Description du penible voyage fait entour de l'univers ou globe terrestre, par Sr. Olivier du Noort d'Utrecht, General de quatre navires, assavoir: de celle dite Mauritius, avec laquelle il est retourné comme Admiral, l'autre de Henry fils de Frederic Vice-Admiral, la troisiesme dite la Concorde, avec la quatriesme nommé l'Esperance, bien montees d'equipage de guerre & vivres, ayant 248 hommes en icelles, pour traversant le Destroict de Magellanes, descouvrir les Costes de Cica, Chili & Peru, & y trafiquer, & puis passant les Molucques, & circomnavigant le Globe du Monde retourner à la Patrie. Elles singlerent de Rotterdame le 2 Iuillet 1598. Et l'an 1601 d'Aoust y tourna tant seulement la susdite navire Mauritius. Où sont deduites ses estranges adventures, & pourtrait au vif en diverses Figures, plusiers cas estranges à luy advenuz, qu'il y a rencontrez & veuz. Le tout translaté du Flamand en François, & à service de ceux qui sont curieux se delectent de nouvelles remarquables & dignes de memoire
THE LANDWEHR–FOSSETT–BENTTINEN COPY
OF THE FIRST DUTCH CIRCUMNAVIGATION
Amsterdam: Widow of Cornille Nicolas, 1610. Second edition in French.
Folio in 4s (12 13/16” x 9 3/8”, 322mm x 240mm): A-H4 [$3 signed; –A1]. 32 leaves, pp. 1 2-61 [1] (verses). With 2 full-page engraved maps and 25 in-text engravings.
Bound in modern half vellum over speckled boards. On the spine, author and date inked in manuscript. All edges of the text-block un-trimmed.
Washed and pressed, with repairs (mostly marginal) to A1 and H4. Odd repairs, with a few small patches of facsimile in-fill. Bookplate of the “Steve Fossett Collection of Adventure & Exploration” to the front paste-down, with the book-label of John Landwehr below.
Olivier van Noort (1558–1627) was the first Dutch explorer to circumnavigate the globe. A former innkeeper in Rotterdam, Van Noort was sponsored by a group of merchants seeking to increase imports and exports for the Netherlands. He set out in 1598 and completed the trip in 1601, establishing Dutch dominance in exploration. Van Noort was the commander of a fleet of four ships and navigated a route to the Indies by way of the Straits of Magellan. He coasted along Chile and Peru, then turned westward across the Pacific, finally returning to Rotterdam in August of 1601. He arrived back in Holland with only one battered ship and his crew vastly depleted.
Van Noort’s voyage advanced Dutch establishments in the East Indies, leading directly to the establishment of the Dutch East India Company (Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie, VOC). His account stands apart for its proto-ethnography; five engravings display the dress and tools of the various indigenous communities Van Noort encountered. The published accounts sold well, with the first copies appearing less than a month after his return. A more complete edition appeared later that year, followed by two amended editions in 1602.
John Landwehr (1924–2015) was a Dutch bibliographer who wrote a monograph of Dutch books with colored plates published 1662-1875 as well as a general bibliography of VOC publications. Landwehr shaped his personal library through a fascination with Dutch natural history, travel and topography, and cultural costumes.
James Stephen Fossett (1944–2007) was an American businessman, aviator, sailor, and adventurer. He was the first person to fly around the world in a balloon and in a fixed-wing aircraft. In total, Fossett held five world records for circumnavigation. The Steve Fossett Collection of Adventure and Exploration went to auction at Leslie Hindman Auctioneers (now Freeman’s|Hindman) in October, 2018, the present volume lot 145.
Theodore “Ted” Benttinen (1948–2023), perhaps the purchaser at the Fossett sale, was an MIT-educated oceanographer and explorer who went to both poles on research missions. Benttinen amassed a formidable collection of books of exploration, particularly strong in Pacific voyages as well as in polar accounts. The present volume was lot 204 in the Sotheby’s New York 9 December 2024 sale of his library.
Alden & Landis 610/79; Borba de Moraes II:103; JCB3 II:71; Sabin 55438.
Catalogued by GR Murdock.
Item #GRM0004
Price: $7,500