ABSTRACT
Like other eminent Elizabethans, Richard Hakluyt was alive to the usefulness of maps as sources of geographical and political intelligence. If we look more closely at his study and application of maps as illustrated by references in his own writings and in works edited, we become aware of certain limitations in perception or method. While in Paris in 1583–1584, Hakluyt applied himself to the collection of intelligence 'about North America and about French projects for voyages to America, in the interests of his master, Sir Francis Walsingham'. The evidence that he brought back to London maps, or copies of maps, which he made available to his English associates is indirect but sufficient. That the Principall navigations, like G. B. Ramusio's collection on which it was modelled, needed maps in illustration of its text, Hakluyt was evidently aware. The sheet-maps put out from Venetian shops in the middle decades of the century provided the cartographic counterpart of Ramusio's volumes.
