Beschreibung:

Veer, Gerrit deVraye de Trois Voyages de Mer Tres Admirables ... Amsterdam: Cornille Nicolas, 1609 Folio (340 x 240 mm). Title-page with woodcut vignette, 30 half-page engraved illustrations and maps, 1 full-page map, woodcut initials; chip to head of A4, repaired closed tear to the head of E1, occasional light spotting or smudging, some minute marginal closed tears. Rebound in dark brown calf, spine with raised bands in 6 compartments, 2nd with red morocco label lettered in gilt, others with repeat gilt decoration, boards ruled and stamped blind. A major work of arctic exploration, describing the three Barentsz voyages for the discovery of a Northeast Passage to the Far East, two in company with Jan Huyghen van Linschoten. The first (1594) sailed the length of Novaya Zemlya and then via Vaigach to the Kara Sea as far as the mouth of the Ob', while the second was thwarted by ice, which closed the strait passed in the previous year. The third voyage of 1596-1597, which occupies the majority of the book, is one of the greatest in the history of Polar exploration. After the discovery and naming of Bear Island and Spitsbergen, Barentsz parted from Rijp and sailed to Novaya Zemlya, eventually rounding the northern cape. Beset by ice, their ship was crushed and the company was forced to make the first recorded over-wintering this far north. The crew built a cabin from driftwood, called 'Het Behouden Huijs', in which to wait out the frigid winter, though many perished along the way. The engraved illustrations provide a vivid supplement to the of the events—including depictions of crew's attempt to fend off of polar bears, to which several would succumb—but do not illustrate the games of coif (or golf) which provided exercise during the long and difficult winter months. In the spring of 1597 the survivors with open boats sledged and sailed 1600 miles around the northern cape, down the length of Novaya Zemlya, and out across the White Sea to safety on the Kola Peninsula where they found three Dutch ships, one commanded by Rijp. Barentsz himself died of scurvy on the voyage, but de Veer, who had also been on the second voyage, survived. The hut in which the company over-wintered was later found by a Norwegian ship in 1871. de Veer's work was first published in Dutch in 1958, and was followed closely by Latin, French, and German editions in the same year, and an Italian edition the following year. The present edition is a reissue of Cornile Nicolas' first French edition of 1598.Condition reportCondition as described in catalogue entry. The lot is sold in the condition it is in at the time of sale. The