THE HEAVENLY EMPIRE

It is the first time in the history of all the literature dedicated to China that such a monumental work has been tackled. After twenty years of international study and research, with the collection of over five thousand iconographic documents (including Eighteenth-century prints, the first photographs of the Nineteenth century, unpublished snapshots of dozens of travellers who took photos in China in the early Twentieth century) the author shows us the Heavenly Empire by dividing it into three main parts: the life at Court inside the Forbidden City; the life of the Mandarins and officials at various levels; the life of the people. The laws, festivals, customs, habits and everyday activities are described on the basis of precise documentation, lavishly illustrated with an authentic wealth of pictures that have been collected and selected over long years of study. The author considers "Heavenly Empire" his most important work among those devoted to China. A portrait of the Empire that was the largest and for many aspects the most civilised in the world, to the extent that the great Seventeenth and Eighteenth-century European kings wished to imitate at least a part of its magnificence.