ABSTRACT
In 1553, Richard Eden made his first major contribution to English overseas expansion. Under the title A treatyse of the newe India, he translated a selection from the fifth part of Sebastian Munster's massive Cosmographia Universalis. Eden's precarious political situation is apparent in his second major contribution to England's proto-colonialist literature, a compilation of translated accounts related to Spanish and Portuguese exploration The decades of the Newe worlde or West India. Eden's translations of Munster and Martyr represent a transitional step in the discourse of encounter. The Book of John Mandeville deployed a raft of images of fabulous lands and monstrous peoples that persisted in colonial discourse, even as the circulation of eyewitness accounts belied their veracity. Eden's primary contribution to the literature of colonial expansion is his invention of an ideological space for English colonial aspirations. At a time when Spain and Portugal dominated the acquisition of new trade networks and territories, Eden envisioned the possibility for English success.
