Francois Valentijn was a minister, naturalist and writer who devoted much of his life in serving the Dutch V.O.C., having spent a significant tenure from 1685 to 1714 in the East Indies. His monumental work Oud en Nieuw Oost-Indien (Old and New East-India), published between 1724 and 1726, offered a comprehensive mapping of Southeast Asia, and a large selection of scale maps and views of the East Indies.
