Aen de zuydtzijde van nova zembla… Dutch travel books of the 17th and 18th centuries in the library of Wrocław university (Poland)

Abstract

The article presents early printed Dutch books from the Wrocław University Library (Poland), one of the richest collections of neerlandica outside the Netherlands and Flanders. Attention is given to travel books from the Netherlands in the 17th and 18th centuries. Among them is De Waerachtighe beschrijvinge vande drie zeylagien … by noorden Noorvveghen, Moscovien ende Tartarien… (‘The True Description of the Three Sea Voyages … along North Norway, Moscovia and Tartaria…’) by Gerrit de Veer in the 1619 edition (which focuses on life on the White Sea and on Novaya Zemlya, and to the inhabitants of these areas: Nenets, Lapps, and Russians). There are also travel books about expeditions to the Southern Hemisphere of the world, such as the Iovrnael (‘Journal’) by Hendrick Ottsen about Rio de la Plata from 1617 (where penguins are described), the Beschrijvinghe (‘Description‘) by Pieter de Marees, or works by Olfert Dapper from the late 17th century about African countries. The late 17th and early 18th centuries are represented by Eberhard IJsbrant Ides’ and Adam Brand’s Driejarige reize naar China (‘Three Years’ Journey to China‘), as well as Reizen over Moskovië, door Persië en Indië (‘Travels across Moscovia, Persia and India‘) from 1714 by Cornelis de Bruyn. The article also presents a brief history of the library in Wrocław and provides an answer to the question of why such a rich collection of neerlandica can be found in this (rather unknown) Polish city of Wrocław. The article ends with an invitation to Russian and other colleagues to study the old prints in the Wrocław collection.