The Remote World of the 17th Century

The Removal of the Mount Meeperwat, 1672

The Idol of Vistnum, 1672

Camdoge or ye Cow of Plenty, 1672

The Idol of Vistnum in his third Transformation,
as decribd by ye Benjans, 1672

The Idol Quenavady, Ixora's Son, 1672

Animals and Insects of Brazil, 1643

Babirusa, 1659

Mr. John Nieuhoff's Remarkable Voyages & Travells into
ye best Provinces of ye West and East Indies, 1703

Animals of Brazil, 1643

Sea Animals of India and Indonesia, 1676

Animals of India and Indonesia, 1676

Insects and Reptiles of Brazil, 1643

Animals of India and Indonesia, 1676

The images here come from Washington State University's World Civilization image database (102 images in thumbnail format).

The work, published in 1704 for Awnsham and John Churchill has the catchy title:

"A collection of voyages and travels, some now first printed from original manuscripts. Others translated out of foreign languages, and now first published in English. To which are added some few that have formerly appear'd in English, but do now for their excellency and scarceness deserve to be reprinted. In four volumes. With a general preface, giving an account of the progress of navigation, from its first beginning ... the whole illustrated with a great number of useful maps, and cuts, all engraven on copper"

Click on each image above to get the full impact of the weirdness imaginative rendering of the 17th century view of the world. Some of these are among the strangest illustrations I've seen.

Travel in the East at Melbourne's Monash University has an interesting bibliographic review (and images) of travel literature over the last few hundred years from their rare book collection.