La nef ou prau Royale de Borneo [Royal Nave or Paraw of Borneo]

Description

copper engraving.

View of the royal barque 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. 23.
In November The third print depicts the royal barque of the Sultan of Brunei, with whom the Dutch negotiated for pepper and fresh supplies, around New Year 1601. Van Noort was only the second European explorer to visit Brunei, after Pigafetta in 1521 – a span of 79 years. 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)