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Ptolemy's Atlas (originally 2nd century, taken up again in the 15th century) warns of elephants, hippos and cannibals [Ian Seymour via Jeremy Crampton]
Tabula Peutingeriana (medieval copy of Roman map) has "in his locis elephanti nascuntur", "in his locis scorpiones nascuntur" and "in his locis cenocephali nascuntur" ("in these places elephants are produced, in these places scorpions are produced, here dog-headed beings are produced") [Susan Weingarten]
Cotton MS. Tiberius B.V. fol. 58v (10th century), British Library Manuscript Collection, has "hic abundant leones" ("here lions abound"), along with a picture of a lion, near the east coast of Asia (at the top of the map towards the left); this map also has a text-only serpent reference in southernmost Africa (bottom left of the map): "Zugis regio ipsa est et Affrica. est enim fertilis. sed ulterior bestiis et serpentibus plena." [Helen Wallis cited by Geoff Armitage]
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