A rare second edition copy of Richard Hakluyt's Voyages is to auction at Sotheby's London on September 30 with a £180,000-240,000 ($298,755-398,340) estimate.
The lot will cross the block in the second part of the Exploration and Discovery 1576-1939: The Library of Franklin Brooke-Hitching sale.
 Hakluyt was a vocal supporter of the British colonisation of North America |
The three volume work is titled "The principal navigations, voiages, traffiques and discoveries of the English nation, made by sea or over-land, to the remote and farthest distant quarters of the earth…and the famous victorie actchieved at the citie of Cadiz (1598-1599-1600)".
It contains details of the exploits of some of the most famous British sailors of the Elizabethan era, including Sir Francis Drake and Sir Walter Raleigh.
Hakluyt (1553-1616) was an ordained priest, scholar and cheerleader for the colonisation of North America who lived out his final years as prebend of Bristol Cathedral.
His books proved a rich source of material for other writers, including Shakespeare.
The lot includes the newly published Wright-Molyneux world map, which appears in very few copies (the last time an example sold at auction was in 1932).
A first edition of Matthew Flinders' Observations on the Coast of Van Diemen's Land (1801) is valued at £150,000-200,000 ($248,962-331,950).
Captain Flinders (1774-1814) was the first to circle Australia and confirm that it was a continent.
The book is one of the scarcest early studies of the Antipodes and is one of only two copies to feature its original charts.
The sale will also include a copy of Ernest Shackleton's Aurora Australis.
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