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Books > Travel Books > Rare travel book by J. H. van Linschoten
*** One of the most important travel books ever written ***
LINSCHOTEN, Jan Huyghen van (c. 1563 - 1611). Histoire de la Navigation de Jean Hugues de Linschot Hollandois: Aux Indes Orientales. [With:] Le Grand Routier de Mer, Continant une instruction des routes & cours qu'il convient tenir en la Navigation des Indes Orientales, & au voyage de la coste du Bresil, des Antilles, & du Cap de Lopo Gonsalves. .... [With:] Description de l'Amerique & des parties d'icelle, comme de la Nouvelle France, Floride, des Antilles, Iucaya, Cuba, Iamaica, &c. Amsterdam: Evert Cloppenburch, 1638.
3 parts in one volume, folio (31 x 20,5 cm). Three engraved titles, portrait, 6 folding engraved maps including the 1594 double-hemisphere world map by Petrus Plancius (Shirley (World), 187), 36 plates and bird's-eye views double-page and larger, by or after P. Plancius, A.F. van Langren, H.F. van Langren or the brothers van Deutecom. Contemporary vellum.
Third edition in French, with commentaries by Bernard ten Broecke (Paludanus). One of the most important travel books ever written, first published in Dutch in 1596, and later appearing in English, French, German and Latin.
Linschoten travelled to Goa in 1583-1589 and sailed with Willem Barents on his second voyage to the Kara Sea in 1594-1596. His work contains all the knowledge of the East and West Indies available at the end of the sixteenth century, and was so highly esteemed that it was distributed to each ship sailing to India as a guide, no doubt accounting for the fact that so many copies are incomplete. Paludanus (1550-1633), a scholarly physician and curiosity collector from Linschoten's home town Enkhuizen, helped the traveler to prepare his account.
Much of the book consists of translations of original Spanish and Portuguese documents on geography, ethnography, statistic, and navigation. The fine plates consists of maps including the world and South America, bird's-eye views of Goa and other cities, plus scenes of native peoples with and without native costume.
Sabin (America), 41373
Item number: 23190
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