From Ivy Press
"Olaus Magnus’s
1539 Carta Marina can be considered the major source of Renaissance
sea monster iconography and lore. The map and its voluminous
commentary, History of the Northern Peoples, established Olaus as the
innovative historian of the sea serpent, the giant squid and sea monsters in
general.
"Sea Monsters is structured around Olaus’s map which is reproduced as
a beautiful fold-out on the back of this book jacket and the charts that two
pre-eminent sixteenth-century cartographers derived from it: Sebastian
Münster’s Monstra Marina & Terrestria (1544) and Abraham
Ortelius’s Islandia (1590). All three charts are remarkable for their
identification of sea beasts in lettered keys. The keys are included in the
book, enabling the reader to match corresponding beasts with each other and
with the text.
"Joseph Nigg introduces readers to Olaus’s fantastic sea beasts by taking
an imaginary voyage up the northern seas of the historic Carta
Marina map, with Olaus himself as guide. After the Swedish cartographer
has introduced each creature, it bursts forth in stunning art, followed by a
discussion of its meaning and influence. Olaus’s marine beasts multiplied in
natural histories, and his map inspired and influenced marine zoology and
cartography for centuries thereafter.
"Sea Monsters is an enthralling tour of a world that still holds many
secrets for us land dwellers, who will forever be fascinated by reports of
giant squid and the real-life creatures of the deep that have proven to be as
bizarre and otherworldly as we have imagined for centuries. It is a gorgeous
guide for enthusiasts of maps, monsters and the mythic."
apparently only for sale in
America, but it can be posted to the UK, you can buy the Sea Monsters book here.
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