# Is "The Principall Navigations, Voiages and Discoveries of the English Nation" by Richard Hakluyt a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of The Principall Navigations, Voiages and Discoveries of the English Nation by Richard Hakluyt (George Bishop and Ralph Newberie, deputies to Christopher Barker, London, 1589) is identified by: As a hand-press book it carries no edition statement, no number line and no dust jacket; identification rests on the imprint, collation and completeness. The London 1589 folio is the true first and the census claim is confirmed.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- Folio, London 1589
- As a hand-press book it carries no edition statement, no number line and no dust jacket; identification rests on the imprint, collation and completeness
- References: STC 12625
- ESTC S106735
- Church 139-139A; Alden 589/31
- Collation: pp. [16], 242, [2 blank], 243-505, [1], 506-643, [12], 644-825, [12], with medial blank X4 and terminal blank 4F4
- Publisher imprint reads George Bishop and Ralph Newberie, deputies to Christopher Barker, London

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Richard Hakluyt |
| Publisher | George Bishop and Ralph Newberie, deputies to Christopher Barker, London |
| Year | 1589 |
| True first | — |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | Folio, London 1589 |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
Folio, London 1589. As a hand-press book it carries no edition statement, no number line and no dust jacket; identification rests on the imprint, collation and completeness. References: STC 12625; ESTC S106735; Church 139-139A; Alden 589/31. Collation: pp. [16], 242, [2 blank], 243-505, [1], 506-643, [12], 644-825, [12], with medial blank X4 and terminal blank 4F4. The celebrated 'Drake leaves' are six unpaginated leaves headed 'The famous voyage of Sir Francis Drake', printed late and inserted between pp. 643 and 644; they are present in the majority of surviving copies, and copies lacking them are understood to have been issued before the leaves were printed, so their absence is not automatically a defect. The folding world map after Ortelius ('Typus Orbis Terrarum', c. 333 x 485 mm) is very often lacking and is the single most commonly supplied-in-facsimile element. The Bowes leaves at pp. 491-505 in first state are headed 'The Ambassage of Sir Hierome Bowes to the Emperour of Moscovie 1583'.

## Is this the true first?
The London 1589 folio is the true first and the census claim is confirmed. The enlarged three-volume second edition (London: George Bishop, Ralph Newberie and Robert Barker, 1598-1600) is a substantially different and much larger work rather than a reprint, and is collected in parallel with the 1589 first. One correction to the census note: it is not accurate that the second edition 'must include' the Voyage to Cadiz leaves. Volume one exists in two title-page states — the 1598 title advertising Essex's 'famous victorie' at Cadiz, and a reset title dated 1599 that omits the Cadiz reference — and the Cadiz narrative at pp. 607-619 was withdrawn from many copies after Essex's fall from favour. A 1599-dated volume one without the Cadiz leaves is a legitimate later state, not a made-up or incomplete copy.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
No book-club issue exists for a 1589 folio. The reprints to know are the nineteenth- and twentieth-century scholarly editions and the Hakluyt Society reprints, all of which carry their own later imprints and dates on the title and are not confusable with the folio on inspection. The practical made-up-copy tells for the 1589 are a facsimile or supplied world map, facsimile Drake leaves, and leaves remargined or supplied from another copy; the map and the Drake leaves should both be examined against the rest of the text paper.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *The Principall Navigations, Voiages and Discoveries of the English Nation* by Richard Hakluyt a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/the-principall-navigations-voiages-and-discoveries-of-the-en
CC BY 4.0. Part of the Canonical First-Edition Points of Issue dataset (https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/api/first-edition-titles.json). Last reviewed 2026-07-04.