The mythical and the literary in the islands described by the Dutch humanist historian Isacius Pontanus (1571-1636)
Abstract
In 1611 Ioannes Isacius Pontanus (1571-1639), a Dutch humanist historian, published an Historia urbis et rerum Amstelodamensium, in which he describes the sailings that the Dutch made at the end of the 16th century on their way to the East Indies. We analyse in this work the descriptions of the islands found by the expeditionaries. The work focuses on the trend of the humanist who, following a very old line in the storytelling of travelling tales, insists above all on the striking, mysterious, strange and paradisiacal details of the islands. It seems that his aim is to marvel the reader. It is the mystery around the islands, especially if they are distant and unknown to the readers.
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