Civil and Corrupt Asia: Image and Text in the Itinerario and Icones of Jan van Huygen van Linscho ten

Abstract

Jan Huygen van Linschoten (1562-1611) was a Dutchman who, in 1596, penned the famous "Itinerario, " an account of his travel to the Indian Peninsula and its eastern surroundings that described the inhabitants of this vast region and quickly became a travel guide for everyone going there. Van Linschoten is held as a key eyewitness of the Portuguese-Asian empire at its height, and as one who worked to shift the center of European expansion from the Iberian peninsula and Italy to the Netherlands and England. In 1604 he published an abridged version, the "Icones et Habitus Indorum, " which contained 36 of the engravings from the "Itinerario" together with Latin captions. "Divine and Spoiled Asia" reproduces these engravings and their captions (in English), together with an extensive analysis of them by historian Ernst van den Boogaart. In addition to providing unparalleled insights into early modern European views of the East, the engravings also contain valuable depictions of the peoples, customs, and flora and fauna of late sixteenth-century India and neighboring countries.