Oostende West-Indische Spiegel

Title

Oostende West-Indische Spiegel

Description

Title page of the second last navigation in the years 1614,15,16,17 and 1618 in the West Indies in which is shown how George of Speilbergen sailed with some battalions on land and sea through the Magellanic Ocean around the world. The title page was also illustrated in the 1st part 10th book by Johann Theodor de Bry (1618). Joris van Spilbergen (Antwerp 1568 - Bergen op Zoom 1620) was commissioned in 1614 to lead an expedition to the East Indies via the Strait of Magellan for the East India Company (VOC) to reassert Dutch claims to access the Pacific from the east. In it, Le Maire reports on the proof that Tierra del Fuego is an island and the discovery of Le Maire's Strait, an alternative route to the Pacific that is still called that today. The Mirror is an extremely important book for the history of Dutch navigation."

c. 1619

Artist

Geelkercken van (1585-1656)

Nicolaes van Geelkercken (. 1585 - 1656) was a Gelderlander surveyor and cartographer who was in the service of the Gelderlander government in the 17th century. He is known for his numerous map manuscripts, most of which are kept in the Gelders Archives. His sons Isaac van Geelkercken, Jacob van Geelkercken and Arnold van Geelkercken followed him in his profession. Nicolaes' brother Arnoldus van Geelkercken (1570/72-1602) was also a cartographer.

Historical Description

The title page is one of the most important parts of the "front matter" or "preliminaries" of a book, as the data on it and its verso (together known as the "title leaf") are used to establish the "title proper and usually, though not necessarily, the statement of responsibility and the data relating to publication".This determines the way the book is cited in library catalogs and academic references. The title page often shows the title of the work, the person or body responsible for its intellectual content, and the imprint, which contains the name and address of the book's publisher and its date of publication. Particularly in paperback editions it may contain a shorter title than the cover or lack a descriptive subtitle. Further information about the publication of the book, including its copyright information, is frequently printed on the verso of the title page. The first printed books, or incunabula, did not have title pages: the text simply begins on the first page, and the book is often identified by the initial words—the incipit—of the text proper. Maps were usually published in atlases. And atlases were books with titles. And, again, titles were individual pieces of art. A publisher emphazised the importance of a book he published with a spectacular entrée. Usually the pictures of an atlas title page pertained in general to the subject matter: Measuring instruments, mythologigal, astronomical, religious, scientific, allegorical hints and facts were united in a composition which depicted the pride of progress in knowledge. An atlas title page often is just one superb artistic and jubilant cartouche.