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HIGHLY ESTEEMED WHALING BOOK WITH 5 ENGRAVED MAPS & 13 OTHER ILLUSTRATIONS
ZORGDRAGER, Cornelis Gijsbertsz., and Abraham MOUBACH. Bloeijende Opkomst der Aloude en Hedendaagsche Groenlandsche Visschery. ... Uitgebreid met eene korte historische beschryving der noordere gewesten, ... Met byvoeging van de Walvischvangst, ... Nevens een korte beshryving van de Terreneufsche Bakkeljaau-Visschery.
Amsterdam, Isaak Tirion, 1728. 4to. Title-page in black and red, with 5 (of 6) engraved folding maps, 11 engraved plates (1 folding), 2 woodcut illustrations in text, 7 decorated woodcut initials and 6 woodcut tailpieces. Contemporary calf, gold-tooled spine and board edges, red and blue sprinkled edges. Lacking the engraved frontispiece and the map of Nova Zembla.
| Orders and Information | € 2500 |
Scarce reissue of the 1727 second and final edition (greatly expanded and revised from the first edition of 1720, and with additional plates) of a highly esteemed work on whaling. "It is by far the most important of the early authorities on the northern whale fishery and must always be one of the chief sources of information for the early history of the subject. It also gives one of the best figures of the Greenland Right Whale published prior to the present century, and also one of the best early figures of the Cachelot" (Allen). The present edition, first published by Thol & Alberts in The Hague and here reissued with a new title-page, adds not only the new section on Newfoundland cod fishing, but also adds new chapters and revises old ones in the main part of the book. Moubach was responsible for much of the new material.
The work opens with a survey of discovery voyages to the Northern seas, followed by descriptions of Greenland, Iceland, Davis Strait, Spitsbergen, Jan Mayen Island and Nova Zembla. These deal with the discovery and settlement of these areas as well as with aspects of fishery and trade. There are also descriptions of whaling, different whales, when and where they can be caught, meteorological conditions and advice on how to survive an arctic winter. The work also contains information on equiping whaling ships, ranging from detailed lists of food supplies to harpoons and other whale hunting gear. There are lists of whaling expeditions undertaken by the Dutch from 1669 to 1725, recording the number of ships that left on whaling expeditions, the number of ships lost at sea, the number of whales caught, the total amount of meat, as well as the price of whale-oil and other products. There is a similar list for Hamburg from 1670 to 1725, and a Dutch and a Hamburg/Bremen list of whaling company directors and captains.
The five maps depict the North Pole, Iceland, Greenland and Davis Strait, Spitsbergen and Jan Mayen Island, and the engraved folding plate depicts Nova Zembla. The other illustrations show various birds, whales and whaling scenes.
Unfortunately lacking the frontispiece and one map, but otherwise a very good copy, with some water stains and a tiny wormhole. Binding good, though worn at the hinges. The definitive edition of an essential resource for any study of the whaling trade.
