Top products from r/oldmaps
We found 7 product mentions on r/oldmaps. We ranked the 6 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the top 20.
1. Atlas of Remote Islands: Fifty Islands I Have Never Set Foot On and Never Will
Sentiment score: 1
Number of reviews: 2
Penguin Books
2. Transit Maps of the World: The World's First Collection of Every Urban Train Map on Earth
Sentiment score: 1
Number of reviews: 1
3. American Buffalo: In Search of a Lost Icon
Sentiment score: 0
Number of reviews: 1
4. Sea Monsters on Medieval and Renaissance Maps
Sentiment score: 1
Number of reviews: 1
Hi, great that you're taking an interest to get him a book on cartography. I've recently began doing the same, and books are definitely superior over wikipedia etc.
They were all considered actual animals at the time.
One of the earliest, and definitely the most influential, "monster map" is the 1539 Carta Marina whose monsters were copied by several later mapmakers. It was accompanied by a 15-volume book detailing each animal's name and characteristics. Although they were depicted from descriptions and hearsay, and as such are not recognizable to us, most descriptions correspond to an actual animal and the rest correspond to mythical animals that were at the time believed to be real.
On the Carta Marina, you can recognize some of the monster names, such as "Orca" and "Ros Maruspicsis" (walrus), others have different names today like the Vacca Marina drawn as an actual cow. It's Latin for "sea cow", the description in the book perfectly fits what we today call a bearded seal. Although the fantastic sea creatures are what we think of today, this map also depicts a lot of other creatures such as wolves, reindeer, lynx and eagles, and also specific people like kings and warriors. At the time, it was meant as a documentary image accompanying a non-fiction book.
There are several books written on the map monsters, I recommend this one.
This book Lovecraft Country by Matt Ruff is a sci-fi horror mostly about a black family from Chicago that writes these guides. The book was fantastic and I'd love to see it get more traction.
This is one of my favorites: http://www.amazon.com/Atlas-Remote-Islands-Judith-Schalansky/dp/014311820X
I heard this guy speak in Austin a few years ago. The book has been on my to-do list.