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

or Europe, from the S.W. quarter, or Africa. The Ægean Sea
joins the Mediterranean at a right angle, in the centre of the map. In the
ocean, bordering the whole, are square islands, e.g., Tile (Thule),
Britania, Scocia, Fu(o)rtunarum insula. The Turin map occurs in
another copy of the same work--A Commentary on the Apocalypse.

THE PSALTER MAP OF THE 13TH CENTURY 92
(B. Mus., Add. mss., 28, 681). A good illustration of the circular type
of mediæval map, which is sometimes little better than a panorama of
legends and monsters. Christ at the top; the dragons crushed beneath
him at the bottom; Jerusalem, the navel of the earth, in the middle as a
sort of bull's-eye to a target, all show a "religious" geography. The line
of queer figures, on the right side, figuring 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 mediæval 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 Nordenskjöld'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 Nordenskjöld'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