De Veer, Gerrit

Joost Hartgens

Amsterdam, Adriaan Roest, 1650

Tiele, Memoire nr 102

65 pp (last blank)

Pp 1&2: Title page with woodcut plate

6 original text engravings on copper plate

Small in quarto

XIX century cut and rebound in half brown morocco

Title in gilt on the spine

Hole in title page in old restoration, probably when rebound. Cut short just affecting a few of the headings.

Pp 3-46:     The story of the three voyages by the Dutch to find the north-east passage to Cathay (China) in 1594; 1505 and 1596 under Willem Barentszoon and Jacob van Heemskerk. This well-known text, published in 1598 is followed by a summary of

Pp 46&47:    the fourth voyage North for the Dutch, the third by Henry Hudson in 1609. This includes the exploration of North Americas East coast about 40 degrees North motivated by letters and maps sent to him by Captain Smith and his exploration of what later became the Hudson river.

Pp 48-52:     Isaac Massas description of Siberia, Samojeda en Tingoessa

Pp 52-60:     Isaac Massas description of the roads and rivers going east from Moscovia

Pp 60-64:     Johannes Pontanus: Plea to discover a NE or NW passage based on the history up till 1586

Second Hartgens imprint (first 1648). All Hartgens editions of the early Dutch voyages to the East are rare.

Bibliography:

Muller, Samuel. Detectio Freti Hudsoni, Amsterdam, Muller 1878

S.P l Honore Naber. Hessel Gerritsz...Beschrijvinghe ... the Hague, Nijhoff 1924

S.P l Honore Naber. Reizen van Willem Barents...Noorden, the Hague, Nijhoff 1917. 2 Vols

Asher, G.M. Henry Hudson de Navigator, London, Haykluyt Soc. , 1860

Beke, Charles T, True description of the three voyages by the NE towards Cathay and China... London, Hakluyt 1853