Apr 17, 2025
What a get! have a detail of some sea monsters and a complete, Super High Definition medieval map full of both sea and land monsters! Worth looking at for HOOOUURSS.
(summary from James Ford Bell Library):
"Carta marina, a wallmap of Scandinavia, by Olaus Magnus. The caption reads : A Marine map and Description of the Northern Lands and of their Marvels, most carefully drawn up at Venice in the year 1539 through the generous assistance of the Most Honourable Lord Hieronymo Quirino."
Sea monsters represented not only real dangers sailors had encountered (like whales), but other unkown dangers and the idea itself of the uncertainty of uncharted waters. Hence the phrase "Here Be Dragons".
