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‘Ignorant of Nautical Matters’? The Mariner's Mirror and the iconography of medieval and sixteenth-century ships

This paper is about the iconography of medieval2 and sixteenth-century ships (AD 400 to 1600), and reviews the treatment of the subject in The Mariner’s Mirror over the past century. Iconography is the study of the ways in which people or things are represented in ‘any application of the arts of design’.3 This broad definition suits maritime iconography, which can be found in all artistic media. Ancient, medieval and later ship images have featured in Mariner’s Mirror since its beginnings, but the purpose of this paper is to be more than just a chronicle of changing opinions. It aims to suggest ways in which an understanding of past scholarship might help the field to develop in the future. The Mariner’s Mirror contains over 180 articles, notes, queries and answers about images of this period, as well as many others on ancient and post-1600 ship representations. Despite the appearance of more recent British and foreign journals that also cover the subject, such as the International Journal of Nautical Archaeology (1972–) and the French publication Archaeonautica (1977–), it is probably true the say that The Mariner’s Mirror contains more discussion of ship iconography, of whatever period, than any other similar scholarly publication. This paper focuses on the period AD 400–1600 because ship representations from this era have been used as one of the key sources for research into medieval and early modern ships, alongside documentary and archaeological evidence. Documentary and archaeological sources have their own limitations, even when they include, say, relatively rare evidence such as shipbuilding specifications or a fairly intact wreck like the Bremen cog.4 Images can show things merely alluded to in documents and