Marshall Rare Books
The Safeguard of Sailers, or Great Rutter...
London: Printed by W.G. for Wil. Fisher at the Postern-Gate near Tower-Hill, and Benj. Hurlock over against St. Magnus Church near London-Bridge, 1671. Quarto, translated from the Dutch by Robert Norman, editor's preface signed W.B.; illustrated with woodcuts in text, one folding woodcut plate and one text leaf folded with woodcut., Contemporary calf, rebacked.
Containing the Courses, Distances, Soundings, Floods, and Ebbs; with the Marks for the Entring of sundry Harbours of England, Scotland, France, Spain, Ireland, Flanders, Holland, and the sounds of Denmark; also the Coast of Jutland and Norway; with other Necessary Rules of Common Navigation; Collected out of the newest and largest Waegoner, and confirmed by the practice and experience of many able pilots and seamen, now published for the use and benefit of all honest mariners.
London: Printed by W.G. for Wil. Fisher at the Postern-Gate near Tower-Hill, and Benj. Hurlock over against St. Magnus Church near London-Bridge, 1671. Quarto, translated from the Dutch by Robert Norman, editor’s preface signed W.B.; illustrated with woodcuts in text, one folding woodcut plate and one text leaf folded with woodcut., Contemporary calf, rebacked.
Robert Norman, the translator of this work, was a 16th-century English mariner, compass builder, and hydrographer who discovered magnetic inclination, the deviation of the Earth’s magnetic field from the vertica.
Rutter was the English name for a book of sailing directions, derived from the French routier, route-book. Originating in the 15th century.
By the late seventeenth century, printed rutters had established finer detail in illustrating coasts, though their use on board ship, as reference volumes with illustrations to be compared and held up to unfamiliar coastal views, remained the same.
A scarce work.
Provenance: Harrison D. Horblit copy with his bookplate; rare, two U.S. copies in ESTC; no copies at auction since 1939.