Georgy. a. Speilbergen

This engraved portrait depicts Joris van Spilbergen, a Dutch admiral associated with early seventeenth-century voyages in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. He is shown in formal dress, presented as an experienced naval commander. The inscription around his head reads “Aetat. Georgy. a. Speilbergen sua 54, ” indicating that he was aged fifty-four when the portrait was made.

The image appears as a frontispiece to De reis van Joris van Spilbergen naar Ceylon, Atjeh en Bantam 1601–1604, a published account of his earlier voyage to Asia. Spilbergen later commanded a circumnavigation between 1614 and 1618, one of several Dutch expeditions that followed the routes opened by Ferdinand Magellan and Sir Francis Drake.

The portrait situates Spilbergen within a tradition of printed travel literature in which navigators were presented as authoritative figures. Such images reinforced the connection between exploration, publication, and reputation, presenting the individual as both eyewitness and agent of overseas expansion.