This is the first of two articles that examines how knowledge about Singapore and its Straits circulated within European literary circles between 1511 and 1819. The present exposé surveys close to three centuries worth of references to Singapore and its adjacent straits in European printed materials in order to make the case for its visibility and significance in readership. Besides offering a categorization of the references at hand, it argues that several thematic impressions emerge: of danger, division, antiquity and concentration which would be reached by an interested and resourceful reader. These references point to public familiarity with Singapore which was dismissed by British colonial scholarship after 1819.