500 West-Indianischer Historien Ander Theil / Cocos Insel. Cocos Insula.

Title

500 West-Indianischer Historien Ander Theil / Cocos Insel. Cocos Insula.

Description

Map showing the landing of Le Maire and Schouten at Cocos Island in May 1616 (today’s Tafahi in the Tonga Islands). Named by the Dutch for its abundance of coconuts. On the back is a sailing ship of the Tonga Islands.

ca. 1631

Artist

Bry, de - Merian (1528-1598)

In 1631, Matthäus Merian and Johann Ludwig Gottfried published a one-volume abridged version of the monumental America series by Theodor De Bry and his two sons. The Historia Antipodum can be seen as the apotheosis of the collection of voyages to the New World. After Theodor's death in 1598, Johan Theodor and his brother Johan Israel continued to run the business together in Frankfurt until the latter died in 1609. As he had no natural male successor, in 1616 he sought the help of a highly talented Basel engraver in his early twenties, Matthäus Merian the Elder (1593-1650), who soon married Johan Theodor's eldest daughter Maria Magdalena. When Johan Theodor died, Merian immediately complied with a request from his mother-in-law. After Merian moved to Frankfurt permanently in June 1626, he turned to Johann Ludwig Gottfried (ca. 1584-1633) to help him pursue a successful independent career as a publisher. In the early 1630s, Gottfried contributed to a new Latin edition of Part 3, which contained the reports of Hans Staden and Jean de Léry on Brazil, as well as to German and Latin reprints of Part 9, which was dedicated to the natural history of the West Indies by the Jesuit José de Acosta. He was probably also involved in the production of the last German volume of the America series, part 14, which was published in 1630. The most significant addition to the collection, however, was a German work entitled Historia Antipodum or Newe Welt, published in 1631, a voluminous folio volume of more than six hundred pages which, despite its size, brought together what was probably the most monumental publication of early modern Europe, the fourteen-part America series that formed part of the De Bry travel collection. In many ways, the changes Merian and Gottfried made to the travelogues for Historia Antipodum surpassed even the editorial changes made for the original volumes. The travel accounts were no longer published one after the other, each followed by its own set of relevant illustrations, but all available information was summarized in three long chapters on the history of the New World, with the engravings within the text rather than as separate sections at the end of each narrative. The first chapter of the abridged version deals with the natural world, a decision that must be seen in the light of Gottfried and Merian's personal convictions, which they expressed in their introduction to Archontologia Cos- mica. The second chapter brings together fifty-three travelogues to the New World, all of which were previously included in the collection of voyages. Finally, the third and shortest chapter presents new, recently published accounts of European expansion in the Atlantic. In the introduction to the volume, the editors introduce the reader to their objective. The dedication to Landgrave Philipp von Hessen, signed only by Merian but dated 1630, emphasizes the differences between Europeans and the indigenous population of the New World, as does the "Preface to the Reader", which bears both signatures. Merian and Gottfried adhere to the generally accepted order of information in early modern European humanities and open their Historia Antipodum with a description of the natural world. The first seventy pages are based on the German translation of Acosta's treatise, which was first used in 1601. As the original translation prepared by Johan Homberger for the De Brys comprised 327 folios, the version printed in the abridged edition was heavily edited. Books 1-3 of Acosta's work, which deal with such traditional and far-reaching topics as the Aristotelian world view, the biblical theories on the origin of the Indians, the habitability of the Torrid zone and the currents and winds in the southern hemisphere, are each reduced to a few pages in the Historia Antipodum.

Historical Description

The actual settlement began around 1500–1300 BC. BC presumably from the Philippines and Taiwan. In the course of many centuries the immigrants reached one island after the other and expanded the settlement area further and further east. Above all, the Polynesians embarked on impressive voyages of discovery from their core area, the island triangle Tonga-Fiji-Samoa. With their outrigger canoes they reached Hawaii, New Zealand and in the east of the Pacific to Easter Island. The history of this pre-European colonization is difficult to research because the peoples of Oceania had no writing. Only a few oral traditions have survived into modern times, such as B. the settlement of New Zealand by Tama Te Kapua. Written records only existed with the European voyages of discovery from the 16th century. The European spirit of discovery of the 16th century is decisive for numerous expeditions. The first focus is on exploring a western route across the Pacific to the wealthy trading centers of Asia. Later, mainly Spanish and Portuguese adventurers search for the hypothetical southern continent Terra Australis Incognita or hope to find legendary riches like the mines of King Solomon. Due to inadequate navigation techniques, some of the island groups discovered, e.g. B. the Solomon Islands, can no longer be found and fell into oblivion. At the end of the 16th century, the Dutch also began exploring Oceania. In the 17th century the Europeans still did not know a lot about the Pacific and especially the stories of those returning home about paradise attract more and more sailors. The motivation to travel to new worlds is great, but goes hand in hand with the greed for the pristine natural resources of the new world. Meanwhile, the church worries about the "mixing" with the heathen peoples, but is nevertheless interested in the salvation of the "savages". She reacts by publicly discrediting the fornication with the inhabitants and delegating missionaries to assist with the journeys. In the 18th century only a few islands are still undiscovered, but circumnavigators such as Louis Antoine de Bougainville, James Cook and others still find some unexplored areas. In addition, some of the discoveries of the 16th century were forgotten again. Some now set about mapping the islands using modern means.