Oost ende West Indische Spieghel

Key Properties

Edition: A rare Saeghman edition (without the added Le Maire text)

Language: Dutch

Format: Quarto

Binding: Nineteenth-century quarter calf

Collation & Technical Description

32 lvs (A–H in 4s). Title-page with copperplate engraving; full-page woodcut portrait of Spilbergen in a woodcut frame on the verso. 8 text plates, one copperplate (from the Hartgers edition) and 7 original woodcuts, including the DODO. Text in two columns.

Condition

Fine.

References & Bibliography

Tiele, Journaux no. 72. Warnsinck, De reis om de wereld van Joris van Spilbergen, 2 vols (The Hague, Nijhoff, 1943).

Description

Spilbergen's was the fifth circumnavigation ever, after Magellan, Drake, Cavendish and Van Noort, undertaken between 1614 and 1618. An accomplished admiral who had already sailed for the VOC to Ceylon, Spilbergen was sent again to discover new territories, chart the Strait of Magellan and damage Spanish interests in South America and the Philippines. He landed in Brazil, mapped the Strait, fought Spanish settlements in Chile, Peru and Mexico, and sailed to the Philippines. In Batavia he took aboard Le Maire and the remnant of his crew, who had been arrested for breaching VOC law by sailing to the Indies without consent, which Le Maire denied, having sailed not through the Strait of Magellan but around Cape Horn.

This is one of the rarest editions of Spilbergen's voyage, here complete with the title-page, portrait and text engravings. The text was written not by Spilbergen but by one of his captains, Jan Cornelisz May, and authorised by Spilbergen before publication. Unlike the first edition of 1619, this Saeghman issue does not include the added Le Maire account of the discovery of Cape Horn.

Historical Significance

A rare, complete example of the fifth circumnavigation of the globe, with its full complement of plates, including the celebrated dodo.

Provenance

Available on request.