Effigies sinus, Sevangustiae Nassau, cum ad..

Title

Effigies sinus, Sevangustiae Nassau, cum ad..

Map shows the south part of Vaygach Island in the Arctic Sea, the Yugorsky Strait and partly Russia. The latin text describes part of the Arctic explorations of Willem Barentzs (c.1550-1597), a Dutch navigator and cartographer.

ca. 1609

Artist

Bry, de - Barentzs (1550-1597)

Willem Barentzs (c. 1550–1597) was a Dutch navigator and cartographer. The Arctic expeditions were carried out between 1594 and 1596, and Barentzs's three voyages into the waters north of Siberia are considered the most significant among the many European efforts during that time to find a Northeast Passage to China and India. Gerrit de Veer (c. 1570–1598), second officer under Barents, kept a diary in which he described the journeys in detail, including the discoveries of Spitsbergen, Bear Island, and Novaya Zemlya during the successful third voyage, which was led by Barents under the command of Jacob van Heemskerk. The diary also contains perhaps the most famous event of the third voyage: after the ship became trapped in the ice, de Veer, who was also the ship's carpenter, led the dismantling of the ship and the subsequent construction of a hut from the wood, where the crew spent the winter. Although Barentzs did not survive the return journey, de Veer and some other crew members traveled home in open boats and were eventually rescued by Dutch ships. De Veer's diary was originally published in 1598 in Latin by Cornelius Claesz, one of the most prominent publishers in Amsterdam at the end of the 16th century. As an important publisher of early Dutch travel accounts, Claesz commissioned Baptista van Doetichum to create illustrations for the text. This particular map is the edition by Theodore de Bry, based on Doetichum's engravings. The map is in very good condition with some age-related discolorations. Theodore de Bry (1528–1595) was a German engraver and bookseller. He produced illustrations of European and international cities that he visited or dreamed of visiting, and published them along with maps and atlases by other engravers. After his death, his family collected the images into two series: the Grand Voyages and the Petit Voyages.