Was da Vinci A Fraud?

Amateur British historian, Gavin Menzies, incited headlines around the globe in 2002 with his claim that Columbus was beat to America by Chinese sailors 70 years before. Now, he has set out to clarify the nature of the multitude of drawings contributed by Leonardo da Vinci to the Renaissance.

In his newly published book, "1434: The Year A Magnificent Chinese Fleet Sailed To Italy and Ignited The Renaissance," Menzies notes the similarity between many of da Vinci's famed mechanical drawings and their original Chinese counterparts. He claims that the da Vinci drawings were undoubtedly derived from them, though drawn in three dimensions.

A retired Royal Navy submarine commander himself, Menzies claims that the Chinese fleet sailed to Italy toting encylocpedias of all their technological knowledge, bringing everything to Venice in 1430. From Venice, he says, an ambassador of the fleet ventured to Florence and presented the material to Pope Eugenius IV.

Menzies tells reporters, "I argue in the book that this was the spark that really ignited the renaissance and that Leonardo and (Italian astronomer) Galileo built on what was brought to them by the Chinese...Leonardo basically redrew everything in three dimensions, which made a vast improvement."

If accepted, the claim would force an "agonizing reappraisal of the Euro-centric view of history", Menzies says in his book. "This whole fantasy about Europe discovering the world is just nonsense," said Menzies.