Illustrator: Unknown
Lorenz Fries, Uslegung der Mercarthen oder Cartha Marina… (Straßburg: Johannes Grüninger, 1525). J525 F912u / 1-SIZE. Hand-colored woodcut. Web (The John Carter Brown Library).
“Cannibals on the Caribbean Island”
Woodcuts featured in Lorenz Fries’s pamphlet Uslegung der Mercarthen oder Cartha Marina… focus on the newly discovered Caribbean. Fries himself was actually a physician by trade and his time as a cartographer lasted for around five years from 1520-1525. It should be noted that he never explored these places himself, and just edited previous maps. This is from his last published cartographic work and is based on Amerigo Vespucci and Christopher Columbus’s works.
This image shows a village of cannibals with dog heads, eating and processing human limbs. This motif of dog-headed cannibals, or Cynocephaly, is a common occurrence in German culture, often used to refer to “heretics” of the East or on mythical islands. It is interesting how quickly Fries applies this classic monstrous trait to a still new and unknown culture, showing just how fast monsters can be created.
One final note: that beast of burden carrying a dismembered body on the bottom left could hint at the new location being shown—it might be a llama!
Sean Peek