Initial Publication and Symbolic Celebration

Key Insight

Joseph and Dorothy Needham celebrated the publication of the first volume of 'the book' on August 14, 1954. Prior to this, in late July, they left Cambridge for Paris to meet Gwei-djen, where the trio opened a celebratory bottle of champagne three weeks in advance. Joseph and Dorothy then embarked on the Orient Express, a journey he mostly enjoyed despite severe weather and a broken heating system, noting the splendid food and magnificent steam engines.

Their journey included stops in Mainz, where Joseph visited local Orientalists to assert Johannes Gutenberg was not the sole inventor of printing thanks to Dunhuang discoveries, and Vienna for a weekend holiday. Both delivered well-received papers at the International Physiological Conference in Budapest, though Joseph was notably distracted by a miniature steam railway in the forested hills above Buda, spending hours questioning its locomotive driver.

For the publication day, they chose the medieval town of Amboise, fifteen miles upriver from Tours. This was primarily because Leonardo da Vinci spent his final three years there. Needham believed public remembrance of great scientists, like Leonardo, endures beyond that of people made famous by birth. They marked the event with dinner, a 1947 Vouvray, and a spontaneous nighttime visit to the illuminated château, where Leonardo's tomb and statue were prominently floodlit, confirming his lasting legacy.