François Valentijn (17 April 1666 – 1727) was a Dutch minister, naturalist and author whose Oud en Nieuw Oost-Indiën ("Old and New East-India") describes the history of the Dutch East India Company and the countries of the Far East.

François Valentijn was born in 1666 in Dordrecht as the eldest of seven children of Abraham Valentijn and Maria Rijsbergen. He spent most of his life in Dordrecht; however, he is best known for his activities in the tropics, notably in Ambon, part of the Maluku Archipelago. Valentijn studied theology and philosophy at the University of Leiden and the University of Utrecht before embarking on a career as a preacher in the Indies.

In total, Valentijn spent 16 years in the East Indies. At the age of 19, he was first employed by the V.O.C. (Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie) as minister to the East Indies, where he became a friend of the German naturalist Georg Eberhard Rumpf (Rumphius). He returned and lived in the Netherlands for about ten years before returning to the Indies in 1705,  where he was to serve as army chaplain on an expedition in eastern Java.
He finally returned to Dordrecht, where he found time to write his Oud en Nieuw Oost-Indiën (1724–26), a massive five-part work published in eight volumes containing over one thousand engraved illustrations and some of the most accurate maps of the Indies of the time.
He died in The Hague, Netherlands, in 1727.

Oud en Nieuw Oost-Indiën
Valentijn probably had access to the V.O.C.'s archive of maps and geographic trade secrets, which they had always guarded with great care. Valentijn's "Oud en Nieuw Oost-Indiën" was published at the same time that many of the VOC charts were first published, one signal of the decline of Dutch dominance in the spice trade.
The first two volumes were published in Dordrecht and Amsterdam in 1724, followed by the subsequent three volumes in 1726. This work comprises geographical and ethnological descriptions of the Moluccas and the trading contacts of the Dutch V.O.C. throughout Asia.

$ 25.000

With 650 subscribers, it was "the first book to give a comprehensive account, in text and illustration, of the peoples, places and natural history of Indonesia' (Bastin & Brommer). Valentijn’s work remains a significant source for historical studies on the Dutch East Indies, particularly for the natural history of the Moluccas.
Valentijn included descriptions of Ambonese animals in "Oud en Nieuw Oost-Indiën" by Rumphius, while Rumphius’s original, unpublished manuscript was later lost.
In 1754, Valentijn’s part on sea flora and fauna was separately published in Amsterdam and translated into German some twenty years later.

Oud en nieuw Oost-Indiën : vervattende een naaukeurige en uitvoerige verhandelinge van Nederlands mogentheyd in die gewesten, benevens eene wydluftige beschryvinge der Moluccos, Amboina, Banda, Timor, en Solor, Java, en alle de eylanden onder dezelve landbestieringen behoorende : het Nederlands comptoir op Suratte, en de levens der Groote Mogols . . .
Published by Joannes van Braam; G. onder de Linden, Dordrecht and Amsterdam 1724. Vol. 3-5 published 1726.
-- Volume 1, part 1. Nederlands mogentheid
    ---- part 2. Moluccos. Molukse zaaken
-- Volume 2. Amboina. Ambonsche zaaken
-- Volume 3, part 1. Amboina (cont.). Boomen, planten, dieren, etc. van Amboina
    ---- part 2. Banda. Bandasche zaaken. Solor en Timor. Cassar. Macassaarsche zaaken. Borneo. Bali. Tonkin. Cambodia. Siam.
-- Volume 4, part 1. Java. Bantam. Batavia. Levens der opper-landvoogden
     ---- part 2. Javaansche zaaken. Suratte. Levens der Groote Mogols. Tsjina. Tayouan of Formosa.
-- Volume 5, part 1. Pegu, Arrakan, Bengale, Mocha ... Malakka , Sumatra, Ceylon
    ---- part 2. Malabar en van onzen Handel in Japan mitsgaders een beschryving van Kaap der goede Hoope en't Eiland Mauritius.

Five folio volumes in eight luxury later half leather bindings, 266 plates and maps, a folding portrait of the author, an allegorical title and engraved dedication leaf with vignette, numerous text illustrations (two full-page), and 9 folding tables. The book block is 37 x 23.5 cm

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