Reuters has a sit down with Gavin Menzies, an amateur historian whose new book 1434: The Year a Magnificent Chinese Fleet Sailed to Italy and Ignited the Renaissance claims (among other things) that Leonardo da Vinci's drawings of flying machines were cribbed from two-dimensional drawings presented to Pope Eugenius IV by a Chinese ambassador.To support his argument, Menzies publishes drawings of siege weapons, mills and pumps from a 1313 Chinese agricultural treatise, the Nung Shu, and from other pre-1430 Chinese books, next to apparently similar illustrations by Leonardo, Di Giorgio and Taccola.
Menzies' last book, 1421: The Year China Discovered America, claimed a fleet of Chinese explorers discovered North America long before Columbus did. Some have found these claims to be weak, although it's fairly common knowledge at this point that my Norse forebearers settled North America as early as the 10th century. From Menzies' newest claim, I can only presume Erik the Red reached Newfoundland by wooden helicopter.
"By comparing Leonardo's drawings with the Nung Shu we have verified that each element of a machine superbly illustrated by Leonardo had previously been illustrated by the Chinese in a much simpler manual," Menzies writes.
Glenn C. Altschuler, Professor of American Studies at Cornell, hasn't seen much rigor in either of Menzies' books. In the Baltimore Sun review of 1434 Altschuler says:
Menzies pursues his subject with missionary zeal - and a will to believe. He is unperturbed by the absence of contemporaneous accounts of the arrival in Italy of a flotilla of hundreds of ships from China. And, unfortunately, he does not employ standards acceptable to professional historians, linguists or life scientists to evaluate the mountain of evidence he has amassed. Because Menzies gives credence to anyone who shares his views, every link in the chain of causation in 1434 is made of papier-mache.
Columbus debunker sets sights on Leonardo da Vinci [Reuters.com]
Above left, an image from the Nung Shu of a revolving table that is a rudimentary form of moveable type; Above right, da Vinci's helicopter. They aren't really related, but then I'm no historian. In fairness, the Nung Shu apparently does reference some helicopter designs, but I couldn't find any images of them.
