Page 261 - Nicolaes Witsen & Shipbuilding in the Dutch Golden Age
P. 261

Figure A.2. An illustration from Witsen’s section on antiquity. Witsen made use of images found on coins and reliefs, which explains the squat form of many of the illustrations.
antiquarian book market. You don’t have to wait years to find an original copy for sale somewhere.
The Second Edition, 1690
After 1671 Witsen did not rest. He had continued collecting material to enlarge his work, and in 1690 a second edition was printed. Taken as a whole, the struc- ture of the second edition is somewhat better than the first. Many subjects were expanded and improved, and the new section on Russian shipbuilding with its beautiful illustrations is especially remarkable.25
This second edition, with the new title Architectura navalis et regimen nauti- cum ofte Aaloude en Hedendaagsche Scheeps-bouw en Bestier . . . , came from the presses of the famous publishing house of Blaeu. For a long time the ex is- tence of the sec ond edition was completely unknown, as no authors on ship- building or bib liographers mentioned it. The first copy came to light in 1 913, when it was discovered by the antiquarian book dealer Wouter Nijhoff.26 Since then, the existence of four other copies has been confirmed. The production of the 1690 edition differs in one impor tant aspect from that of 1671: whereas the first edition was the legal property of publishers who had put it on the mark et, the second edition was printed at the author’s expense, just like the two edi- tions of Noord en Oost Tartarije of 1692 and 1705. From his correspondence with Cuper and others it is clear that Witsen by now had complete control over the production and distribution of his publications. As with his other books, Witsen kept on collecting material, waiting for letters containing new information from his extensive network of correspondents and always intending to add this infor- mation to his work. In the end Witsen grew old and l acked the energy to finish the book. After his death in 1717 the description of his estate includes mention of “Affgedrukte Exemplaren van ’t boeck van de Scheepsbouw” (printed copies of the book on shipbuilding), with an estimated value of 2,500 guilders. Peters calculates this as between 500 and 1, 500 copies.27 As Witsen owned the stoc k
Variations on Witsen
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