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First Latin edition of Linschoten's seminal guide to the East and West Indies, with 43 double-page and folding plates, including 7 maps

LINSCHOTEN, Jan Huygen van.
Navigatio ac itinerarium Iohannis Hugonis Linscotani in Orientalem sive Lusitanorum Indiam...
The Hague, Aelbrecht Hendricksz, 1599.
With:
(2) [IDEM]. Descriptio totius Guineae Tractus, Congi, Angolae, et Monomotapae ...
Including:
- Historia trium navigationum Batavorum in septentrionem.
- Breviarium seu elenchus omnium redituum, canonum ...
The Hague, Aelbert Hendricksz., 1599.

2 works in 1 volume, the second in 3 parts. Folio (31 x 20 cm). With 2 typographical title-pages, each with a large engraved vignette of a ship, a full-page engraving of the dedicatee's coat-of-arms, a full-page engraved portrait of the author, 7 large folding engraved maps, 31 engraved double-page plates, and 5 large folding plates. Further with woodcut decorated initials. Contemporary overlapping vellum, sewn on 2 supports laced through the joints, blue edges. [2], [3], [portrait on p. [6]], 124, 45, [3] pp.
€ 120,000
First Latin edition of Linschoten's classic illustrated guide for travellers to the East and West Indies, termed by Lach "the most important of the first-hand accounts published independently of the great travel collectiosn" (I.198). No other book contained so much useful intelligence on the East and West Indies. Unhindered by the censorship that constrained writers from the Iberian peninsula (details of seas and coasts in Asia and the Americas were military secrets), he included such information as sailing directions, physical descriptions of countries, and statistics on commerce and trade. The work was held in such high regard that for nearly a century, every Dutch ship sailing to Africa and Asia carried a copy of a Dutch edition of Linschoten. With 43, instead of 42, double-page and folding plates including 7 maps: the large world map by Arnold and Hendrik van Langren after Jan Baptist Vrients; the east coast of Africa; the coast around the Indian Ocean; the coasts of China, Sumatra and Java; the west coast of Africa; the Central & South American coasts; and the superb Barentsz. map of the Arctic Ocean (not present in every edition/copy).
Although the work contains valuable reconnaissance for the New World, the material on India and the East Indies is the most valuable, being the fruit of the author's own observation. In the service of the Portuguese, Linschoten spent five years in Goa (1583-1588/89), making numerous visits to other parts of India. He was thoroughly immersed in Indian culture and the complex relations between the Portuguese colonial apparatus and indigenous peoples. Highlights include a first-hand descriptions of the caste system, political structures, business practices of the Banyas, and exotic natural phenomena.
As well as including important travel accounts taken from contemporary Portuguese, Dutch, and Spanish sources, it is the first work to include precise sailing instructions for the Indies, and also includes an account of America as well as secrets about Portuguese sea routes to the east and about how their territories were governed; it was also of special value for its description of spice trees and spice growing areas. About the world map: This double-hemisphere map is notable for several reasons. As Shirley notes, "there are differences affecting the northern seas, and the pictorial scenes forming the outer border have been regrouped with even greater stylistic effect." It is also the second-known map to depict Korea as a peninsula. Finally, the watermark, that of crossed arrows 90mm in length, is different to the other watermarks found on the other van Langren and van Doetecum maps and plates in the book (bunch of grapes terminating in initials I.S.) The present work contains the most comprehensive account of the East and West Indies available at the end of the 16th century; the work was first published in Dutch in 1595/96 followed by Latin and English translations in 1598, the first French edition appeared in 1610.
With some marginal annotations and underlining in the text. The title-page has been remargined (showing remnants of an inscription at the foot), the front free endpaper shows a large repaired chip, first few leaves are creased at the lower corner, one or two plates with frayed edges, a few tiny holes at creasefolds but without any major loss, some browning and waterstaining, mainly marginal but with occasional encroachment on plates, many plates and some leaves have been reinforced in the gutter with paper, some occasional browning. Otherwise in good condition. A seminal work on navigation to the East and West Indies that opened up exploration to explorers outside Spain and Portugal. Adams L-735; Brunet III, 1091; Howgego L131; Lach, Asia in the making of Europe, 1.1.196-204 & 482-490; New Hollstein Van Doetecum IV, 927-984; NHSM cat. p. 171; Sabin 41366; Shirley World 192; STCN 851997155 (4 copies, including 1 incomplete); Tiele 683 & 684; Willems 950.
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