Description

Explore images from our travel treasures and see how we encountered the other in former times.

This collection includes many lavishly illustrated travel books, most of which date from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The travel books bear witness of the broad interests and the highly international orientation of the Jesuits. The books do not only address Catholic missionary zeal, but deal also with trade missions and scientific expeditions. The hybrid genre of Western travel writing is interesting because it potentially covers a multitude of subjects: (natural) history, religion, geography, economy, natural science, ethnography, anthropology and so on. The books are full of stories of encounters with the ‘other,’ thus touching on issues related to the interplay of ‘other’ and ‘own’ identities, of cultural differences and similarities. Travel descriptions do not only provide insight into other peoples and cultures, but also have much to say about the person who writes about them, notably his or her perspective, norms and values.

(Homburg, E., & Klijn, A. (Eds.). (2014). Encountering 'the other' : Travel books on north-america, japan and china from the maastricht jesuit library, 1500-1900 (Marble research papers, edition 2014, volume vi). Maastricht: Maastricht University.


These travel books are indicative of not only the cultures explored by the travellers, but also the cultures of the travellers themselves. This point of comparison has generated much interest and has been the focus of different Maastricht University activities, such as the MaRBLe research project 'On Expedition' and a study trip through China where students retraced the steps of missionaries described in 17th century Jesuit travelogues. Travel into the unknown and explore images from our travel treasures. See how we encountered the other in former times.

Hedendaegsche historie, of tegenwoordige staet van alle volkeren
Digitized 9 scans (among which title page, maps) from the original book
Beschryving van Louisania, nieuwelijks ontdekt ten zuid-westen van Nieuw-Vrankryk, door order van den Koning
Digitized 5 scans (among which title page, map, page 37) from the original book
Afrika en deszelfs bewoners, volgens de nieuwste ontdekkingen
Digitized 2 scans (among which title page) from the original book
In Afrika's donkere wildernissen
Digitized 3 scans (pages 82, 216, 435) from the original book
Life in Abyssinia
Digitized 10 scans (among which title page, pages 120, 216, 226, 235, 242, 246, 248) from the original book
Reis door Noord Amerika
Digitized 6 scans (among which title page, pages 1, 140) from the original book
A Voyage to the Pacific Ocean
Digitized 7 scans (2 maps, p. 82-83, 164-165,150) from the original book
De wonderlyke reizen van Fernando Mendez Pinto, die hy in de tijt van eenëntwintig jaren in Europa, Asia en Afrika, in de koninkrijken en landen van Abissyna, China, Iapon, Tartariën, Siam, Calaminham, Pegu, Martabane, Bengale, Brama, Ormus, Batas, Qued
Digitized 4 scans (title pages, illustrations 112 and 132) from the original book
Naaukeurige en uitvoerige beschryving van de Kaap de Goede Hoop
Digitized 6 scans from the original book
De nieuwe en onbekende weereld, of beschryving van America en't Zuid-land
Digitized 13 scans (among which title page, pages 79, 126, 207, 213) from the original book
Reisen in den aequinoctialländern von Amerika
Digitized 13 scans (title page, pages 41-42, 46, 83, 113, 155, 197, 213, 256, 265, 329, 390) from the original book
Gedenkwaerdige gesantschappen der Oost-Indische Maetschappy in 't Vereenigde Nederland, aen de kaisaren van Japan
Digitized 6 scans (among which title pages, page 63) from the original book

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