Right In The Middle

In 1629 Hessel Gerritsz (ca 1582-1632) made a routebook ('roteiro') for the Dutch West India Company (WIC). Strategic information for securing Brazil. The Dutch were eagerly after the yields of sugar cane from the Portuguese. 

Right in the middle of Europe and Brazil are the Cabo Verde Islands located. For the Dutch, both for the VOC and WIC, the place for (re)grouping ships and stocking fresh supplies.

A part of this routebook, around 80 pages, is about the Cabo Verde Islands. All the islands are described in detail: defence systems, population and slaves, where to dock, fruit etcetera. Including maps of the islands.

The manuscript is never published or translated. I want to unlock this document - this treasure house - for humanity. In one book: copy of manuscript, typoscript in old Dutch, translation in modern Dutch, translation in Portuguese and translation in English. Nice and important puzzle to solve :)

Ben Teensma already made the typoscript in old Dutch and translation in Portuguese. I have to add the translation in modern Dutch and English.

Read 'Cinco Séculos de Cartografia'

Wrote a blogpost 'Os Holandeses (part 1)' #caboverde. Spin off of reading the six pages of Teixeira da Mota's article 'Cinco Séculos de Cartografia das Ilhas de Cabo Verde' (1961).

677 vs. 7.4

677 kilometer on GoogleMaps and 7.4 centimeter on the Benincasa map from year 1473. I used this ratio as point zero for caculating how accurate the distances were on the 541 year old map. Wrote a blogpost 'Pretty Reliable' on this subject with more details #caboverde

Four Maps Most Important

Wrote a blogpost 'Benincasa 1468 and 1469. Four Most Important Maps' #caboverde

Estén Cayetana

Duerma bien Cayetana (1926-2014).

P.S. I wrote on her before: 'Access' and 'Fringe'.

Category Mistake

Last couple of years I feel very Zen - without really knowing what Zen is. What I mean is: I feel very in balance. You probably say "you always are."

For me it's a category mistake if someone says "life makes or has no sense".

For me it's like this. Sense is senses getting data for perception. Our mind is interpreting the data: what we see, smell, hear, taste, feel etcetera. In my vocabulary, being alive means our senses get data for perception. Death means: getting no more data for perception. So life can't be senseless. Data overload yes but never senses not getting data. And what surprises me most is, that most of the time we don't realize it at all. Isn't it wonderful?

One More

As you know I am into the Cabo Verde islands. Interested in: maps, history, travelogues and the general picture of the Portuguese exploring the world since the 15th Century.

Cortesão's book 'History of Portuguese Cartography' (1969-1971) opened many tracks for me.

These are the tracks I want to follow (update November 12th, 2014):

• A. Teixeira da Mota 'Cinco Séculos de Cartografia das Ilhas de Cabo Verde' (1961). Five centuries of Cabo Verde maps.
• Website 'Ilhas, Portos e Cidades. Cartografia de Cabo Verde (séculos XVIII-XX)'. Maps of the 18th - 20th Century.
• Cortesão, Armando 'Descobrimento e representação das ilhas de Cabo Verde na cartografia antiga' (1976) in 'Memórias da Academia das Ciências de Lisboa: Classe de Ciências', Tomo XXI (21). Lisboa, Imprensa Nacional. pp. 229-250. More details from Cortesão
• A Dutch connection to Cabo Verde? CV coast or CV islands? Check out: island Gorée on wikipedia.
• A. Lyall 'Black and White Make Brown' (1938). Reviews: here. Living on the Cabo Verde islands around 1930.
• Dutch travelogues about the Cabo Verde islands? Are there any? Interesting?

Islands in Blue, Red, Gold Leaf and Green

Wrote a blogpost 'Benincasa 1468 Princes of Trabia. Islands in Blue, Red, Gold Leaf and Green' #caboverde 

Birthday Present

For my 50th birthday I bought these books. Arrived all the way from Lisboa. From uma das mais pequenas livraias do mundo. They smell good.

In Dutch Appel Boomgaert

Wrote a blogpost 'Apple Orchard. In Dutch Appel Boomgaert' #caboverde