Second German edition, the first with De Brys important illustrations, of part 11 of Schoutens journals, published in Frankfurt only one year after Willem Jansz. Blaeu published the first Dutch edition at Amsterdam. Willem Cornelisz Schouten was a Dutch explorer born in Hoorn, Holland around 1567. In 1615, he and his younger brother Jan Schouten set sail on an expedition sponsored by the Australische Compagnie and led by Jacob Le Maire. The expedition, which consisted of two ships, the Eendracht and Hoorn, aimed to search for Terra Australis and explore a western route to the Pacific Ocean to bypass the trade restrictions of the Dutch East India Company in the Spice Islands.
During the voyage, Schouten rounded Cape Horn, which he named after the lost ship Hoorn and the Dutch city of Hoorn, and named the strait Le Maire Strait. Jan Schouten died during the voyage and Willem Schouten continued, discovering several atolls in the Tuamotu Islands and the Tonga Islands, as well as the Schouten Islands. He then followed the north coasts of New Ireland and New Guinea before reaching Ternate in September 1616. The Dutch East India Company accused Schouten of infringing on its monopoly on trade in the Spice Islands and arrested him, confiscating his ship in Java. He later returned to work for the company and died off the coast of Madagascar in 1625. Schouten's charts were later used by Abel Tasman during his exploration of the north coast of New Guinea.
De Bry published a German and Latin version in time for the Frankfurt book fair of 1619 and his editions were met with great interest by contemporary readers. The original Dutch edition, titled Journael ofte beschrijvinghe van de wonderlijcke reyse, gedaen door Willem Cornelisz. Schouten van Hoorn (Sabin 77920) and penned by the Dutch navigator himself appeared in Amsterdam in 1618. Schoutens contribution to the European knowledge of the geographical, meteorological and nautical conditions of the southern tip of South America was considerable. His journey might not have yielded the desired insights into possible trade stations along the route, but it was one of the important steps that led the Portuguese captain Ferdinand Magellan to discover the Magellan Strain in 1619.
Expertly and unobtrusively restored, especially in the gutter margins, with the loss of a few letters along the gutter side in the lower half of A5 and a tear repaired through part of the text of B4. The restorer has not preserved the original conjugacy in quire A, so that A1 & 2 and A5 & 6 now form bifolia instead of A1.6 and A2.5. Further in good condition, with all illustrations and maps intact (the double-page nautical chart was apparently a fold-out, since its fold shows none of the damage restored in the gutter margin of the other leaves), some minor browning. A very early edition of Schoutens voyage along the coast of South America and into the Pacific, the first to include De Brys stunning illustrations. Alden & Landis 619/112 (7 copies); Church 198, JCB I, pp. 414-415; Sabin 8784; USTC 2109287 (3 copies), VD17 23:232382P (5 copies), WorldCat 254897412 (3 copies), Michiel van Goesen, Changing the image of the southern Pacific: Willem Schouten, his circumnavigation, and the De Bry collection of voyages, The journal of Pacific history, 44, 1 (2009), pp. 77-87.