5 volumes, large 4to (359 x 245 mm). (Some pale spotting to a few quires). Contemporary calf decorated in gilt and blind, marbled edges, by the Philanthropic Society's Manufactory St. George's Fields with their ticket (neatly rebacked to style). Provenance: Sir William Curtis, 1st Baronet (1752-1829), Member of Parliament for the City of London and Lord Mayor London (armorial bookplates). 

LIMITED EDITION, one of 75 large-paper copies on "Imperial Paper" from a total edition of 325.  THE BEST AND MOST COMPLETE EDITION (Hill). 

"An accurate reprint of the best folio [edition of 1599-1600] with the addition of those voyages which were published in the first edition, and omitted in the second. It likewise has a supplement containing all the voyages and travels printed by Hakluyt, or at his suggestion, which forms the latter part of the fourth, and the whole of the fifth volume" (Lowndes II, p.92). Although Hakluyt never traveled further than France, "he inspired some of the great overseas explorations of this time and was once of the leading spirits in the Elizabethan maritime expansion. He met many of the great navigators: Drawk, Raleigh, Gilbert, Frobisher...corresponded with Ortelius and Mercator, and collected all the material on voyages he could find...[his] Principal Navigations [were] called by Froude 'the prose epic of the modern Engish Nation" (PMM). Hill 744 ("this edition is very scarce"); Sabin 29599.