Catalog Archive
Auction 126, Lot 50

"[Monsters] Norewunder und Seltzame thier wiedie un Mitnachtigen landern gefunden werden", Munster, Sebastian

Subject: Cartographic Miscellany

Period: 1550 (circa)

Publication: Cosmographia

Color: Black & White

Size:
13.5 x 10.2 inches
34.3 x 25.9 cm
Download High Resolution Image
(or just click on image to launch the Zoom viewer)

This is one of the more fanciful cartographic curiosities and a unique view of Renaissance attitudes toward the unknown lands beyond the civilized world. This woodblock illustration presents a compendium of monsters thought to exist in the sixteenth century, and used by many subsequent mapmakers to illustrate the creatures thought to inhabit the seas and land of the unexplored world. Across the top is a panel showing land-based creatures, including reindeer, elk (here shown pulling a sleigh), snakes and a gluttonous bear. The majority of the 'monsters' are ferocious sea creatures shown devouring hapless sailors and wrecking ships. There is a massive lobster shown with a person in its huge claws, and a fanged whale erupting fountains of water from its head, as well as a tree that appears to bear ducks as fruit. German text and map of Sarmatia on verso

References: Cumming, Skelton, Quinn, pp. 44-45.

Condition: C+

The centerfold has been repaired with some minor loss of the image. The paper is toned and soiled, but is still sound.

Estimate: $800 - $1,000

Sold for: $650

Closed on 12/3/2008

Archived