Any Good Reading? The Changing Reception of Early Modern Travel Writing

Journal article


Day, M. 2022. Any Good Reading? The Changing Reception of Early Modern Travel Writing. Journal of the Hakluyt Society. April 2022, pp. 1-18.
AuthorsDay, M.
Abstract

Although the importance of the two editions of Richard Hakluyt’s Principal(l) Navigations (1589, 1598-1600) has long been recognised, there has been relatively little study of the reception of the work. This article provides an examination over the long durée of the reception of these volumes. It charts their use as providing practical information for travellers, explorers and colonists in the early modern period and as repositories of evidence for colonial claims in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. While leisure reading has been an ongoing element of the reception of the works, this seems to have experienced a resurgence following the reissue of the volumes at the start of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Particularly noticeable are the publication of excerpts in an effort to create specific historical narratives and the selections of texts targeted at children in this later period. Overall, the paper demonstrates the richness and breadth of responses to Hakluyt’s publications and the changing emphasis of its appeal.

KeywordsTravel Writing; Early Modern; reception history; North-West Passage; colonialism; antiquarianism
Year2022
JournalJournal of the Hakluyt Society
Journal citationApril 2022, pp. 1-18
PublisherHakluyt Society
ISSNISSN 2051-543X
Web address (URL)https://www.hakluyt.com/journal-of-the-hakluyt-society/
https://www.hakluyt.com/downloadable_files/Journal/Day_Hakluyt.pdf
https://arro.anglia.ac.uk/id/eprint/707522/
Publisher's version
License
File Access Level
Open
Output statusPublished
Publication dates
OnlineApr 2022
Publication process dates
Deposited31 Jul 2023
Permalink -

https://repository.derby.ac.uk/item/9zy3q/any-good-reading-the-changing-reception-of-early-modern-travel-writing

Download files


Publisher's version
Day_Hakluyt.pdf
License: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
File access level: Open

  • 29
    total views
  • 21
    total downloads
  • 0
    views this month
  • 0
    downloads this month

Export as

Related outputs

'But to whose charge shall I lay it? Your printer is alreadie loaden' The Rhetoric of Printers' Errors in Early Modern Religious Disputes
Day, M. 2023. 'But to whose charge shall I lay it? Your printer is alreadie loaden' The Rhetoric of Printers' Errors in Early Modern Religious Disputes. in: de Candal, G.D.R., Grafton, A. and Sachet, P (ed.) Printing and Misprinting: A Companion to Mistakes and In-House Corrections in Renaissance Europe (1450-1650) Oxford Oxford University Press (OUP). pp. 278-292