Prince Henry the Navigator, the Hero of Portugal and of Modern Discovery, 1394-1460 A.D. | Page 3

the S. coast of Africa, suggests a parallel with the still more fanciful Mappe-Monde of Hereford. (For copy see Bevan and Phillott's edition of the Hereford map).
THE S.W., OR AFRICAN SECTION OF THE HEREFORD MAP c. 1275-1300 106
(B. Mus., King's Lib., XXIII). The S. coast of Africa, as in the Psalter map, is fringed with monstrous tribes; monstrous animals fill up a good deal of the interior; half of the wheel representing Jerusalem in the middle of the world appears in the N.E. corner; and the designer's idea of the Mediterranean and Atlantic islands is specially noteworthy. The Hereford map is a specimen of the thoroughly traditional and unpractical school of medi?val geographers who based their work on books, or fashionable collections of travellers' tales--such as Pliny, Solinus, or Martianus Capella--and who are to be distinguished from the scientific school of the same period, whose best works were the Portolani, or coast-charts of the early 14th century.
THE WORLD ACCORDING TO MARINO SANUTO. c. A.D. 1306 114
(B. Mus., King's Lib., 149 F. 2 p. 282). The shape of Africa in this map is supposed by some to be valuable in the history of geographical advance, as suggesting the possibility of getting round from the Atlantic into the Indian Ocean.
SKETCH MAP OF DULCERT'S PORTOLANO OF 1339 116
(From Nordenskj?ld's fac-simile atlas). This illustrates the accuracy of the 14th century coast-charts, especially in the Mediterranean.
THE LAURENTIAN PORTOLANO OF 1351 120
(From the Medicean Lib. at Florence; reproduced in B. Mus., Map room, shelf 158, 22, 23). This is the most remarkable of all the Portolani of the 14th century, as giving a view of the world, and especially Africa, which is far nearer the actual truth than could be expected. Especially its outline of S. Africa and of the bend of the Guinea coast, is surprisingly near the truth, even as a guess, in a chart made one hundred and thirty-five years before the Cape of Good Hope was first rounded.
N.W. SECTION OF THE CATALAN MAP OF 1375-6 124
(B. Mus., Map room, 13, 14). This gives the British Islands, the W. coasts of Europe, N. Africa as far as Cape Boyador, and the Canaries and other islands in the Atlantic. The interior of Africa is filled with fantastic pictures of native tribes; the boat load of men off Cape Boyador in the extreme S.W. of the map probably represents the Catalan explorers of the year 1346, whose voyage in search of the "River of Gold" this map commemorates.
CHART OF THE MEDITERRANEAN SEA, BY BARENTSZOON 128
(Engraved in copper 1595. Almost an unaltered copy of a Portolano from the 14th century. From Nordenskj?ld's fac-simile atlas). This illustrates the remarkable correctness in the drawing of the Mediterranean basin and the coasts of W. Europe, reached by the Italian and Balearic coast-charts, or Portolani, in the 14th century.
THE BORGIAN MAP OF 1450 290
(B. Mus., Map room, shelf 2 [6], 13, 14; copy of 1797). This map was executed just before the fall of Constantinople (1453), and gives a view of the world as imagined in the 15th century. It is very fantastic and unscientific, but remarkable among its kind for its comparative freedom from ecclesiastical influence.
WESTERN SECTION OF THE MAPPE-MONDE OF FRA MAURO, 1457-9 302
(Cf. reproduction in B. Mus., Add. mss., 11267, and photographic copy in Map room). This map of Fra Mauro of Murano, (near Venice), is usually understood to be a sort of picture, not merely of the world as then known, but of Prince Henry's discoveries in particular on the W. African coast. From this point of view it is perhaps disappointing; the inlet of the Rio d'Ouro(?), to the S. of the Sahara, is exaggerated beyond all recognition; at the S. Cape (of Good Hope) a great island is depicted, separated from the mainland by a narrow channel--possibly Madagascar displaced.
SKETCH-MAP OF FRA MAURO'S MAPPE-MONDE 304
As reduced and simplified in Lelewel's Atlas. The corners of the table are filled up with four small circles representing: (1) The Ptolemaic System in the Spheres. (2) The lunar influences over the tides. (3) The circles described in the terrestial globe. (4) A picture of the expulsion from Eden, with the four sacred rivers.
MAP OF 1492 322
(B. Mus., Add. mss. 15760). This gives a general view of the Portuguese discoveries along the whole W. coast of Africa, and just beyond the Cape of Good Hope, which was rounded in 1486.
[Footnote 6: **Missing.** Please see the Transcriber's Note at the foot of the text.]

PREFACE
This volume aims at giving an account, based throughout upon original sources, of the progress of geographical knowledge and enterprise in Christendom throughout the Middle Ages, down to the middle or even the end of the fifteenth century, as well as a life of Prince Henry the Navigator, who brought this movement of European Expansion within sight of