Page 256 - Nicolaes Witsen & Shipbuilding in the Dutch Golden Age

Appendix
(variants, in bib liographical terminology) can explain much about the produc - tion of a book, too.1 If certain copies contain the variant pages, they are usually referred to as a “state” of an edition.
The user of a modern f acsimile of a seventeenth- century book should be aware of the pos sibility and par ticularities of variants. Every facsimile should therefore have an introduction describing the makeup of the original book and a statement explaining why a certain copy and a particular state was used as a basis. Preferably, other variant pages should appear in an appendi x to the f ac- simile. Without this information the status of the book as a source is not clear and therefore unreliable. Practically everyone studying Witsen nowadays will be using a facsimile edition, as original copies of the Aeloude en Hedendaegsche Scheeps-bouw en Bes tier have become rare and very expensive. The original 1671 edition is available only in the rare book department of large or specialized libraries. An original copy of the second, 1690 edition is an extremely rare book, bearing the new title Architectura navalis et regimen nauticum ofte Aaloude en Hedendaagsche Scheeps-bouw en Bestier . . . (Shipbuilding and Management, or Ancient and Modern Shipbuilding and Management), which adds Latin to the original Dutch title. Only five copies are known today, and just three are acces- sible in libraries. A f acsimile of the 16 71 edition was published in 1979. Some years before, in 1970, a facsimile of the 1690 edition had already seen the light.2 Neither facsimile edition of these books contains an introduction.
This article aims to provide the user of these facsimiles with some informa- tion about the nature of each book and its makeup. It also identifies the variant states and tries to expl ain why they were made. But before t urning our atten- tion to the study of the books themselves, it is useful to elaborate a little on its author.
Nicolaes Witsen as an Author on Naval Architecture
Nicolaes Witsen (1641–1717) was thirty years old when Aeloude en Hedendae- gsche Scheeps-bouw en Bes tier was published. Witsen was certainly not a shipwright himself but rather the son of a wealthy merchant with a leading posi- tion within the most important city in the Netherl ands, Amsterdam.3 Nicolaes’ father, Cornelis Witsen, was a man w ith substantial fi nancial interests in c om- merce and shipping. He was a director of the West India Company, had a seat in the Admiralty of Amsterdam, and was a member of the Pilotage Commission. Other members of the family were also employed in commerce. Amsterdam in the seventeenth c entury was by f ar the richest and most powe rful city of the Netherlands and the c ommercial capital of Europe. The international business- men formed the ruling class; nobility and religious leaders played no role in the city’s affairs. The Amsterdam officials had many tentacles in the provincial and the national government. Their voices could reach far beyond the city walls, and they had a very significant impact on Dutch foreign policy. The young Nicolaes Witsen had all the prospects to become an important man in his native city and, as a consequence, in the Dutch republic. He made excellent use of these oppor- tunities. Between 1682 and 1 706 Witsen was one of the mayors of Amsterdam, special ambassador to England in 1689, and beginning in 1693 a director of the mighty Dutch East India Company.
In his youth Witsen must have learned about commerce, including a gre at deal on shipping aff airs. But shipbuilding is quite a different trade from ship-
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