ABSTRACT
For J. A. Froude, who called Hakluyt’s book “the Prose Epic of the modern English nation,” this massive work of historical and geographical learning represented a celebration of the origins of the British Empire, which Froude saw encapsulating the central features of English civilization-its devotion to Protestantism and enterprise, its spirit of endeavor and improvement.3 He equated the book’s cultural force for the English, especially its emphasis on the English contribution to newly discovered lands and trade routes, with what Homer represented for the Greeks, Virgil for the Romans, and the Norse sagas for the Vikings.4 This aspect of Hakluyt’s activities focused signifi cantly on his role as one of the fi rst citizens of the Atlantic world and the empire engendered within it.
