conflict erupted, they were prepared to go as far as war. They made gold and silver coinage as their monetary currencies. But unlike the Chinese coinage, which can be stringed as a unit to count, there are no holes in their coinage for such purpose. On the back of the money is the face of the king [the pope] bearing his title and name. The law forbids any monetary coinage made privately. The land of Fulin produces gold, silver, pearls, western cloth, horses, camels, olives, dates and grapes. 4
Yan Congjianâs descriptions are reflected in a Pinturicchio fresco of Aeneas Sylvius Piccolomini, the future Pope Pius II. 5 Born in 1405 to a distinguished Sienese family, Aeneas was educated at the universitiesof Siena and Florence. Between 1431 and 1445, he opposed Eugenius IV. In 1445 he suddenly changed sides. He took orders in 1456, became a bishop in 1450 and a cardinal in 1456, and was named pope upon the death of Calixtus III in 1458.
Pinturicchio paints Pius II being carried on a throne into the Basilica of Saint John Lateran, Rome (where Pisanello was also sketching). The pope wears a red-lined cloak, and his hat is wrapped with golden thread. Before him are his cardinals in green, beige, pink, and blue, their heads covered in white tricorn hats. (See colour insert 3.)
A Ming dynasty book, Profiles of Foreign Countries, attests to continued diplomatic exchanges between Ming China and the Catholic Church in Italy. 6 This Chinese primary source includes âLumiâ among the foreign nations that paid China an official visit and rendered tribute during Zhu Diâs reign (1403â1424). Lumi is Rome. The name is derived from Lumei, which is what the Song author Zhao Ruqua (1170â1228) called Rome. In his 1225 book Zhufan Zhi (Description of various barbarians), Zhao wrote that âall men are wearing turbans as their headwear. In winter they will be wearing coloured fur or leather coats to keep warm. One of their staple foods is the dish of spaghetti with a sauce of meat. They too have silver and gold currencies used as money. There are forty thousand weaver households in the country living on weaving brocades.â 7 Clearly, the Chinese were not strangers to the Papal States.
Now for some detective work to see what Pope Eugenius IV, Toscanelli, and his friends Regiomontanus, Alberti, and Nicholas of Cusa learned from Zheng Heâs delegate besides obtaining world maps.
After the Chinese ambassador had presented his power of attorney (represented by the brass medallion described in chapter 2) to Eugenius IV, he would have formally presented the Xuan De astronomical calendar, which would have established the precise date of the inauguration of the emperorââwhen everything would start anew.â
Zheng He and the fleet had spent two years preparing to leave China and nearly three years reaching Florence. By the time they arrived in 1434 at the court of Eugenius IV, it had been nine years sincethe emperorâs inauguration. Foreign rulers also had to know the date of the emperorâs birth, which was calculated from conception. In the case of Zhu Zhanji, this would have been 1398. So the calendar had to go back thirty-six years. To certify that the emperor had continued to hold the mandate of heaven during that period, the calendar would also need to show that the prediction of solar and lunar eclipses, comets, positions of planets and stars and untoward lunar conjunctions (the moon with Mercury) had been accurate throughout those thirty-six yearsâthousands of pieces of astronomical data had to be included.
One of Pisanelloâs sketches showing a Mongol face.
However, the calendar also had to predict the future. This required that it contain astronomical calculations of the accurate positions of sun and moon, tables of the five planets, the positions of stars and comets, dates of solstices and equinoxes, and a method of adapting those dates and times to the latitude of Florence.
Yan Congjianâs descriptions are reflected in a Pinturicchio fresco of Aeneas Sylvius Piccolomini, the future Pope Pius II. 5 Born in 1405 to a distinguished Sienese family, Aeneas was educated at the universitiesof Siena and Florence. Between 1431 and 1445, he opposed Eugenius IV. In 1445 he suddenly changed sides. He took orders in 1456, became a bishop in 1450 and a cardinal in 1456, and was named pope upon the death of Calixtus III in 1458.
Pinturicchio paints Pius II being carried on a throne into the Basilica of Saint John Lateran, Rome (where Pisanello was also sketching). The pope wears a red-lined cloak, and his hat is wrapped with golden thread. Before him are his cardinals in green, beige, pink, and blue, their heads covered in white tricorn hats. (See colour insert 3.)
A Ming dynasty book, Profiles of Foreign Countries, attests to continued diplomatic exchanges between Ming China and the Catholic Church in Italy. 6 This Chinese primary source includes âLumiâ among the foreign nations that paid China an official visit and rendered tribute during Zhu Diâs reign (1403â1424). Lumi is Rome. The name is derived from Lumei, which is what the Song author Zhao Ruqua (1170â1228) called Rome. In his 1225 book Zhufan Zhi (Description of various barbarians), Zhao wrote that âall men are wearing turbans as their headwear. In winter they will be wearing coloured fur or leather coats to keep warm. One of their staple foods is the dish of spaghetti with a sauce of meat. They too have silver and gold currencies used as money. There are forty thousand weaver households in the country living on weaving brocades.â 7 Clearly, the Chinese were not strangers to the Papal States.
Now for some detective work to see what Pope Eugenius IV, Toscanelli, and his friends Regiomontanus, Alberti, and Nicholas of Cusa learned from Zheng Heâs delegate besides obtaining world maps.
After the Chinese ambassador had presented his power of attorney (represented by the brass medallion described in chapter 2) to Eugenius IV, he would have formally presented the Xuan De astronomical calendar, which would have established the precise date of the inauguration of the emperorââwhen everything would start anew.â
Zheng He and the fleet had spent two years preparing to leave China and nearly three years reaching Florence. By the time they arrived in 1434 at the court of Eugenius IV, it had been nine years sincethe emperorâs inauguration. Foreign rulers also had to know the date of the emperorâs birth, which was calculated from conception. In the case of Zhu Zhanji, this would have been 1398. So the calendar had to go back thirty-six years. To certify that the emperor had continued to hold the mandate of heaven during that period, the calendar would also need to show that the prediction of solar and lunar eclipses, comets, positions of planets and stars and untoward lunar conjunctions (the moon with Mercury) had been accurate throughout those thirty-six yearsâthousands of pieces of astronomical data had to be included.
One of Pisanelloâs sketches showing a Mongol face.
However, the calendar also had to predict the future. This required that it contain astronomical calculations of the accurate positions of sun and moon, tables of the five planets, the positions of stars and comets, dates of solstices and equinoxes, and a method of adapting those dates and times to the latitude of Florence.
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