Antique Print of Natives of Southern Asia by Linschoten (c.1605)

Description: Antique print titled 'Provincie Pegu incola (..) - Incola ex Insulis Moluco (..) - Penequais familiae (..)'. Old print showing various figures including a man from Pegu, a man from the Moluccan islands, Penequais indians and inhabitants of S. Thomas. Illustration from an edition of Linschoten's Itinerario. This work informed Europeans of the 16th century Portuguese trade and navigation in southern Asia.

Artists and Engravers: Jan Huygen van Linschoten (1563 - 1611) was a Dutch Protestant merchant, traveller and historian. An alternative spelling of his second name is Huijgen. He is credited with publishing important information about Asian trade, such as the navigational routes that enabled the passage to the elusive East Indies to be opened to the English and the Dutch. This enabled the British East India Company and the Dutch East India Company to break the 16th century monopoly enjoyed by the Portuguese on trade with the East Indies.