Folio. A collection of 23 numbered items, comprising official regulations, sailing instructions, resolutions and related publications of the Dutch East India Company, with a contemporary printed table of contents. With two woodcut illustrations of firefighting equipment, several woodcut ships on title pages, decorated initials, and a separately printed leaf in red. Contemporary sheepskin parchment, sewn on four vellum tapes laced through the joints. Some tears to the parchment covering the spine and boards slightly bowed. Occasional browning, more pronounced in the final item. A few leaves shaved, affecting three words in one item and a few letters or running heads in another. Otherwise in good condition.

The VOC, established in 1602, maintained a vast commercial network linking the Netherlands with the Cape of Good Hope, India, Ceylon, Southeast Asia, China and Japan. Its success depended not only on commercial and political arrangements overseas, but also on the systematic management of ships, personnel, provisions and navigational information. The present publications reveal how that management was codified in instructions issued by the Company's directors, the Heeren Zeventien, and communicated to those responsible for carrying them out.

Of particular interest are the sailing instructions, which describe prevailing winds and prescribe routes between the Netherlands and Java, from the Cape of Good Hope to Ceylon and Bengal, and through the Sunda Strait. Several were approved in 1783 and printed or reprinted in subsequent years. These instructions document the Company's efforts to standardise navigation over routes that had been developed through generations of practical experience. They also illustrate the importance attached to the safe passage of ships through waters where seasonal winds, currents and coastal conditions could determine the success of a voyage.

Other documents concern the management of the ship itself. Instructions regulate the responsibilities of commanding officers, the maintenance and repair of hulls, and the duties of shipwrights and carpenters at Batavia, Onrust and Ceylon. Regulations governing provisions and rations, the preservation and distribution of beverages, and the keeping of journals and navigational instruments provide evidence of the routines and material requirements of long-distance voyages. Separate instructions for surgeons, ministers and ziekentroosters (religious comforters) show the extent to which medical and spiritual care formed part of the Company's formal organisation.

Several particularly interesting pieces address maritime safety and the practical application of technical knowledge. One describes the use of a drijfanker, or sea anchor, intended to steady a vessel when ordinary anchoring was impossible. Another discusses the effects of pouring oil, whale oil, tar or other floating substances onto the sea in dangerous conditions. An illustrated instruction on the use of suction and force-pump firefighting equipment aboard ships contains two woodcuts showing the apparatus. Such documents are valuable evidence of contemporary approaches to problems encountered at sea, extending beyond the more familiar subjects of trade and navigation.

The collection is also notable for its bibliographical character. Although the individual publications span more than four decades, most date from the 1770s and 1780s. They were assembled as a coherent reference collection, as demonstrated by the printed contents list at the end, which numbers the documents from 1 to 23. Two comparable collections are preserved at Leiden University Library, but their contents and editions differ in several respects from those of the present volume.

Comparison with the Short-Title Catalogue Netherlands (STCN) and Landwehr's bibliography of VOC publications demonstrates the rarity of many of the constituent pieces. For most, the STCN records only the two Leiden copies. The present collection includes editions or variants not represented in those volumes, including an instruction concerning the maintenance of ships, absent from the STCN, and several separately printed resolutions. It also contains two single-leaf documents inserted into the final item, one printed in red, which are not recorded in the STCN in the forms present here.

The collection therefore has significance beyond the individual rarity of its contents. It preserves an apparently contemporary compilation of working regulations and instructions, bringing together documents that would otherwise have circulated separately and often in small numbers. As a source for the history of the VOC, maritime administration, navigation, shipboard labour and everyday life at sea, it offers a particularly detailed record of the procedures underpinning Dutch overseas commerce in the eighteenth century.

The collection comprises these publications:

1. Artikel-brief van de ... Nederlandsche Oost-Indische Compagnie, by de ... Staten Generaal ... den vierden September, 1742. ... Met de veranderingen ... 11 October 1747. Amsterdam, Nicolaas Byl, [1742?]. [2], 53, [2 blank] pp. Landwehr, VOC 941 (4 copies); STCN 315731184 (2 copies).

2. Instruction voor de eerste gezagvoerders op de schepen der Nederlandsche Oost-Indische Compagnie, ... wegens de huyshouding en timmering op de schepen, ... Amsterdam, Nicolaas Byl, 1784. [1], [1 blank], 27, [1 blank] pp. Landwehr, VOC 1140A (2 copies); STCN 315687347 (2 copies).

3–6. Instructie van de eygenschap der winden, en de courssen, t houden in het vaarwater tusschen Nederland en Java. Geapprobeerd in het jaar 1783. Including instructions for calling at Table Bay and sailing through the Sunda Strait. Amsterdam, Nicolaas Byl, 1790. 52 pp. Landwehr, VOC 1176 (4 copies of 2 variant versions); STCN 315687851, first part (2 copies).

7–8. Zeilagie-ordre om in alle tyden des jaars van Kaap de Goede Hoop naar Ceilon te zeilen. Including sailing instructions for Bengal. [Amsterdam?], [1783?]. 8 pp. (A–B²). Landwehr, VOC 1192?; cf. STCN 315734442 (variant edition).

9. Instructie weegens het aandoen en passeeren van ’t canaal met een zuydwestlyke wind. Amsterdam, Nicolaas Byl, 1787. 8 pp. Landwehr, VOC 1185 note (3 copies); STCN 315823127 (1 copy).

10–11. Ordre wegens het houden en schryven der dagregisters, op scheepen der Oost-Indische Compagnie ... Including regulations concerning navigational instruments. [Amsterdam?], [1754 or later]. 18, [1], [1 blank] pp. Landwehr, VOC1139B, with additional quires as in 1139A; cf. STCN 315878711 (later edition).

12. Lyste van de victualien, en ordre op de rantsoenen. Amsterdam, Nicolaas Byl, 1786. [11], [1 blank] pp. Landwehr, VOC 1274 note (1 copy); cf. STCN 315689609 (1791 edition).

13. Ordre op het preserveeren en uitdeelen van de dranken, en andere natte waaren ... [Amsterdam?], [1756 or later]. [4] pp. Landwehr, VOC 1289A or B; cf. STCN 173412068 (variant edition).

14. Ordre op het dichthouden en bezorgen der scheepen ... Including instructions for shipwrights at Batavia, Onrust and Ceylon. [Amsterdam?], [1757 or later]. 7, [1 blank] pp. Landwehr, VOC 1117 (5 copies); not in STCN.

15. Lyste en reglement, van het jaare 1742. [Amsterdam?], [1766 or later]. 4 pp. Landwehr, VOC 1318A?; cf. STCN 305129996 (later edition).

16. Extract uit de resolutien der vergadering van Seventienen ... Amsterdam den 9 September 1750. [Amsterdam?], [1756 or later]. 10, [2 blank] pp. STCN 315701846 (1 copy); cf. Landwehr, VOC 1320 (1790 edition).

17. Extract uyt de resolutien, door de vergadering der Heeren Zeventienen ... 2 April 1774. [Amsterdam?], [1774?]. 4 pp. Landwehr, VOC 865 (2 copies); STCN 305130994 (3 copies).

18.1. Extract uyt de resolutien, door de vergadering van Seventiene ... 31 Maart 1773. [Amsterdam?], [1773?]. [1], [1 blank] pp. Not in Landwehr or STCN.

18.2. Extract uyt de zeemans oeffening over de groote zeevaart ... Bericht van het dryfanker, en deszelfs gebruik.[Amsterdam], [1769 or later]. 8 pp. STCN 315702362 (2 copies); not in Landwehr.

19.1. Extract uit de resolutien, door de vergadering der Heeren Seventienen ... 10 April 1775. [Amsterdam?], [1775?]. [1], [1 blank] pp. Cf. Landwehr, VOC 644; STCN 274518023 (later edition).

19.2. Uittrekzels uit de berichten en prys-vraagen, van den heer Frans van Lelyveld, over het storten van olie, traan, teer, of andere dryvende stoffen in zee-gevaaren. [Amsterdam?], [1776 or later]. 9, [1 blank] pp. STCN 315736895 (2 copies); cf. Landwehr, VOC 644.

19.3. Extract uit de resolutien door de Heeren Bewindhebberen der Oost-Indische Compagnie ... 27 November 1783.[Amsterdam?], [1783?]. 8 pp. STCN 315703261 (2 copies); cf. Landwehr, VOC 644.

20. Instructie van ’t gebruik der slang-brandspuiten op schepen, zuigende en perssende. [Amsterdam], [ca. 1770–1790?]. 4 pp. With two woodcut illustrations. STCN 305195905 (3 copies); not in Landwehr.

21. Ordre en instructie voor de chirurgyns. Amsterdam, Nicolaas Byl, 1787. 12 pp. Landwehr, VOC 857 note (3 copies); STCN 315703601 (2 copies).

22. Instructie voor de predikanten en de ziekentroosters. Amsterdam, Nicolaas Byl, 1785. 14 pp. Landwehr, VOC 775 note (3 copies); STCN 31582560X (1 copy).

23. Instructie ende ordre op het houden van de scheeps-soldy en guarnisoen-boeken ... Amsterdam, Adriaan Wor, 1751. 22, [13] pp., 8 double-page spreads, [1 blank] p. Landwehr, VOC 1045 note (5 copies); STCN 173410855 (3 complete and 2 incomplete copies).

Inserted in item 23: Extract uyt de resolutien door de vergadering der ... Seventienen ... [Amsterdam?], [1763?]. [1], [1 blank] pp. Printed in red. Not recorded in Landwehr or STCN.

Inserted in item 23: Ordonnantie [der Heeren Seventienen] ... 18 Maart 1784. [Amsterdam], [1784?]. [1], [1 blank] pp. Landwehr, VOC 1068 (2 copies); not in STCN.

Following item 23: Register. [Amsterdam?], [ca. 1790?]. [1], [1 blank] pp. STCN 30539889X.

Bibliography: Landwehr, VOC, references as detailed above; Short-Title Catalogue Netherlands (STCN), references as detailed above.