Prince Henry “The Navigator”: A Life. By Peter Russell. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2000. Pp. xiv, 448. $35.00.

Extract

Historians of the Discoveries and of medieval Iberia have long anticipated this study of Henry the Navigator. The result has been well worth the wait. Peter Russell is universally acknowledged as one of the foremost scholars on late medieval Portugal. This gracefully written work is a major achievement reflecting a lifetime of historical inquiry; that he is now eighty-two makes this exceptional work even more remarkable. In the English-speaking world, Henry of Avis (1394–1460) is easily the most recognizable figure in Portuguese history. High-school and college texts laud Henry and his “school of Sagres” as the indispensable force behind Western exploration of the South Atlantic prior to the rounding of the Cape of Good Hope and Columbus's landfall. Perhaps Russell's most useful contribution for general readers is that, by demolishing the various myths surrounding Henry, he may finally hasten their exit from future textbooks.