Collection of the Early Voyages, Travels, and Discoveries of the English Nation

5 vol., later half blue morocco gilt, large 4to (315 x 240 mm), London, G.Woodfall for R.H.Evans & others, 1809-12.

“An accurate reprint of the best folio [edition of 1599-1600] with the addition of those voyages which were published in the first edition and omitted in the second. It likewise has a supplement containing all the voyages and travels printed by Hakluyt, or at his suggestion, which forms the latter part of the fourth, and the whole of the fifth volume” (Lowndes).

Richard Hakluyt (c.1552-1616) was, despite limited foreign travel, the leading European authority on overseas exploration in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. An influential exponent for the colonisation of North America, his geographical works fostered a growing sense of English maritime history.

In 1589 Hakluyt’s most celebrated work The Principal Navigations, Voiages, Traffiques and Discoueries of the English Nation first appeared. Hakluyt dedicated it to Walsingham; an important patron who had licensed the work for publication.

A second edition published 1598-1600 expanded the work across three volumes and included naval actions, such as the defeat of the Spanish Armada.

With Walsingham’s death in 1590 the second edition’s first volume was instead dedicated to Lord Howard of Effingham, the naval commander who had successfully repelled the Spanish Armada. The dedication for the second and third volumes was reserved for Sir Robert Cecil, Secretary of State under Elizabeth I and James VI and I. Cecil had become a major supporter.

In 1809-12 his Principal Navigations was reprinted with additional material Hakluyt had collected about early voyages.

Hill p.132; Lowndes II p.972; Sabin 29599