Map of Iceland, 1592
Abraham Ortelius’ Theatre of the World is considered the first modern printed atlas. Tingling with imagination and Old Norse mythology, his maps featured sea creatures and monsters, such as the Ziphius, “a horrible sea monster that swallows a black seal in one bite.” Prior to the 17th century, “there were vast areas of land that were terra incognita, and cartographers used imagery to fill in empty spaces,” said Joanna Morrison, a librarian in the Toronto Reference Library special collections department.