Chapter XX: The Results of Prince Henry's Work 308

INDEX 325

ILLUSTRATIONS.

PAGE

MAIN GATE OF THE MONASTERY CHURCH AT BELEM, _Frontispiece_

Built on the site of an old sailor's chapel, existing in
Prince Henry's day, and used by his men. In the niche
between the two great entrance doors, is a statue of Prince
Henry in armour.

THE MONASTERY CHURCH AT BATALHA[1] 132

West front of church in which Prince Henry and his
House lie buried. This church was founded by the Prince's
father, King John, in memory of his victory over Castille
at Aljubarrota.

BATALHA CHURCH--PORTUGAL'S WESTMINSTER[1] 136

The aisle containing the tombs of Prince Henry and his
brothers, the Infants of the House of Aviz.

EFFIGIES OF KING JOHN THE GREAT AND QUEEN PHILIPPA 148

Henry's father and mother, from their tomb in the Abbey
of Batalha.

GATEWAY OF THE CHURCH AT THOMAR 154

The Mother Church of the Order of Christ, of which
Henry was Grand-Master.

HENRY IN MORNING DRESS[2] 258

The original forms the frontispiece to the Paris MS. of
Azurara's _Discovery and Conquest of Guinea_.

COIMBRA UNIVERSITY 298

THE RECUMBENT STATUE OF PRINCE HENRY 306

From his tomb in Batalha Church; with his escutcheons (1)
as titular King of Cyprus; (2) as Knight of the Garter of
England; (3) as Grand Master of the Order of Christ.

ALLEGORICAL PIECE[3] 310

Supposed to represent Columbus, as St. Christopher,
carrying across the ocean the Christian faith, in the
form of the infant Christ. From the map of Juan de la
Cosa, 1500.

VASCO DA GAMA[4] 314

From a portrait in the possession of the Count of
Lavradio.

AFFONSO D'ALBUQUERQUE[5] 318

[Footnote 1: From a water-colour.]

[Footnote 2: From Major's _Life of Henry the Navigator_.]

[Footnote 3: From the Hakluyt Society's _Select Letters of Columbus_.]

[Footnote 4: From the Hakluyt Society's edition of _Three Voyages of Vasco da Gama_.]

[Footnote 5: From the Hakluyt Society's edition of Albuquerque's _Commentaries_.]

LIST OF MAPS.[6]

PAGE
THE WORLD ACCORDING TO PTOLEMY 2

From Nordenskjöld's fac-simile atlas

THE WORLD ACCORDING TO EDRISI. _c._ 1150 24

As reconstructed by M. Reinaud from the written
descriptions of the Arabic geographer. This illustrates
the extremely unreal and untrue conception of the earth
among Moslem students, especially those who followed the
theories of Ptolomy--_e.g._, in the extension to
Africa eastward, so as practically or actually to join
China, making the Indian Ocean an inland sea.

THE MAPPE-MONDE OF ST. SEVER 48

(B. Mus., Map room, shelf 35 [5], sheet 6). Of uncertain
date, between _c._ 780-980 but probably not later
than the 10th century. One of the earliest examples of
Christian map-making.

THE ANGLO-SAXON MAP 54

(B. Mus., Cotton mss., Tib. B.V., fol. 59). This gives
us the most interesting and accurate view of the world
that we get in the pre-Crusading Christian science. The
square, but not conventional outline is detailed with
considerable care and precision. The writing, though
minute, is legible; but the Nile, which, like the Red
Sea in Africa, is coloured _red_, in contrast to the
ordinary _grey_ of water in this example, is made to
wander about Africa from side to side, with occasional
disappearances, in a thoroughly mythical fashion. This
map, from a ms. of Priscian's _Peviegesis_, appears
to have been executed at the end of the 10th century; it
is on vellum, highly finished, and has been engraved, in
outline, in Playfair's _Atlas_ (Pl. I), and more fully
in the _Penny Magazine_ (July 22, 1837). In the reign
of Henry II., it appears to have belonged to Battle Abbey.

THE TURIN MAP OF THE 11TH CENTURY 76

(B. Mus., Map room. From Ottino's reproduction).
One of the oldest and simplest of Christian Mappe-Mondes,
giving a special prominence to Paradise, (with the figures
of Adam, Eve, and the serpent), to the mountains and
rivers of the world, and to the four winds of heaven. It is
to be associated with the Spanish map of 1109, and the
Mappe-Monde of St. Sever.

THE SPANISH-ARABIC MAP OF 1109 84

(B. Mus., Add. mss., 11695). The original, gorgeously
coloured, represents the crudest of Christian and Moslem
notions of the world. Even more crude than in the Turin
map and the Mappe-Monde of St. Sever, both of which offer
some resemblances to this. The earth is represented as of
quadrangular shape, surrounded by the ocean. At the E.
is Paradise with the figures of the Temptation. A part of
the S. is cut off by the Red Sea, which is straight (and
coloured red), just as the straight Mediterranean, with its
quadrangular islands, divides the N.W. quarter, 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 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.]