- Contents loose(ning). Vellum fingersoiled (as it should be!).
= The first 80 leaves read like a textbook on how to cut the various different types of sails for the huge variety of ships that sailed the seas in Holland at the time. This section is written in a very fine hand. In the leaves that follow after folio 80, the text becomes more practical (and the handwriting less neat), and the author mentions the names of the shipowners and/ or the name and type of their ships, the year in which he made the sail, and comments on how the sail functioned, with phrases such as: "dit Zeil stont moeÿ en Was Wee Van diepten" and "dit Zel[sic] was voor den Nieuw: heins van Cees en Jacob boogert En stont Wel". Another note shows that the sail cutter also kept his "snijboek" for the practical purpose of being able to work more efficiently: "dit Zeil is ook goed Voor Rotterdam En ook voor delff" (referring to the "Loosbooten" (pilot boats) for which he cut sails). Occasionally Waardenberg also mentions the price that he asked/ received for his work. A remarkable and very rare type of book (especially because of the long period that it covers), shedding light on the long (and sl. secretive) tradition of the craft of sail cutting. Only a small number of these "cutter's books" have survived. SEE ILLUSTRATION PLATE LXVII.