, during which massive quantities of export ceramics were fired in Chinese kilns and carried by Arab dhows and Chinese junks. Quanzhou was the principal port from Tang dynasty onward. Quanzhou became the hub of this trading web (Research paper in full on
1434
website)

-Liu Yu Kun, “Quanzhou Zai Nanhai Jiaotongshi Shang de diwei” (The significance of Quanzhou in the history of Nanhai trade). In
Xuesha Quanzhou
(Quanzhou studies), by Cai Yao Ping, Zhang Ming, and Wu Yuan Peng. Central Historical Text Publisher, 2003, pp. 144–45.

-Wang Gungwu,
The Nanhai Trade: Early Chinese Trade in the South China Sea.
Eastern Universities Press, 2003.

-Edward Schaefer. The Golden Peaches of Samarkand: A study of Tang Exotics. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1991.

Tai Peng Wang research from papers:

“What was the route taken by the Chinese delegation to Florence in 1433 and what might that be?” and “Zheng He and his Envoys visits to Cairo in 1414 and 1433”

Tai Peng Wang's Main Points Relevant to Chapters 2, 3, 5:

  • 1. Hong Bao was instructed by Zheng He on November 18, 1432, to lead his fleets to Calicut.
  • 2. On arrival Hong Bao learned Calicut was about to send its own fleet to Mecca. Hong Bao immediately sent seven interpreter officials to join the Calicut fleet. Zheng He's fleets arrived in Hormuz on January 16, 1433, and set sail for China on April 9, 1433.
  • 3. Zheng He had been ordered to announce the imperial edict of the Xuan De emperor to Maijia (Mecca), Qianlida (Baghdad), Wusili (Egypt), Mulanpi (Morocco), and Lumi (Florence).
  • 4. Egypt and Morocco had already received the imperial edict but had failed to send tribute to Ming China. See Yan Congjian's firsthand account of the visit to “Fulin” kingdom—the Papal Court.
  • 5. The Chinese were trading within the system created in the Yuan dynasty more than a century earlier.
  • 6. Tianfang is the Mamluk empire—Egypt, Syria, Yemen, Arabia, Libya, and Cyprus.
  • 7. The Chinese used Arabic pilots in the Gulf area: Irena Knehtl, “The Fleet of the Dragon in Yemeni Waters.”
    The Yemen Times
    874, vol. 13 (5 Sept. 7–Sept. 2005).
  • 8. Frankincense was the most valuable product purchased by the Chinese: ibid.
  • 9.
    Zheng He visits Aihdab
    .
    Yuanshi Luncong
    . “The Relation Between Sudan and China Between the Tang and the End of the Yuan. In
    Essays on Yuan History
    , vol. 7, pp. 200–6.
  • 10. Karimi in Quanzhou:
    Zhu Fan Zhi Zhu Pu
    . In Zhao Ruqua,
    Profiles of Foreign Barbarian Countries
    (Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Center of Asian Studies, 2000), p. 175.
  • 11. Karimi merchants behavior:
    Qihai Yangtan
    (Setting sail in the seven seas), (Hong Kong: Zhounghua, HK, 1990) p. 123, and
    Bai Shou Yi Minzhu Zhong Jiao Lunji
    (Bai Shou Yi's essays in minorities and their religions) (Beijing: Beijing Teacher Training University, 1992), pp. 365, 376.
  • 12. Arabic monsoon calendar: First composed in 1271 by Rasulid rulers of Yemen. See Paul Lunde, “The Navigator Ahmad Ibn Majid.”
  • 13. Egypt the target of Zheng He visits: Anatole Andro (Chao C. Chien),
    The 1421 Heresy: An Investigation into the Ming Chinese Maritime Survey of the World
    (Pasadena, Calif.:, 2005), p. 32.
          R. Stephen Humphreys, “Egypt in the World System of the Late Middle Ages”
    Cambridge History of Egypt
    , vol. 1
    Islamic Egypt 640
    –
    1517
    (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998).
  • 14. Egypt visited but has not returned tribute to China: Mosili is Fustat. Misr is Cairo. Jientou is Alexandra. Li Anshan,
    Feizhou Huqqiaohuaren Shi: A History of Overseas Chinese in Africa
    (Beijing: in “African studies review,” vol 44, April 2001, 2000).
  • 15. Misr is Cairo: Janet L. Abu-Lughod,
    Cairo: 1001 Years of the City Victorius
    (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 197), pp. 1–30.
  • 16. Cairo in the Yuan Dynasty: Shang Yan Bing,
    Yuan Marine Merchants and Overseas Voyages in Ninzu Shi Yanju
    (Beijing: Minju Shi Yanj 2002), p. 190.
  • 17. Reciprocal visits between China and Egypt: Teobaldi Filesi,
    China and Africa in the Middle Age
    ,” trans. D. Morison (London; Fran Cass, 1972), p. 89, and “Merchants As Diplomatic Relations,” Eternal Egypt website.
  • 18. Yuan adopt Islamic astronomy: Yan Congjian,
    Shuyu Zhouzi Lu.
  • 19. Interpreting between Egyptian, Persian, and Chinese: Professor Liu Ying Sheng,
    A Compendium of Yuan History
    , vol. 10 (Beijing: China Radio and TV Publishing House, 2005), p. 30.

———. “What was the Route Taken by the Chinese Delegation to Florence in 1433”

———. “Zheng He and His Envoys' Visit, to Cario in 1414 and 1433”

———. “Zheng He's Delegation to Papal Court of Florence”

B. Bibliography for Chapter 6

Aldridge, James.
Cairo: Biography of a City.
London: Macmillan, 1969.

Braudel, Fernand.
A History of Civilisations.
Translated by Richard Mayne. London: Penguin Books, 1993.

Payne, Robert.
The Canal Builders.
New York: Macmillan, 1959.

Poole, Stanley Lane.
A History of Egypt in the Middle Ages.
London: Frank Cass, 1894.

Origo, Iris.
The Merchant of Pratoo: Daily Life in a Medieval Italian City.
London: Penguin Books, 1992.

Redmount, Carol A. “The Wadi Tumilat and the Canal of the Pharaohs.”
Journal of Near Eastern Studies,
no. 54 (1995).

Al Makrizi, Ahmad Ibn Ali, “Histoire d'Egypt.” Translated by Edgard Blocher. Paris, 1908.

K. N. Chandhuri. “A Note on Ibn Taghri Birdi-Description of Chinese ships in Aden and Jedda.”
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society
(1989) SJ 447.

C. Bibliography for Chapter 7

I have been travelling to Venice for fifty years and in total have spent months exploring her canals and museums. As may be expected, I have read a lot of books in that time. Four of these, in my view, give brilliant popular descriptions of this wonderful Byzantine city, half European, half Asian. These are Norwich's
Venice: the Greatness and Fall
and
Venice: the Rise to Empire;
Hibbert's
Venice: Biography of a City
; Lorenzetti's
Venice and Its Lagoon,
the bible of Venice; and
Venice: the Masque of Italy
by Brion. These four know Venice like the back of their hand, and it would be impertinent of me to attempt to improve on their rich descriptions. I have quoted extensively from them.

Alazard, Jean.
La Venise de la Renaissance.
Paris: Hachette, 1956.

Braudel, Fernand.
The Mediterranean in the Time of Philip II
. Translated by Sian Reynolds. London: Fontana, 1966.

———.
The Wheels of Commerce
. London: Penguin Books, 1993. Translated by Richard Mayne.

Brion, Marcel.
Venice: The Masque of Italy.
Translated by Neil Mann. London: Elek Books, 1962.

Hall, Richard.
Empires of the Monsoon: A History of the Indian Ocean and Its Invaders.
New York: HarperCollins, 1996.

Hibbert, Christopher.
Venice: Biography of a City.

Hutton, Edward.
Venice and Venetia
. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 1989. London: Hollis and Carter 1954.

Lorenzetti, Giulio.
Venice and Its Lagoon
. Rome: Instituto Poligrafico Dello Stato, 1956.

Morris, Jan.
The Venetian Empire
. London: Penguin Books, 1990.

Norwich, John Julius.
Venice: The Greatness and Fall
. London: Allen Lane, 1981.

———.
Venice: The Rise to Empire
. London: Random House, 1989.

Olschki, Leonardo. “Asiatic Exotioism in Italian Art of the Early Renaissance.”
Art Bulletin
26, no. 2 (June 1994).

Origo, Iris. “The Domestic Enemy: The Eastern Slaves in Tuscany in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Century.”
Speculum: A Journal of Medieval Studies
30, no. 3 (July 1955).

Riviere-Sestier, M. “Venice and the Islands.” London: George G. Harrap & Company 1956.

Thompson, Guinnar PhD. “The Friars MAP of Ancient America 1360 AD.” WA: Pub Laura Lee Productions, 1996.

D. Bibliography for Chapters 8 and 9

Beck, James. “Leon Battista Alberti and the Night Sky at San Lorenzo.”
Artibus et Historiae
10, no. 19 (1989): 9–35.

Brown, Patricia Fortini. “
Laetentur Caeli:
The Council of Florence and the Astronomical Fresco in the Old Sacristy.”
Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institute
44 (1981): 176 ff.

Bruckner, Gene A.
Renaissance Florence
. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1969.

Carmichael, Ann G.
Plague and Poor in Renaissance Florence.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986.

Hibbert, Christopher.
The House of Medici: Its Rise and Fall 1420
–
1440.
London: Penguin Books, 1974.

Hollingsworth, Mary.
Patronage in Renaissance Italy.
London: John Murray, 1994.

Jardine, Lisa.
Worldly Goods: A New History of the Renaissance.
London: Macmillan, 1996.

Olschki, Leonardo. “Asiatic Exoticism in Italian Art of the Early Renaissance.”
Art Bulletin
26, no. 2 (June 1994).

Origo, Iris.
The Merchant of Prato: Daily Life in a Medieval Italian City.
London: Penguin Books, 1963.

Plumb, J. H.
The Horizon Book of the Renaissance
. London: Collins, 1961.

Tai Peng Wang. “Zheng He's Delegation to the Papal Court of Florence.” This research paper was the stimulus for this book. It is available, with an extensive bibliography, on our website. The main points are as follows:

  1. Few know of Toscanelli's letters to the king of Portugal and Christopher Columbus, letters that report Toscanelli meeting the Chinese ambassador. C. R. Markham, trans.,
    The Journals of Christopher Columbus
    Vignaud Henri Hakluyt Society O. viii). Also Vignaud “Toscanelli and Columbus”
  2. In the 1430s, China described Florence (seat of the papacy 1434–38) as Fulin or Farang. Yu Lizi, “
    Fulin Ji Aishi Shengdi Diwang Bianzheng
    ” (The correct locations of Fulin countries and the birthplace of Ai Shi during Yuan China),
    Haijioshi Yanjiu
    (Maritime historical studies) Quanzhou: (1990–1992): 51.
  3. Diplomatic exchanges between the papacy and Ming China had started with Hong Wu in 1371. See Zhang Xing Lang:
    Zhougxi Jiaotong Shiliao Huibian
    (Collected historical sources of the history of contacts between China and the West), vol. 1 pp. 315.
  4. There are many Chinese descriptions of the papacy in Hong Wu and Zhu Di's reign. See Zhang Xing Lang, p. 331, and Yan Congjian
    Shuyu Zhouzi Lu,
    at vol. 2. Also Mingshi
    Waigua Zhuan
    (Profiles of foreign countries in the Ming history).
  5. The papacy paid tribute to China during Zhu Di's reign.
    Ming Shi Waigua Zhuan,
    vol. 5, p. 47.
  6. Lumi was Rome in early Ming descriptions. The name originated in the Song dynasty, (in with Zhao Chinese) Ruqua, who used the name Lumei in his book
    Zhufan Zhi: Descriptions of Various Barbarians
    (Hong Kong: University of Hong Kong Press, 2000), pp. 231–32. Also see (for cloth) John Rigby Hall,
    Renaissance
    (New York; 1965), p. 78.
  7. The pope sent numerous delegations to China during the early Ming. For William of Prato, see Fang Hao,
    Zhongxi Jiatong Shi
    (A history of contacts between China and Europe), vol. 3 (Taipei: 1953), pp. 211–17. Following William of Prato, ten cardinals were appointed, one as late 1426. Zhang Guogang and Wu Liwei,
    Mengyuan Shidai Xifang Zai Hua Zong Jiao Xiuhui
    (The church in Yuan China), in
    Haijiao Shi Yanjiu
    (Maritime history studies) (Quanzhou: 2003): 62.
  8. Wang Tai Peng, “Zheng He, Wang Dayvan and Zheng Yijun: Some Insights.”
    Asian Culture
    , (Singapore, June 2004): pp. 54–62. See also W. Scott Morton and Charlton M. Lewis,
    China, Its History and Culture
    (New York: McGraw-Hill, 2005), p. 128.
          In his paper, Tai Peng Wang produces evidence that Yuan navigators had mastered astronavigation sufficiently to cross oceans. See Gong Zhen,
    Xiyang Banguo Zhi
    (Notes on barbarian countries in the western seas), Beijing: Zhounghua bookshop.
    See also Xi Fei Long, Yang Xi, Tang Xiren, eds.,
    Zhongguo Jishu Shi, Jiaotong Ch'uan
    (The history of Chinese science and technology), vol. on transportation (Beijing: Science Publisher, 2004), pp. 395–96.
  9. It would have been natural for the Chinese ambassador to issue the
    Datong Li
    calendar to the papal court. The
    Datong Li
    cotains astronomical information the same as that in the
    Shoushi
    .
  10. Joseph Needham has pointed out that the
    Shoushi
    and other Chinese astronomical calendars were astronomical treatises. Joseph Needham,
    Zhougguo Gudai Kexue
    (Science in traditional China) (Shanghai: Shanghai Bookshop, 2000), pp. 146–47.
  11. Nicholas of Cusa had predated Copernicus in some respects. Jasper Hopkins, “Nicholas of Cusa” in
    Dictionary of the Middle Ages
    , ed. Joseph R. Strayer (New York: Charles Scribner and Sons, 1987), pp. 122–25. See also Paul Robert Walker,
    The Italian Renaissance
    (New York: Facts on File, 1995), p. 96.
  12. See also Tai Peng Wang,
    The Origin of Chinese Kongsi
    (Kuala Lumpur: Perland UK Publications, 1994).

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