17th Century Previous Next

Detail of a printed book shows engraved title page depicting women, ships, and animals. Text in Dutch.

Detail of a printed book shows a fold-out illustration of people standing in a town square with buildings surrounding them and in the background. Text in Dutch.

Detail of a printed book shows a full-page illustration of people standing in a town square with buildings surrounding them and in the background. Text in Dutch on the opposite page.

Detail of a printed book shows a full-page illustration of two small boats, and the people in it, falling down a waterfall. Text in Dutch on the opposite page.

Detail of a printed book shows a full-page illustration of a mountainous landscape, including pyramid-like structures. Text in Dutch on the opposite page.

Detail of a printed book shows white binding and small red label on the spine.

Engelsch edelmans, zeldzaame en gedenkwaardige zee- en land-reizen

Eduward Meltons

1681

By the 17th century, travel narratives had become so lucrative for printers, they decided to repackage them in order to create new, imaginary voyages and travellers. The Amsterdam printer Van Hoorn published the round the world trip of a certain Edward Melton, who supposedly travelled to Egypt, New Netherland, the West Indies and Asia. However, Melton seems to have been an invention of the publisher, who used existing travel narratives like Johann Michael Wansleben (1677), Adriaen van der Donck (1655) and Arnoldus Montanus (1671) and attributed them to Melton. The account of the West Indies is in part taken from a work he published three years before, Exquemelin's *De Americaensche Zee-Roovers* (1678). This allowed Van Hoorn to reuse some of the impressive plates that were made for this work.