However, at the end of the 17th century, sea monsters start to disappear from maps. Reprinted with permission by the British Library and the University of Chicago Press. Other monsters can be seen on the surrounding land. “So most of the sea monsters reflect an effort on the part of the cartographer to be accurate in the depiction of what lived in the sea.”Ī siren admires herself in a mirror-a sign of her vanity-amongst ships in the Southern Ocean on Pierre Descelier’s map from 1550. “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. The sea surrounding Scandinavia showed sailing ships and this traditionally peaceful ichthyocentaur, perhaps suggesting safe passage. An ichthyocentaur (parts human, horse and fish) plays a viol on a map of Scandinavia from the 1573 edition of Ortelius’s Theatrum orbis terrarum.

Ortelius england map