Page 20 - Nicolaes Witsen & Shipbuilding in the Dutch Golden Age

Chapter 1
Figure 1.1. (left) Portrait of Nicolaes Witsen in the 1671 edition, published when he was thirty-one years old.
Figure 1.2. (right) Portrait of Witsen in one copy of the second edition (1690), showing the author at the age of sixty; only five copies of this edition are known to exist.
interesting question. It was indeed highly uncommon for a gentleman in his day. But Nicolaes Witsen can be seen as one of the most representative figures of the Dut ch Renaissance: an al l-round scientist who, in addition to the above-mentioned activities, was an ardent collec- tor, accomplished amateur graphic artist, cartographer, and Maecenas of scientific research. He encouraged his friends who sailed to the East Indies to bring back plants and animals for hi s collection. His taste for sc ience and technology can be interpret ed as an unc easing effort to understand the n ature and purpose of creation.3 His open-minded interest in anything th at might lead to a better understanding of God’s creation characterizes him as a valuable, albeit unconventional, representative of his time.4
The question arises of how Witsen acquired the knowl- edge that prompted him to pub lish, for the fi rst time in
Holland, such an impor tant work on n aval architecture. This can be traced back to three sources. Part of his know- ledge came from books, many of which he read in the in- comparable Library of the very learned and esteemed gentleman Isaak Vossius (53 II 18) in Leiden (now part of the Leiden University Library). A second important source can be fou nd in ic onography: the c ollection of coins and medals of his brother Johan Witsen, secretary of the city of Amsterdam, with primitive depiction s of ships, together with the engravings he found in the incomparable trea- sure of engravings and drawings of the very learned gentleman Mr. Johan Uitenbogaert, revenue o cer for the city of Amsterdam (24 II 28) . Both sourc es pro- vided material for the hi storical sections of his book. F or his knowledge of contemporary shipbuilding, fi nally, he interviewed men of the trade. Jan Jacobszoon Vijzelaar, for instance, a former shipbuilder from Harlingen, was the
2