"Canada" Makes its Debut: A Map that Exemplifies Sea Monsters in Cartography is the 1st Use of Canada

Following some of the Twitter feeds that focus on antique maps, and reading about the program from the Miami Map Fair earlier in February, the name Chet Van Duzer keeps popping up. Mr. Van Duzer is a cartographic historian, and in many cases, when his name has appeared online recently, it's been in connection with lectures about sea monsters on maps.

Sea monsters!? Cool!

In a publication he produced on the subject, one of the maps Mr. Van Duzer uses to illustrate (no pun intended) his point about drawings of monsters and other mythical creatures on maps is this one by Paulo Forlani in 1560, and held in the National Archives of Canada. Take a look:

This article features a discussion with Mr. Van Duzer about the reason map makers included animals on their maps. The reasons are varied. In some cases, they wanted to show people that the oceans were vast, scary and unknown. In other cases, they drew what they thought were faithful representations of what they had heard, or they simply hated the idea of blank spaces on their map.

Some examples of some really wild creatures that appear on maps can be found here. Particularly interesting is someone's idea of a walrus, described as a "a strange animal with “large, quadrangular teeth.”" Naturally, it lives somewhere way up north, but looks like something you'd expect to see on the Serengeti.

Another great thing about this map, and likley the reason it's in Canada's National Archives, is that it's the first map to say "Canada." All Canadians know that Canada is from the Huron word for village, and it was misunderstood that the Hurons were not giving the name of their country, but of their settlement. Some have also speculated it comes from the Spanish: 'ca nada' or 'this is nothing'. 

In any event, Forlani sure makes it something. His map shows a huge landmass which incorporates Greenland and seems to connect with China.

One thing about it that's so interesting though, is that the mountains and islands shown are largely fictional. They are placed wherever the map maker thought they should go.

This point is made by Van Duzer in the article, but it's an amazing thought to imagine a person, in a world before modern communication, compiling all this information, some of it being very new, inaccurate and vague and trying to make sense of it. It must be akin to having to draw a map of the moon based only on accounts from those who have been there, and those who have spoken to astronauts, nothing more. In such a context, it's no wonder that walruses have four legs and beasts ply the seas.