Amazons, Savages, and Machiavels - Travel and Colonial Writing in English, 1550-1630: An Anthology

An anthology of writings by English travellers in the Renaissance that helps students understand travel and colonial writing by English writers in the first age of English exploration. This second edition includes new research on race, women in travel texts, and non-English voices.

List of contents

• GENERAL INTRODUCTION


• 1: MOTIVES FOR TRAVEL AND INSTRUCTIONS TO TRAVELLERS


• Introduction


• Roger Ascham, The Schoolmaster (1570)


• Francis Bacon, 'Letter from Thomas Bodley' (c.1579) and 'Of Travel' (1612)


• Thomas Coryat, Prefatory Material to Coryat's Crudities (1611)


• Richard Eden, The Decades of the New World, or West India (1555), 'The Preface to The Reader'


• Richard Hakluyt the younger, Prefatory material to The Principal Navigations (1589, 1598)


• Samuel Purchas, Hakluytus Posthumus of Purchas His Pilgrimes (1625), 'Epistle to the Reader' and 'On Solomon's Navy'


• 2: EUROPE


• Introduction


• Sir Robert Dallington, The View of France (1604)


• Thomas Coryat, Coryat's Crudities (1611), Observations of Venice, Germany, and Switzerland


• The Return of Master William Harborne from Constantinople over land to London, 1588


• Sir Charles Somerset, Travel Diary (1611-2), Observations of Paris and Florence


• Fynes Moryson, An Itinerary (1617), Observations of Italy and Ireland


• William Lithgow, The Total Discourse of His Rare Adventures (1632), Account of his Imprisonment in Spain


• 3: THE NORTH


• Introduction


• George Abbot, A Brief Description of the Whole World (1599)


• Fynes Moryson, An Itinerary (1617), Observations of Denmark: Copenhagen and Elsinore


• Giles Fletcher the elder, The history of Russia (1591), Description of Russia


• George Best, A True Discourse of the Late Voyages of Discovery (1589), 'On the Discovery of Meta Incognita'


• Sir George Peckham, 'A true report of the late discoveries . . . of the Newfound Lands' (1583)


• John Davis, 'On the Inuit of Greenland' (1586)


• 4: AFRICA


• Introduction


• Sebastian Munster, A Treatise of New India, trans. Richard Eden (1553), The Islands of East Africa


• 'The Voyage made by M. John Hawkins ... to the coast of Guinea, and the Indies of Nova Hispania' (1564)


• Richard Madox, Diary (1582), Observations of Sierra Leone


• Duarte Lopez, A Report of the Kingdom of the Congo (1597), Description of the Congo and Southern Africa


• Al-Hasan ibn Muhammad al-Wazzan, The History and Description of Africa, trans. John Pory (1600), Comments on North Africa


• George Sandys, A Relation of a Journey Begun . . . 1610 (1615), Observations of the Egyptians


• Richard Jobson, The Golden Trade: or the Discovery of the River Gambra (1623)


• 5: ISLAMIC WEST ASIA AND THE EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN


• Introduction


• Anthony Jenkinson, 'Kazan to the Caspian Sea and the Tartar Peoples' (1558)


• Thomas Dallam, Diary (1599-1600), 'Journey Through the Eastern Mediterranean to Istanbul'


• Anthony Sherley, Sir Anthony Sherley: his Relation of his Travels into Persia (1613), Persian Statecraft and Religion


• Fynes Moryson, An Itinerary (1617), Observations of the Ottoman Empire


• George Sandys, A Relation of a Journey Begun . . . 1610 (1615), Observations of the Jews of Ottoman Palestine


• Henry Timberlake, A True and Strange Discourse on the Travels of Two English Pilgrims (1603), Description of Ottoman Jerusalem


• William Lithgow, The Total Discourse of His Rare Adventures (1632), Comments on Jerusalem


• 6: EAST ASIA AND THE SOUTH SEAS


• Introduction


• Francis Petty, 'The admirable and prosperous voyage of . . . Thomas Cavendish . . . into The South Seas, and from thence round about the circumference of the whole earth' (1586-8), Observations of the South Sea Islanders


• A letter of father Diego De Pantoia . . . written [from] the Court of the King of China' (9 March 1602)


• Sir Henry Middleton, Two Accounts of his Voyage to the Moluccas (1604-6)


• Two Accounts of Japan: Arthur Hatch (1623) and John Saris (1613)


• Edward Terry, A Voyage to East India (1616-19), Account of the Mughal Court


• William Adams, 'Logbook' (1614-19), Journey to Cochin China and Tonkin


• Peter Mundy, The Travels of Peter Mundy in Asia (1628-34), Observations of India


• 7: THE AMERICAS


• Introduction


• Richard Eden, The Decades of the New World, or West India (1555), Three Descriptions of American Natives


• Bartolomé de Las Casas, A brief narration of the destruction of the Indies by the Spaniards, trans. M. M. S. (1583)


• Thomas Harriot, A Brief and True Report of the New Found Land of Virginia (1588, 1590)


• Walter Raleigh, The discovery of the Large, Rich and Beautiful Empire of Guiana (1596)


• Michel Eyquem de Montaigne, 'Of the Cannibals' (1580), trans. John Florio (1603)


• William Strachey, The History of Travel into Virginia Britania (1612)


• Captain John Smith, The General History of Virginia, New-England, and the Summer Isles (1624), The Story of Pocahontas


• 8: ENGLAND FROM ELSEWHERE


• Nicander Nucius, 'Travels' (1546), Relation of England, Scotland, and Ireland


• Étienne Perlin, 'Description of England' (1553?)


• Thomas Platter, Diary (1599), 'Journey from Calais to London'


• Emmanuel van Meteren, 'Description of the English' (c.1612)


• EPILOGUE: WOMEN TRAVELLERS


• Introduction


• 'The Voyage of Lady Catherine Whetenhall from Brussels into Italy' (1649-50)


• Guide to Further Reading

About the author

Matthew Dimmock is Professor of Early Modern Studies at the University of Sussex. He has published widely on Tudor English engagements with the wider world and was recently Visiting Fellow at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington DC. He was an editor for the Norton 3 Collected Works of Shakespeare and is currently an editor on the Oxford Hakluyt and Thomas Nashe projects.

Andrew Hadfield is Professor of English at the University of Sussex. He has worked at the Universities of Leeds and Aberystwyth and Columbia University, New York and held visiting positions at The University of Granada, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, University College, Dublin, and All Souls College, Oxford. He was chair of the Society for Renaissance Studies (2016-9), and edited the journals, Reformation (2000-06) and Renaissance Studies (2006-11), and currently edits The Spenser Review with Jane Grogan. He is a regular reviewer for The Times Literary Supplement and is editing The Works of Thomas Nashe with Joseph Black, Jennifer Richards and Cathy Shrank.

Summary

An anthology of writings by English travellers in the Renaissance that helps students understand travel and colonial writing by English writers in the first age of English exploration. This second edition includes new research on race, women in travel texts, and non-English voices.

Additional text

The anthology is written in an approachable, mostly jargonfree style. It is accessible for students and a wide readership, especially as each excerpt is accompanied by an opening introduction to the author and the text. I look forward to using this second edition of the anthology for teaching and other purposes in the future.

Product details

• Authors: Matthew (Professor of Early Modern Studie Dimmock, Andrew Hadfield
• Assisted by: Matthew Dimmock (Editor), Andrew Hadfield (Editor), Hadfield Andrew (Editor)
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 30.06.2022
• EAN: 9780198871552
• ISBN: 978-0-19-887155-2
• No. of pages: 416
• Subjects: Fiction > Narrative literature; Humanities, art, music > Linguistics and literary studies > General and comparative literary studies; Travel > Travelogues, traveller's tales; History, TRAVEL / Essays & Travelogues, HISTORY / General, LITERARY CRITICISM / General, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Archaeology, LITERARY COLLECTIONS / General, Travel writing, c 1500 onwards to present day, Archaeology, Literary studies: general, Anthologies: general, Anthologies (non-poetry), History and Archaeology, Modern Period, C 1500 Onwards