DISCOURS OF VOYAGES INTO YE EASTE & WEST INDIES.
Linschoten, Jan Huygen van:
London: John Wolfe, 1598. [7],[1],197,[3],[197]-295,[3],307- 447,[3],[451]-462pp. (various mispaginations). Including three small engraved maps on separate titlepages for the second, third, and fourth "books," and four woodcut maps in the text. Plus an engraved titlepage, three folding plates, and nine folding maps (plus an extra Latin copy of one of the maps). This copy is extra-illustrated, including an engraved mounted portrait of Linschoten from a Dutch edition bound before the general titlepage; an engraved mounted nautical plate from a Dutch edition facing the titlepage of the second book; a handcolored engraved portrait of Linschoten and an engraved division title from a Dutch edition bound before the titlepage of the third book. This copy also contains an additional thirty double-page plates from the original Dutch edition; an extra folding plan of Goa; an extra folding plan of Angra; an extra double- hemisphere folding world map by Peter Plancius; and an extra double-hemisphere folding world map by Jan Baptist Vrients, prepared for the 1596 first edition of Linschoten. Small folio. 18th-century mottled calf, tooled in gilt, spine richly gilt in five compartments, gilt morocco label. Binding lightly rubbed and shelfworn, joints a bit tender. Engraved titlepage and extra- illustrated engraved portrait before titlepage trimmed to plate mark and mounted; some maps and plates strengthened or mounted; one of the St. Helena plates cropped (with loss) and mounted. A very handsome copy. From the Library of the Earls of Macclesfield (see note below). A remarkable copy of the first English edition of Linschoten's classic, the most important description of the East Indies in the Age of Discovery, translated from the first Dutch edition of 1596, from the library of the Earls of Macclesfield. This copy is particularly interesting for having nine of the twelve maps and plates in their earlier Latin versions, and not in the English versions. In one instance, the Island of Ascension map, both the English and Latin versions are found in this copy. This English edition is sometimes found with extra double-page plates from the Dutch edition bound in. This copy is no exception, containing an additional thirty folding plates from the original Dutch edition, as well as an extra folding plan of Goa and an extra folding plan of Angra (which are rarely found included in the English edition). The double-page plates have engraved captions in Latin and Dutch, and include printed page numbers indicating where they were to be bound in the original edition. (Many of the plates in this copy are inscribed in a later hand with additional numbers for placement in this volume.) These marvellous plates include scenes of Asia, particularly Java, China, and India. Several of the plates depict activities in Goa, including a wonderful panoramic view of the market, while other plates depict Portuguese travellers on land and on sea. Furthermore, this copy has two large, folding double-hemisphere world maps, neither of which are usually found in this English edition. One of them is by Peter Plancius, dated 1594 and separately issued, but incorporated into editions of Linschoten's ITINERARIUM as early as 1596 (Shirley 187). The other extra double-hemisphere folding world map is by Jan Baptist Vrients, prepared for the 1596 edition of Linschoten (Shirley 192). Linschoten, a Dutchman born in Haarlem in 1563, travelled to Goa in 1584 as a clerk to the Archbishop of Goa, and was later employed as a pepper factor for the Fugger and Welser interests. Returning to Holland in 1592, he prepared his notes for the Amsterdam publisher, Claeszoon, in response to interest in the Netherlands and other European countries about commercial possibilities in Asia. As trade in the Far East was dependent on routes via America or Africa, his work eventually encompassed the entire globe, including Spanish and Portuguese activities in America. Linschoten's ITINERARIO, VOYAGE, OFTE SCHIPVAERT soon was considered the single most significant source regarding the East and West Indies and numerous editions were published in Dutch, Latin, French, German, and English. Klooster describes the work as "a magnificent panorama of pictures and maps of the non-European world. ITINERARIO contained so much detailed and accurate information about shipping lanes, winds, and currents, that seafarers could use it virtually as a handbook. Many of his maps were in fact copies of the excellent models of the Portuguese cartographer Fernão Vaz Dourado." This copy of Linschoten also contains a highly important map of the East Indies, often known as the "Spice Islands Map." Engraved, like one of the world maps, by Peter Plancius, it is entitled "Insulae Moluccae...." Based on a collection of charts and rutters which Plancius acquired in Lisbon in 1592 from Bartoleomeu Lasso, it is "one of the most fabulous [charts] ever produced of the East Indies and one of the rarest, showing the Spice Islands in a level of detail never previously seen" (David Parry). This remarkable map is not found with all copies of Linschoten, and must be considered one of the chief cartographical treasures present in this volume. This English edition was translated and published at the suggestion of the great English chronicler, Richard Hakluyt. "This is the rarest of all editions of Linschoten's work" - Borba de Moraes. The volume consists of four "books," each with its own titlepage, and was originally issued with nine engraved folding maps and three engraved folding plates. Although the maps were re-engraved for the English edition, Dutch maps were sometimes also inserted, as in this copy, which includes three maps in English and the remainder in Latin and/or in Dutch (see the note above). The woodcut maps in the text are of Madagascar, Sumatra, Java, and St. Helena. An important copy of this classic late 16th- century description of Asia and the Americas, with additional illustrations from the original Dutch edition, and extra-illustrated with two portraits of Linschoten, and an engraved plate and an engraved section title from a Dutch edition. From the Library of the Earls of Macclesfield, with their engraved bookplate (dated 1860) on the front pastedown and their blindstamp at the top of the portrait, the engraved titlepage, and the first leaf of the dedication. 18th-century manuscript notes on the verso of the front free endpaper with double-column list of "Prints in this book Maps in this book" with pages indicated; another sheet laid in with later (circa 18th century) inscription of list of maps and plates. Numerous maps and plates have early inscriptions on versos and rectos indicating where the maps and plates are to be inserted in the volume. EUROPEAN AMERICANA 598/57. SABIN 41374. CHURCH 321. ARENTS (ADD.) 110. BORBA DE MORAES, p.488. JCB (3)I:362. KLOOSTER, DUTCH IN THE AMERICAS, p.8. David E. Parry, THE CARTOGRAPHY OF THE EAST INDIAN ISLANDS, p.85.
(Item ID: WRCAM38572) $275,000.00