Premier livre de l’histoire de la navigation aux Indes Orientales, par les Hollandois;

A$25,000 · Offered by Douglas Stewart Fine Books

et des choses a eux advenues: ensemble les conditions, les meurs, manieres de vivres des Nations, par eux abordees. Plus les Monnoyes, Espices, Drogues, Marchandises, le pris d icelles Amstelredam [Amsterdam] : Cornille Nicolas [Cornelius Nicolaius], 1598. Folio, later full polished calf (sunned and lightly marked), spine with raised bands and gilt lettering (frayed at head), marbled endpapers; ff. 53, [1] (engraved plate of coins); title with large engraved map, and with a further 47 engraved maps and plates in the text, plus many woodcut coastal profiles and anchorage diagrams in text; woodcut initials; title and following leaf ( Au lecteur ) re-margined; crisp and clean throughout, a fine copy. First edition in French of the major account of the first Dutch voyage to the East Indies, which was undertaken by a fleet under the command of Cornelis de Houtman (1565-1599). This voyage would lead to the creation of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) and pave the way for the Dutch colonisation and commercial monopoly of the Malay Archipelago that would endure for three centuries. The account is based on the voyage journal kept by one of the commissaires on board the Mauritius , Willem Lodewijcksz, who would later (as Admiral) lead an expedition to Brazil in company with Joris van Spilbergen. Houtman s four ships departed from Texel at the beginning of April 1595, with the intention of venturing to the East in order to establish Dutch interests in the region; this enterprise would

• Binding: Hardcover

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