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Second and greatly expanded edition, complete with the Wright-Molyneux two-sheet world map, which is found in very few copies. The map is the first world map produced in England and the first since Gerardus Mercator's original 1569 map to use the Mercator projection, which enabled navigators to plot courses as straight lines. The map was created by the English mathematician Edward Wright based on Emery Molyneux's globe of 1592 and Wright's own enhancements of the Mercator projection. Mercator had given no explanation as to the underlying mathematics used in the construction of his map and it was Wright who published this important information in Certain Errors in Navigation Detected and Corrected (1599). The map is in the second state with a cartouche in the lower left-hand side describing the discoveries of Sir Francis Drake. Neville-Sington & Payne's census gives verified information for 108 first issue and 121 second issue copies, that is 229 in total. Of these, the map is present in only 12 copies of the first issue and 13 of the second issue, 25 in total. All but one of these are in institutional holdings. Neville-Sington & Payne locate 32 non-institutional copies, divided exactly equally between first and second issue copies. The only one of these with a map is the Grenville-Crawford-Rosebery copy, bound in early 19th-century red morocco, which lacked the map until a supplied copy was inserted sometime between its sale at auction by Sotheby's in 1933 and its Second and greatly expanded edition, complete with the Wright-Molyneux two-sheet world map, which is found in very few copies. The map is the first world map produced in England and the first since Gerardus Mercator's original 1569 map to use the Mercator projection, which enabled navigators to plot courses as straight lines. The map was created by the English mathematician Edward Wright based on Emery Molyneux's globe of 1592 and Wright's own enhancements of the Mercator projection. Mercator had given no explanation as to the underlying mathematics used in the construction of his map and it was Wright who published this important information in Certain Errors in Navigation Detected and Corrected (1599). The map is in the second state with a cartouche in the lower left-hand side describing the discoveries of Sir Francis Drake. Neville-Sington & Payne's census gives verified information for 108 first issue and 121 second issue copies, that is 229 in total. Of these, the map is present in only 12 copies of the first issue and 13 of the second issue, 25 in total. All but one of these are in institutional holdings. Neville-Sington & Payne locate 32 non-institutional copies, divided exactly equally between first and second issue copies. The only one of these with a map is the Grenville-Crawford-Rosebery copy, bound in early 19th-century red morocco, which lacked the map until a supplied copy was inserted sometime between its sale at auction by Sotheby's in 1933 and its reappearance in the Franklin Brooke-Hitching sale, Sotheby's, 30 Sept. 2014, lot 579. That is the only copy with the map other than the present to have appeared in open commerce in the past half century. Hakluyt's use of the Wright-Molyneux map, which replaced the Ortelius world map used in the first edition, was to show "so much of the world as hath beene hetherto discovered, and is comme to our knowledge". Hakluyt's Principal Navigations positioned itself as one of the major prestige publications of the Tudor state, seeking to do for English exploration what Holinshed's Chronicles had done for the nation's history, a key work in promoting overseas ventures. Hakluyt himself never travelled further afield than France, but he met or corresponded with many of the great explorers, navigators, and cartographers including Drake, Raleigh, Gilbert, Frobisher, Ortelius, and Mercator. In addition to long and significant descriptions of the Americas in volume 3, the work also contains accounts of Russia, Scandinavia, the Mediterranean, Turkey, Middle East, Persia, India, south-east Asia, and Africa. Hakluyt's work appeared in two editions, the first a single volume in 1589, the second, much expanded, in three volumes, 1598-1600. Hakluyt owed a good deal to Sir Francis Walsingham's support and probably gathered intelligence for him in Paris; the first edition was both dedicated to and licensed for publication by him. After Walsingham's death in 1590, the patronage of Sir Robert Cecil was increasingly important to Hakluyt. Volume I of the second edition of the Principal Navigations was dedicated to the lord admiral, Lord Howard of Effingham, but the other two were dedicated to Cecil. This copy is the second issue of the second edition with volume I dated 1599. The first issue is dated 1598, and its title page makes reference to the Earl of Essex's voyage to Cadiz, which was withdrawn because Elizabeth was angered by Essex's status as a popular hero of the war against Spain. However, the printed leaves detailing the voyage to Cadiz, pp. 607-619, which ought also to have been suppressed, are here present in their original uncancelled state. READ MORE Three volumes bound in 2, folio (286 x 181 mm). Mid-18th-century calf, recent red morocco labels to style, neat restoration at extremities, covers panelled in blind, light red speckled edges. Complete with the rare Wright-Molyneux world map. With 18th-century bookplate of John Seale of Mount Boon, Devon, to front pastedown of second volume. Lightly rubbed, map carefully trimmed to the neatline, with repaired closed tear and light restoration around folds; vol. I sig. I6 with chip to fore edge just grazing shoulder note, a few leaves in same volume with very minor peripheral damp staining; vol. III sig. I5 with text misaligned with consequent slight shaving of shoulder note; contents generally very clean and fresh, an excellent copy. ESTC S106753; Printing and the Mind of Man 105; Sabin 29595-97-98; STC 12626. P. A. Neville-Sington & Anthony Payne, An Interim Census of Surviving Copies of Hakluyt's Divers Voyages and Principal Navigations, Hakluyt Society, 1997 (this copy not traced).

The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques and Discoveries of the English Nation is an essential anthology of exploration and travel, providing great insight into the voyages undertaken by English explorers during the Age of Discovery. Compiled by Richard Hakluyt, it serves as an invaluable historical document.