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De eerste schipvaerd der Hollandsche natie naer Oost-Indien
Voyages & Discovery

De eerste schipvaerd der Hollandsche natie naer Oost-Indien

Cornelis de Houtman · Amsterdam · Isaac Commelin, Begin ende Voortgangh, 1646 (Joannes Janssonius) · 1645

Important Dutch edition of the account of the first Dutch voyage to the East Indies (1595-1597) under Cornelis de Houtman

FM-0064
€ 1.200
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Key Properties

Format: Oblong 8vo

Binding: Modern sprinkled boards

Illustration: 49 engraved plates

Collation: 112 pp., text in two columns

Language: Dutch

Source: Extracted from Commelin's collection of voyages

Collation & Technical Description

Oblong 8vo. 112 pp., the text set in two columns. With 49 engraved plates. Bound in modern sprinkled boards.

Condition

In good condition overall, the impressions sharp and the margins good. Part of plate 17, the market scene at Bantam, is lacking and supplied in facsimile (the right half); a few plates are cut slightly short. Some browning throughout, a few slightly torn pages, and some edges repaired.

References & Bibliography

Landwehr, VOC, 250. Tiele, 81 (the collection). Tiele, Memoire, 4. Cat. NHSM, I, p. 105. Mendelssohn, I, p. 739.

Description

Rare early Dutch edition of the account of the 'First Fleet', the first Dutch voyage to the East Indies (1595-1597) led by Cornelis de Houtman. This expedition opened Dutch expansion into Asia and laid the foundation for the Dutch East India Company (VOC). Extracted from Commelin's collection of voyages, it also circulated independently, as here.

The venture was mounted by a group of Amsterdam merchants in 1595. Four small ships sailed via the Cape of Good Hope to Bantam, the great trading centre on the west coast of Java, and three of the four eventually returned to Amsterdam. At the Cape the crews landed and encountered the Khoikhoi.

The work gives detailed observations of the peoples, religions, customs, geography, flora and fauna of Java and the surrounding regions, and includes one of the earliest continuous European descriptions of Bali. As Lach and Van Kley observe, despite heavy losses the return of Houtman's fleet "set off a flurry of activity among Dutch entrepreneurs. In 1598, the year after its return, no fewer than twenty-five ships were sent out by merchants of the provinces of Holland and Zeeland alone" (Asia in the Making, III, 1, p. 439).