John Seller is a pivotal figure in the history of the British map and chart trade. When he started in trade, chart publishing was dominated by the Dutch. One of the ways the Dutch maintained their ascendancy was by producing editions of their atlases in Latin (the universal language of the period) or vernacular languages such as French and English, making it difficult for French and English publishers to compete.
However, Seller was determined to challenge the Dutch primacy, writing in 1669, “Courteous Reader, These may be to inform you, that whereas being frequent complaints made that the English hath not as yet manifested that forwardness in the promotion of things of public concernment, for the general benefit of Navigation … and gives advantage to our neighbours the Hollanders to be furnishing us with Waggoners, Charts and Draughts … Therefore (worthy Gentlemen) I do hear make known unto you, that I intend, with the assistance of God, and am at the present upon making (at my own cost and charge) a Sea Waggoner for the whole World, with Charts and Draughts of particular places, and a large Description of all the Roads, Harbors and Havens, with the Dangers, Depths and Soundings in most parts of the World …”.
The resultant pilot book was used under the heading ‘The English Pilot’, with separate volumes for the Northern Navigation, 1671, for European waters north and east from the Thames Estuary, and the Southern Navigation, 1672, for European waters from the Thames Estuary round to the Straits of Gibraltar. At the same time, Seller also produced his ‘Coasting Pilot’, 1672, for British waters, and ‘Atlas Maritimus’, 1675, a sea-atlas of the world. The rapidity with which Seller tried to produce these different volumes clearly over-stretched his resources; the next completed volume of the ‘English Pilot’, the Mediterranean volume, appeared in 1677, jointly published by Seller with John Thornton, William Fisher, John Colson and James Atkinson, with Seller announcing “that for the better Management of my so chargeable and difficult an undertaking, I have accepted the assistance of my worthy Friends, Mr. William Fisher, Mr. John Thornton, Mr. John Colson, and Mr. James Atkinson, as my Copartners in the English Pilot, Sea Atlas and in all Sea-Charts, Plain and Mercator …” Seller also began work on two further volumes of the ‘English Pilot’ in 1675; unfortunately, neither were completed, both surviving only in fragments, and Seller never returned to them. The first was ‘The English Pilot The Fourth Book’ recorded in one copy only, without title-page; the second was this volume, ‘The English Pilot. The Third Book. … the Oriental Navigation.’
The ‘Oriental Navigation’ survives in six recorded institutional copies with 24pp of text (as here) and a varying chart count, of between seven and eighteen charts, these generally drawn from the charts engraved for the ‘Atlas Maritimus’ pressed into service, while this text is without any engraved charts. There are, however, three woodcut charts set in the text: St. Augustine’s Bay on Madagascar, the island of Anjouan in the Comoros group, and Grand Baie on Mauritius, as well as a good number of coastal recognition profiles.
The ‘Oriental Navigation’ was the first attempt by an European publisher to produce a pilot book for the waters of the Far East, and is of the first importance for that reason, and an item of considerable rarity.
ESTC R473705; Verner, Bibliographical note to the TOT Facsimile of the 1703 John Thornton Edition.
