“To our eyes, almost all of the sea monsters on all of these maps seem quite whimsical, but in fact, a lot of them were taken from what the cartographers viewed as scientific, authoritative books,” said author Chet Van Duzer in a podcast with Lapham’s Quarterly. That doesn’t mean the monsters were purely ornamental inventions though. Most of the decorated maps weren’t used for navigation, but rather were displayed by wealthy people. More than mere marginalia and playful illustration, cartographers drew sea monsters to enchant viewers while educating them about what could be found in the sea. Reprinted with permission by the British Library and the University of Chicago Press. The sea surrounding Scandinavia showed sailing ships and this traditionally peaceful ichthyocentaur, perhaps suggesting safe passage. Sea Monsters on Medieval and Renaissance Maps , by Chet Van Duzer, and Sea Monsters: A Voyage around the World’s Most Beguiling Map, by Joseph Nigg, both focus exclusively on illustrations, several of which are included here, of such monsters on old maps.Īn ichthyocentaur (parts human, horse and fish) plays a viol on a map of Scandinavia from the 1573 edition of Ortelius’s Theatrum orbis terrarum. The sea monsters that populated European medieval and renaissance imaginations-fierce-toothed animals battling in the waves, long serpents wrapped around ships, torturously beautiful sirens and a wide assortment of chimeric beings-are the subject of two new books. So, what of the creatures that were thought to live there? Even the substance itself, seawater, is often cold and dark, and deadly to drink in quantity. And, why not? Unlike land, the ocean is constantly shifting and moving, with currents that could carry a ship off course and storms that threaten wrecks.
The sea has been the stage for monstrosities and strange tales since antiquity. Reprinted with permission by the British Library and the University of Chicago Press Jonah is cast overboard to a sea monster in an image from the earliest known atlas, the Theatrum orbis terrarum, by Flemish cartographer Abraham Ortelius, first published in 1570.
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