E 4° — THE DREAM
Cartographic Wonders
The map at its most dreamlike — a queen, a lion, the country of love, a world drawn as a heart.
1537 (later editions)
Europa Regina
Europe as a crowned queen.
west-up
1583 (later editions)
Leo Belgicus
The Low Countries as a rampant lion.
1654
The Carte de Tendre
A map of the country of love.
1531
The Heart-Shaped World
The whole Earth, drawn as a heart.
cordiform (heart-shaped)
c. 1650
California as an Island
The most beautiful mistake in cartography.
1585
Islandia
a dozen lettered sea monsters in the surrounding ocean.
regional
1877
The Octopus
Russia drawn as an octopus, tentacles across Europe.
persuasive
1900
John Bull and His Friends
the octopus returned, twenty-three years on.
persuasive