| Jan Huygen van Linschoten — Histoire de la navigation de Iean Hvgves de Linschot Hollandois... |
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Histoire de la navigation de Iean Hvgves de Linschot Hollandois... |
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Published: Amsterdam:Evert Cloppenburgh 1638 Dimensions: 3 parts in one volume, folio (310 x 198 mm); [8], 206; [4] 181, [1]; [2], 86 pp. Histoire de la navigation de Iean Hvgves de Linschot Hollandois: aux Indes Orientales...Troixiesme edition augmentee; [Part II:] Le grand routier de Mer... [Part III:] Description de l'Amerique & des parties d'icelle, comme de la Nouvelle France... Parts 1 and 2 with letterpress titles printed within nearly full-page engraved pictorial borders, part 3 title with large engraved vignette, engraved portrait, 6 folding engraved maps including the 1594 double-hemisphere world map by Petrus Plancius (Shirley 187), and 32 (of 36) double-page or larger engraved plates, including one fold-out plate and one large folding plate (birds-eye view-plan of Goa), by Jan and Baptiste van Doetecum after Linschoten; woodcut head- and tail-pieces and initials. (Lacking plates 8, 33, 34 and 36: habitations near Goa, the two coastal profile views of St. Helena, and the large folding view-plan of Terceira; some browning, spotting, and marginal dampstaining, all but one of the folding maps with short tears at mounts.) Contemporary speckled calf, rebacked in the 19th century, corners and endpapers renewed (rubbed); modern slipcase. Contemporary inscription on title-page: "j'ay peur de l'advenir / j'ay regret du passé". Third edition in French of Linschoten's Itinerario, one of the most important early accounts of India, the Far East, Portuguese Africa, and the New World. Linschoten drew on his own experiences during nearly a decade spent as secretary to the Portuguese Archbishop at Goa in the 1580s, as well as on other Dutch, Spanish and Portuguese travel accounts, for his detailed descriptions of these exotic regions; historical and scientific aspects of his narration were enhanced by the learned physician and natural history collector Bernhard Paludanus (1550-1663), whose annotations are printed in italic type. The third part, on South America, owes much to Jean de Léry's Histoire d'un Voyage Faict en la Terre du Bresil (1578). Along with Hakluyt's Navigations, Linschoten's work served as a direct stimulus to the building of the vast English and Dutch overseas empires: At the time of its first publication in 1595-1596 the Itinerario contained the most detailed descriptions then available of the East and West Indies. Because of the practical information it provided on reaching trading with the Americas and India - including sailing routes, a dictionary of exotic commodities, and information on national trading methods - Linschoten's work became indispensable to sailors en route to the Indies, and remained so until the end of the 17th century. Legend has it that sailors traveling East were given copies of the book as logbooks; whatever the truth of this assertion, it is a fact that in spite of numerous editions the work is now quite scarce, and copies in fine condition are exceedingly rare. Unlike the first French edition, printed in 1610 under an Amsterdam imprint but apparently produced at the Frankfurt presses of de Bry, the present edition (a reprint of Cloppenburgh's 1619 edition) is illustrated with the original copperplates, with captions in Dutch. Sabin 41373; Palau 138584. |
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