Abraham Ortelius and Olaus Magnus are the first cartographers that come to mind when you think of old sea monster maps.

We have written an article about the Carta Marina, which was one of the very first monster maps and was drawn by the ecclesiastic Olaus Magnus who was of Swedish origin.

Olaus probably believed in the creatures he drew on his famous Carta Marina, however not so much can be said of Abraham Ortelius who copied many of the monsters found on Olaus Magnus’s map.

It is said that Abrhama Ortelius drew those monster primarily because a map with monsters would sell much better than a map without monsters – and we can understand why.