The following enumeration of works on navigation previous to and during the Elizabethan age is intended, first, to show the position taken by the Seaman's Secrets of Davis, and, in the second place, to furnish a key to the history of the progress of nautical science. England, when her sons first began to undertake voyages of discovery, was obliged to look to other more advanced countries for the needful knowledge. The first works enumerated in this list are little more than paraphrases of Ptolemy. Muller (or Regiomontanus) began to take independent observations, and soon the Spaniards and Portuguese produced works for the use of mariners. The English were at first dependent on translations of Spanish books, but discoveries and improvements in the art of navigation followed rapidly on the first voyages of discovery, and all through the reign of Elizabeth books with new inventions or improved methods continued to supply an ever-increasing demand. When a good work on navigation was published, edition followed edition in rapid succession. The List is an attempt to enumerate the principal Spanish and other foreign publications, and all the English works on the art of navigation belonging to the age of Elizabeth.

The arrangement of the list is chronological as regards authors, but all editions are enumerated together. At the end there is an alphabetical list of authors for more ready reference.