Flying Fish, Unicorns, and Humanoid Bears

In 1671, De Nieuwe en Onbekende Weereld (The New and Unknown World) was published in Amsterdam.

Written at the request of bookseller and engraver Jacob van Meurs, it presented readers with an overview of the European expansion in the Americas. However, the book's author, Arnoldus Montanus, had never been to those continents. The information for the book came from what travelers had written or depicted before him. These stories were filled with stereotypes and misreadings of the people who lived in those territories and fantastical images of the native (and often invented) animals. Montanus’s volume was illustrated with 125 copper engravings. One of them is signed by his publisher, but the rest remain anonymous. Several are currently on view at the Getty Research Institute (GRI) in Reinventing the Américas: Construct. Erase. Repeat. Below is a selection of prints that present inventive imagery of the “unknown world,” proving that the Americas were created and imagined, rather than discovered.

The flying fish depicted in this image was named Pirabebes by the author.

It might have been real. There are types of fish that can soar through the air, but not literally fly, as described by Montanus. One example is Exocoetus volitans, which can be found in tropical and subtropical zones, such as Mexico, and can glide as far as 600 feet above the surface of the water in a single leap.

This strange flying creature was called a Draco alter ex Raia, a semi-mythical beast invented by stitching together real parts of different animals, in this case, rays. This led people to believe that a new type of being had been discovered.

Montanus’s book claimed that Amerigo Vespucci talked about this as a real beast when the explorer stopped over in Sierra Leone, on the west coast of Africa, in 1503, while returning from the Americas to Europe. It was described as a horrible dragon that had a sharp head, fiery eyes, and batlike wings.

This tranquil being, eating fruit while invaders are about to capture it, is another example of a creature imagined as a hybrid of different animals. This exact moment was described by Montanus:

“Between these Trees he saw as strange a Monster, the foremost part resembling a Fox, the hinder a Monkey, the Feet were like a Mans, with Ears like an Owl; under whose Belly hung a great Bag, in which it carry’d the Young.”

On the border between what is now the US and Canada, Montanus said there was a kind of beast resembling a horse, but with one horn on its forehead.

Although the unicorn is a fantastical animal, an extinct Siberian rhino with a large horn protruding from its skull was discovered by researchers in 2018. This breed of animal wasn’t likely around the Americas, but again, neither was Montanus.

It's a similar situation with the “baboons” depicted in Guatemala. “Here are also many Baboons, which are big and heavy, with ugly Heads, short Legs like a Man, and Tails standing upwards,” wrote Montanus.

Even though there were no baboons in the Americas, Montanus mentioned them and emphasized their human-like, lewd, behavior: “They eat all sorts of Fruit, but chiefly covet after Wine and Bread; and are so lascivious, that they often set upon Women.”

Such engravings, according to GRI curator Idurre Alonso, “reinforced the perception of the continents as ‘exotic’ and sparked the curiosity of colonizers.” Taken together, the images reveal a clear attempt by the author and publisher to present fantasy as fact. They show the Americas as mythology, filled with a lot of invention.

Reinventing the Américas: Construct. Erase. Repeat. is on view at the Getty Research Institute until January 8, 2023.