Hereditas Antikvárium

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14. Könyvárverés

Amsterdam, 1598.
The map of the Arctic region based on the observations made by Willem Barentsz during his third voyage (1596-97) and engraved by Baptista van Doetecum. The work was initially sold independently or as part of composite atlases and, from 1599, was bound in some volumes of Linschoten’s “Itinerarium”. The page – on which the route of the ships is traced with a double line of dots – is one of the milestones of the Arctic cartography. It is the first presentation of Svalbard or the Spitsbergen (Het Nieuwe Land). It also shows Europe's exact and detailed northern coastline for the first time, all the way to the farthest point of Barentsz’ journey on the island of Novaya Zemlya. It is marked with a small house on the map, which served as their winter shelter and was named Saved House (Het behanden Huys). East of this point, the Asian coasts only reflect the cartographic assumptions of the time, as evidenced by the legend-based indication of the Anian Strait. The areas west of the European continent – mainly Greenland, Iceland and Baffin Island – represent the results of Martin Frobisher and John Davis’ attempt to find the Northwest Passage. This region also displays mythical cartographic details such as “Frisland” and “Estotiland”. The richly illustrated engraving is decorated with three delicately crafted wind roses, ships, whales, seals, and other sea monsters, as well as a Samoyed sliding on a reindeer sleigh and an island called “Polus Magnetis”.
Dutch cartographer and explorer Willem Barentsz, one of the great pioneers of Arctic research, led three expeditions beyond the Arctic Circle, the first two of which were accompanied by Jan Huygen van Linschoten. Through his ventures, he sought a shipping route to East Asia that was faster for the Netherlands and did not pass through waters under hostile Portuguese jurisdiction. During the first trip, he reached the coast of Novaya Zemlya, but due to huge icebergs, they were forced to return to the Netherlands. During his second trip, the frozen Kara Sea made them turn back. In 1596, he set off with two ships, with which he discovered the Spitsbergen (first its southernmost member, Bear Island, and then a week later, the main island), returning to Bear Island, the two ships separated (on the map only one ship runs on the designated route). Later, Barentsz reached Novaya Zemlya, where the ice trapped his galleon. By building a hut with wood from the ship, the crew survived the Arctic winter, during which Barentsz prepared his extremely decorative manuscript map. In June 1597, they left for the Kola Peninsula in two small boats, but Barentsz died seven days later. The last 12 survivors were rescued by a merchant ship and returned to Amsterdam in November. The Norwegian sealer Elling Carlsen found the abandoned wooden house almost three centuries later in 1871, and several artefacts and documents were collected from the site.
Dimensions: 420 x 570 (535 x 625) mm. Clear, strong print. Our copy was probably previously bound in a composite atlas as it was mounted on a larger blank sheet and numbered by hand (98).
Poss.: With the mounted embossed stamp of László Gróf L., the well-known map collector from Oxford, on the verso.
Ginsberg (Scandinavia): 47, fig. 47.0.