Nova tabula insularum Iavae, Sumatrae, Borneonis et aliarum Malaccam usque, delineata in insula Iava, ubi ad vivum designantur vada et brevia scopulique interjacentes descripta

Theodor de Bry was a Liège-born engraver, publisher, and bookseller active in Frankfurt, whose publishing house specialised in illustrated accounts of European voyages. This map was published by the de Bry firm in 1599 as part of India Orientalis, a compendium of travel narratives and maps documenting European exploration of Asia and Africa. It relates to the first Dutch voyage to the East Indies, led by Cornelis de Houtman between 1595 and 1597.

The map covers the waters around Java, Sumatra, Borneo, the Malay Peninsula, and adjoining islands. Its long Latin title states that it was drawn in Java and that reefs, shoals, rocks, and other navigational hazards were shown from direct observation. It therefore belongs to a group of maps closely associated with the practical maritime knowledge generated by the first Dutch expeditions to Southeast Asia. The map derives from Cornelis Claesz.’s separately issued Java Sea chart of 1598 (73), which had been prepared in connection with Willem Lodewijcksz.’s Historie van Indien (54). That chart was reportedly withheld from the printed voyage account at the request of Amsterdam merchants concerned about the commercial value of its navigational information, but Cornelis Claesz. later issued it as a separate loose sheet. The de Bry firm reduced and re-engraved the chart for inclusion in India Orientalis, part 2, making this Dutch maritime information available to a wider European readership outside the original Amsterdam publishing context.

Although much of the original content was preserved, including four Dutch ships representing de Houtman’s fleet, the de Bry firm changed the presentation of the map. The six illustrative vignettes in the upper right corner of Cornelis Claesz.’s version were removed and replaced with a bilingual title in Latin and Dutch. In the process of copying, a cartographic displacement was also introduced: Thomas Suárez notes that the northern coasts of Java and Bali are shifted approximately one degree farther north than in Lodewijcksz.’s original survey.

This map is closely connected with Cornelis Claesz.’s Java Sea chart on which it was based (73), and with the related de Bry example in the collection (104). It is also connected with Lodewijcksz.’s printed account of the voyage (54), Claesz.’s route map of the outward and return voyages (69), and the de Bry firm’s adaptation of that route map in India Orientalis, part 3 (67). Together, these works show how information from the first Dutch voyage to the East Indies circulated through Dutch and German publishing networks at the end of the sixteenth century, moving between eyewitness narrative, separate map publication, and illustrated travel compendium.