Chapter V: Introduction (4)

According to Gaspar Fructuoso, Zarco, in clearing a path through the forests of Madeira, set the woodland on fire, and seven years elapsed before the last traces of the conflagration were extinguished. The seven years is, no doubt, an extra touch; but a fire of tremendous severity must have taken place, from Cadamosto's account.[203] The whole island, he declares, had once been in flames; the colonists only saved their lives by plunging into the torrents; and Zarco himself had to stand in a river-bed for two whole days and nights, with all his family. Yet, according to Azurara, so much wood was soon exported from the island to Portugal, that a change was produced in the housebuilding of Spain: loftier dwellings were built; and the Roman or Arab style was superseded by one originating in the new discoveries among the Atlantic Islands. Almost all Portugal, Cadamosto tells us in 1455, was now adorned with tables[204] and other furniture made from the wood of Madeira.

[Footnote 203: On his visit in 1455.]

[Footnote 204: It has been also suggested, that the wooden
crosses set up by Henry's orders in new-discovered lands were
from the material thus provided.]

In the settlement of Porto Santo, Bartholemew Perestrello, a gentleman of the household of Prince Henry's brother, the Infant John, took part[205] with Zarco and Vaz. Perestrello imported rabbits, which destroyed all the colonists' experiments in crops and vegetable planting; but receiving the captaincy of the island, he made some profit from breeding goats and exporting dragon's blood. His grant of Porto Santo, originally for his lifetime only, was extended by decree of November 1st, 1446, to a donation in perpetuity for himself and his descendants. On the death of Bartholemew, Prince Henry bestowed the captaincy on his son-in-law, Pedro Correa da Cunha, in trust for the first Governor's son Bartholemew, who was still a minor. Da Cunha later contracted with young Bartholemew's mother and uncle--the widow and brother of the first grantee--for a sum of money in return for a cession of his interim rights; and Prince Henry authorised this contract by a decree from Lagos (May 17th, 1458), confirmed by King Affonso V at Cintra (August 17th, 1459).

[Footnote 205: He accompanied Zarco in the second voyage of
1420.]

Young Bartholemew entered into his governorship in 1473, and it was formally confirmed to him (15th March, 1473) by Affonso V. It was his sister, a daughter of the elder Bartholemew, named Felipa Moñiz de Perestrello, whom Christopher Columbus married in Lisbon; after which he lived for some time in Porto Santo, enjoying the use of Perestrello's papers, maps, and instruments.

Before many years had passed, Madeira became famous for its corn and honey, its sugar cane,[206] and, above all, its wine. The Malvoisie[207] grape, introduced from Crete, throve excellently, and at last produced the Madeira of commerce. When Cadamosto visited the island, in 1455, he found vine culture already advanced, and become the staple industry of the colonists, who exported red and white wine annually to Europe, and found a market for the vine staves as bows.

[Footnote 206: Introduced from Sicily.]

[Footnote 207: "Malmsey," or "Malvasie," from Monemvasia or
Malvasia in the Morea, the original seat of its culture.]

As early as 1430[208] the Infant issued a charter, regulating the settlement of Madeira; herein Ayres Ferreira (whose children, "Adam and Eve," were the first Europeans born in the island) is mentioned as a companion of Zarco. An early tradition, which has not yet been substantiated, also maintained that Prince Henry instituted family registers for his colonists in this group.[209] In 1433 (September 26th), King Duarte, in a charter from Cintra, granted the islands of Madeira, Porto Santo, and the Desertas to the Infant Henry; and in 1434 (October 26th), the spiritualities of the same were bestowed on the Order of Christ.[210] In December, 1452, a contract was made at Albufeira between the Infant D. Henry and Diego de Teive, one of his "esquires," for the construction of a water-mill to aid in the manufacture of cane-sugar,[211] the third part of the produce to go to the Prince. Finally, in 1455, on Cadamosto's visit, the island possessed four settlements and 800 inhabitants, and this prosperity seems to have steadily continued. The charter of 1460[212] has been already noticed.

[Footnote 208: See Cordeiro, _Historia Insulana_, Bk. III, ch.
XV.]

[Footnote 209: The late Count de Rilvas communicated this fact
to Mr. R. H. Major.]

[Footnote 210: _Documentos ... do Torre do Tombo_, p. 2.]

[Footnote 211: See Gaspar Fructuoso, _Saudades da terra_, ed.
Azevedo (1873), pp. 65, 113, 665; Martins, _Os Filhos de D.
João_, pp. 80 and _n._ 1, 258 and _n._ 2.]

[Footnote 212: This was issued on September 18th, 1460,
bestowing the ecclesiastical revenues of Porto Santo and
Madeira on the Order of Christ, the temporalities on King
Affonso V. and his successors. It must be taken in connection
with the Charters of June 7th, 1454, December 28th, 1458, and
September 15th, 1448, all relating to the trade of Guinea, and
the first two conferring special privileges on the Order of
Christ, or revising such privileges already granted; see the
_Collection_ of Pedro Alvarez, Part III, fols. 17-18; Major,
_Prince Henry_, 303.]

From the work of the Portuguese among the Atlantic Islands arises one question of special interest. Did this westward enterprise of Prince Henry's seamen, which undoubtedly carried them in the Azores and Cape Verdes a great distance (from 20 to 22 degrees) westward of Portugal, lead them on further to a discovery of any part of the American mainland?

On the strength of an enigmatical inscription in the 1448 Map of Andrea Bianco, such a discovery of the north-east corner of Brazil in or before this year has been suggested;[213] but this, it must be admitted, is quite lacking in demonstrative evidence, however possible in itself. Yet once more, the "accidental" discovery of this same Land of the Holy Cross by Cabral in 1500 has been urged to much the same effect. For, if really accidental, a similar event might well have happened in earlier years--especially from the time of the Azores settlement of 1432, etc.; or if not accidental, it was based on information obtained from older navigators, who reached the same country.[214] Such older navigators towards the west were said to have been Diego de Teive and Pedro Velasco, who in 1452 claimed to have sailed more than 150 leagues west of Fayal; Gonçalo Fernandez de Tavira, who in 1462 sailed (in one tradition) W.N.W. of Madeira and the Canaries; Ruy Gonçalvez de Camara, who in 1473 tried to discover land west of the Cape Verdes; with a certain number of later instances. Some weight has also been attached to a statement of Las Casas, that on his third voyage, in 1498, Columbus planned a southern journey from the Cape Verde Islands in search of lands--especially because, proceeds Las Casas, "he wished to see what was the meaning of King John of Portugal, when he said there was _terra firma_ to the South. Some of the ... inhabitants of ... Santiago came to ... him,[215] and said that to the South-West of the Isle of Fogo[216] an island was seen, and that King John wished to make discoveries towards the South-West, and that canoes had been known to go from the Guinea coast to the West with merchandise."

[Footnote 213: The inscription apparently runs "Isola
Otinticha xe longa a ponente 1500 mia;" which has been
translated--(1) "Genuine island distant 1,500 miles to the
west." (2) "Genuine island, 1,500 miles long to the west." (3)
"Genuine island extends 1,500 miles to the west." Also,
reading ... a [= e] la sola otinticha. (4) "Is the only
genuine ..." (The first line being altogether separate in
sense from what follows--"xe longa," etc.) Once more,
supplying "questa carta," (5) "This map is the only genuine
one," leaving the second line unintelligible. (6) "Genuine
island, stretching 1,500 miles westwards, ten miles broad."
And lastly, reading Antillia for Otinticha, (7) "Island of
Antillia," etc. (This would explain the difficulty of the
Antillia Isle being otherwise absent from the 1448 Bianco.)
See Desimoni, in _Atti della Società ligure di Storia patria_,
1864, vol. iii, p. cxiv; Canale, in _Storia del Commercio
degl'Italiani_, 1866, p. 455; Fischer, _Sammlung ... Welt- und
See-Karten italienischen Ursprungs_, Venice, 1886, p. 209;
_Proceedings R. G. S._, London, March 1895, pp. 221-240.
Whatever the explanation, it must be remembered that this Map
and Inscription were never produced by Portugal as evidence of
a Pre-Columbian discovery, either in 1492-3, or later, in
formal negotiations with Spain--as at Badajoz in 1524. It is
possible that the delineation and legend in question were
added by a later hand; and it is probable that, if really
inserted by Bianco himself, the reference is to one of the
legendary Atlantic Islands under a new form. It cannot well be
identified with that stated by Galvano to have been discovered
about 1447, for the latter was reached by a course of 1,500
miles due west from the Straits of Gibraltar, which would
bring us to the Azores. The coast line of the "Genuine Island"
is, moreover, quite inconsistent with the north-east
shore-land of South America.]

[Footnote 214: The most singular point in this controversy is
that the pilots of Cabral's fleet professed to recognise the
new land as the same they had seen marked on an old map
existing in Portugal. This is stated by one John, "Bachelor in
Arts and Medicine, and Physician and Cosmographer to King
Emanuel." He accompanied the expedition of 1500, and declared
that the country where Cabral landed was identical with a
tract marked upon a Mappemonde belonging to Pero Vaz Bisagudo,
a Portuguese.]

[Footnote 215: Columbus.]

[Footnote 216: In the Cape Verdes.]

Further, Antonio Galvano, after speaking of a voyage which took place in 1447, goes on to mention another (undated, but probably conceived by the author as falling within a year or two of the last) in these terms. "It is moreover told that in the meantime a Portuguese ship, coming out of the Straits of Gibraltar, was carried westwards by a storm much further than was intended, and arrived at an island where there were seven cities, and people who spoke our language." This, however, is too much like an echo of the old Spanish tale of the Seven Bishops and their cities in the Island of "Antillia."

In the same connection a number of still looser and more doubtful assertions exist in Portuguese archives and chronicles. Thus, in 1457, the Infant D. Fernando, as heir of Prince Henry, planned Atlantic explorations; in 1484 and 1486 similar designs were entertained--possibly on the strength of Columbus' recent suggestions, which are known to have directly occasioned one unsuccessful venture at this time; and in 1473 João Vaz da Costa Cortereal was reported, by a now-exploded legend, to have actually discovered Newfoundland.

THE "SCHOOL OF SAGRES," ETC.

Few things in connection with the life of Henry the Navigator are more interesting than the tradition of his educational and intellectual work, especially for the furtherance of geography, in the alleged School of Sagres and other supposed foundations or benefactions. Unfortunately, this tradition is not as clearly established as it might be, and it has been made more difficult by constant exaggeration. Not content with asserting that the Infant aimed at drawing the commerce of Cadiz and Ceuta--without reckoning other ports--to his town at Sagres, some have indulged in pictures of a geographical university established by the Prince upon this headland--pictures which are quite beyond any known means of verification. These flourishes, however, need not cause one to run into another extreme, and deny that Sagres became, during the latter part of Henry's life, especially from 1438 to his death, the centre of the exploring movement and the scientific study which the Infant inspired. At Sagres,[217] according to what may be called the older view--which, resting mainly upon Barros, is adopted by Major, de Veer, Wauwermans, and even Martins--Prince Henry usually resided, not merely during the last years of his life, or after his return from the Tangier expedition of 1437, but from the time of his reappearance in Portugal after the relief of Ceuta in 1418. At first, however (1418-1438) it was called Tercena[218] Nabal, or Naval Arsenal, after it emerged from the stage of a little harbour of refuge for passing ships; and only afterwards did it become (from 1438 onwards) the Villa do Iffante, "my town," from which some of Prince Henry's charters are dated. Shortly before the completion of Azurara's chronicle, according to this view, the town was fortified with strong walls and enlarged by the building of new houses.[219] In this settlement (within the narrow space of some 100 acres), there were said to have been, besides the Infant's own Court or palace, a church, a chapel,[220] a study, and an observatory (the earliest in Portugal), together with an arsenal, a dockyard, and a fort. Here cartography and astronomical geography were diligently studied, and practical mariners were equipped for their work.

[Footnote 217: See Azurara, _Guinea_, iv; Barros, _Asia_,
Decade I, i, 16.]

[Footnote 218: From the Venetian _Darcena_; see Goes, _Chron.
do pr. D. João IV_; O. Martins, _Filhos de D. João I_, p. 75.]

[Footnote 219: It retained its importance till the Prince's
death, when it gradually declined; it was sacked by Drake in
1597; and ruined by earthquakes. Finally it became again as
deserted as before the Infant's time. Ferdinand Denis believed
that before the Lisbon earthquake of 1755 there were traces of
a much earlier habitation of the Sagres Promontory, including
buildings (Moorish?) at least as old as the XIth century. The
headland measures only one kilometre in circuit, half a
kilometre in its extreme length.]

[Footnote 220: Prince Henry's will refers to the Church of St.
Catherine, and the Chapel of St. Mary; see the _MS.
Collection_ of Pedro Alvarez, iii; Martins, _Os Filhos de D.
João_, p. 74. The observatory was not on Sagres Cape proper,
but "un peu en avant quand on vient de l'Ouest" (V. St.
Martin).]

Two original statements of Portuguese authors have been often quoted to support this tradition. The first comes from John de Barros, the Livy of Portugal (A.D. 1496-1570). "In his wish to gain a prosperous result from his efforts, the Prince devoted great industry and thought to the matter, and at great expense procured the aid of one Master Jacome[221] from Majorca, a man skilled in the art of navigation and in the making of maps and instruments, who was sent for, with certain of the Arab and Jewish mathematicians, to instruct the Portuguese officers in that science." Secondly, we have the statement of the mathematician Pedro Nuñes, that the Infant's mariners were "well taught and provided with instruments and rules of astrology and geometry which all map-makers should know."[222] On the other hand, it has been contended that there is no satisfactory evidence of the Infant's town having ever been finished, or of the Prince ever having lived there continuously, except during the last years of his life; and that our best authorities do not warrant us in believing that the settlement was even begun before the Tangier expedition. Henry's earlier charters are, with one exception, dated from other places, and his residence before 1438 seems to have been usually at Lisbon, Lagos, or Reposeira. Further, we have no right to speak of the "School," or "University," or "Academy" of Sagres; there may have been both teachers and learners, but there was nothing of an "institution for instruction" in the Prince's establishment.

[Footnote 221: Jacob or James, who, according to one
tradition, came to the Infant's "Court" shortly after the
disaster of Tangier, in or about 1438. To this name the
Viscount de Juromenha in his notes to Rackzynski, _Les Arts en
Portugal_, 205, adds that of Master Peter, the cartographic
artist of the Infant, who illuminated his maps in colours and
adorned them with legends and pictures. The existence of this
Peter rests upon a document at Batalha discovered by
Juromenha. See also O. Martins, _Filhos de D. João I_, p. 73.]

[Footnote 222: Wauwermans, _Henri le Navigateur et l'Academie
Portugaise de Sagres_, gives little or no help towards the
controverted question which he assumes as settled in his
title. It is a general essay on the course of
fifteenth-century exploration; its most useful portions are
devoted to tracing the connections between geographical study
in Portugal and the Netherlands.]

Such is the minimising view; and most, in face of this sharp divergence, will agree with Baron Nordenskjöld that a really critical study of the subject, especially from a local antiquarian, is desirable. Very plausibly does Nordenskjöld himself sum up the probabilities of the case when he concludes that "a small school of navigation, important for the period in question, has probably received from laudatory biographers the name of an 'Academy.'"[223] The Swedish geographer, however, adds from his own special researches some important observations. He believes that in the La Cosa map of 1500[224] we have work which was based upon the observations of the Infant's captains, who, as shown in these results, were evidently able to keep reliable reckoning and take fairly correct altitudes. "Further, the extension of the normal or typical portolano along the West coast of Africa, as on the portolanos of Benincasa and others of the latter part of the fifteenth century, is shown by the legends of the same to have been based on observations made during the marine expeditions of Prince Henry."

[Footnote 223: Nordenskjöld, _Periplus_, 121 A.]

[Footnote 224: Plates xliii and xliv of Nordenskjöld's
_Periplus_.]

No charts or other productions of the "Sagres School," in any definite sense of this term, no geographical or astronomical works emanating from the "Court" of the Infant, are now extant. But it may reasonably be inferred from passages in Azurara's _Chronicle of Guinea_ that such charts were not only draughted under the Prince's orders, but used by his sailors;[225] Cadamosto tells us of the chart he kept on his voyage of 1455, probably by direction of the Infant; while it is probably true that the "extension of the portolanos beyond Cape Bojador, in Benincasa,[226] for instance, as well as in Fra Mauro's work of 1457-9, depended on information given by native and foreign skippers" sent out by Henry. Of course, it is obvious, in the light of present knowledge, that neither he nor his school in any sense invented the portolano type; although the mention of Master Jacome of Majorca reminds us of one of the earliest centres of the new scientific cartography[227] (which was probably first made effective by Catalan skippers and draughtsmen), and suggests that the Infant was in touch with the best map-science of the time. "Neither is it correct to say that he introduced hydrographic plane charts or map graduation in accordance with geographical co-ordinates."

[Footnote 225: See Azurara, _Guinea_, ch. lxxviii;
Nordenskjöld, _Periplus_, 121; Santarem, _Essai sur
Cosmographie_, vol. iii, p. lix. Affonso Cerveira, Azurara's
predecessor, was probably not a "pupil" of the "Sagres
School," as some have supposed.]

[Footnote 226: Especially in his works of 1467-8 and 1471.]

[Footnote 227: In the Balearic isles. See pp. cxvii-cxix of
this Introduction.]

But his life was almost certainly not without direct influence in the improvement of cartography, and the extension of the scientific type of map beyond its fourteenth-century limits--an improvement which we see in the great map of Fra Mauro executed shortly before the Infant's death. Also, he made his nation take a real interest in geographical discovery, broke down their superstitious fear of ocean sailing, and made a beginning in the circumnavigation of Africa. He altered the conditions of maritime exploration by giving permanence, organisation, and governmental support to a movement which had up to this time proved disappointing for lack of these very means. And he certainly improved the art of shipbuilding, which Cadamosto remarks upon as having rendered the caravels of Portugal the best sailing ships afloat.

As to the build of these caravels we are fortunately not without data. Cadamosto, indeed, though he describes them as the best sailing ships at sea in his time, does not give any details; but from other sources[228] it is possible to form some idea of their peculiar features. They were usually 20-30 metres long, 6-8 metres in breadth; were equipped with three masts, without rigging-tops, or yards; and had lateen sails stretched upon long oblique poles, hanging suspended from the masthead. These "winged arms," when their triangular sails were once spread, grazed the gunwale of the caravel, the points bending in the air according to the direction of the wind. They usually ran with all their sail, turning by means of it, and sailing straight upon a bow-line, driving before the wind. When they wished to change their course, it was enough to trim the sails.

[Footnote 228: See Osorio, _Vida e feitos d'el rei D. Manoel_,
i, p. 193; O. Martins, _Os Filhos de D. João I_, p. 75;
Candido Correa, _Official Catalogue of the Naval Exposition of
1888 in Portugal_, where was exhibited a facsimile of an old
caravel; see also the plans in D. Pacheco Pereira's
_Esmeraldo_, and the article in the _Revista Portuguesa
Colonial_, May 20th, 1898, pp. 32-52. In the last-named study,
which is specially worthy of notice, we have a detailed
account of (1) the _Barca_, (2) the _Barinel_, (3) the
_Caravel_, (4) the _Nau_, which are classed as _navios dos
descobrimentos_, followed by the _navios dos conquistas_,
viz., (5) the _Fusta_, (6) the _Catur_, (7) the _Almadia de
Cathuri_, (8) the _Galé_, (9) the _Galiota_, (10) the
_Brigantim_, (11) the _Galeaça_, (12) the _Taforea_, (13) the
_Galeão_, (14) the _Carraca_. Illustrations of Nos. 1, 3, 4,
5, 6, 8, 10, and 13 are added.]

It was with this type of vessel that the Madeira and Canary groups were "gained from the secrets of the Ocean;" that the Azores, at a distance of twenty-two degrees west of Portugal, and in the heart of the Atlantic, were discovered and colonised; and that open sea navigation of almost equal boldness was successfully employed in the finding and settlement of the Cape Verdes. Before the end of the year 1446, according to Azurara's estimate, the Infant had sent out fifty-one of these ships along the mainland coast of Africa, and they had passed 450 leagues[229] beyond Cape Bojador, which before the Prince's time was the furthest point "clearly known on the coast of the Great Sea." Also, the work of the "School of Sagres" may perhaps be recognised in Azurara's further claim that "what had before been laid down on the Mappemonde was not certain, but only by guesswork," whereas now it was "all from the survey by the eyes of our seamen," and that "all this coast towards the South with many points our prince commanded to add to the sailing chart."

[Footnote 229: Azurara, _Guinea_, ch. lxxviii.]

It has been noticed that D. Pedro, according to the Portuguese tradition, presented Henry with a copy of Marco Polo's travels, and a map of the same, either drawn by the explorer himself or by one who knew his works, and belonged to his own city. Thereby, we are told, the work of the Infant was much furthered, and Galvano suggests that the same was extant in 1528, and that it contained many wonderful anticipations of later discoveries.[230]

[Footnote 230: "... Venice ... whence he [Pedro] brought a map
which had all the circuit of the world described. The Strait
of Magellan was called the Dragon's Tail; and there were also
the Cape of Good Hope and the coast of Africa.... Francisco de
Sousa Tavarez told me that in the year 1528, the Infant D.
Fernando showed him a map which had been found in the Cartorio
of Alcobaça, which had been made more than 120 years before,
the which contained all the navigation of India with the Cape
of Good Hope."--Galvano, _Discovery of World, sub ann._ 1428.]

It has also been surmised, without any certain evidence,[231] that D. Pedro presented his brother with various maps of Gabriel Valsecca,[232] and with the writings of Georg Purbach, the instructor of Regiomontanus. Much more certain and interesting is the allusion to the Infant's collection of old maps in the history of the discovery of St. Michael (1443-4) in the Azores. A runaway slave, having escaped to the highest peak in the Isle of St. Maria, sighted a distant land, and returned to his master to gain pardon with this news. Prince Henry was informed of this, consulted his ancient charts, and found them confirm the slave's discovery. So he sent out Gonçalo Velho Cabral to seek for the same. Cabral failed; but on his returning to the Prince, the latter showed him from the ancient maps how he had only missed it by a slight error of direction. On his second trial the explorer was successful, and reached St. Michael on May 8, 1444.

[Footnote 231: But see Gaspar Fructuoso, _Saudades da terra_
(ed. Azevedo, 1873), bk. ii, p. 9; Cordeiro, _Historia
Insulana_, ii, p. 2; Santos, _Memoria sobre dois antigos
mappas, etc._, in _Mem. de Litt. da Academia_, viii, pp.
275-301; O. Martins, _Os Filhos de D. João I_, p. 72.]

[Footnote 232: One of which (A.D. 1434-1439) is our authority
for the earliest known Portuguese voyage to any part of the
Azores; viz., that of Diego de Sevill in 1427 (a date
hypothetically converted by Major into 1432). This map of
Valsecca's only gives St. Mary and the Formigas as known in
1439; see pp. cxxxi, cxxxiv of this Introduction.]

* * * * *

Prince Henry's connection with the Coimbra-Lisbon University (founded by King Dinis in 1300) opens another side of the same question. We have already mentioned the tradition that in 1431 the Infant provided new quarters in the parish of St. Thomas, in Lisbon, for the teachers and students, and afterwards established Chairs of Theology and Mathematics. This has been called by some a "Reform of Ancient Schools" under his influence and direction;[233] and recent enquiry[234] has endeavoured to prove that the Protector of Portuguese Studies was also the founder (in 1431) of a Chair of Medicine, and the donor of a room or lecture-hall in which was painted by his order a picture of Galen. In 1448 the Infant subsidised the Chair of Theology by a grant of twelve marks of silver annually from the revenues of Madeira.[235] It is perhaps noteworthy that the Prince does not appear to have founded any lectureship, or made any benefaction to promote directly the study of geography, though ancient texts bearing on this subject were now beginning to attract considerable attention. It may be open to question how far a university would then have welcomed an instructor in practical navigation or draughtsmanship; but students would have probably listened to lectures upon Ptolemy, or Strabo, or other classical geographers, and thereby a great impetus might have been given to the new exploring spirit. Thus in general we may fairly conclude that, so far as the Portuguese seamen of the next generation, Bartholemew Diaz, Da Gama, Cão, and others, "received their training from the Infant's School," it was usually through a rougher and more practical tradition than that of a class-room--by means of older mariners who had served in the Prince's ships rather than by university lecturers whom he had appointed.

[Footnote 233: See O. Martins, _Filhos de D. João I_, pp.
63-4.]

[Footnote 234: Cf. Max. Lemos, _A medicina em Portugal_,
1881.]

[Footnote 235: J. S. Ribeiro, _Historia dos estabel.
scientific, litt. e art. de Portugal_, i, p. 31.]

MAPS AND SCIENTIFIC GEOGRAPHY UP TO AND DURING PRINCE HENRY'S LIFE.

Ancient maps were not without high merits in certain cases, and a little after Prince Henry's time the Renaissance editions of Ptolemy played a very important part in geographical history. But in the first part of the fifteenth century neither the work of the Alexandrian astronomer and cartographer, nor the ancient road maps of the Roman Empire and surrounding lands[236] seem to have been sufficiently known for the exercise of much influence in the progress of discovery or of geographical knowledge. The same result follows, for different reasons, in the case of almost all the earlier mediæval maps and charts,[237] which are quite unscientific in character, and often rather picture books of natural history legends than delineations of the world.

[Footnote 236: _E.g._, the Peutinger Table.]

[Footnote 237: Viz., before the end of the thirteenth century;
see _Dawn of Modern Geography_, ch. vi, on "Geographical
Theory in the Earlier Middle Ages," and especially pp.
273-284, 327-340, 375-391.]

Strictly scientific map-making begins with the Mediterranean portolani. The earliest existing specimen of these is of about 1300, but the type then formed[238] must have been for some time in process of elaboration; and it is even probable that a fully-developed example from the middle of the thirteenth century may yet be discovered.

[Footnote 238: _E.g._, in the Carte Pisane and the work of
Giovann de Carignano.]

"A sea-chart--probably a portolano--is mentioned as early as the account of the Crusade of St. Louis, in 1270."[239] So in Raymond Lulli's _Arbor Scientiæ_, written about 1300, we have reference to compass, chart and needle, as necessary for sailors.[240] Once again, it is probable that Andrea Bianco's planisphere of 1436[241] is only a re-edition of a thirteenth-century work, when the "Normal Portolano" was just in process of making, but had not reached even the comparative perfection of the Carte Pisane, Carignano, or Vesconte examples.

[Footnote 239: See d'Avezac, _Bolletino d. Soc. Geog. Ital._,
1874, p. 408; Nordenskjöld, _Periplus_, 16 A.]

[Footnote 240: See d'Avezac, _Coup d'œil historique sur la
projection des Cartes de Geographie_ (1863), p. 38.]

[Footnote 241: Reproduced in part at the end of this edition
of _Azurara_, vol. i, Plate 4.]

The earliest dated portolan is that of 1311, by Petrus Vesconte; and from this time the maps of this class, whose central feature is an accurate Mediterranean coast-line, increase rapidly, being indeed all reproductions of one type,[242] occasionally introducing additions or corrections, especially in outlying parts, but not often varying much from one another in the central portions. The type is reasonably believed by some[243] to have originated among the Catalans, either of Spain, France, or the Balearic Isles, well within the thirteenth century.[244] In connection with this, we may recall the point mentioned by Barros, that Prince Henry the Navigator obtained the services of Master Jacome, or James, from Majorca to instruct the Portuguese captains in navigation, map-making, and the proper handling of nautical instruments.

[Footnote 242: Thus Nordenskjöld sums up after an exhaustive
review of all the chief early portolans: "Not only are the
coast-legends the same, even the ... names in red ink of
places considered of special importance to navigators were not
essentially different in the three centuries from Vesconte to
Voltius. Moreover: (1) The Mediterranean and Black Sea have
exactly the same shape on all these maps; (2) a
distance-scale, with the same unit of length, such as
otherwise is used only on the Spanish and French Mediterranean
coasts, occurs on all these maps, independently of the land of
their origin; (3) the distances across the Mediterranean and
Black Sea, measured with this scale, agree perfectly on the
islands and capes remain almost unaltered on portolanos from
the fourteenth to the sixteenth century. So that it may be
thought proved that all these portolanos are only amended
codices of the same original" (_Periplus_, 45 A).]

[Footnote 243: _E.g._, Nordenskjöld, in his last work
(_Periplus_, 46, 47).]

[Footnote 244: Nordenskjöld conjectures probably between 1266
and 1300.]

These plans of practical seamen are a striking contrast, in their often modern accuracy, to the results of the literary or theological geography portrayed in such works as those of the "Beatus School," or of Robert of Haldingham.[245] Map surveys of this kind were apparently unknown to the ancient world. The old _Peripli_ were sailing directions, not drawn but written; and the only Arabic portolan known to exist was copied from an Italian example. Long after the Italian leadership in exploration and commerce had begun to pass away, Italian science kept control of cartographical work; thus, among the early portolani, not only the majority--413 out of 498--but the most valuable, were executed by the countrymen of Carignano and Vesconte.

[Footnote 245: Cf. (1) the Beatus maps of "St. Sever,"
"Ashburnham," "Turin," "London," of 1109, "Valladolid,"
"Madrid," etc., of the tenth, eleventh, and twelfth centuries;
(2) the Hereford _Mappemonde_ of the late thirteenth
century, with which may be compared the Ebstorf world-map of
c. 1300; see Konrad Miller, _Die ältesten Weltkarten_, Heft v,
1896.]

This department of geographical history is only just beginning to be appreciated at its full value--as marking the vital transition from ancient to modern, from empirical to scientific--but this need not surprise us much. The portolani, as has been well said, never had for their object to provide a popular or fashionable amusement; they were not drawn to illustrate the works of classical authors or learned prelates; still less did they illustrate the legends and dreams of chivalry and historical romance; they were seldom drawn by learned men; and small enough in return was the acknowledgment which the learned but too often made them, when the great geographical compilers of the Renaissance and Reformation times incorporated the earlier coast-charts in grander and more ambitious works.

Unquestionably, however, it is in maps of the portolano type that we must look for Prince Henry's primary geographical teachers, though the influence of books--and even of the older theoretical designs in cartography--must not be forgotten. Therefore, to understand his position--to realise what he had to draw from--we must briefly describe the chief designs which it was possible for him to consult for his scientific purposes, for his Ptolemaic ambition, διορθῶσαι τὸν ἀρχαῖον πίνακα [diorthôsai ton archaion pinaka].

(1) The "Carte Pisane" of the latest thirteenth or earliest fourteenth century is probably only a copy of an earlier work, though now itself our earliest example of the portolano type. The Mediterranean on this example (as well as the Black Sea, where it has survived injury) shows the new scientific or surveying method, but the Atlantic coasts of Spain and France, and still more the shore-lines of Britain, are of a different and inferior character. This alone points to an earlier date than, _e.g._, the works of Vesconte and Dulcert. In West Africa only a part of the Maroccan coast now remains.

(2) The Map of Giovanni di Carignano,[246] of _c._ 1300?-1310, though much damaged, shows the Black Sea and Britain with contours differing somewhat from the ordinary portolan; and the same is noticeable in the Baltic. The West African coast does not extend to Cape Non. Another work by Carignano, of _c._ 1306, "specially referring to Central Asia," is said to exist, but its present position is unknown.

[Footnote 246: Signed "Johannes presbyter, rector Sancti Marci
de Porta Janue me fecit." A priest answering to this
description flourished in Genoa, 1306-1344; this may have been
a younger relative.]

(3) A portolan of the early fourteenth(?) century, belonging to Professor Tammar Luxoro, of Genoa, in 1882, and usually called after him, is believed by Nordenskjöld to be a "slightly altered copy of the normal portolano in its original form." In N.W. Africa it only gives us the shore-line as far as Sallé, with a series of names, beginning at Arzilla.[247]

[Footnote 247: No Atlantic islands exist on the Tammar Luxoro
portolan.]

(4) Marino Sanudo the Elder, to his work, _Liber Secretorum fidelium Crucis_, written between 1306 and 1321, added an atlas of ten maps. Among these, I-V form an ordinary portolano, corresponding especially with Vesconte's work,[248] but giving us no special information upon Africa; while No. VI is the famous map of the world often reproduced. Here a thoroughly conventional Africa is laid down, of the "Strabonian" or "Macrobian" type: its length, from east to west, traversed by the Negro Nile from near the Mountains of the Moon to the Atlantic, is equal to fully twice the breadth from north to south. The deep inlet in the West African coast penetrating east to a "Regio VII Montium" immediately south of the Negro Nile, is a prototype of the similar feature in Fra Mauro, and is perhaps only an exaggeration of the Sinus Hesperius of Ptolemy. This map was probably known to Prince Henry, like the book it accompanied, which contained many important particulars of fourteenth-century trade and navigation. The Mappemonde is a compromise between, or combination of, the portolano and the Mediæval theoretical map, and is quite a landmark in the history of cartography.

[Footnote 248: Konrad Kretschmer believes Sanudo's maps to
have been draughted entirely or principally by Vesconte.]

(5) Pietro Vesconte of Genoa has left three or four works executed between 1311 and 1321, and still extant, viz.: (α) Of 1311, which lacks the Western Mediterranean and West Africa, what remains giving us a "normal portolano" of the Levant and Black Sea. (β) Of 1318, depicting the entire Mediterranean, etc., with the Atlantic, North Sea coasts of Europe (in ten plates), and West Africa as far as "Mogador." (γ) Of 1318 (in six maps), which for our purposes need not be discriminated from (β); and lastly (δ) Of 1320, a map of the world, with plans of cities, a special chart of Palestine, etc. The Mappemonde, which principally concerns us here, is extremely like Sanudo's, and is perhaps the work of the same artist--Vesconte himself. Another work, of 1321, by Vesconte, is mentioned in Santarem,[249] but its whereabouts is now unknown.

[Footnote 249: _Essai sur l'Histoire de la Cosmographie_, i,
272, ed. of 1849.]

Once more a work of 1327, signed "Perrinus Vesconte fecit ... MCCCXXVII in Veneciis" is conjectured to be only another "normal-portolan" by _Pietro_ Vesconte.

(6) Angelino Dulcert, a Catalan, composed in August 1339, in Majorca ("in civitate Majoricarum") a portolan of great merit. Dulcert's Baltic somewhat resembles Carignano's, but with more numerous legends. A star ("the Star in the East") placed by this draughtsman south of the Caspian is copied, or at least paralleled, in the Atlas Catalan of 1375 (No. 9, p. cxxvi), in the Andrea Bianco of 1436, and in the Borgian map of 1430-50, as well as in the Anonymous Catalan planisphere hereafter noticed (No. 14, p. cxxviii). Dulcert's Africa probably served in some respects as a prototype for the Catalan Atlas of 1375, and Prince Henry may have studied the Continent in one or other of these delineations, which are among the most complete pictures of the Sahara coasts and Sudan interior coming down from any period before that of his voyages. Some of the Canaries are marked in about their right position, with Lançarote showing the Cross of Genoa, and Fuerteventura to the south, while almost in the latitude of Ceuta appear "Canaria," St. Brandan's Isle, etc. On the mainland a long stretch of shore-line is given beyond Cape Non or Nun, but it is drawn very conventionally in a S.S.E. direction, with seven names,[250] or titles, and an inscription of two lines, the whole seeming to show pretty clearly that the draughtsman knew nothing at first hand of the coast between Non and Boyador, but was led to conjecture a continuation of the Desert Littoral. In the Interior, the Atlas range, the large seated figure of a king with sceptre, and most of the towns depicted on eminences, reappear with slight alterations in the Atlas Catalan; which, however, adds many details.

[Footnote 250: One being merely "Plagae Arenae."]

(7) Next comes the most famous, and perhaps in some respects the most advanced, specimen of the early portolani: that usually quoted as the Medicean or Laurentian Portolan of 1351 ("Atlante Mediceo," or "Portolano Laurenziano-Gaddiano"). The author was anonymous, but almost certainly a Genoese, and his work consists of eight plates, or tables. The second of these is the Mappemonde, which is the only one that need be noticed here. The Africa of this map, taken as a whole, is drawn with a nearer approach to general correctness than on any chart anterior to the voyage of B. Diaz in 1486;[251] both the Guinea coast to the Camaroons, and the southern projection of the Continent, are extraordinarily well conceived for the time. No details or names are inserted on the W. African mainland shore beyond Cape Bojador and the River of Gold--"Palolus."[252] In this it is similar to the Pizigani map of 1367.[253]

[Footnote 251: See _Azurara_, Hakluyt Soc. ed., vol. i,
Reproduction at end, No. 1]

[Footnote 252: For Pactolus (?).]

[Footnote 253: A considerable knowledge of the Atlantic
Islands is also shown, sixteen names being given. This number,
however, is less than we have in the _Conosçimiento_ of
slightly earlier date, _c_. 1330 (?).]

(8) Francisco Pizigano, of Venice, 1367-1373, aided by his brother Marco, executed two famous works still extant: (α) In 1367, a large chart comprising a good deal beyond the normal portolano's Mediterranean and Black Sea;--_e.g._, part of the Scandinavian Peninsula, the Baltic, the Caspian, etc. It is signed, "MCCCLXVII, Hoc opus compoxuid Franciscus Pizigano Veneciar et domnus In Venexia meffecit Marcus die xii Decembris." (β) In 1373, a normal portolano, signed "MCCCLXXIII a die viii de zugno Francischo Pisigany Venician in Venexia me fecit." The N.W. Africa of these two maps shows no advance on the Laurentian Portolano.

(9) The Atlas Catalan of 1375 is said to have been executed for Charles V of France, in whose library it was entered with the title, "Une quarte de mer en tableaux faicte par manière de unes tables, painte et histoirée, figurée et escripte, et fermant a quatre fermoners de cuivre." It is in six plates, the last four of which compose a mappemonde--"the most comprehensive cartographic work of the fourteenth century," especially rich in legends, and showing us the normal portolan, for shore-lines, blended with the theoretical map, for the interiors of countries, all designed on the most elaborate scale. The West African coast on this example is brought down to, and a little beyond, Cape Bojador, southwest of which appear the Catalan explorers of 1346[254] in their boat, with an inscription.[255] Beginning with Arzilla, and continuing south, we have besides the recognisable Sallé, Cantin, Mogador, and No[n], 35 other names before we reach Cavo de Buyet(e)der, after which we have only the legend "Danom," and the conclusion, "Cap de Finister(r)a occidental de Affricha."[256] More attention is given to the interior of North Africa in this design than in any other map of the fourteenth century.

[Footnote 254: Jayme Ferrer, etc.]

[Footnote 255: Quoted and discussed above, pp. lxiii-lxiv.]

[Footnote 256: Names are given to twenty-seven islands in the
Atlantic, among them St. Brandan's isle, most of the Canaries,
the whole Madeira group and several of the Azores.]

(10) Guglielmo Soleri, of Majorca, between _c._ 1380 and 1385, executed two designs of some value, both "normal-portolans:" (α) is undated, probably executed about 1380, and signed "Guill'mo Soleri civis Majoricarum me ficit." (β) is inscribed "Guillmus Solerii civis Majoricarum me fecit anno MCCCLXXXV."

In (β) West Africa has a fairly good extension, a little beyond the latitude of the Canaries, where the rough and torn southern edge of the map cuts across all.[257]

[Footnote 257: The Soleri of 1380 gives twenty Atlantic
islands; nineteen appear in the Soleri of 1385 (some
legendary). In neither is any addition made to earlier lists.]

(11) Next in order comes an anonymous Atlas of 1384 (?) in six sheets, usually called, after two of its possessors, the Pinelli-Walckenaer Portolano. It is probably a Genoese work. Its West Africa extends about as far as (or a little beyond) the Soleri of 1385, to what is apparently Cape Bojador, slightly south of the Canaries. Ten names occur beyond C. Non, among them Cavo de Sablon and Enbucder.[258] The little harbour existing to the south of Bojador seems indicated here.

[Footnote 258: Bojador?]

(12) And now, coming to the fifteenth century, we have first the "Combitis" Portolan of _c._ 1410--an anonymous work, but inscribed "Haec tabula ex testamento domini Nicolai de Combitis devenit in Monasterio Cartusiae florentinae." This is, in some respects, closely similar to the Vesconte of 1318.

(13) Another cartographer of the early fifteenth century is Cristoforo Buondelmonte--otherwise Ensenius--whose "Description of the Cyclades" is accompanied by maps; who was the author of an important graduated chart of the North of Europe; and who also left a roughly-sketched mappemonde--perhaps a copy of a much older work--which may conceivably have been known to Prince Henry and have encouraged his explorations. This shows an Africa somewhat similar in contour to Fra Mauro's of 1457-9, but almost without names.[259]

[Footnote 259: Reproduced in Nordenskjöld, _Periplus_, 111,
and labelled only "before 1481." The only name on the West
African mainland is well down S.W., "India [portus?] pbīs
fons." The deep indent on the middle of the W. African coast,
noticed in several other maps and even in Fra Mauro, appears
here on a great scale.]

(14) Last among these works of the "Preparatory Time," we may take an anonymous Catalan planisphere of the early fifteenth century (in the National Library of Florence) closely resembling the great Atlas of 1375.

This completes the list of important maps for the period immediately preceding the new Portuguese discoveries, and shows us the most likely examples of cartography for Prince Henry's study. Some of these he may have owned; many of them he probably inspected in person or by deputy.

It is probable enough that he was acquainted with some of the pre-scientific or "theoretical" designs, such as those of the "Beatus" type from the eighth and subsequent centuries; those which are to be found illustrating manuscripts of Sallust, Higden, Matthew Paris, St. Jerome, or Macrobius' Commentary on the "Dream of Scipio;" and those of Arabic geographers like Edrisi[260]--to name only a few examples--but he can hardly have derived much assistance from them. The great thirteenth century wheel-map pictures--as, for instance, those we know as the Hereford or Ebstorf Mappemondes--expressed the very antithesis of his spirit; and the same must be said of the greater part of the Mediæval cartography before the appearance of the portolani.

[Footnote 260: Twelfth century.]

From certain books of travel, such as those of Carpini, Rubruquis, Odoric, Pegolotti, or Marco Polo, he may, however, have received great assistance. The merchants and missionaries who opened so much of Asia to the knowledge of Europe during the Crusading period, furnished the most direct stimulus for the discovery of a direct ocean route to the treasures of the East. And to find such a route by the circumnavigation of Africa was, as we have suggested before, one of the primary objects of the Infant's life and work.

But, in addition to the Maps of his predecessors, the Infant was almost certainly acquainted with some of the chief cartographical works of his own time, falling within the period of his exploring activity, and we must finish this brief survey with some notice of these. Continuing the catalogue, we have

(15) A map by Mecia de Viladestes of 1413. This is a Catalan portolano, signed "Mecia de Viladestes me fecit in ano 1413," and is noticeable as containing a reference to the voyage of Jayme Ferrer in 1346, similar to that on the great Catalan atlas of 1375.[261]

[Footnote 261: A work by the same author, of 1457, is said to
be at the Carthusian Monastery of Segorbe, near Valencia, but
it is not yet fully identified, and is supposed by some to be
the same as that just noticed.]

(16) Four, or possibly five, specimens of Jacobus Giroldis' draughtsmanship belonging to the years 1422-1446, viz., (α) a Mediterranean portolan of 1422, signed "MCCCCXXII mense Junii die primo Jachobus de Giroldis Veneciis me fecit;" (β) a Portolan atlas in six sheets, of A.D. 1426, thought by some to resemble the work of Andrea Bianco in river-markings, legends, etc. This work possesses a distance-scale, but no graduation for latitude. It is inscribed, "Jachobus de Ziraldis [Ziroldis?] de Veneciis me fecit ... MCCCCXXVI." The West Africa of this work ends at Bojador ("Buider"), and gives us thirty-nine names between Arzilla and this point. Its nomenclature here is very similar to, though somewhat less full than, that of the Catalan atlas (1375).[262] Besides these two works, Giroldis has left others of less importance, viz., (γ), a Portolan atlas of 1443, consisting of six maps; (δ), a Portolan atlas, also of six maps, dated 1446; (ε?), a Portolano, unsigned, in the Bibliotheca Ambrosiana at Florence, which is perhaps his work.

[Footnote 262: The same is the case with the Atlantic Islands;
but though giving us fewer actual isles, it supplies more
names to points therein--thirty-two in all.]

Passing by the (for our purposes) less important Portolans of Battista Becharius, or Beccario, of Genoa, executed in 1426 and 1435; of Francisco de Cesani of Venice (1421), of Claudius Clavus[263] (1427), of Cholla de Briaticho (1430), there are only about ten maps or atlases belonging to this period which have still to be noticed, and which with some probability may be connected with the work of Prince Henry.

[Footnote 263: An important chart for N. European cartography,
and for the fact that it is one of the earliest graduated
non-Ptolemaic maps.]

These are--not counting the lost map brought back by D. Pedro from Venice in 1428,--

(17) The Atlas of 1435-1445, by Gratiosus Benincasa, of Ancona.

(18) The so-called Andrea Bianco of 1436.

(19) The Andrea Bianco of 1448.

(20) The Portolano of 1434-39 by Gabriele de Valsecca, of Majorca, together with one of 1447 by the same draughtsman.

(21) The anonymous planisphere of 1447.

(22) The planispheres of 1448 and 1452, by Giovanni Leardo (Leardus), of Venice.

(23) The planisphere of 1455, by Bartolommeo Pareto, of Genoa; and

(24) The planisphere of 1457-9, by Fra Mauro of the Camaldolese Convent of Murano, in Venice.

As to these, we need only remark:

No. (17) is the earliest known work of Gracioso Benincasa, consists of sixty-two maps, and belongs to a MS. giving sailing directions, etc. Its West Africa does not call for special remark, though the later discoveries of Prince Henry's lifetime are admirably illustrated in the same draughtsman's work of 1468, 1471, etc.

No. (18) consists of ten maps, including a graduated Ptolemaic mappemonde, and a circular world-map, somewhat resembling Vesconte, probably copied and re-edited from a very early portolan, with a certain theoretical extension.[264] The original of this is supposed by some to have been a late thirteenth-century work; its West African names and detailed charting end at Cape Non--an incredibly backward point for the time of revision, viz., A.D. 1436. A ship is, however, depicted in full sail far down the west coast[265] of a Continent whose general shape is conceived as "Strabonian" or "Macrobian," with its length from east to west, and consequently possessing a long southern shore. The Negro Nile flows straight from Babylon or Cairo, into the Atlantic, near (but north of) the picture labelled Rex de Maroco. The western Mediterranean, Adriatic and Ægaean, as well as the Black Sea and Caspian, are poorly drawn, and suggest an early and crude type of portolan.

[Footnote 264: See _Azurara_, Hakluyt Soc. ed., vol. i, Map
No. 4 at end of volume.]

[Footnote 265: Is this an addition of the Editor to bring it
up to date? The reviser must, however, have added very largely
to this map; _e_. _g_., both Russia and Turkey (?), as here
depicted, do not correspond at all to the _late_ thirteenth
century, but agree better with the fifteenth; though for 1436
Russia seems unduly magnified. _Imperium Tartarorum_ appears
immediately north of the Sea of Azov. The Moslem prince near
the Bosphorus is probably meant for the Ottoman Sultan.]

No. (19), signed "Andrea Biancho venician comito di galia mi fexe a LONDRA MCCCCXXXXVIII," was probably executed with a special view of illustrating the discoveries of the Portuguese along West Africa, and contains the enigmatical inscription in the S.W., which some have construed into a Portuguese discovery of South America about this time.[266] Besides the interest of this controversy, and of the fact that it was one of the first scientific maps drawn in England, this chart gives us in West Africa some of the earliest indications of the new Portuguese discoveries. Thus, beyond Cape Bojador, or Buyedor, we have on the mainland shore-line twenty-seven names reaching to Cape Roxo or Rosso, and including Rio d'Oro, Porto do Cavalleiro ("Pro Chavalero"), the Port of Galé ("Pedra de Gala"), Cape Branco, Cape St. Anne, and Cape Verde.

[Footnote 266: See pp. ciii-cvi.]

This example has often been spoken of as the earliest map-register of Prince Henry's discoveries, but herein it must yield to

No. (20), the Valsecca (Vallesecha) of 1434-9, which mentions the discoveries of Diego de Sevill in the Azores in 1427,[267] and maps the north-west coast of Africa scientifically to Cape Bojador (Bujeteder) and "theoretically" for some way beyond.

[Footnote 267: See p. cxiv of this Introduction.]

No. (21), of 1447, inscribed, "... Vera cosmographorum cum marino accordata terra, quorundam frivolis narrationibus rejectis MCCCCXLVII," denotes, as Nordenskjöld points out, not any connection with Marinus of Tyre (by means of a since lost MS., or otherwise), but merely the author's purpose, viz., "to present here a picture of the world, according to the conception of learned cosmographers, adapted to or grouped round a skipper-chart or portolan of the Inner Sea."

West Africa, in this chart, does not present anything specially noteworthy.

No. (22). Similar in purpose to No. (8) are both the Leardo Maps of 1448 and 1452, which in detail are somewhat similar to the Bianco of 1436.

The West African coast of these Designs does not call for special notice.