Beschreibung:

JAN NIEUHOFF (1618-1672) Gedenkweerdige Brasiliaense Zee- en Lant-Reize. Amsterdam: Jacob van Meurs 1682. [ And: ] Zee en Lant-Reize door verscheide Gewesten van Oostindien ... en inzonderheit een wijtloopig verhael der Stad Batavia . Amsterdam: Jacob van Meurs 1682. 2 parts in one volume, 2° (373 x 234mm). Engraved frontispiece title, letterpress title printed in red and black, engraved coat-of-arms dedication leaf, portrait of the author, 49 engraved plates, of these 30 double-page, 33 engraved text illustrations. (Scattered spotting, occasional browning, portrait with small marginal chip, light soiling and wear to the first few leaves.) Contemporary Dutch vellum, sides panelled in blind with florid central cartouche, spine lettered in manuscript (rebacked preserving the original spine, hinges repaired). Provenance: 19th-century manuscript press-mark on front pastedown, dated 'Dec. 11, 1891'. FIRST EDITION. A TALL COPY of this richly illustrated account of the East Indies, and Brazil. Nieuhoff's Zee en Lant-Reize includes one of the largest and best illustrated 17th-century descriptions of Batavia, now Jakarta, and is an important source for Dutch colonial architecture. Nieuhoff's account of his long stay in Brazil also includes descriptions of the West Indies, and 'is very valuable indeed, being richly documented from the original sources and reproducing much of the official correspondence between the local Dutch and Portuguese authorities' (Boxer). Nieuhoff also gives an eye-witness account of the 1646 siege of Recife. The present copy is possibly one of the large paper copies noted by Sabin, and includes the plate showing St Anthony and St Vincent villages in the East Indies volume which is omitted in the directions to the binder, and does not appear in all copies. Borba de Moraes II, p.614 ('classic work on Dutch Brazil'); Boxer Dutch in Brazil pp.294-5; Landwehr VOC , 282; Sabin 55278.