Les monstres marins & terrestres, lesquelz on trouue en beaucoup de lieux es parties septentrionales.

Date1550

Cartographer Sebastian Munster 1489 - 1552

Engraver Hans Rudolf Manuel Deutsch 1525 - 1572

OriginEurope, Switzerland, Basel

MediumBlack and white woodcut on laid paper

DimensionsOH: 13 1/8" x OW: 16 1/2"

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1986-16

DescriptionThe upper margin reads: "De la Cosmographie/ Vniuerselle liure IIII./ Les monstres marins & terrestres, lesquelz on trouue en beaucoup de lieux es parties septentrionales."

The mark in the lower left corner reads: "MHF"

The mark in the lower right corner reads: "HR-MD"Label TextIn the 1500s, sea travel was adventurous and dangerous. Many people feared the oceans and the creatures that lived in them. Well-traveled sailors told stories of giant fish and fanciful creatures encountered on their journeys. These tales inspired mapmakers to include them in the open waters of their maps.

Sebastian Munster, a sixteenth-century cartographer from Basel, created this picture of the "monsters" that roamed the seas. At the top, he included elements that belonged on land. He published it in his Cosmographia, a history of the world illustrated with maps. Each sea creature was printed from its own woodblock so that it could be placed anywhere in the waters adding to the overall design of the maps. Originally there was a key to the print that described each of the monsters.ProvenanceBefore 1986, Robert Roberts Stoney (Williamsburg, VA); 1986-present, purchased by the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation (Williamsburg, VA).