Fundamental map of South East Asia published at the end of the 16th century with north to the left. Embellished with ships and sea monsters.

Jan Huygens van Linschoten was a merchant, cartographer, and traveller who secured a position as secretary to the Portuguese Bishop of Goa from 1583-9. His tenure included several journeys with the Bishop as far as Japan and China. His position gave him the highest access to sensitive material, including trade agreements, travel accounts and maps and plans, many of which he either purchased or copied. His position ended on the death of this patron, the Bishop and after an event-filled voyage, which included a brief stint in a dungeon in Goa and a shipwreck off the Azores, Linschoten returned to Holland in 1592.

Still thirsting for adventure, he embarked on Willem Barents’s voyage to the Arctic Sea in 1594, looking for the northeast passage to the Far East.

His restlessness must have been appeased upon his return in 1595 as that year, he married and settled in the town of his birth, Enkhuizen. He then proceeded to publish three books of which the “Itinerario Navigatium” became the most famous. Summarily, it is both an account of his journey from Portugal to Goa via Madeira and east and west Africa as well a diary of his stay in the Indian city. In the process of writing it, Linschoten revealed hitherto secret Portuguese navigation lore to the Dutch population. To complement this account, the work was also copiously illustrated with maps and images, with the former remaindering many earlier maps of the region obsolete.

This map of south east Asia was compiled from Linschoten’s own notes and manuscripts. It is believed to have been sourced from several charts by Portuguese and Spanish map makers. The major portion of the Indies is based on the maps by the Portuguese cartographer Fernao Vaz Dourado; the depiction of China is based on the maps and notes of Luiz Jorge de Barbuda, also known as Ludovicus Georgius, who incidentally also provided the information for Ortelius’ maps of China and Japan. The distinctive “shrimp” shape of Japan can be traced back to the Portuguese Portolano charts of Lazaro Luis and further embellished by Vaz Dourado. The crude depiction of the ”Ilha de Corea” is most likely by Vaz Dourado as it is in Portuguese and is a geographical anomaly bearing in mind that the general editor of Linschoten’s maps was Petrus Plancius who produced a far more accurate map of the Peninsula on his map of the world engraved in 1594.

This map revolutionised the geography of the Far East. It was the publication of this book which encouraged two enterprising Dutch merchants to sponsor a speculative trading voyage to the Spice Islands under Cornelis de Houtman. Linschoten encouraged Dutch merchants to bypass the Singapore Straits which were controlled by the Portuguese and use the Sunda Straits as an alternative route to the Indies. Its relative success laid the blue print for the foundation of the Dutch East India Company. Ultimately this ensured Dutch supremacy in the region until the beginning of the 19th century.

The engraving date of this map is 1595 as printed on a small medallion just below the scale on the upper centre of the map. The first issue of the book was in 1596.

This map is much in demand both for its aesthetics and geographical significance. It is viewed as a fundamental entry in any collection chronicling the history of the Far East or European activity in the Far East. This explains its great rarity and this example is rendered even more unusual due to its sumptuous original colour. [SEAS5526]