If you follow us on Instagram (@agslibrary), you know we are big fans and participants in Map Monster Monday, which was started by the folks over at the Boston Public Library’s Leventhal Map Center.
To kick off our first Map Monster Monday on Tumblr, we are pleased to share with you a 1573 work by the famous cartographer Abraham Ortelius.
Ortelius was the leader of the Golden Age of Map-Making in the Netherlands in the late 16th and early 17th century. An earlier work of his, Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, or “Theatre of the World,” (stay tuned, we may be posting from this work soon), is widely considered the first modern atlas.
Ortelius (and other map-makers from his day) drew monsters in the seas of their maps to captivate readers’ attentions and sell more pieces. They also intended to inspire a sense of excitement in the risky and dangerous unknown.
For example, the images in this 1573 atlas are accompanied on the next page with descriptions of the monsters (translated from Latin). To match a monster to its description, note the letter next to the monsters in the first image in this series:
C. “The BURCHVALUR has a head bigger than its entire body. It has many very strong teeth, of which they make chess pieces. It is 60 cubites long.”
D. “The HYENA or sea hog is a monstrous kind of fish about which you may read in the 21st book of Olaus Magnus.”
E. “Ziphius is a horrible sea monster that swallows a black seal in one bite.”
F. “The English whale, thirty ells long. It has no teeth but its tongue is seven ells in length.”
G. “HROSHUALUR, that is to say as much as sea horse, with manes hanging down from its neck like a horse. It often causes great hurt and scare to fisherman.”
I. “SKAUTUHVALUR. This fish is fully covered with bristles or bones. It is somewhat like a shark or skite, but infinitely bigger. When it appears, it is like an island, and with its fins it overturns boats and ships.”
Do you have any Monsters in your collections? We encourage you to participate in Map Monster Monday.
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