Prince Henry's connection with the Coimbra-Lisbon University (founded by King Dinis in 1300) opens another side of the same question. We have already mentioned the tradition that in 1431 the Infant provided new quarters in the parish of St. Thomas, in Lisbon, for the teachers and students, and afterwards established Chairs of Theology and Mathematics. This has been called by some a "Reform of Ancient Schools" under his influence and direction;[233] and recent enquiry[234] has endeavoured to prove that the Protector of Portuguese Studies was also the founder (in 1431) of a Chair of Medicine, and the donor of a room or lecture-hall in which was painted by his order a picture of Galen. In 1448 the Infant subsidised the Chair of Theology by a grant of twelve marks of silver annually from the revenues of Madeira.[235] It is perhaps noteworthy that the Prince does not appear to have founded any lectureship, or made any benefaction to promote directly the study of geography, though ancient texts bearing on this subject were now beginning to attract considerable attention. It may be open to question how far a university would then have welcomed an instructor in practical navigation or draughtsmanship; but students would have probably listened to lectures upon Ptolemy, or Strabo, or other classical geographers, and thereby a great impetus might have been given to the new exploring spirit. Thus in general we may fairly conclude that, so far as the Portuguese seamen of the next generation, Bartholemew Diaz, Da Gama, Cão, and others, "received their training from the Infant's School," it was usually through a rougher and more practical tradition than that of a class-room--by means of older mariners who had served in the Prince's ships rather than by university lecturers whom he had appointed. [Footnote 233: See O. Martins, _Filhos de D. João I_, pp. 63-4.] [Footnote 234: Cf. Max. Lemos, _A medicina em Portugal_, 1881.] [Footnote 235: J. S. Ribeiro, _Historia dos estabel. scientific, litt. e art. de Portugal_, i, p. 31.] MAPS AND SCIENTIFIC GEOGRAPHY UP TO AND DURING PRINCE HENRY'S LIFE. Ancient maps were not without high merits in certain cases, and a little after Prince Henry's time the Renaissance editions of Ptolemy played a very important part in geographical history. But in the first part of the fifteenth century neither the work of the Alexandrian astronomer and cartographer, nor the ancient road maps of the Roman Empire and surrounding lands[236] seem to have been sufficiently known for the exercise of much influence in the progress of discovery or of geographical knowledge. The same result follows, for different reasons, in the case of almost all the earlier mediæval maps and charts,[237] which are quite unscientific in character, and often rather picture books of natural history legends than delineations of the world. [Footnote 236: _E.g._, the Peutinger Table.]