Читать книгу The Isle Of Pines (1668) and An Essay in Bibliography by Worthington Chauncey Ford - Henry Neville - Страница 10

Table of Contents

In June and July, 1668, four tracts on the Isle of Pines from the same pen were licensed and published in London, which may for convenience be designated the first and second parts of the narrative, and the two parts in continuation. From London the tract soon passed to Holland, which had ever been a greedy consumer of voyages of discovery, for the greatness of that nation depended upon the sea, at once its most potent enemy and friend.{1} Three Dutch editions have been found, the earliest in point of time being that made by Jacob Vinckel, of Amsterdam.

1 Holland was the centre of map publication as the twenty

yean before 1668 saw the issue of atlases by Jansson, Blaeu,

Mercator, Doncker, Cellarius, Loon, Visscher, and Goos, all

published at Amsterdam. Phillips' list for this period gives

atlases published elsewhere—those of Boissevin (Paris,

1653), Lubin (Paris, 1659), Nicolosi (Rome, 1660), Dudley

(Florence, 1661), Du Val (Paris, 1662), Jollain (Paris

1667), Cluver (Wolfen-bûttel, 1667?) and Ortelius (Venice,

1667).

His second title is an exact translation of the second title of the London first part. This version, however, omitted an essential part of the relation. The London second title is also that of the issue made at Amsterdam by Jacob Stichter, being the Vinckel version, word for word, and almost line for line, but the type used is the gothic, and the spelling of words is not the same. Further, Stichter was possessed of some imagination and decorated his title-page with a map of a part of the island, showing ranges of hills, a harbor or mouth of a river, with conventional soundings, and two towns or settlements. As each of these issues contains only eight pages of text, the first London part only was known to the publishers. The third Dutch edition was put out by Joannes Naeranus, at Rotterdam, and in a foreword he gives the following reason for issuing the tract:

To the Reader A part of the present relation is also printed by Jacob Vinckel at Amsterdam, being defective in omitting one of the principal things, so do we give here a true copy which was sent to us authoritatively out of England, but in that language, in order that the curious reader may not be deceived by the poor translation, and for that reason this very astonishing history fall under suspicion. Lastly, admire God's wondrous guidance, and farewell.

His publication contains twenty pages of text, and is not an accurate translation of the English tract in parts, but rather a paraphrase of the text. To make the confusion the greater, he expressly states on the title-page that he used a copy received from London, and gives the London imprint which will fit only the first London part. For "by S. G." appears only on the title-page of that part.