HISTORIE OF THE WORLD By Sir Walter Raleigh, 1614

Raleigh, Sir Walter.  THE HISTORIE OF THE WORLD. IN FIVE BOOKES.  First Edition.   London:  Printed for Walter Burre, 1614, (84) + 651 + 776 + 56 pp, Large, thick Folio.  Frontispiece, engraved title page, 7 double-page maps.  The frontispiece and the engraved title page were missing and they were supplied by photographic facsimile.  One double-page map between 444 and 447 is missing.  Two blank leaves are left in its place.  It was supposed to be supplied by hand, but that did not happen.  Two other double-pages maps were supplied by hand made ones.  Page 456 is missing but it was supplied by hand.  Contemporary morocco, worn, rebacked, minor wormholes and slight foxing and soiling, otherwise a very good and solid copy.

Despite all the faults in this copy, it is a very desired book and extremely rare. 

Sir Walter Raleigh (ca. 1552 – 1618) was a famed English writer, poet, soldier, courtier, and explorer.  Raleigh was born to a Protestant family in Devon, the son of Walter Raleigh and Catherine Champernowne.  Little is known for certain of his early life, though he spent some time in Ireland, in Killua Castle, Clonmellon, County Westmeath, taking part in the suppression of rebellions and participating in two infamous massacres at Rathlin Island and Smerwixk, later becoming a landlord of lands confiscated from the Irish. He rose rapidly in Queen Elizabeth  I's favor, being knighted in 1585, and was involved in the early English colonization of the New World in Virgini under a royal patent.  

In 1594 Raleigh heard of a "City of Gold" in South America and sailed to find it, publishing an exaggerated account of his experiences in a book that contributed to the legend of El Dorado.  After Queen Elizabeth died in 1603, Raleigh was again imprisoned in the Tower, this time for allegedly being involved in the Main Plot against King James I, who was not favorably disposed toward him.  In 1616, however, he was released in order to conduct a second expedition in search of El Dorado. This was unsuccessful and the Spanish outpost at San Thomé was ransacked by men under his command. After his return to England he was arrested and, after a show trial held mainly to appease the Spanish after Raleigh's attack of San Thomé, he was beheaded at Whitehall.

During his seventeen years as an Irish landlord, frequently domiciling at Killulagh Castle, Clonmellon, county Westmeath, Raleigh made the town of Youghal his occasional home, where he was mayor from 1588 to 1589.  He is credited with having planted the first potatoes in Ireland, but it is far more likely that the plant arrived in Ireland through trade with the Spanish.  

Raleigh's plan in 1584 for colonization in the "Colony and Dominion of Virginia" (which included the present-day states of North Carolina and Virginia) in North America ended in failure at Roanoke Island, but paved the way for subsequent colonies.  His voyages were funded primarily by himself and his friends, never providing the steady stream of revenue  necessary to start and maintain a colony in America. (Subsequent colonization attempts in the early 17th century were made under the joint-stock Virginia Company which was able to pull together the capital necessary to create successful colonies.)

In 1587, Raleigh attempted a second expedition again establishing a settlement on Roanoke Island. This time, a much more diversified group of settlers was sent, including some entire families, under the governance of John White. After a short while in America, White was recalled to England in order to find more supplies for the colony. He was unable to return the following year as planned, however, because the Queen had ordered that all vessels remain at port in case they were needed to fight the Spanish Armada. The threat of the Armada was only partially responsible for the 4 year delay of the second expedition. After England's victory over the Spanish fleet in 1588 the ships were given permission to sail. Unfortunately for the colonists at Roanoke the small fleet made an excursion towards Cuba in an attempt to capture as prizes the treasure-laden Spanish merchant ships that were reported to be proliferate in those waters at that time. White is said to have objected to this unplanned foray, but was helpless to dissuade the crews who'd been told of the enormous riches to be had by the experienced (he had previously piloted in the Americas in the service of the Spanish), Portuguese pilot hired by Raleigh to navigate the voyage. It was not until 1591 that the supply vessel arrived at the colony, 4 years later, only to find that all colonists had disappeared. The only clue to their fate was the word "CROATOAN" and letters "CRO" carved into separate tree trunks, suggesting the possibility that they were either massacred, absorbed or taken away by Croatans or perhaps another native tribe. Other speculation includes their being swept away or lost at sea during the stormy weather of 1588 (credited with aiding in the defeat of the Spanish Armada). However, it is worth noting that a hurricane prevented John White and the crew of the supply vessel from actually visiting Croatoan to investigate the disappearance, and no further attempts at contact were recorded for some years. Whatever the fate of the settlers, the settlement is now remembered as the "Lost Colony of Roanoke Island,'

Raleigh commissioned the shipbuilder R. Chapman, of Deptfor to build a ship for him. Originally called Ark, it became Ark Raleigh following the convention at the time where the ship bore the name of its owner. The crown, in the form of Queen Elizabeth I, purchased the ship from Raleigh in January 1587, for the sum of £5,000 (although this took the form of a reduction in the sum Sir Walter owed the queen: he received Exchequer tallies, but no money). As a result the ship was renamed Ark Royal.

In 1592, Raleigh was given many rewards by the Queen, including Durham house in the Strand and the estate of Sherborne, Dorset.

In 1591, Raleigh was secretly married to Elizabeth "Bess" Throckmorton (or Throgmorton). She was one of the Queen's ladies-in-waiting, eleven years his junior, and was pregnant at the time of their marriage. She gave birth to a son, believed to be named Damerei, who was given to a wet nurse at Durham House; the infant does not seem to have survived, and Bess resumed her duties. The following year, the unauthorized marriage was discovered and the Queen ordered Raleigh imprisoned and Bess dismissed from court. He was released from prison to divide the spoils from the captured Spanish ship Madre de Dios ("Mother of God").

It would be several years before Raleigh returned to favor. The couple remained devoted to each other. During Raleigh's absences, Bess proved a capable manager of the family's fortunes and reputation. They had two more sons, Walter (known as Wat) and Carew.

Though royal favour with Queen Elizabeth I had been restored by this time, it did not last. Elizabeth died in 1603, and Raleigh was imprisoned in the Tower of London on 19 July. Later that year, on 17 November, Raleigh was tried in the converted Great Hall for treason due to his supposed involvement in the Main Plot against King James. Raleigh conducted his defense with great skill, which may, in part, explain why King James spared his life, despite the guilty verdict. He was left to languish in the Tower of London until 1616. While imprisoned, he wrote many treatises and the first volume of THE HISTORIE OF THE WORLD, about the ancient history of Greece and Rome. His son Carew was conceived and born while Raleigh was legally "dead" and imprisoned in the Tower of London (1604).

In 1616, Sir Walter was released from the Tower of London in order to conduct a second expedition to Venezuela in search of El Dorado. In the course of the expedition, Raleigh's men, under the command of Lawrence Keymis, attacked the Spanish outpost of Santo Thomé de Guayana (San Thomé) on the Orinoco. During the initial attack on the settlement, Raleigh's son Walter was struck by a bullet and killed. On Raleigh's return to England, the outraged Diego Sarmiento du Acuna, the Spanish ambassador, demanded that King James reinstate Raleigh's death sentence. The ambassador's demand was granted.

Raleigh was beheaded at Whitehall on 29 October 1618. "Let us dispatch", he asked his executioner. "At this hour my ague comes upon me. I would not have my enemies think I quaked from fear." After he was allowed to see the axe that would behead him, he mused: "This is a sharp Medicine, but it is a Physician for all diseases and miseries".

Although his popularity had waned considerably since his Elizabethan heyday, his execution was seen by many, both at the time and since, as unnecessary and unjust. It has been suggested that any involvement in the Main Plot appears to have been limited to a meeting with Lord Cobham.  One of the judges at his trial later said: "the justice of England has never been so degraded and injured as by the condemnation of the honorable Sir Walter Raleigh."

The book is accompanied with a typed letter from William C. Lane, a librarian at Harvard College Library. The letter is dated July 9, 1918.

The letter reads:

Dear Mrs. Hammond:-

            I found no time until very recently to look up anything about your old book.  I now find that it is Sir Walter Raleigh's "History of the World", printed in London in 1614.  We have two copies here with this date, each by a different printer; one correspond exactly with yours, and your copy, I judge, lacks only the title-page, a preliminary leaf of verse opposite the title-page, and a leaf of errata at the end.  It is a volume well worth treasuring on account of its authorship.

                                    Very truly,

W.C. Lane [signature]

[in hand written note, he added:]

I do not know whether you are in Cambridge now so do not know whether the volume can be returned to you.

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