Leonardo da Vinci's drawings of machines are uncannily similar to Chinese originals and were undoubtedly derived from them, says a British amateur historian in his new book.

Gavin Menzies created headlines across the globe in 2002 by claiming Chinese sailors had reached America 70 years before Christopher Columbus.

Now he says a Chinese fleet brought encyclopedias of technology not known to the West to Italy in 1434 and laid the foundation for the engineering marvels such as flying machines, later drawn by the Italian polymath Leonardo da Vinci.

"Everything known to the Chinese by the year 1430 was brought to Venice," says Menzies, a retired Royal Navy submarine commander.

From Venice, a Chinese ambassador went to Florence and presented the material to Pope Eugenius IV, Menzies says.

"I argue in the book that this was the spark that really ignited the Renaissance and that Da Vinci and (Italian astronomer) Galileo built on what was brought to them by the Chinese. Da Vinci 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 the book, 1434: The Year A Magnificent Chinese Fleet Sailed To Italy and Ignited The Renaissance.

China's legendary sailor Zheng He began his famous journeys in 1405, and made a dozen trips to many parts of the world for 28 years. Which means the Chinese fleet would have made the journey a year after Zheng He brought down his sails.