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"By far the best work" on the Guyana's and Surinam

HARTSINCK, Jan Jacob.
Beschryving van Guiana, of de wilde kust, in Zuid-America, betreffende de aardrykskunde en historie des lands, de zeeden en gewoontes der inwooners, de dieren, vogels, visschen, boomen en gewassen, als mede de eerste ontdekking dier kust, de bezittingen der Spanjaarden, Franschen en Portugeezen en voornaamelyk de volkplantingen der Nederlanderen, als Essequebo, Demerary, Berbice, Suriname, en derzelver rivieren, met de noodige kaarten en afbeeldingen der forten. Waarby komt eene verhandeling over den aart en de gewoontes der neger-slaaven.

6 folding engraved maps and plans, 6 engraved full page plates and 2 engraved folding views, 1 engraving in text.

6 folding engraved maps and plans, 6 engraved full page plates and 2 engraved folding views, 1 engraving in text.

6 folding engraved maps and plans, 6 engraved full page plates and 2 engraved folding views, 1 engraving in text.

6 folding engraved maps and plans, 6 engraved full page plates and 2 engraved folding views, 1 engraving in text.

6 folding engraved maps and plans, 6 engraved full page plates and 2 engraved folding views, 1 engraving in text.



Amsterdam, Gerrit Tielenburg, 1770. 2 vols. 4to. Contemporary three quarter calf with spine richly gilt decorated, red morocco title label and a green morocco volume label. 6 folding engraved maps and plans, 6 engraved full page plates and 2 engraved folding views, 1 engraving in text. 1 blank, (2), XII, (4), 520; (2), 521-962, (16) pp.

Untrimmed large-paper copy of the first and only edition of the classic work on 'Guiana', the North coast of South America, covering primarily modern Guyana, Surinam, parts of French Guyana and northern Brazil. The book contains very interesting and thoroughly accounts of the geography and history of the regions, customs and habits of the natives, flora and fauna; discoveries of the Spanish, French, Portuguese and Dutch voyagers and their settlements and colonization, the commerce of the Dutch West India Company, and the Company of Berbice, the Surinam Society and the slave trade. Warden (Bibliotheca Americana) calls it "by far the best work ever published on the countries described". Several hundred pages provide transcriptions of numerous original documents of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, including a 1662 land grant proclaimed by Charles II on behalf of English settlers establishing there in 1650, with parallel English and Dutch texts. There are five maps: Guiana, Essequebo and Demerary, Berbice and Canje, Surinam, and the rivers Corentin, Copename and Sarameca; four plans of forts and towns (the first together with a view on a single plate): Fort Nassau, Redoute Wieronje, the New retranchement near Nieuw Amsterdam in Rio Berbice, and Fort Nieuw Amsterdam); three views (redoute St. Andries and Samson, Fort Nassau in Berbice, Paramaribo and the Fort Zeelandia) and two representations of native men. All are finely engraved by Jacob van der Schley. The engraving in the text shows one coin and two blank circles.
J.J. Hartsinck (1716-1779) was an official of the admiralty in Amsterdam and a member of the Zeeland Academy of sciences; later he became a director of the Dutch West India Company. He had ready access to many documents which are now lost, and he also made extensive use of the papers of his father, who had been director of the Surinam Society for 25 years, and of oral and manuscript accounts by several local officials. For these reasons, his book will always remain an essential primary source for the history of the regions. The work is dedicated to Stadholder Willem V. In 1784 a German translation of the first volume only was published in Berlin.
Sabin notes the existence of large-paper copies. The present copy, printed on unwatermarked Medium paper surely qualifies, having untrimmed lower and fore-edge margins of about 5 cm.

Fine uncut large paper copy.- (First half of vol. I sl. browned). This copy has always been in the same family, never removed from the library and is untouched by the trade! Fresh and clean copy as it was in 1770.
JCB (1700-1800) 1742; JFB H-41; Sabin 30712; Suriname-catalogus 2560; Tiele 457; not in Borba de Moraes; Church; Eberstadt; Streeter.

Related Subjects: 18th Century  America [South]  Brazil  Discovery & Exploration  Dutch  Slavery  Surinam  Trade 

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