---
product_id: 1699184
title: "Sea Monsters on Medieval and Renaissance Maps Hardcover – June 15, 2013"
brand: "chet van duzer"
price: "505 zł"
currency: PLN
in_stock: true
reviews_count: 8
url: https://www.desertcart.pl/products/1699184-sea-monsters-on-medieval-and-renaissance-maps-hardcover-june-15
store_origin: PL
region: Poland
---

# Sea Monsters on Medieval and Renaissance Maps Hardcover – June 15, 2013

**Brand:** chet van duzer
**Price:** 505 zł
**Availability:** ✅ In Stock

## Quick Answers

- **What is this?** Sea Monsters on Medieval and Renaissance Maps Hardcover – June 15, 2013 by chet van duzer
- **How much does it cost?** 505 zł with free shipping
- **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship
- **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.pl](https://www.desertcart.pl/products/1699184-sea-monsters-on-medieval-and-renaissance-maps-hardcover-june-15)

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- chet van duzer enthusiasts

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- Trusted chet van duzer brand quality
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## Description

Full description not available

## Images

![Sea Monsters on Medieval and Renaissance Maps Hardcover – June 15, 2013 - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/91r2qoUx1UL.jpg)

## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Gorgeous look into the
*by M***E on October 25, 2020*

A beautiful book, to say the very least. Van Duzer shows us how sea creatures - real, intended-to-be-real, and wholly imaginary - decorated maps from the earliest surviving Western examples, as much as 1,200 years old,. The practice may be much older.Van Duzer’s focus is on the sixth through tenth centuries. Maps were decorated with creatures real and fantastic to show believed dangers in specific areas, to emphasize the breadth and wonder of Creation, or just as decoration, especially on maps commissioned by the wealthy as art. The creatures are sometimes absurd, sometimes intriguing, and sometimes even believable (a swordfish and a whale on the Gough map of Britain, c. 1400, look perfectly accurate). An illustrated copy of Ptolemy’s Geography, made about 1560, was the pinnacle of sea monster art, including in its maps 476 creatures. Often creatures shown on maps turn up in other places, such as illuminated manuscripts, bestiaries, and church decorations.Monsters on maps declined in the more scientific era that followed the Renaissance, but the older maps left us some magnificent art as well as a window to the thinking of their times. Do any possibly indicate cryptozoological creatures, the modern sea serpents that never quite vanish into myth? Van Duzer does not address it, but there is something in here to match up with almost any maritime tale (I don’t know what one artist used a guide for a half-fish half-rooster, a literal chicken of the sea.)This is a great reference to the real and imagined monsters of the period as well as a thing of sometimes-breathtaking beauty. 299 endnotes add details to the main narrative.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Fun read and educational
*by T***S on March 21, 2017*

Gives a concise history of maps, along with the origins and evolution of their accompanying monsters. Makes you wonder; where people just bad at accurately drawing animals before the 1700s, or did the explorers just not even try. A written description of an octopus ends up looking like a lobster on the map. I guess eight legs meant lobster to the artist, because it was all he knew. A simple sketch from someone who had seen an octopus (or for that matter, a dead one preserved in brine) would have allowed the artist to get a lot closer to reality. Most inaccuracies are easily attributable to misunderstandings. Obviously sea-dogs were seals or sea lions, but something was lost in translation and the artist ended up drawing something closer to a dog than a seal. A quick read, because of all the pictures, which are great. My only gripe would be that many of the pictures didn't go with the text on the same page, so there was some flipping back and forth required to follow along. I realize though that it must be difficult to edit things to fit the text near the appropriate pictures, so I didn't take away a star.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ A beautifully illustrated, well written book.
*by C***T on February 7, 2014*

It takes some imagination to understand why the Renaissance would define Man as "..a ship which is not meant to rot in port but to furrow long paths in the sea." (Alberti) If you are haunted by a suspicion that the oceans are plagued by creatures of the sort displayed on these maps, then how can you agree that Man is the measure of all things? A book as beautifully photographed and as well documented as this certainly helps you "get your head around it!"

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*Product available on Desertcart Poland*
*Store origin: PL*
*Last updated: 2026-01-25*