Divers Voyages Touching the Discoverie of America

1967 (originally published 1582)

Special Collections E121 Q75

Amsterdam: Theatrum Orbis Terrarum (facsimile; original published in London for Thomas Woodcocke)

Richard Hakluyt (1552-1616) was 16 when he spied a ‘universal Mappe’ lying on the desk of his cousin, Richard Hakluyt, a Middle Temple lawyer. From this moment, Hakluyt developed a life-long passion for geography and cosmography. His first significant compilation was Divers Voyages Touching the Discoverie of America (1582), in which, as an enthusiast of English overseas expansion, he advanced England’s claim to North America on the basis of priority of discovery. Hakluyt also included two maps in this work. This one was by Robert Thorne, produced in 1527 for the Muscovy Company. Note North America, and the fact that there is no passage to the Indies depicted.