First edition, an exceptional work showing the ports and bases of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) in Asia and Africa, illustrated with 115 large and handsome full-page plates, here in an excellent example in the contemporary binding and complete.
The illustration shows the Dutch East India Company´s influence in Africa and Asia (ports, cities, factories, etc.), and are engraved by Seeligmann, Hoffer, Puscher, mostly after Heydt’s original renderings. As one would expect, for the importance of Batavia for the Dutch, 47 plates are devoted to it, a large group is dedicated to Ceylon, about 20 are dedicated to the East Indies, including fine views of Malacca, Sumatra and the Moluccas, a series of plates show Cape of Good Hope, one plate shows Nagasaki (Japan) and another Hormuz in the Persian Gulf; also, it contains several maps: a double hemisphere map world, Sri Lanka (Ceylon), the East Indies showing northern Australia, Africa, etc.).
The fine plates constitute one of the richest iconographic renderings of the Dutch settlements and colonies in Asia and Africa, all wonderfully drawn and engraved.
Heydt (1702 – 1750) was a German engraver, surveyor and traveler, whose engravings were commissioned by the Governor General of the VOC Adriaan Valckenier (1737-41), who died in prison in Jakarta after 10 years of incarceration following the Batavia -or Chinese- massacre of 1740; for 7 years he worked in the Far East, until 1741.
A very rare work, seldom found complete like here, with the frontispiece and 115 maps and plates, and in excellent condition.
MendelssohnI, pp. 709—710. Landwehr, VOC 469. Kainbacher 174, Rajpal Kubar de Silva, Willemina G.M. Beumer: Illustrations and views of Dutch Ceylon, 1602-1796.
