Jan Huygen Linschoten (1536-1611)
Histoire de la navigation de Jean Hugues de Linscot Hollandais et de son voyage es Indes Orientales. Amsterdam: Theodore Pierre, 1610.
First French edition of this highly influential work on navigation, travel and exploration, from the library of Nicolas Fouquet (1615-1680), Superintendent of Finances in France under Louis XIV. Translated from Spanish and Portuguese documents on navigation and geography, Linschoten's work gathers together in encyclopaedic fashion 16th-century Western European knowledge and learning relating to the East and West Indies. It served as a direct stimulus to the building of the vast English and Dutch overseas empires. As a navigational aid, it was so highly esteemed that a copy was given to each ship sailing for the Indies. Linschoten's own first-hand knowledge came from his voyages to Goa in 1583 and to the Arctic with Willem Barents in 1594 in search of a North East Passage. It was first published with 42 maps and plates in Dutch in 1596 and then in Latin in 1599.

Nicolas Fouquet enjoyed a glittering career as Superintendent of Finances in France from 1653-1661. Born into an influential family, he used his office to amass huge wealth, and augmented it in 1651 by marrying Marie de Castille, receiving about 160,000 livres in a dowry from her wealthy Spanish family. He collected rare books and manuscripts, amassing a library of some 30,000 volumes, many of which today are in the Bibliothèque nationale de France. However, Louis XIV was suspicious of his political ambitions, and Fouquet sealed his fate by throwing a lavish party at his magnificent château on his estate of Vaux-le-Vicomte to entertain the king. Accused of peculation (maladministration of the state's funds) and lèse-majesté (actions harmful to the well-being of the monarch), the king had him imprisoned from 1661 until his death in 1680. Brunet III, 1091; Borba de Moraes, p. 489; Sabin 41369.

Folio (295 x 198mm). 7 folding engraved plates, 58 engraved illustrations in the text, errata leaf at end (title mounted, second folding plate with 40mm tear repaired and strengthened, maps of Java and Goa bound in so tightly as to be unable to be unfolded, faint staining to a couple of folding plates, leaf B1 folding to prevent map on B1v being trimmed, very small hole to B3 affecting a couple of letters). Slightly later calf, gilt arms of Fouquet on covers (rebacked).

?B.H.A.N (initials on title in an early hand) – Nicolas Fouquet (1615-1680, armorial binding; Olivier 1398 fer I) – label erased and defaced on rear pastedown.

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