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 Nordenskjoeld'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