1339 and the Laurentian of 1351 are two of the
best examples of this kind of work, which gave us our first really
accurate map of any part of the globe, but which for some time was
entirely confined to coast drawing, and was meant to supply the
practical wants of captains, pilots, and seamen. The Catalan atlas of
1375-6 shows the portolano type extended to a real Mappa Mundi; the
elaborate carefulness and sumptuousness of this example prepares us for
the still higher work of Andrea Bianco and of Benincasa in the fifteenth
century. As the Laurentian portolano of 1351 commemorates the voyage of
1341 and marks its discoveries in the Atlantic islands, so the Catalan
map of 1375-6 commemorates the Catalan voyage of 1346, and gives the
best and most up-to-date picture of the N.W. African coast as it was
known before Prince Henry's discoveries.

Last of these groups of maps is that of examples from Henry's own age,
such as the Fra Mauro map of 1459 or the maps of Andrea Bianco and
Benincasa (_e.g._, 1436, 1448, 1468), among which the first-named is the
only one we have been able to give here.

The Borgian map of 1450 is given as an extraordinary specimen of what
could be done as late as 1450, not as an example of geographical
progress; and the map of 1492, recording Portuguese discoveries down to
the rounding of the Cape of Good Hope, is added to illustrate the
advance of explorers in the years closely following Henry's death, as it
was realised at the time.

The maps have in most cases been set from the modern standpoint, but, as
will readily be seen by the position of the names, the normal mediaeval
setting was quite different, with the S. or E. at the top.

II. The illustrations aim at giving portraits or pictures of the chief
persons and places connected with the life of Prince Henry. There are
three of the Prince himself; one from the Paris MS. of Azurara, one from
the gateway of the great convent church of Belem, one from the recumbent
statue over his tomb at Batalha. Two others give: (1) The whole group of
the royal tombs of Henry's house,--of his father, mother, and brothers
in the aisle at Batalha, and (2) the recumbent statues of his father and
mother, John and Philippa, in detail; the exterior and general effect of
the same church--Portugal's Westminster, and the mausoleum of the
Navigator's own family of Aviz--comes next, in a view of this greatest
of Portuguese shrines.

Coimbra University, with which as rec