Title Page of Oost-Indische Voyagie - Wouter Schouten

The 1676 title page of Wouter Schouten's travelogue, documenting his voyages with the Dutch East India Company.

This print represents the title page of the 1676 edition of Wouter Schouten's 'Oost-Indische Voyagie', published in Amsterdam by Jacob Meurs and Johannes van Someren. Schouten, a Dutch surgeon and traveller, documented his experiences during his service with the Dutch East India Company (VOC). The text provides a comprehensive summary of the contents, detailing his accounts of naval and land battles against the Portuguese and Makassarese, alongside descriptions of the geography, customs, and natural history of the East Indies. The typography reflects the standard layout for seventeenth-century Dutch travelogues, utilising a mix of Roman and Blackletter typefaces to organise information. The central woodcut emblem features a stag within a circular border, accompanied by the Latin inscription 'DONAVIT HOC CAESAR ME'. This device serves as a printer's mark or publisher's emblem, common in the period to denote the authority of the publication house. As a historical document, this page offers insight into the dissemination of colonial knowledge in the Netherlands during the late seventeenth century. The inclusion of the phrase 'Verciert met seer konstige Koopere Platen' (Decorated with very artistic copper plates) indicates that the book was marketed as a visual experience, promising the reader detailed engravings of the cities and events described. The paper shows the expected signs of age, including slight discolouration and the texture of period-appropriate rag paper. This print is a piece of cartographic and literary history, suitable for those interested in the history of exploration, the Dutch East India Company, or the evolution of early modern book design.