Leen Helmink Antique Maps
Old books, maps and prints by Willem Barentsz
Willem Barentsz (c.1550-1597)
Willem Barentszoon was a pilot and Arctic explorer who was convinced by the theorists of the day that it was possible to reach and China and the Far East via a North East passage through the Arctic. On his first voyage in 1594 accompanied by Jan Huyghen van Linschoten he reached Novaya Zemlya but was for back by ice: he failed again the following year. On his third voyage in 1596-97 his ship was trapped in pack ice and, although many of his crew survived in open boats, Barentsz himself died on the return voyage.
He is noted for this 1595 chart book of the Mediterranean, the first of its kind, which was complementary to Waghenaer's charts of the Atlantic coasts, and which is sometimes found bound up with the later editions of Waghenaer.
(Moreland and Bannister)
