Lodewijcksz. Premier Livre de L'histoire de la Navigation aux Indes Orientales par les Hollandois

Lodewijcksz - Premier Livre de L'histoire de la Navigation aux Indes Orientales par les Hollandois, et des choses a eux advenues ensembles les conditions, les meurs, et manieres de vivre des nations, par eux abordees. Pkus les Monnoyes, Espices, Drogues, & marchandises, & le pris d’icelles. Davantage les de couvremens & apparences, situations, & costes maritimes des contrees, avec levray pourtraict au vif des habitations : Le tout par plusieurs figures illustré : tres recreatif a lire a tous navigans & amateurs des navigations lointaines, es terres estrangeres. G. M. A. VV. L.

Amsterdam, Cornille Nicolas, 1598.

In-folio (315x245mm). Speckled fawn half-sheepskin, flat spine with gilt fillets and gilt title label on a black background. Marbled endpapers, blank endpapers (not original), 47 leaves (out of 53) (+ slipped leaves 46 and 47 of the 1609 edition).

First edition on the expedition of Cornelis de Houtman (1595-1597) which broke the Portuguese monopoly on the East Indies spice trade and was at the origin of the Dutch East India Company VOC.

A very rare original French edition published in 1598, the same year as the Dutch original and the Latin version. Only six copies, three of which are incomplete, are identifiable in libraries today for this French edition. There is no digital version.

The original 1598 version and the 1609 reissue can be distinguished by the typography of the half-title. Some page layouts differ, some initials are different, the translation has been reworked, the plates are not always in the same order, the map legends remain partially in Dutch, and some copies have erased "secret" routes and anchorages. Indeed, the edition was published only a year after the expedition's return, and the Amsterdam merchants wished to keep certain information confidential.

But the first edition is distinguished above all by the quality of the engravings. The lines are sharper, the blacks are denser and more uniform.

In addition to the reissues, the copperplates from the original edition were reused in Isaac Commelin's monumental compilation of Dutch voyages, "Begin ende voortgangh," published in 1646, testifying to the lasting influence of this First Book of the History of Navigation in the East Indies.

Incomplete book: leaves 45 to 49 and leaf 53 are missing. The end coin plate is also missing. Part of leaf 26 is torn. Two leaves from the 1609 edition have been slipped in, leaves 47 and 48.

This first Dutch expedition to the East Indies took place in a unique context, at a pivotal moment in European trade. The Dutch Republic, having gained independence from the Kingdom of Spain, in the midst of the Eighty Years' War, sought to break the Portuguese monopoly on East Indian spices.

It was in this context that the brothers Cornelis and Frederik de Houtman were sent as commercial agents by a consortium of Amsterdam merchants. They were imprisoned by the Portuguese in Lisbon in 1595 for attempting to steal secret maps detailing the sea routes to the East Indies.

Upon their return from Amsterdam, Cornelius, the elder, was appointed commander of a fleet of four ships belonging to the consortium of merchants. This consortium would become the Dutch East India Company (VOC) in 1602 following the success of this First Expedition. The VOC would go on to dominate the East India trade for more than three centuries, profoundly shaping world trade and history.

The Expedition left Amsterdam on April 2, 1595, with 248 officers and sailors and four ships: the Mauricius, the Amsterdam, the Hollandia, and the Duifje.
The book is the logbook of Willem Lodewijcksz, the accounting officer aboard the Mauritius, the flagship of the fleet.
He managed to create an exceptionally detailed account of the expedition, thanks to remarkable ethnographic description and cartography, including the first detailed European maps of Bantam and Bali, as well as nautical profiles of numerous coastlines.

His work was so precise and unprecedented that his detailed overview map of Java–Sumatra was removed from the first edition by order of the Amsterdam merchants. This was likely to preserve the details of the nascent spice trade. One can see on page XX of the 1598 edition a note “slide here the map of Sumatra” that does not appear in the 1609 edition.

This forbidden map was published by Claesz later that same year as a loose leaf, and a year later, de Bry published the account of the voyage, accompanied by a general map and other maps.

Here is an example of the forbidden card : https://he.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D7%A7%D7%95%D7%91%D7%A5:Baptista_Duetecum,_Nova_tabula_insularum_Javae,_Sumatrae,_Borneonis_et_al_iarum_Malaccam_%28FL25569908_2467383%29.jpg

After departing from Amsterdam, the four ships sailed along the coast of Africa, past the Cape of Good Hope to Madagascar, an important stopover as a scurvy epidemic had broken out due to a lack of supplies, and 71 men died.

The rest of the expedition was just as complicated. Arriving in East India via the Sunda Strait, diplomatic relations were complicated, as the Portuguese had incited the Indonesians against the expedition. There were violent confrontations in Bantam, Sildaru, Madura, and Sumatra, among others. Many men died, and only the trade with Bali was friendly and fruitful.

Although the expedition was a historic success that broke the Portuguese monopoly on spices, it was a human disaster. Of the 248 crewmen, only 87-89 returned to Amsterdam in 1598. The diplomatic record was also complicated by conflicts with the Indonesian kings and peoples. The Amsterdam was burned due to its poor condition and lack of personnel. It should be noted, however, that despite all this, the expedition recovered its costs thanks to the high price of spices and the 41 tons of nutmeg and 245 bags of pepper they managed to bring back.

Condition: Missing leaves 45 to 49 as well as leaf 53 (last page and coin plate). Part of leaf 26 is torn. Restored title, repairs to the margins and corners of leaves 31, 41, 51-52, slight damage to the engravings. Two leaves of the 1609 edition have been slipped, leaves 47 and 48.

Impressive and very rare first edition in French.

To find out more: 

Documentaire arte sur l'émergence d'Amsterdam comme grande puissance : 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dG19LftWuIA&ab_channel=BestDocumentary

Article BNF sur la naissance de l’empire commercial de la Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie (VOC) : https://essentiels.bnf.fr/fr/histoire/temps-modernes/a5d9a442-f6c1-458b-9070-e8006a596c27-europe-hors-europe-17e-18e-siecles/article/a3d372b9-ea53-47ce-9374-c749f0d14ae2-hollandais-indes-orientales

Wikipedia sur Cornelius de Houtman : 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornelis_de_Houtman

Wikipedia sur Frederick de Houtman : 
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_de_Houtman

Condition : solid but worn binding, numerous restorations, water stains