La baye de Isle et Cite de Borneo [The Bay and City of Borneo island]

Description

copper engraving.

Map of Brunei first published by Cornelis Claesz in Amsterdam in 1602, to accompany Olivier van Noort’s account of his three year circumnavigation of 1598-1601). They were engraved by two of the foremost engravers of the day, namely Baptista van Doetecum and Benjamin Wright. Here the imprints are in final state, with numbers added in the lower corners, from Isaak Commelin’s 1646 “Begin ende Voortgangh of the VOC”, pl. 22.
Map/view of the Bay and City of Brunei, with the ‘Mauritius’ at anchor and surrounded by many local praws. It is the first map of Brunei, believed an original van Noort work, signed by engraver Baptista van Doetecum. Van Noort was only the second European explorer to visit Brunei, after Pigafetta in 1521 – a span of 79 years. “Van Noort’s ship is shown in the large bay of Brunei, marked Borneo. The map’s depiction of local boats clustered round van Noort’s vessel refers to the appearance of almost one hundred proas in the bay on January 1st, 1601. They surrounded the ship and their crews attempted to cut its anchor cable. The descriptions of the sultanate left by both Pigafetta in 1521 and van Noort both sound familiar to a modern visitor. Pigafetta placed the city a fair distance up the Brunei River, and describes it as built entirely over the water, with wooden houses sitting high on pilings, as much of the city of Brunei remains today. Noort, praised the island’s camphor as the finest available. (after Suarez)