Page 258 - Nicolaes Witsen & Shipbuilding in the Dutch Golden Age

Appendix
complaining about the lack of time. In the end, the stock of printed sheets of the book remained in his house until Witsen died in 1717. These sheets survived and were finally published, with a new title page and introduction, by M. Schalekamp in Amsterdam in 1785.12
Some of Witsen’s character traits have clearly left traces in hi s writing. He was a precise and careful man, sometimes even too careful. He had an inclina- tion to substantiate points of view with an abundance of arguments, sometimes undermining the effect of his reasoning process. Witsen strove for completeness and did not want to omit anything that might be relevant to the subject. How- ever, he often l acked the ability to an alyze his material thoroughly and to pro- vide the reader with a well-structured overview. In many cases he wanted to let his sources speak for themselves and provides lengthy quotations. As a result, Aeloude en Hedendaegsche Scheeps-bouw en Bestier and his other writings are difficult to interpret. Many commentators have praised the contents of the books but criticized their structure.13
After completing Aeloude en Hedendaegsche Scheeps-bouw en Bestier, Wit- sen embarked on his political career and confined his scholarly interests to his spare time. He continued to display as much interest in shipping and shipbuild- ing as he did for Russia. From a young age, he was also an ardent collector of curiosities. As a director of the Dutch East India Company and through his many other contacts, he was able to acquire valuable information, drawings, and ob- jects from all over the globe. Witsen corresponded quite extensively with schol- ars in Europe about his collection and findings. During a visit to England in 1689 he made contact with British scholars, showed them his map, and discussed his information on Ru ssia and East Asi a. His knowledge was appreciated, and he was elected a fellow of the Roya l Society in the same year.14
Witsen’s scholarly interests were those of a rich private collector and learned amateur. He always remained very much a part of the ruling class in his native town and far above the ordinary crowds. He was deeply hurt when, in a discus- sion onmaritimetrade withPrince William IIIofOrange, he was cutshort with the remark “Sailors have no notion of politics.” The prince was sneering not only at Witsen as a member of a group of his political rivals, the Amsterdam merchant class, but also at Witsen’s rather suspect interest in the lowly business of seafar- ing and shipbuilding.15
The First Edition, 1671
Aeloude en Hedendaegsche Scheeps-bouw en Bestier aims to provide a compre- hensive overview of building, outfitting, and operating ships from antiquity up to Witsen’s own time. The result of Witsen’s ambition for completeness was a large and expensive book, covering 574 pages and containing 114 engravings. The first section, concerned with antiquity, has little value for us today, for Witsen simply reproduced the theories of others and pr ovided no origin al insights. This sec- tion even contains illustrations of fantastic ships carrying an entire ba silica or other large buildings. Copied from drawings made by Pirro Ligorio (1510–83) and obtained by Witsen from an It alian correspondent, these il lustrations (marked “P. L.” by Witsen in his book) derived from the vivid imagination of Ligorio rather than antiquity.16 Modern knowledge of Greek and Roman shipping renders Wit- sen’s comments obsolete.17
Witsen skips the Middle Ages entirely. In the seventeenth century this period was regarded as a time of darkness and barbarity and thus unwo rthy of much
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