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RICHARD HAKLUYT (1552-1616)
The Principall Navigations, Voiages and Discoveries of the English Nation, made by Sea or over Land, to the most remote and farthest distant quarters of the earth at any time within the compasse of these 1500 yeeres. London: George Bishop and Ralph Newberie, Deputies to Christopher Barker, 1589. 2° (270 x 183mm). With the folding engraved world map after Ortelius facing title; the Drake leaves between pages 643-644; printer's device on colophon leaf; Bowes' account in the second state, corrected, on pages 491-501, verso blank; X4 blank. (Final blank not present; signatures 3Q, 3R, 3S supplied from another copy; 2X2 and 3R3-4 chipped at outer margin; 2X3 with clean tear; with duplicate colophon leaf, that integral to this copy present but with lower corner cut away.) Eighteenth-century calf (a little scuffed, board edges rubbed and chipped, rebacked by Bernard Middleton, retaining original gilt morocco lettering-piece). Provenance: 18th-century engraved armorial bookplate.
FIRST EDITION OF THE MOST CELEBRATED COLLECTION OF VOYAGES AND TRAVELS, a magnificent achievement, an epic of English prose and a unique source of reference to the great discoveries of the 15th and 16th centuries 'which has affixed to [Hakluyt's] name a brilliancy of reputation which time can never efface or obscure' (Church). The work is divided into three parts: the Levant Company and early travels to Africa and the Near and Middle East; the search for the Northeast Passage and travels in Russia and Central Asia; and exploits in the Western Hemisphere such as those by Hawkins and Frobisher, Drake, Davis, and Cavendish. Hakluyt met and interviewed these men, and others, and corresponded with Mercator and Ortellius to amass and translate ancient and contemporary accounts -- while never travelling farther than France. He was also a vigourous propagandist and empire-builder, particularly with regard to America and the ousting of Spain from its maritime prominence. He recommended the capture of the Straits of Magellan, pleaded for voyages in search of a North-East or North-West Passage, became a consultant to the East India Company and a patentee of the Virginia Company. His small volume of Divers Voyages (1582) was totally eclipsed by this 1589 Principall Navigations in which Hakluyt sought 'to make available the best and latest information on trades and places which England might profitably exploit'. It was never reprinted (rather, expanded for the 1598-1600 edition) and many of the printed narratives were so close in time to the actual voyages that they were 'tumbled in while the book was in the press, making them more vivid and effective, and in some cases the only extant record' (Alan Burns, the Hakluyt Society, 1965). Although Hakluyt was compelled to suppress Drake's voyage from the first edition, 'he appears to have printed a few copies privately' according to Sabin. The inclusion of the Drake leaves, together with the map (which is most often lacking), makes this a highly desirable copy. Church Catalogue 139, 139A; Sabin 29594; Shirley, The Mapping of the World, 167.
The Principall Navigations, Voiages and Discoveries of the English Nation, made by Sea or over Land, to the most remote and farthest distant quarters of the earth at any time within the compasse of these 1500 yeeres. London: George Bishop and Ralph Newberie, Deputies to Christopher Barker, 1589. 2° (270 x 183mm). With the folding engraved world map after Ortelius facing title; the Drake leaves between pages 643-644; printer's device on colophon leaf; Bowes' account in the second state, corrected, on pages 491-501, verso blank; X4 blank. (Final blank not present; signatures 3Q, 3R, 3S supplied from another copy; 2X2 and 3R3-4 chipped at outer margin; 2X3 with clean tear; with duplicate colophon leaf, that integral to this copy present but with lower corner cut away.) Eighteenth-century calf (a little scuffed, board edges rubbed and chipped, rebacked by Bernard Middleton, retaining original gilt morocco lettering-piece). Provenance: 18th-century engraved armorial bookplate.
FIRST EDITION OF THE MOST CELEBRATED COLLECTION OF VOYAGES AND TRAVELS, a magnificent achievement, an epic of English prose and a unique source of reference to the great discoveries of the 15th and 16th centuries 'which has affixed to [Hakluyt's] name a brilliancy of reputation which time can never efface or obscure' (Church). The work is divided into three parts: the Levant Company and early travels to Africa and the Near and Middle East; the search for the Northeast Passage and travels in Russia and Central Asia; and exploits in the Western Hemisphere such as those by Hawkins and Frobisher, Drake, Davis, and Cavendish. Hakluyt met and interviewed these men, and others, and corresponded with Mercator and Ortellius to amass and translate ancient and contemporary accounts -- while never travelling farther than France. He was also a vigourous propagandist and empire-builder, particularly with regard to America and the ousting of Spain from its maritime prominence. He recommended the capture of the Straits of Magellan, pleaded for voyages in search of a North-East or North-West Passage, became a consultant to the East India Company and a patentee of the Virginia Company. His small volume of Divers Voyages (1582) was totally eclipsed by this 1589 Principall Navigations in which Hakluyt sought 'to make available the best and latest information on trades and places which England might profitably exploit'. It was never reprinted (rather, expanded for the 1598-1600 edition) and many of the printed narratives were so close in time to the actual voyages that they were 'tumbled in while the book was in the press, making them more vivid and effective, and in some cases the only extant record' (Alan Burns, the Hakluyt Society, 1965). Although Hakluyt was compelled to suppress Drake's voyage from the first edition, 'he appears to have printed a few copies privately' according to Sabin. The inclusion of the Drake leaves, together with the map (which is most often lacking), makes this a highly desirable copy. Church Catalogue 139, 139A; Sabin 29594; Shirley, The Mapping of the World, 167.
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