ABSTRACT
The compilation and publishing of travel literature in late-Renaissance Europe involved a large communication network of authors, translators, artists and editors, stretching from the publisher to his sources, and the places where the work was distributed. This essay considers the connections between Richard Hakluyt’s The Principal Navigations (1589/1598–1600) and the two major travel series published in the German states during the same period: the Occidental Voyages and Oriental Voyages produced by the de Bry family, published in Frankfurt between 1590 and 1634, and the series of 26 Schiffahrten (navigations) edited by Levinus Hulsius and his successors in Nuremberg, Frankfurt, and Oppenheim between 1598 and 1660. Hakluyt, Theodor de Bry, and Hulsius shared an interest in travel and colonization and they were personally connected: de Bry (1528–98) visited Hakluyt in London in 1586/87, and Hulsius (1546–1606) went on an eighteen-month journey to England and Holland in January 1600 to obtain information on the latest developments in European overseas trade and colonization. 1 It is not known whether he met Hakluyt in London, but Hulsius certainly drew inspiration from de Bry and was therefore at least indirectly influenced by Hakluyt. Shortly after his journey Hulsius moved from Nuremberg to Frankfurt, where the de Bry family was already established.
