The FIRST STATE of a fabulous two-sheet sea chart of the Indian Ocean, South East Asia and Australia. Hendrick Doncker was born 1625-26 and became, in the second half of the century, one of the most active publishers of sea charts and atlases. ‘The first edition of the Zee-Atlas appeared in 1659, of which no surviving example is known. Its contents can be deduced from the example recorded in an old catalogue from the Amsterdam bookdealer, Frederick Muller. Doncker is known to have been in partnership with Goos and Lootsman on the Zeespiegel; however, the Zee-Atlas was entirely his own production’ (Burden).

Doncker gained a reputation for including the latest information. Whilst the nature of the maps layout did not allow him to include the results of Tasman’s voyage of 1642-43, it did include those of his second voyage as seen in the presence of numerous toponyms in ‘Hollandia Nova’. These include the date 1644 seen here and those in the region of ‘Carpentaria’. Burden (1996) 337; Koemen (1967-70) IV Don 2 nos. 13 & 14; Frederick Muller (1875) Catalogue of Books, Maps, Plates …, pt. 3 item 1934 (recording an example of the 1659 edition); Schilder (1976) no. 81; Tooley ‘Early Maps Dutch Period’ 21.