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11. Samuel Purchas (ed.), Purchas His Pilgrimes. In Five Bookes, 4 vols, (London, 1625).
Requested on: 13 July 1866.
The geographer Samuel Purchas (d.1626) compiled this highly influential book during twenty years of collecting oral and written accounts of travels in Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas. It was based in part on the manuscripts of the celebrated geographer Richard Hakluyt (d.1616).
Purchas His Pilgrimes was strongly patriotic and anti-Catholic. It was at pains to stress English travellers' early progress across the world. Purchas dedicated his opus to Charles, Prince of Wales (d.1649), and claimed the achievements of English merchants and mariners outlined in his book were for ‘the admiration of the present, and amusing (if not amazing) of the future.’
As a young man, Stoker was an admirer of the British Empire and its role in sowing the seeds of peace, prosperity and justice across the globe. His interest in this book was probably due to its resonances with widely-held views on the civilising mission of the British Empire in his own day.
Citation:
11. Samuel Purchas (ed.), Purchas His Pilgrimes. In Five Bookes, 4 vols, (London, 1625).,
Marsh's Library Exhibits,
accessed May 1, 2024,
https://web.marshlibrary.ie/digi/items/show/500