“One of the most famous contemporary descriptions of the natural history of the New World” (Streeter)

Novus Orbis, seu descriptionis Indiae occidentalis Libri XVIII. … Novis Tabulis Geographicis et variis Animantium, Plantarum Fructuumque Iconibus illustrati.

Author: LAET, Johannes de

Publication place: Leiden

Publisher: apud Elzevirios

Publication date: 1633.

Physical description: Folio, half-title, engraved architectural allegorical title-page, 14 engraved double-page maps, numerous woodcut illustrations throughout, quite browned; contemporary calf, rebacked.Collation: *-***(4), A‑Z(6), 2A‑Z(6), 3A‑D(6), 3E(4); [32], 1–104, 205–69, [18]pp.

Notes

First Edition in Latin, first published as ​‘Nieuwe Wereldt ofte Beschrijvinghe van West-Indien’ in Leiden in 1625; the translation from the Dutch was probably by Laet himself. With maps by Hessel Gerritsz, and numerous woodcut illustrations of plants, animals and inhabitants of the New World

​“One of the most famous contemporary descriptions of the natural history of the New World. The work was highly praised a century later by Charlevoix, attesting to its accuracy… Winsor referred to Laet’s book as the standard seventeenth-century work on New Netherland” (Streeter sale I:37).

The Maps
With four regional American maps first published in the enlarged second edition of 1630: ​‘Nova Anglia’ is ​“the first printed one to use the names ​“Manbattes” (Manhattan), and ​“N. Amsterdam”, or New York, founded in 1626.

It is also the earliest to use the Dutch names of ​“Noordt Rivier” and ​“Zuyd Rivier”, for the Hudson and Delaware Rivers respectively, as well as the Indian ​“Massachusetts”, for the new English colony” (Burden). Many of the maps served as prototypes for later Dutch maps of the region.

Although De Laet was born in Antwerp the family, like thousands of Flemish protestants, fled to the northern Netherlands in 1585. De Laet traveled to London for the first time, in 1603, and maintained close relationships with many scholarly Englishmen throughout his life, even planning an English-Latin dictionary.

However, he soon returned to Leiden after the death of his wife in April 1608, where he is known to have made a fortune through overseas trade and land investments, at home and at Laetburg, near Albany, in New Netherland. In 1619, he was appointed a director of the Dutch West Indies Company, a position he held until his death.

​“In 1638 de Laet visited England for several months both in connection with his dictionary and to obtain denizenship for his son Samuel, who had married Rebecca, daughter of Timothy Cruso of London.

During another visit in 1641 parliament asked his advice on the prospects for an English West Indies Company and Charles I requested him to provide the genealogy of his future son-in-law, William II of Orange” (Rolf H. Bremmer jun. for DNB). The ​‘Novus Orbis’ is dedicated to Charles II.

Dimensions

This object is eligible for a Certificate of BADA Provenance

Stock number