![]() ![]() Consider the gigantic maps commissioned by Florentine merchant Baldassare degli Ubriachi in 1400: they were 3.7 m wide and 3.7 m tall and featured “165 figures and animals. The splendour of the maps themselves is really something to behold. ![]() Several themes emerge as you read (or browse) this amazing book. Almost 300 footnotes provide supplementary information. Sea Monsters on Medieval and Renaissance Maps is not just an atlas of chronologically arranged images it’s also an analytical study that discusses the trends seen in the maps over time and describes specific maps, their makers, and the creatures they depict. If you have a serious interest in sea monsters (however you interpret that term), arcane zoology or cryptozoology, the history of seafaring, or in old maps, this book is an essential purchase. Lavishly illustrated in colour throughout, it has extraordinarily high production values and is a real masterpiece of design its editorial and print quality is also very high. I said a few words about this book back in June 2013, and here (at last) is the proper review I’ve been promising. ![]() One of the most spectacular and visually fascinating Tet Zoo-related books of recent-ish months is Chet Van Duzer’s Sea Monsters on Medieval and Renaissance Maps, published in 2013 by the British Library. ![]()
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