The well-known, celebrated, and often reprinted and edited work of Richard Hakluyt is now available in an edition to please both scholars and bibliophiles. Most interested readers are familiar with versions of the three-volume second edition (London, 1598-1600). The edition under review is a photolithographic reproduction of the two-volume first edition (London, 1589), heretofore available to only a very few. The better known second edition contains accounts of voyages made after 1589 but omits or alters some of the material from the first edition.
The publishers are to be complimented for undertaking the task of making this work available to all. Latin Americanists should be grateful, for the entire second volume deals with the New World. A long introductory section in the first volume evaluates Richard Hakluyt, his work, and his sources. There is a provisional checklist of surviving copies of the original printing, and a modern index, for easy reference to the text.
