The Principall Navigations, Voiages, and Discoveries of the English Nation. Vol. I

1965 (originally published in 1589)

Special Collections G242 H419 1965

Cambridge: Published for the Hakluyt Society and the Peabody Museum of Salem at the University Press (facsimile; original published in London by George Bishop and Ralph Newberie)

In 1589, Hakluyt produced his The Principall Navigations, Voiages and Discoveries of the English Nation, a folio of over 800 pages. Between 1598 and 1600, he expanded it to a three-volume folio edition, running to over 1.7 million words in about 2000 pages. Principall Navigations was based on original sources and records of explorers and travellers. Indeed, Hakluyt was scrupulous as a compiler, and it is said that he knew every mapmaker, traveller, merchant-adventurer, explorer, and court official from whom he acquired the most up-to-date information. Embedded in this work is a copy of Abraham Ortelius’ famed Typus Orbis Terrarum, a map first published in 1564. A translation of the quote by Cicero reads: ‘Who can consider human affairs to be great, when he comprehends the eternity and vastness of the entire world?’