EERKROON VOOR DE CAAB DE GOEDE HOOP "Crown of Honour for the Cape of Good Hope" (1746)

Original vellum binding with title in ink on the spine.

58 unnumbered prelminary pages (Dedication, Foreword, and Reflections on De Marre's two poems "Bespiegelingen" & "Eerkroon"). This is followed by 178pp + 22 unnumbered pages at the end containing notes on the two poems. The title page is embellished with an engraved vignette. The text has an engraved head-piece at the beginning and tail-piece at the end. Engraved portrait of Jan de Marre at the commencement of Bespiegelingen.

'Jan de Marre (1696-1763) was a ship's captain in the service of the Dutch East India Company (VOC). During his 23 years with the VOC he made a number of trips to the East and visited the Cape in 1728 and again in 1731, the last time as captain of the ship Heesburg and as vice-admiral of the return fleet.

De Marre was also a celebrated eighteenth-century Netherlands poet, who made an important contribution to South African literature through his epic poem Eerkroon voor de Caab de Goede Hoop (Crown of Honour for the Cape of Good Hope) about the Cape settlement on the occasion of a visit sixty years after the founding of the settlement. In this work he describes the settlement at length in three cantos.

"Crown of Honour for the Cape of Good Hope" starts on page 131 (it is preceded by Bespiegelingen in six cantos).

The first canto sketches the natural beauty and climate of the Cape.

The second canto views the Cape from the sailor's point of view when he reaches the safety of Table Bay despite the violence of the southeast wind.

The third canto is a glorification of the VOC who saw the importance of the Cape. 

A very good copy with clean white pages and solid binding.