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HISTORY OF DUTCH AMERICA IN PUBLISHER'S WRAPPERS
LAMBRECHTSEN, Nicolaas Cornelis. Korte Beschrijving van de Ontdekking en der verdere Lotgevallen van Nieuw-Nederland, weleer eene volkplanting van het gemeenebest der Vereenigde Nederlanden in America.
Middelburg, S. van Benthem, 1818. 8vo. With a large folding map (plate size 54.5 x 42 cm). Publisher's red-sprinkled wrappers with printed spine label.
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An untrimmed copy in the original publisher's wrappers of the first edition of Lambrecht's account of the Dutch colony in America upto its cession to England in 1674, as well as an account of the fate of the Dutch settlers after the British takeover. It covers the discovery and exploration of the regions around present-day New York (pointing out that Henry Hudson, though an Englishman, was sent to America by the Dutch East India Company), the Dutch relations with the English colonies in Virginia and Massachusetts Bay, and the English takeover. New York was beginning to establish itself as America's leading city in the early nineteenth century, and a growing interest in its history made the history of the Dutch colony topical (Washington Irving's pseudonymous A History of New York ... by Diedrich Knickerbocker had appeared in 1809, with the fictitious author presented as a descendent of the early Dutch settlers). The folding map, entitled Kaart van Nieuw-Nederland , covers the American coast from present-day Delaware to Maine, and extends inland as far as the St. Lawrence River and a small part of Lake Onterio. It was drawn by J.P. Bourjé and engraved by J.C. Bendorp, and combines an up-to-date cartographic image based on Aaron Arrowsmith's 1804 Map of America , with historical data from maps in Arent Roggeveen's 1675 sea atlas and Arnoldus Montanus's 1671 atlas of America.
In 1817 Lambrechtsen (1752-1823) was made an honorary member of the New York Historical Society, which published an English translation of his book in 1841. The present first edition was issued both separately (with the present spine title, "Beschrijving van Nieuw-Nederland") and by the Zeeland Scientific Society as Nieuwe Verhandelingen van het Genootschap der Wetenschappen , vol. III, part I. The present copy has survived virtually untrimmed in the original red-sprinkled publisher's wrappers and printed spine label, with most deckels intact. In fine condition, with only faint foxing in the map. The wrappers are only slightly worn, with parts of the spine and spine label gone. A fine copy, virtually untrimmed and in the original publisher's wrappers, of an account of Dutch America.
