1434: The Year a Chinese Fleet Sailed to Italy and Ignited the Renaissance

[*“The charming little slave-girls—shaking out the clothes in the morning—as fresh and joyful as hawthorn buds.”]21 (#litres_trial_promo)

Now let us follow the rich Chinese ambassador and the poor slave girls across the wooded plains of Tuscany to Florence.

Notes Chapter 7

1 (#ulink_ae3af094-6c03-5cfb-b381-95a1ae514700). “Geography of the Mediterranean” The first two paragraphs of this chapter are a paraphrase of the celebrated French historian and politician Fernand Braudel’s marvelous work The Mediterranean in theTime of Philip II. I have referred to this masterpiece time and again, for in my view Braudel is perhaps the greatest European historian, capable of summarizing a vast array of disparate facts into a coherent and readable whole.

2 (#ulink_29c62eee-28fb-5c9f-b1bb-df262bab9ca9). Norwich, Venice: The Greatness; Hibbert, Biography of a City; Lorenzetti, Veniceand Its Lagoon; Brion, Masque of Italy. See also Venice and the Islands (London: 1956), p. 22.

3 (#ulink_a075277a-d0f0-55a2-b023-f9be5cf863ea). Ibid.

4 (#ulink_b51eeb92-e7eb-5488-9ab9-90714b16cf0b). I am indebted to a number of writers who are house hold names. Norwich, Venice is a classic. Norwich, in his own words, is an “unashamed populariser”—a great achievement. Those who denigrate popular izers have no idea how difficult popularizing is. Another popular izer who is also erudite and who writes in a charming style is Jan Morris. My descriptions of life on Venetian galleys and of harbors within the Venetian Empire are taken largely from her Venetian Empire.

5 (#ulink_993e4454-2b6c-5402-983d-bc4bd1e07dc4). Descriptions of the Venetian Empire Morris, Venetian Empire, has colorful descriptions not only of the Venetian in the eastern Mediterranean but also of life aboard Venetian galleys. She brings to life the tough and skillful traders and seamen who made Venice. I have extensively paraphrased her book from p.135 onward. Also Norwich, Venice