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 mediæval
setting was quite different, with the S. or E. at the top.

II. The illustrations aim at giving portraits or pictures of the chief