About this Item
First French-language edition (Claesz issue). Amsterdam: Chez Corneille Nicolas, 1590. Folios in 6s and 2s (16 5/8" x 11 1/2", 422mm x 293mm). [Full collation available.] With two engraved title-pages (each with letterpress labels tipped in covering the Spanish titles) and two engraved plates, of which one (C3) has a volvelle, and 46 (of 47, lacking chart 16) engraved double-page charts. Contemporary hand-coloring to the text-ornaments of *1v, *2r and *4r. Bound in contemporary (front cover and part of spine new) stabbed vellum with yapp edges and cloth ties. On the spine "Espelo de la Nauegacion de la Mer [sic] occidentale" manuscript. Presented in a fleece-lined cloth clam-shell box (made by James and Stuart Brockman). Front cover and part of spine new. Newly recased, repaired and washed by James & Stuart Brockman in 2020. Some soiling to the title-page. Lacking chart 16. On chart 10, the upper and lower captions covered with slips in French. Leaves [chi]1 and 2[chi]1 delaminated from the preceding versos. Lucas Janszoon Waghenaer (1533-1606), one of the brightest lights of Dutch Golden-Age mapmaking, distinguished himself from many of his fellow stars by some 14 years of seafaring, rather than simply compiling the exploration and observation of others. The Spieghel der Zeevaerdt (Miroir de la Navigation) is properly a rutter (seafarer's handbook) with charts, and it is the first. It distinguished by its usefulness , integrating for the first time charts, ships' logs and rutters (handbooks of voyages). As a result, the popularity of the work was extraordinary. Indeed, long after the publication of this particular volume, maritime atlases in France were called generically "chartiers," chartier being the French for "wagoner," the meaning of the author's surname in Dutch. The French edition was translated from the German, as evidenced by the inclusion of Slotboom's name in the title and his additional descriptions to the verso of the second leaf of chart quires. Cornelis Claesz (Corneille Nicolas in the imprint) owned the copperplates themselves, but the printing of the volume was carried out by Jean Bellère in Antwerpen, and it is only to him that the royal privilege to do so was carried out. Sheets from Bellère's press were shipped to Claesz in Amsterdam, and the only changes were the addition of Claesz's imprint in letterpress to the title-pages and the subtraction -- notionally -- of the royal privilege, since he lacked it. That said, the present copy does have the privilege, and so this may simply have been an error; the more complicated explanation is that the purchaser of this set acquired a proper Bellère *2.3 and had it bound in. It is curious that the manuscript on the spine is Spanish rather than French; the French title in slips over the Spanish is not unique to this copy, but in fact called for by Koeman. The Miroir is quite a rare thing, with only one other copy having been sold at auction in the last forty years (the present item was purchased at Sotheby's London, 15 May 2008, lot 234). Koeman IV:Wag 8 B. Seller Inventory # 6JLR0098
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