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Description of Gujarat (Northwest India) by the director of the VOC

TWIST, Johan van.
Generale beschrijvinghe van Indien. Ende in 't besonder kort verhaal van de regering, ceremonien, handel, vruchten en geleghentheydt van 't Koninckrijck van Gusuratten, staende onder de beheerschinghe van den Groot-Machtighen Koninck Cajahan: anders genaemt den grooten Mogor ... Hier achter is by-gevoeght de aenwijsinge van meest alle kusten, drooghten ende reeden, om door gantsch Indien te zeylen.
Amsterdam, for Joost Hartgers, 1648. 4to. With woodcut printer's device on the title-page. 19th-century marbled wrappers. [1], [1 blank], 94 pp.
€ 2,500
Third edition of this description of Northwest India and of the cotton, silk and indigo trade by Johan van Twist (d. 1643), Dutch merchant and envoy of the Dutch East India Company (VOC), and director of the VOC in Ahmadabad, the capital of the modern state of Gujarat. Between 1617 and 1744 the city was one of the VOC trading posts (factories) in India, falling under Suratte on the river Tapti. On pp. 74-94 follows a description of the coasts, shallows and roads useful for sailing the East Indies, including descriptions of the sailing routes from Bantam to Amboina, from Amboina to Ternate and Celebes, from Bantam through the Strait of Balemban and Zabon to Malacca till Achin, from Achin to Ceylon and Puncto Gallo, and from Batavia to Japan (Firando). Van Twist is known through a painting by Jan Baptist Weenix and this posthumously published description of Gujarat. He became chief of the trading post Gujarat in 1635, Cabaya and Bortchia, and governor of Dutch Malacca (1641-42).
With the upper part of the leaves slightly waterstained, some leaves cut a bit short and two leaves with false fold slightly affecting the text. Good copy. Cat. NHSM, p. 2390; Landwehr & V.d. Krogt, VOC 554; Tiele, Bibl. 1108; Tiele, Mém., p. 244; cf. Lach & Van Kley III, p. 473.
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Asia  >  India & Sri Lanka
History, law & philosophy  >  Economics, Numismatics & Trade
Maritime history  >  Navigation | VOC & WIC