Lucas Janszoon Waghenaer (c.1553-1606) published the ‘Spieghel der Zeevaerdt’ between 1583-85 with a series of engraved folio sea charts. It was an immediate success and enabled him to remain in touch with the maritime community. This provided him with a constant flow of new enhanced information. Having sold the rights to the work to Cornelis Claesz by the late 1580s he began to formulate a new work to be entitled the ‘Thresoor der Zeevaert’. He chose to use the more familiar horizontal format which his fellow pilots were more familiar with and was easier to handle. He also chose to add considerably more coastal profiles in woodcut within the text with improved sailing instructions.

The twenty-two charts were again engraved by Joannes van Doutecum (d.1605). The charts in the ‘Spieghel’ bore Dutch and then Latin titles also. Here the titles are provided in Dutch and French. The coastlines are again displayed in profile although with less detail as the scale is reduced. One new feature is the inclusion of bearing markers for notable landmarks. The work similarly covered western and north western European waters. It too was published by his son-in-law Franciscus Raphelengius and printed again at the Plantijn Press in Leiden in 1592. All subsequent editions were printed by Cornelis Claesz with Waghenaer retaining the rights.

The chart extends further east commencing at Boulogne as far west as Roscoff in Brittany. The Dover Straits and the south east corner of England from Deal and Dover in Kent to Brighton in Susses is also included. The Channel Islands display a modest improvement in the shape of Guernsey and Jersey now displays ‘S. Hilari’ and the town of Trinity in the north of the island. The coastal profiles utilised in his earlier charts are retained albeit on a reduced scale. It is ornamented with two compass roses, three vessels, sea monsters, and two cartouche. The upper right one with the Dutch title bears scales of both German and Spanish miles. A beautiful engraved chart. As the ‘Thresoor der Zeevaert’ was of more practical use at sea, the number of surviving examples is considerably less than the ‘Spieghel’. Indeed, no example could be traced at auction on the Rare Book Hub. Provenance: private Jersey collection. Koeman IV pp. 502-4, Wag 17 no. 2Aa; Schilder (2003) MCN VII pp. 62-73; Skelton (1965) Introduction to Facsimile.