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Extremely rare English edition of Blaeu’s ‘Zeespiegel’
Sea Mirrour
Containing a Briefe Instruction in the art of Navigation; and a Description of the Seas and Coasts of the Easterne, Northerne, and Westerne Navigation... Translated out of the Dutch into English, By Richard Hymers.
Amsterdam,
W. J. Blaeu,
1635
Second edition in English, 3 parts bound in one volume (parts 2 and 3 containing 6 books each), folio (345 by 225mm), main and divisional titles with woodcut vignettes, 109 engraved maps, all but 3 double-page, numbered 1-108 with 51bis, 2 other smaller engraved charts in the text, 2 volvelles, woodcut diagrams and coastal profiles in the text, woodcut of ships on titles, the part-title to the fourth book of the second part from the 1625 edition, some light browning and dampstaining, chart 41 supplied, loss to left corner margin of chart 59 not effecting image skilfully repaired, volvelle on C4 lacking pointer, e3 with 90mm tear skilfully repaired, chart 85 with minor abrasions, contemporary vellum recased, some minor loss to spine, with title in manuscript.
11980
notes:
This is the second known English edition of Blaeu's 'Zeespiegel', the charts being the same as those in the Dutch edition of 1623.
The 'Zeespeigel' was the second of Blaeu's great pilot guides: the first, 'Het Licht der Zeevaert', was published in various editions and languages between 1608 and 1630. Blaeu's copyright to this work appears to have run out in 1618, and from 1620 Johannes Janssonius was publishing his own counterfeit versions. Blaeu responded to th...
The 'Zeespeigel' was the second of Blaeu's great pilot guides: the first, 'Het Licht der Zeevaert', was published in various editions and languages between 1608 and 1630. Blaeu's copyright to this work appears to have run out in 1618, and from 1620 Johannes Janssonius was publishing his own counterfeit versions. Blaeu responded to th...
bibliography:
Koeman IV, M.Bl 49; STC 3113; NMM 62; Waters, 'The Art of Navigation in Elizabethan and Early Stuart Times', p.457.
provenance:
Bookplate of the famous bibliophile and Liberal politician Allan Heywood Bright (1862-1941).
