Note 201 — Chapter XIV · The Technic of Globe Construction—Materials and Methods
Reading edition
Pictures are a particularly striking feature of the cloister maps of the middle ages. The idea of such adornments may have come down from Greek or Roman days. Plutarch tells us in his ‘Theseus’ that “Geographers crowd into the edge of their maps parts of the world about which they have no knowledge, adding notes in the margins to the effect that only deserts full of wild beasts and impassable marshes lie beyond.” Jonathan Swift, humorously referring to maps of the early period, writes:
“So geographers in Afric maps With savage pictures fill their gaps And o’er unhabitable downs Place elephants for want of towns.”
The early map makers as illustrators should be an interesting theme for a special monograph.