The Mariners Mirrour Wherein may playnly be seen the courses, heights, distance, depths, soundings, flouds and ebs, risings of lands, rocks, sands and shoalds, with the marks for th’entrings of the Harbouroughs, Havens and Ports of the greatest part of Europe: their several traficks and commodities: Together w.ththe Rules and instrumēts of Navigation. First made & set fourth in divers exact Sea Charts, by that famous Navigator Luke Wagenar of Enchuisen and Now fitted with necessarie additions for the use of Englishmen by Anthony Ashley. Heerin also may be understood the exploits lately atchived by the right Honorable the L. Admiral of Englãd with her Ma.ties Navie and some former services don by that worthy Knight S.r Fra: Drake. — The Second part of the Mariners Mirrour conteining in divers perfect plots & sea charts boeth the Northern and Eastern navigation: viz. From the Streights between Dover and Callis, the coastes of England, Scotland, Norway, Emden, Yutland & with all the sounds of Denmark & the Baltick sea into Wiburgh and the Narue With their particular descriptions trafiks and commodities
The Mariners Mirrour Wherein may playnly be seen the courses, heights, distance, depths, soundings, flouds and ebs, risings of lands, rocks, sands and shoalds, with the marks for th’entrings of the Harbouroughs, Havens and Ports of the greatest part of Europe: their several traficks and commodities: Together w.ththe Rules and instrumēts of Navigation. First made & set fourth in divers exact Sea Charts, by that famous Navigator Luke Wagenar of Enchuisen and Now fitted with necessarie additions for the use of Englishmen by Anthony Ashley. Heerin also may be understood the exploits lately atchived by the right Honorable the L. Admiral of Englãd with her Ma.ties Navie and some former services don by that worthy Knight S.r Fra: Drake. — The Second part of the Mariners Mirrour conteining in divers perfect plots & sea charts boeth the Northern and Eastern navigation: viz. From the Streights between Dover and Callis, the coastes of England, Scotland, Norway, Emden, Yutland & with all the sounds of Denmark & the Baltick sea into Wiburgh and the Narue With their particular descriptions trafiks and commodities. Two parts in one. [London: John Charlewood, 1588.] First edition in English.
Folio in 6s and 2s (15 3/8” x 10 ½”, 391mm x 266mm): π2 ¶4 A-C6 (1)-(22)2, 2π2 (π2 blank) I-II2 IIII-VI2 VIII-XXIII2 [$3 signed in 6s; $1 signed in 2s]. 112 leaves (68 leaves in part 1, 44 leaves in part 2), pp. [48] (engraved title, blank, engraved dedication, blank, 2pp. dedication, to the reader, Latin poem, English poem, note, 2pp. contents, instructions, Special Propertie of the Sea, exhortation, 2pp. tables, Leape Yeere, use of the table, 2pp. table, New Moone, Fixed Starres, 2pp. star tables, sun table, Height of the Pole, instructions for the instrument uranicall, instrument uranicall plate, making of Sea crosse staves, crosstaf plate, 2pp. how to draw a Sea Carde, 4pp. table of distances, table of Tydes and Ebbes, instruction of leagues per degree, plate of leagues per degree, instructions for the tidal tables, 3pp. tidal tables, 4pp. depths), [88] (description, 2pp. chart, blank for 22 charts (except (6), which is bound up-side-down and therefore blank, 2pp. chart, description)); [4] (title, 3 blanks), [84] (description, 2pp. chart, blank for 21 charts). [=lxiv, 88; iv, 84] With an engraved title-page, engraved dedication, a small engraved radial plate tipped in to A1 and 3 engraved plates (one lacking volvelle), plus 43 (of 45) double page engraved charts. The plates are by De Bry, Jodocus Hondius, Augustine Ryther and Johannes Rutlinger.
Bound in modern paneled calf. On the spine, five raised bands with a gilt roll. In the panels, a gilt floral urn centerpiece. Gilt roll to the head- and tail-piece. Gilt fillet to the edges of the boards. All edges of the text-block speckled red.
Lacking two maps (part 2, III & VII). Lacking the volvelle to the instrument uranicall. Quire (6) bound up-side-down. Title-leaf and engraved dedication-leaf (π) soiled, split vertically and repaired, and a hole to π2 repaired. Overall quite a clean copy, with occasional offsetting and tanning. Armorial bookplate of Trinity House to the front paste-down. On the upper edge of the title-page, an ink acquisition inscription (partly shaved at the upper edge): “Solde to Michaell Hampe [M]re of the Eagle of London of ye/ burthen of cxx tonnes ye 6 evè may 1592 for xxiijs iiijd/ per [....] Harries pro Ric young Cust”. On the upper edge of the engraved dedication, a cancelled ink notation. Two slip transcribing (one typed, one pencil manuscript) the title-page inscription tipped in at the first free end-paper.
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 (the Dutch title, although the Mariner’s Mirrour was in fact translated from the 1586 Latin edition, Speculum nauticum) 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. (Despite the longstanding antipathy between the Low Countries and England, sea-atlases were long called “wagoners” after Waghenaer, the kleenex of maritime cartography.) Indeed, when a copy of the Spieghel was brought to a Privy Council meeting in 1585, it was noticed that a translated edition would be very useful indeed. That translation into Latin appeared in 1586, and it is from that edition that the Lord Chancellor, Sir Christopher Hatton, commissioned an English translation from Anthony Ashley, the Privy Council’s clerk. Published in October 1588, some five months too late for the Spanish Armada, it is suspected that some relevant charts were completed and distributed in time for the attempted invasion.
Based on the upside-down quire (6) and some sloppily-printed quires besides, it has been suggested that this copy was made up from rejected strikes.[1] This might also account for the lacking maps.
The acquisition inscription on the title-page is tantalizing. Putting aside the particulars, it is at least an indication that by 1592 this volume was in the possession of the master of a merchant vessel of considerable size (the HMS Bounty was also 220 tonnes). The names of the ship and the individuals (I read Michaell Hampe, the transcriber Michael Champe) do not yield any information. The volume came into the collection of Trinity House, which since 1514 has been the guild of mariners, and is responsible for the regulation and safety of waterways.
ESTC S122236, Koeman IV: Wag 13.
[1] Tony Campbell (ed.), “Chronicle for 1993” in Imago Mundi 46 (1994), 191-204; 203.
Item #6JLR0097
Price: $185,000