Sea serpent attacking ship
Map historian Chet Van Duzer gave a talk about ancient maps and sea monsters at the Library of Congress Thursday (Sept. 5).Above: One of the classic images of a sea monster on a map: a giant sea-serpent attacks a ship off the coast of Norway on Olaus Magnus’s Carta marina of 1539, this image from the 1572 edition.
Jonah cast overboard
Jonah being cast overboard to the sea monster, from Ortelius’s map of the Holy Land in his Theatrum orbis terrarum.
Siren admiring herself
A siren admires herself in a mirror, a symbol of vanity, near a ship on Pierre Desceliers’s world map of 1550. The styles and colors in which the water is painted beneath the siren and ship are different, suggesting that the siren was painted by a sea monster specialist.
Ichthyocentaur playing a viol
An ichthyocentaur playing a viol on the map of Scandinavia in Ortelius’s Theatrum orbis terrarum (Antwerp, 1571)
Early version of windsurfing
An early vision of wind-surfing: a woman holds a sail in order to ride the waves on the back of a sea monster. From Paolo Forlani, Vniversale descrittione di tvtta la terra conoscivta fin qvi (Venice, 1565).
Whales attacking ship
Whales attacking a ship on Olaus Magnus’s Carta marina of 1539, this image from the 1572 edition. The sailors jettison barrels and a man on the ship plays a trumpet in order to scare the monsters away.
