Interchanging representations: Dutch publishers and the De Bry collection of voyages (1596–1610)

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The monumental collection of voyages made by the De Bry family in Frankfurt (1590–1634) contained many well-known Dutch travel accounts. The De Brys, copper engravers and publishers, also copied many of the illustrations for which the Dutch narratives were rightly famous around 1600. In addition, they designed new engravings, often depicting spectacular episodes, pagan rituals and other strange habits, in order to enhance the appeal of their collection. Hence the representations of the overseas world in the De Bry collection were markedly different from those presented in the original accounts. The new Frankfurt plates were in turn imitated in the United Provinces, at the expense of more authoritative home-made designs. As a result, much of the iconography of the overseas world traditionally regarded as Dutch, was in fact constructed in a German workshop. With images travelling back and forth between Amsterdam and Frankfurt, this constituted not only an interchange of representations, but also a process of artistic copying against the accepted current of cultural influence in early modern Europe.