The greatest single collection of material on early voyages to the East Indies. The work is considered unique in its extraordinary wealth of cartographical and visual material on Africa and Asia. It includes the first European work of substantial scope on the Congo, the first Dutch description of the Gold Coast and the Kingdom of Guinea, and the first Latin translation of a ground-breaking account of the Middle East. This copiously illustrated work seldom appears on the market. Copies that contain multiple parts are especially difficult to find. The present copy, however, contains the first ten.
The small voyages, published between 1598-1628, is a collection of travelogues of voyages to various parts of Africa, the East Indies, India, the Spice Islands, northern Europe, and the Antarctic. The collection was very up-to-date, as these voyages were all undertaken in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. Some of the travel accounts were even published here for the first time, specifically the accounts in part 8 (on the East Indies) and part 9 (on the Spice Islands). Interestingly, the publication of the different parts of The small voyages coincides with the start of the Dutch East India Company (VOC, 1602-1800). As such, the travel accounts document the rise of the VOC in the East Indies.
The collection was published in Latin and German and consisted of twelve parts and two supplements. The present copy contains ten parts and one of the supplements. Of particular interest is the first part, which covers the voyage of the Portuguese merchant Duarte Lopes (dates unknown), who explored Central Africa, from the western coastline of the Congo to the banks of Lakes Tanganyika, Victoria, and Albert. Replete with documentary information, the text provides especially detailed descriptions of places, habits and customs, and the natural resources of the area. The information it provides would be frequently used by historians and voyagers for nearly two centuries. Also noteworthy is part seven, which includes Gasparo Balbi's account of the Middle East. Balbi (dates unknown), sailed from Venice to Aleppo, proceeding to Bir and from there overland to Basra, where he embarked for India. He was the first to record the place names along the coast of modern Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Oman. Practically "none of the names of places on the coast between Qatar and Ras al Khaima occur in other sources before the end of the eighteenth century" (Slot).
In addition, parts 2-4 contains the travel account of Jan Huygens van Linschoten to the Far East, which provided the VOC with useful information about the resources and administration of this region. Part 5 contains the narrative of Iacob Cornelisz. Neck's expedition to the East Indies. Part 6 includes Pieter de Marees' expedition to West Africa, which was the first Dutch description of this part of the world and stirred Dutch interest in Africa. Part 8 contains multiple accounts of Dutch voyages to Southeast Asia and China, which each demonstrate the growing power of the VOC in this region. Part 9 follows an expedition to the Maluku (or Spice) Islands, in order to capture them from the Portuguese. The supplement to this part includes a narrative which describes the aftermath of the Dutch attacks on the Portuguese. The final part includes voyages to the far north and south of the globe.
The different parts of The Voyages were published over the course of nearly half a century. Because of this, the first parts of the series ran out of print while the later parts were still being issued. New editions of the earlier parts were then quickly republished, often assembled from remnants of earlier issues. As a result, no two sets of the work are the same. Each set is a combination of languages, editions and issues, and none of them can be said to be "complete". Although the present copy is technically lacking the final two parts and a supplement, these parts were published much later than the other parts, so the present copy had most likely already been bound by then. It is also missing the second plate in part 6, while the third plate has been added twice, but this peculiarity happens in other copies as well. In comparison, the map of the East Indies in the third part seems to be quite rare, as it does not appear in other copies of this work that we have found.
With two different bookplates from the library of Boies Penrose ("Old East India House") mounted to the front pastedown of both volumes. The front joint of both volumes is slightly weakened, without affecting the structural integrity of the binding, the vellum is somewhat stained and scratched, with a tear on the spine of both volumes. The work is slightly browned throughout, with occasional small tears in the margins or torn lower corners, not affecting the text or images. Otherwise in very good condition. Brunet I, 1334; Church 205, 207, 208, 211, 212, 214, 216, 218, 220, 222; cf. Howgego, to 1800, B7; Slot, The Arabs of the Gulf (Leidschendam, 1993).