THE IOURNALL, OR DAYLY REGISTER, CONTAYNING A TRUE MANIFESTATION, AND HISTORICALL DECLARATION OF THE VOYAGE, ACCOMPLISHED BY EIGHT SHIPPES OF AMSTERDAM, UNDER THE CONDUCT OF IACOB CORNELISZEN NECK ADMIRALL, & WYBRANDT VAN WARWICK VICE-ADMIRALL, WHICH SAYLED FROM AMSTERDAM THE FIRST DAY OF MARCH, 1598. SHEWING THE COURSE THEY KEPT, AND WHAT OTHER NOTABLE MATTERS HAPPENED UNTO THEM IN THE SAYD VOYAGE by Neck, Jacob Cornelissoon van - 1601.

London: [Simon Stafford and Felix Kingston] for Cuthbert Burby & John Flasket, 1601.. [1],58,[4] leaves. Woodcut vignette of sailing ship on titlepage. Extra-illustrated with 19 engravings (numbered 1-3, 19, 4-18) from Van Neck's HISTORIALE BESCHRIJVINGHE (Amsterdam, 1619). Text and plates "inlaid to size," remargined to 9 1/4 x 6 3/4 inches. Quarto. 19th-century mottled calf, gilt, spine gilt, gilt leather label. Boards and spine slightly worn. Titlepage and plates mounted to larger sheets; printed pages of text inlaid in larger sheets. Engraved plates annotated in ink with corresponding "page" (leaf, recto or verso) of text. Lacking the dedication leaf (paraph 2) and leaf Q4 (blank), pages shaved (with occasional slight loss of text in lower margin), rust hole in leaf P3 (affecting a few letters on recto), tear in leaf Q3 (repaired, not affecting text). Overall, a very good copy, with the 1860 engraved bookplate of the Library of the Earls of Macclesfield on front pastedown, shelf marks inscribed on verso of front free endpaper. Embossed stamp of the Earls of Macclesfield in upper extended margins of titlepage leaf and following two leaves of text. The first English edition of Van Neck's account of his 1598 voyage to the East Indies, translated from the 1601 Amsterdam edition of the author's HET TWEEDE BOECKE. The Dutch navigator, who represented the Verre Company, commanded three ships which were part of the first successful Dutch trading voyage to the region. The other two ships were commanded by Wybrand Van Warwijck and Jacob Van Heemskerk. Van Neck's vessel became separated from the other two after rounding the Cape of Good Hope, and the three did not reunite again until his arrival in Java in late December 1598. Unlike his Dutch predecessor, Cornelis Houtman, who three years earlier had seized the port of Bantam, Van Neck dealt diplomatically with the natives. "Rather than rejecting the inflated prices asked by the local ruler, he offered to pay over the odds in order to cement a lasting relationship...Van Neck's was the most profitable of the pre-VOC [Dutch East India Company] voyages. Despite the apparently high price paid for spices, he netted a profit of 300 per cent on his overall costs. In 1601, fourteen fleets comprising sixty-five ships sailed for the East Indies, but by that time competition between rival Dutch operators, as well as with the Portuguese, had inflated prices and none were as successful as Van Neck's first enterprise" - Howgego. While focused on activity in the East Indies, EUROPEAN AMERICANA notes that the text includes references to Brazil and tobacco from the West Indies.

Van Neck's account was popular throughout the first half of the 17th century and was reprinted and translated into German and French as well as English. It also appeared in collections of voyages such as those by De Bry, Hulsius, and Colijn. This extra- illustrated copy includes nineteen engraved plates from the Amsterdam 1619 edition of Van Neck's HISTORIALE BESCHRIJVINGHE published by Michiel Colijn. The images are mounted on separate sheets and bound in the book at the appropriate portion of the text. The engravings are annotated in ink, indicating the appropriate page (i.e. recto or verso of a specific leaf) related to the image.

A rare book on the market. Prior to this copy from the Macclesfield sale in March 2007, the last copy previously available was sold at the Boise Penrose sale in 1971. Both EUROPEAN AMERICANA and STC record only two copies in the U.S., at the Huntington and NYPL, the latter noted as imperfect. EUROPEAN AMERICANA 601/66. STC 18417 (noting quires A-G printed by Stafford, paraph 2 and quires H-Q printed by Kingston). TIELE-MULLER, p.144. HOWGEGO N13.