The most up-to-date sea atlas of the second half of the seventeenth century

Title De Zee-Atlas Ofte Water-Waereld Vertoonende all de Zee-Kusten Van het bekende Deel des Aerd-Bodems, Met een generale beschrijvinge van dien. Seer dienstigh vooralle Schippers en Stuurlieden; mitsgaders Koop-lieden om op't Kantoor gebruykt te werden Nieuwelijks aldus uytgegeven.

Author DONCKER, Hendrik

Publisher Hendrik Doncker

Publication place Amsterdam

Publication date 1666

Folio atlas (500 by 320mm), title, preliminaries pages 14-22 text (complete), 34 double-page engraved charts, on laminated paper, fine original outline hand-colour, a list of previous owners of the atlas in manuscript to the upper paste-down, title-page margins skilfully repaired, some minor damp staining to margins, contemporary full calf, gilt fillet border, spine separated by raised bands, gilt.

Notes

Although not the first to publish a sea atlas in Amsterdam – that honour went to Janssonius – the first edition of Doncker's 'Zee-Atlas', published in 1659, was superior both in coverage and utility to the rival publications of Johannes Janssonius and Arnold Colom, neither of which were reprinted after 1659.

Koeman notes: "Doncker's charts were the most up-to-date in the second half of the seventeenth century. Although there is some similarity to those charts published by Van Loon, Goos, Lootsman, and Doncker, the latter's charts are original. More frequently than ... [his] contemporaries, Hendrik Doncker corrected and improved his charts. He often replaced obsolete charts by new ones ... This consciousness of the high demands of correctness is reflected by the development of Doncker's sea atlas".

The charts of the Americas include the "Pas caert van Nieu Nederland, Virginia en Nieu Engelant" - the third printed chart of the New Netherlands, and the 'Pascaart vertoonen de Zeecusten van Chili, Peru, Hispania Nova, Nova Grenada en California - orientated with east at the top and depicting California as an island on a larger scale than any earlier sea chart..

The the preliminaries and charts conform to Koeman Don 9B, but contain the additional charts of 'De cust van Zeelandt...', and 'De Cust Vlaenderen...', which Koeman records as first appearing in the Spanish edition of 1669.

Provenance

A list of five members of the Lundgren family originally from Onsala, in Sweden, in manuscript to the upper pastedown. From Captain A. Lundgren in the early eighteenth century to Hans Lundgren, an accountant, of Karlskrona, born in 1908; and hence by decent.

Bibliography

c.f. Koeman, Don 9B; and Don 13.

Price

This object is eligible for a Certificate of BADA Provenance

Stock number