Note 815 — Chapter VIII

Nieuwe Wereld ofte Beschrijvinghe van West Indien, uijt veelerhande Schriften ende Aenteekeningen bij een versamelt door Joannes de Laet, Leyden, 1625,—“The New World, or Description of West Indies, from several MSS and notes collected by J. de Laet.” A second edition in Dutch appeared, with slightly changed title, in 1630; a third in Latin,—Novus Orbis, seu Descriptionis Indiæ Occidentalis Libri xviii.,—was published in 1633; and a fourth in French, entitled Histoire du Nouveau Monde, ou Description des Indes Occidentales, in 1640. The State Library at Albany, N. Y., has copies of all except the first, and all are noted in the O’Callaghan and Carter-Brown Catalogues. [A copy of the 1625 edition was priced by Muller in 1872 at ten florins. There is a copy in Charles Deane’s library. The 1630 edition, called “verbetert, vermeerdert, met eenige nieuwe Caerten verciert,” has fourteen maps, engraved chiefly by Hessel Gerritsz, and good copies are worth about six to eight guineas. The 1633 edition was priced by Rich in 1832 at one pound ten shillings, but a good copy of it will now bring about five guineas. The 1640 edition has appreciated in the same time from one pound four shillings (Rich, in 1832) to two guineas. Translations of such parts as pertain to New Netherland are in the N. Y. Hist. Soc. Coll., new series, i. 281, and ii. 373. Brodhead, in 1841, tried in vain in Holland to find De Laet’s papers. De Laet’s library was sold April 27, 1650. There is a catalogue of it noted in the Huth Catalogue, ii. 414.—Ed.]