Superb example of Waghenaer's sea pilot in fine original full wash colour.

"Waghenaer's work was a milestone in the development of West European navigation. His charts brought together the pictorial silhouettes that had been a standard feature of traditional rutters used by pilots, and combined these with updated coastal outlines. In addition, there were compass roses and lines of navigational direction, as well as soundings to help navigators make their way into ports and havens" (Schilder).

After a long career at sea, Waghenaer became collector of maritime dues in his hometown of Enkhuizen in 1579. Losing this post in 1582, he began work on what was to become one of the most successful maritime books of its age: a pioneering synthesis of information from manuscript charts, rutters, ships' logs, all of which he systematized for the first time, illustrated with informative and beautifully engraved charts.

The demand for Waghenaer's charts required translations for foreign pilots, and this Latin version was only the first, with subsequent translations into English, German, and French. The atlas was "the greatest single advance in the history of hydrographic publication. Within the covers of a single work it provided the seaman with a manual of practical navigation, a set of printed charts on a common scale, covering the coasts and waters of northern and western Europe, and sailing directions which were otherwise only to be found in rutters unaccompanied by charts" (Skelton). Published charts of the coast of Europe were based on Waghenaer's work for at least a century, and all such later collections of sea charts were called after him "waghenaers" or "waggoners" in English and "chartiers" in French.

The present example conforms in part to Koeman Wag 6 - the first German edition - though with a few exceptions: the title and dedication of the first part is taken from first Dutch edition - dated 1584 - but with the 36 text pages omitted. All charts in the first and second part bear German text above the charts, an are in state 'D', having been reworked by Claesz. The distribution of the charts, is also slightly different, with 21 in the first part, and 26 in the second. These amendments, due to the contemporary binding, and the consistency of the colour, would appear to have been intentional