Editing Prince Henry the Navigator (section)

== Vila do Infante and Portuguese exploration ==
[[File:Fortaleza_de_Sagres_2_-_11.04.2023.jpg|thumb|left|The [[Fortress of Sagres]], near [[Cape St. Vincent]] in the [[Algarve]], is said to have been the seat of the legendary [[Sagres school]].]]
According to [[João de Barros]], in [[Algarve]], Prince Henry the Navigator repopulated a village that he called [[Sagres (Vila do Bispo)|Terçanabal]] (from ''terça nabal'' or ''tercena nabal'').<ref>{{cite book|last=Bluteau|first=Rafael|title=Vocabulario portuguez & latino ...|year=1721|publisher=na officina de Pascoal da Sylva|location=Lisbon|pages=109|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RwGCgmERezIC&pg=PA109}}</ref> This village was situated in a strategic position for his maritime enterprises and was later called Vila do Infante ("Estate or Town of the Prince").

It is traditionally suggested that Henry gathered at his villa on the [[Sagres Point|Sagres]] peninsula a school of navigators and [[mapmaking|map-makers]]. However modern historians hold this to be a misconception. He did employ some cartographers to chart the coast of [[Mauritania]] after the voyages he sent there, but there was no center of navigation science or observatory in the modern sense of the word, nor was there an organized navigational center.<ref name="Randles">Randles, W.G.L. "The alleged nautical school founded in the fifteenth century at Sagres by Prince Henry of Portugal called the 'Navigator'". ''Imago Mundi'', vol. 45 (1993), pp. 20–28.</ref>

Referring to Sagres, sixteenth-century Portuguese mathematician and cosmographer [[Pedro Nunes]] remarked, "from it our sailors went out well taught and provided with instruments and rules which all map makers and navigators should know."<ref>Mark, Hans. "Henry the Navigator and the Early Days of Exploration", American Association for the Advancement of Science, Annual meeting, February 1992</ref>

The view that Henry's court rapidly grew into the technological base for exploration, with a naval arsenal and an observatory, etc., although repeated in popular culture, has never been established.<ref>{{cite book | publisher = Universidade de Coimbra | last= Marques | first= Alfredo Pinheiro | title = Os Descobrimentos e o 'Atlas Miller' | date = 2005 | url = https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B2xiUdRpMxk6YW5fMzNTTFlJYUE | language = pt | ref = Marques }}, p. 52</ref><ref>{{cite news|last=Rocha|first=Daniel|title=Brasil: historiador nega existência da Escola de Sagres|url=http://www.publico.pt/cultura/noticia/brasil-historiador-nega-existencia-da-escola-de-sagres-1364441|newspaper=Público|date=8 February 2009|access-date=16 October 2013}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=de Albuquerque|first=Luís|title=Dúvidas e Certezas na História dos Descobrimentos Portugueses|year=1990|pages=15–27|location=Lisboa}}</ref> Henry did possess geographical curiosity, and employed cartographers. [[Jehuda Cresques]], a noted [[cartographer]], has been said to have accepted an invitation to come to Portugal to make maps for the infante. Prestage makes the argument that the presence of the latter at the Prince's court "probably accounts for the legend of the School of Sagres, which is now discredited."<ref name=Prestage />