Abstract: This essay attempts to draw connections between medieval maps and their
many monsters, digital cartographical interfaces, and modern experiences of the world.
Each impacts our understandings of the others. The medieval notion of speculum – the
metaphorical mirror that allows us to see our worlds and ourselves more clearly – draws
attention to the very process of spectatorship. The modern notion of telesthesia –
perception at a distance, borrowed from Cultural Studies, becomes a unifying discourse,
allowing us to bridge the gap between medieval and modern, East and West, us and them,
viewer and monster.