A First Popularisation of Travel Literature

Abstract

The travel collection (1590–1634) of the Frankfurt-based De Bry family brought together journals of exploration and discovery of America, Africa and Asia. In this collection, which was regarded as authoritative for nearly two hundred years, accounts of numerous navigators were translated into German and Latin, and subsequently combined with large copper-engravings. The famous ‘Itinerario’ (1596) of Jan Huygen van Linschoten formed one of the sources for this work. The character of the ‘Itinerario’ however was not fully respected by the De Brys. They firstly clarified Linschoten's sometimes rather specialised account. Secondly, they ‘popularised’ the ‘Itinerario’ by adding illustrations of a spectacular nature. These engravings and the accompanying prose were not always based on the original text and occasionally completely changed Linschoten's image of the natives. Both types of modification suggest the collection of the De Brys was aimed at a large and wide readership. The ‘emblematic format’ of the collection in an era in which emblem books were extremely popular also points in this direction. Within the genre of travel literature, these intentions make the De Bry collection a pioneering publication; until the mid-1640s, Northern European travel texts were of an essentially factual nature, it was only during the second half of the seventeenth Century, when travel accounts more widely began to meet literary criteria.1