Introduction
I Setting the Scene
1 A Last Voyage
2 The Emperor’s Ambassador
3 The Fleets are Prepared for the Voyage to the Barbarians
4 Zheng He’s Navigators’ Calculation of Latitude and Longitude
5 Voyage to the Red Sea
6 Cairo and the Red Sea–nile Canal
II China Ignites the Renaissance
7 To the Venice of Niccolò Da Conti
8 Paolo Toscanelli’s Florence
9 Toscanelli Meets the Chinese Ambassador
10 Columbus’s and Magellan’s World Maps
11 The World Maps of Johannes Schöner, Martin Waldseemüller, and Admiral Zheng He
Photographic Insert 1
12 Toscanelli’s New astronomy
13 The Florentine Mathematicians: Toscanelli, Nicholas of Cusa, and Regiomontanus
14 Leon Battista Alberti and Leonardo Da Vinci
15 Leonardo Da Vinci and Chinese Inventions
Photographic Insert 2
16 Leonardo, Di Giorgio, Taccola, and Alberti
17 Silk and Rice
18 Grand Canals: China and Lombardy
19 Firearms and Steel
20 Printing
21 China’s Contribution to the Renaissance
III China’s Legacy
22 Tragedy on the High Seas: Zheng He’s Fleet Destroyed by a Tsunami
Photographic Insert 3
23 The Conquistadores’ Inheritance: Our Lady of Victory
Acknowledgments
Notes
Bibliography
Permissions
Photograph Credits
Searchable Terms
About the Author
Other Books by Gavin Menzies
Credits
Copyright
About the Publisher