Jan Huygen van Linschoten (1563–1611) travelled to Goa in 1583 in the service of Vicente da Fonseca, the newly appointed Archbishop of Goa, then the administrative centre of Portuguese India. During more than five years in the city, he gained access to Portuguese navigational charts, sailing instructions and commercial intelligence, copying information that was not generally available outside Portuguese circles. He also acquired direct knowledge of the Malabar and Coromandel coasts. Following his departure from India in 1589, an extended stay in the Azores, and his eventual return to the Netherlands in 1592, he prepared his observations and collected materials for publication by Cornelis Claesz., the Amsterdam publisher specialising in geography, navigation and travel.

The Itinerario combines Linschoten's personal observations with sailing directions and geographical information derived from Portuguese sources. The first part describes the East Indies, extending from eastern Africa and Arabia through India and Southeast Asia to China and Japan, with accounts of local customs, commerce, natural history and the production of spices. The navigational sections provide practical directions for voyages between Portugal and India and between Asian ports, including information on winds, currents, coastal landmarks, anchorages, reefs and other hazards. Further sections concern navigation along the African and American coasts, particularly Brazil and Spanish America, while an accompanying account details the revenues and taxation of the Spanish Crown. Together, these texts constituted a substantial compilation of the geographical and commercial knowledge available to European navigators at the close of the 16th century.

The significance of the publication was particularly immediate in the Netherlands, where merchants were seeking direct access to the Asian spice trade. By identifying Portuguese routes, ports of call and commercial establishments, Linschoten supplied information that helped make independent Dutch voyages to Asia practicable. The work was also influential in England, where a translation appeared in 1598 under the title John Huighen van Linschoten his discours of voyages into ye Easte & West Indies. A German edition appeared the same year, followed by a Latin edition in 1599 and French editions in the seventeenth century. Its continued use as a navigational reference contributed to the considerable wear and loss suffered by surviving copies, particularly their large folding maps.

Illustration

The work boasts six folding maps and 36 folding or double-page plates, which document the geography, inhabitants, natural history and commercial activities of the regions described. The present copy retains all six maps and 36 plates, together with the uncommon Waerschouwinge voor de boekbinders, the printed instructions to the bookbinder, loosely inserted at the end. The final part is present in its second issue.

Provenance: label of bookseller R. W. P. de Vries, Amsterdam, mounted at the foot of the front pastedown; private Dutch collection.

Alden & Landis 596/63; Borba de Moraes, pp. 486–487; Church 252; Howgego L131–132; Parker, Books to Build an Empire, pp. 159–161; Sabin 41356; cf. Hill 1025 (English edition); Nave, Philologia Arabica 22 (1623 edition).