Publishing matters: Cornelis Claesz

Within several months of the crew's unexpected return to the United Provinces, Gerrit de Veer's narrative was made available for a broad audience by the Amsterdam publisher Cornelis Claesz. This bookseller, who published almost all early Dutch travel accounts, had immediately grasped the commercial attractiveness of the report of this heroic wintering. He had some 30 illustrations made by a copper engraver, and finished the book in the spring of 1598, in time for the internationally renowned Frankfurt book fair.

The book trade had experienced explosive growth in the last decades of the 16th century, and once the success of De Veer's Dutch narrative had become obvious, Cornelis Claesz quickly had the work translated into French. Illustration 11. Title-page to the first French edition of De Veer's report, Vraye description de trois voyages..., also published by Cornelis Claesz. (or, in French, Corneille Nicolas) in 1598.

Both the Dutch and the French edition were reprinted twice in a period of ten years, emphasizing the instant popularity of the narrative:

• 1598: 1st Dutch edition, published by Cornelis Claesz. in Amsterdam.

• 1st French edition, published by Cornelis Claesz. in Amsterdam.

• 1599: 2nd Dutch edition.

• 1600: 2nd French edition.

• 1605: 3rd Dutch edition.

• 1609: 3rd French edition.

Although it is difficult to say anything conclusive regarding the number of copies, it is thought that one edition generally constituted between 1,000 and 1,500 copies, suggesting that within ten years some 4,000 copies were printed of both the Dutch and the French version of De Veer's account. This makes it one of the most popular books of the early 17th century.

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