Meerwunder und seltsame Thier, wie die in den Mitnächtigen Ländern, im Meer und auff dem Landt gefunden werden.

Title

Meerwunder und seltsame Thier, wie die in den Mitnächtigen Ländern, im Meer und auff dem Landt gefunden werden.

Map shows the seamonsters from the stories of the sea explorers and sailors. On reverse representation of a deer and coat of arm of Island. This map is a summery of the seamonsters shown on the Carta marina et descriptio septentrionalium terrarum. (It is the first map of the Nordic countries to give details and place names, created by Swedish ecclesiastic Olaus Magnus and initially published in 1539.) Only two earlier maps of the Nordic countries are known, those of Jacob Ziegler (Strasbourg, 1532) and Claudius Clavus (15th century).

ca. 1550

Artist

Münster (1489-1552)

Sebastian Münster (1489–1552) was a leading Renaissance cosmographer. His most famous work, the Cosmographia (1544), was a comprehensive description of the world with 24 maps, based on research dating back to 1528. Continuously revised, the 1550 edition already included many new maps. It was the first scientific yet accessible world description published in German, illustrated with numerous woodcuts by artists such as Hans Holbein the Younger. Between 1544 and 1650, the Cosmographia appeared in 46 editions (27 in German) and was translated into several languages. Münster’s work combined the knowledge of scholars, artists, and travelers and remained influential long after his death.

Historical Description

The origin of sea monster myths is mostly unknown. However, there is a large number of written traditions, mostly by seafarers, in which encounters with supposed sea monsters are described. In 1555, the Swedish clergyman Olaus Magnus depicted numerous sea monsters in words and pictures in his works Carta Marina and Historia de gentibus septentrionalibus, whose descriptions were adopted by later authors.