Le Flambeau de la navigation, monstrant la description et delineation de toutes les costes & havres de la mer occidentale, septentrionale, & orientale.

3 parts in 1 vol., 4to oblong: [engr. title with printed overslip pasted on- engr.front.-2-52], 119, 127-[1] pp., 20 + 22 engr. charts, of which 2 folding (title underlaid, some minor repairs, map 31 (32) after p. 89 and map 41 (42) after p. 120, some pencil corrections of page numbers, very little foxing, very faint, merely visible dampstains, esp. in upper margin from p. 94 to 114, and in central fold on pl. 19, delicately toned with an occasional little stain). Very nice copy.

Calf, covers with 19th-c. coat of arms, gilt ornamented spine with 5 raised bands, red edges (reset with original covers).

Complete first French edition of the conterfeit of Willem Jansz. Blaeu's "Licht der Zeevaert" (1st Dutch ed.: 1608) by Joannes Janssonius. Janssonius printed this pilot guide on his own presses from his own plates, these were faithful copies of Blaeu's plates with some minor alterations presumably re-engraved by Petrus Kaerius. Blaeu's own French copy was published one year earlier in 1619. The two concurrent publications of this pilot book is one of the most peculiar facts in the history of Dutch maritime cartography, according to van der Krogt. Clearly, the privilege granted to Blaeu when having published the 1st Dutch edition in 1608 was no longer valid. One of the two portraits on the engraved title is reputed to be one of William Blaeu. The nice engraved frontispiece shows a lesson in hydrography. Blaeu's "Klincdicht" is replaced by a Sonnet. The 1st part of the book consists of the "Briefve et claire introduction" comprising numerous diagrams of which two are with moveable volvelles (C3 and D 2). The 2 parts following are the first book dealing with navigation in Western Europe, and the second book on navigation in Eastern and Northern Europe. Blaeu's original "Licht der Zeevaert" contained only 41 charts; in the year 1618 an additional chart was included featuring Medenblick.
Ref. Koeman IV M.Bl 23J.