Sea Monsters on Medieval and Renaissance Maps Paperback – September 1, 2014

A beautiful book, to say the very least. Van Duzer shows us how sea creatures - real, intended-to-be-real, and wholly imaginary - decorated maps from the earliest surviving Western examples, as much as 1,200 years old,. The practice may be much older.Van Duzer’s focus is on the sixth through tenth centuries. Maps were decorated with creatures real and fantastic to show believed dangers in specific areas, to emphasize the breadth and wonder of Creation, or just as decoration, especially on maps commissioned by the wealthy as art. The creatures are sometimes absurd, sometimes intriguing, and sometimes even believable (a swordfish and a whale on the Gough map of Britain, c. 1400, look perfectly accurate). An illustrated copy of Ptolemy’s Geography, made about 1560, was the pinnacle of sea monster art, including in its maps 476 creatures. Often creatures shown on maps turn up in other places, such as illuminated manuscripts, bestiaries, and church decorations.Monsters on maps declined in the more scientific era that followed the Renaissance, but the older maps left us some magnificent art as well as a window to the thinking of their times. Do any possibly indicate cryptozoological creatures, the modern sea serpents that never quite vanish into myth? Van Duzer does not address it, but there is something in here to match up with almost any maritime tale (I don’t know what one artist used a guide for a half-fish half-rooster, a literal chicken of the sea.)This is a great reference to the real and imagined monsters of the period as well as a thing of sometimes-breathtaking beauty. 299 endnotes add details to the main narrative.

Gives a concise history of maps, along with the origins and evolution of their accompanying monsters. Makes you wonder; where people just bad at accurately drawing animals before the 1700s, or did the explorers just not even try. A written description of an octopus ends up looking like a lobster on the map. I guess eight legs meant lobster to the artist, because it was all he knew. A simple sketch from someone who had seen an octopus (or for that matter, a dead one preserved in brine) would have allowed the artist to get a lot closer to reality. Most inaccuracies are easily attributable to misunderstandings. Obviously sea-dogs were seals or sea lions, but something was lost in translation and the artist ended up drawing something closer to a dog than a seal. A quick read, because of all the pictures, which are great. My only gripe would be that many of the pictures didn't go with the text on the same page, so there was some flipping back and forth required to follow along. I realize though that it must be difficult to edit things to fit the text near the appropriate pictures, so I didn't take away a star.

It takes some imagination to understand why the Renaissance would define Man as "..a ship which is not meant to rot in port but to furrow long paths in the sea." (Alberti) If you are haunted by a suspicion that the oceans are plagued by creatures of the sort displayed on these maps, then how can you agree that Man is the measure of all things? A book as beautifully photographed and as well documented as this certainly helps you "get your head around it!"

This wasn't quite what i was expecting, but I'm not at all disappointed. I was expecting something akin to a bestiary or a catalog of all the sea monsters, maybe with a bit of history or a description of the monster. Instead, the Author goes into depth as to why the monsters were put on the maps at all, sometimes for religious reasons, sometimes for decoration, and sometimes the monsters were just cases of mistaken identity. While it didn't list every single monster ever drawn, it did have a few sections like i had described above. All in all it's an excellent book, and became one of my favourites pretty quickly.

What an awesome book! I'm an amateur cartographer and had never really thought about the sea monsters and other items included in the periphery of medieval maps. This book provides a very interesting discussion of these little extras, plus it has wonderful photos of maps. Normally I purchase Kindle books but this is definitely worth having in hard copy.

Really interesting and quick read. Great coffee table book too.

This is a fun book that explores sea monsters on medieval and renaissance maps. It has great illustrations and is explains a lot about what went into making these maps. For me, however, it's the illustrations that I enjoy the most! The sea monsters are simply super cool!

I was looking for a coffee table book for my house at the beach and this fit the bill as I am very interested in antique maps. I would not give the inside of the book high marks for illustrations, though, unlike most books of this type. The cover is deceiving.