Dévoiler, à partir de six tableaux de Vermeer et d'une faïence, le monde en mutation du XVIIe siècle, tel est le pari de ce livre magnifique salué unanimement par la critique. Une simple jatte de fruits dans La Liseuse à la fenêtre nous entraîne sur les routes du commerce maritime de la fameuse porcelaine bleu et blanc en provenance de Chine, tandis qu'un somptueux chapeau de feutre dans L'Officier et la jeune fille riant nous mène au Canada jusqu'aux fourrures de castor ...

'Effortless and compelling, Brooks is a wonderful storyteller. I doubt I will read a better book this year.' Sunday TelegraphEach of Vermeer's paintings tells a story. In one, a military officer leans toward a laughing girl; in another, a woman stands by a window and weighs silver; in a third, fruit spills from a porcelain bowl onto a lavish Turkish carpet.Hiding in plain sight, these details hint at the intricate threads that boun...

China is one of the oldest states in the world. It achieved its approximate current borders with the Ascendancy of the Yuan dynasty in the 13th century, and despite the passing of one Imperial dynasty to the next, it has maintained them for the eight centuries since. Even the European colonial powers at the height of their power could not move past coastal enclaves. Thus, China remained China through the Ming, the Qing, the Republic, the Occupation, and Communism.But, despite the d...

De tableau en tableau, du Mongol Kubilaï Khan, qui aimait à chasser en compagnie de guépards dans son palais de Xanadu, au traître Liang Hongzhi condamné à mort pour collaboration avec le Japon pendant la Seconde Guerre mondiale, en passant par la princesse bleue que Marco Polo conduisit de Chine jusqu’en Perse et par Zheng He, l’amiral chinois qui, au cœur du XVe siècle, sillonna l’océan Indien bien avant les Européens au cours de sept voyages, Timothy Brook continue d’arpenter les routes...

In 1659, a vast and unusual map of China arrived in the Bodleian Library, Oxford. It was bequeathed by John Selden, a London business lawyer, political activist, former convict, MP and the city's first Orientalist scholar. Largely ignored, it remained in the bowels of the library, until called up by an inquisitive reader. When Timothy Brook saw it in 2009, he realised that the Selden Map was 'a puzzle that had to be solved': an exceptional artefact, so unsettlingly modern-looking it could ...

The author of Vermeer's Hat shares "a dizzying and exhilarating journey" through 800 years of Chinese history and national identity (New Statesman).China is one of the oldest states in the world. It achieved its approximate borders with the Ascendancy of the Yuan dynasty in the thirteenth century and has maintained them ever since—through the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the Republic, the Occupation, and Communism. Yet China has never been alone in the world. I...

Los secretos de la expansión cultural, política y económica del continente europeo.A partir de la descripción pormenorizada de algunos de los cuadros más emblemáticos del pintor de Delft, Brook estudia el súbito intercambio de mercancías a escala global, entre Europa, América y Asia,que se desarrolla a lo largo del siglo XVII. Es la historia de las expediciones para penetrar en nuevos territorios y el comercio de tabaco, porcelana y otros objetos que pronto ...

The world-renowned scholar and author of Vermeer’s Hat does for China what Mary Beard did for Rome in SPQR: Timothy Brook analyzes the last eight centuries of China’s relationship with the world in this magnificent history that brings together accounts from civil servants, horse traders, spiritual leaders, explorers, pirates, emperors, migrant workers, invaders, visionaries, and traitors—creating a multifaceted portrait of this highly misunderstood nation.

How climate change ushered in the collapse of one of history’s mighty empiresIn 1644, after close to three centuries of relative stability and prosperity, the Ming dynasty collapsed. Many historians attribute its demise to the Manchu invasion of China, but the truth is far more profound. The Price of Collapse provides an entirely new approach to the economic and social history of China, exploring how global climate crisis spelled the end of Ming rule....

The Ming dynasty was the last great Chinese dynasty before the Manchu conquest in 1644. During that time, China, not Europe, was the center of the world: the European voyages of exploration were searching not just for new lands but also for new trade routes to the Far East. In this book, Timothy Brook eloquently narrates the changing landscape of life over the three centuries of the Ming (1368-1644), when China was transformed from a closely administered agrarian realm into a place of comm...

Intrecciando storie di personaggi straordinari e di gente comune, Il leopardo di Kublai Khan è un racconto avvincente quanto contraddittorio di guerre, missioni diplomatiche, vassallaggi, credenze religiose e scambi commerciali: per una principessa che attraversa la Persia allo scopo di stringere un'alleanza politica sposando il sovrano dell'Ilkhanato, una missione diplomatica in Sri Lanka termina con il rapimento del re locale; gli imperatori invitano i commercianti mongoli e cor...

China, la nación más grande de la tierra, es uno de los Estados más antiguos del mundo. Prácticamente ha mantenido las mismas fronteras desde el siglo XIII, cuando fue invadida por los mongoles de Kubilai Kan, quien fundó la dinastía Yuan y creó el poderoso Gran Estado que Marco Polo nos describió en sus diarios.A lo largo de los siglos, poderosos intereses internos intentaron mantener a China aislada, y así quedó acuñada su imagen en la Historia. Timothy Brook, sin embargo, demues...