before namely the furnace or hearth the panne or kettle with the trefeet the tunnell the drinking cuppes or earthen pots the spoones and the boxes wherein they keep the hearb and the powder made of the same These things they set little lesse store by than we do heere in Europe by rings beset with pretious stones or bracelets of the best and most orient pearles Their houses for the most part are framed of timber to auoid the danger of earth-quakes which heere are very frequent and often although that some haue their houses very artificially and stately built from the foundation vpward of a very faire kind of stone They haue many goodly Churches and Monasteries both of men and women very rich and sumptuous The language of all these ilands is one and the same but so diuers and manifold and of such different dialects that it may not vniustly be said to be many For they haue of one and the same thing diuers and sundrie names of which some are vsed in scorne and bad sense others in good sense and honourable vsage other phrases and words are vsed by the Nobility others by the common people others are spoken by the men others by the women Moreouer they speake otherwise than they write and in their writing there is a great variety for they write their priuate letters vnto their friends one way and bookes and such like another way They haue diuers bookes very fairely written both in verse and in prose Againe their letters are such as in one and the same character they do expresse and signifie sometime one word sometime two or more Lastly the Iaponian language is of indifferent iudges preferred before the Latine either in respect of the elegancy and smoothnesse of pronunciation or copy and variety of the same therefore it requireth both great time and labour to learne it They are a very warlike people and much giuen to follow that kind of life the chiefe men of dignitie which haue the command of the kingdome and gouernment of the same they generally call Tonos although amongst those there are also certaine degrees as there are amongst our Nobility Princes Dukes Marquesses Earles and Barons Another sort of men there are amongst them which haue the charge and managing of matters of their Church these are shauen all ouer both head and beard these may neuer marrie but do vow perpetuall chastity There are diuers and sundrie sects of these religious persons amongst them some there are which after the maner of the Knights of the Rhodes do iointly professe armes and religion together but they are generally called by one name Bonzij They haue in many places diuers great schooles such as we call Vniuersities The third state or sort of people amongst them are the citizens and other degrees of gentry next vnto these are the retalers hucksters factours and shop-keepers with artificers and handiecraft-men of diuers occupations very ingenious and skilfull in their trades They haue many kinds of armours and warlike weapons made of sundrie makings and excellent temper They haue also the vse of Printing with letters and stamps not much vnlike our maner inuented and practised heere in Europe The last sort and state of people in these ilands are the husbandmen and labourers Generally it is a very subtile wittie and wise Nation and of singular endowments and good parts of nature both for acute iudgement aptnesse of learning and excellency of memorie It is no shame or reproach to any to be accounted poore Slaunderous and railing speeches theeuing robberies and that vngodlie kind of rash othes and swearing with all kind of dicing and gaming they do vtterly abhorre and detest Any offendours against the Law of what degree soeuer are punished by no lesse punishment than banishment confiscation of goods or death Those which are to be executed are for the most part beheaded suddenlie before they are aware Notwithstanding it is the maner in some places to cary such as are taken for robberies in a certaine kind of carre round about the city in the face of all the people and to hang them vp without the wals of the towne In the seruice of God which is the chiefe point of iustice and vertue they do miserably erre and swarue from the right tract Their guides and great masters of religion to informe the rest are those which I say they name Bonzij Amongst their saints which they worship the chiefe are those which they call Amida and Xaca other idols they haue of lesse estimation and note amongst them whom they pray vnto for health recouery in sickenesse children money other things belonging to the body these they call Camis All Iaponia or the people of that name were subiect in time past vnto one Emperour whom they called Vo or Dair this was his title of honour and dignity vntill such time as he growen effeminate and giuen to pleasures and ease became to be scorned and contemned by the Lieutenants and Nobility especially of the Cubi for so they called the two chiefest Princes vnto whom the gouernment of the country was committed of which afterward the one did kill the other therefore the Lieutenants of the seuerall shires with the military men hauing for a time endured such a carpet Knight by and by began to loath his gouernment and at last wholly shaking off the yoke of subiection seised euery man into his owne hand the prouince ouer which he was set as gouernour vnder the Emperour so at an instant that vnited body and maine Empire of so large command was shattered as it were into many parts and pieces yet so as notwithstanding a kind of soueraigne authority doth euen to this day remaine in the Dair of distributing and giuing the titles of honour to the Nobility which eftsoones are altered according to the diuersity of the degrees and are designed by certaine notes and badges The chiefe and most mightie of all the Princes of Iaponia is he that gat either by force or policy Meacum and the best kingdomes neere to the same which they generally by one name do vulgarly call Tensa Those places were lately possessed by Nubunanga that tyrant which I spake of before this King being slaine by treason about two yeares before and his children murdered or banished one Faxiba a chiefe captaine of the rebels by force and violence stepped into his regall throne and tooke vpon him to sway the scepter of that kingdome The honour and credit of the first entrance of this Iland certaine Portugals do challenge and take vnto themselues but I do rather giue credit to Antonio Gaualno who reporteth in that booke which he wrote of the descries of the New-found world that Antonâ—o Mota Francisco Zeimoro and Antonio Pexoto in their iourney as they sailed from the city Dodra in Sion to passe for China they were caried by a contrary wind to the Ilands of the Iaponians about two and forty yeares before that time All this we haue extracted out
THEATRVM ORBIS TERRARVM GEOGRAPHI REGII THE THEATRE OF THE WHOLE WORLD SET FORTH BY THAT Excellent Geographer Abraham Ortelius LONDON Printed by IOHN NORTON Printer to the Kings most excellent Maiestie in Hebrew Greeke and Latine 1606. HONI SOIT QVI MAL Y PENSE The sway by Sea Land great IAMES doth beare His Birth His Bloud These Kingdomes figure here But were his seuerall vertues to be crown'd A World past thine Ortelius must be fownd TO THE MOST HIGH MOST MIGHTY AND MOST HAPPY PRINCE IAMES BY THE GRACE OF GOD KING OF GREAT BRITAINE FRANCE AND IRELAND DEFENDER OF THE FAITH c. IOHN NORTON HIS MAIESTIES MOST HVMBLE AND FAITHFVLL SERVANT CONSECRATETH THESE IMMORTALL LABOVRS OF ABRAHAM OR TELIVS TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH ABRAHAMI ORTELII QVEM VRBS VRBIVM ANTVERPIA EDIDIT REX REGVM PHILIPPVS GEOGRAPHVM HABVIT MONVMENTVM HIC VIDES BREVIS TERRA EVM CAPIT QVI IPSE ORBEM TERRARVM CEPIT STILO ET TABVLIS ILLVSTRAVIT SED MENTE CONTEMPSIT QVA CAELVM ET ALTA SVSPEXIT CONSTANS ADVERSVM SPES AVT METVS AMICITIAE CVITOR CANDORE FIDE OFFICIIS QVIETIS CVLTOR SINE LITE VXORE PROLE VITAM HABVIT QVALE ALIVS VOTVM VT NVNC QVOQVE AETERNA EI QVIES SIT VOTIS FAVE LECTOR OBIIT IIII. KAL IVLII ANNO MD. XCIIX VIXIT ANN. LXXI MENSS II. DIES IIXX COLII EX SORORE NEPOTES B.M. POSS CONTEMNO ET ORNOMENTE MANV Α Χ Ρ Ω THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM ORTELL COSMOGRAPHER TO PHILIP THE SECOND LATE KING OF SPAINE written first in Latine by Francis Sweert of Antwerpe his familiar and louing friend and now translated into English by W. B as great a louer of his learning and vertues THe stocke of the ORTELS flourished not long since and liued in good state and credit at Auspurg in Bayern Augustam vindelicorum the Latines called it From that family came WILLIAM ORTELL who about the yere of our Lord 1460 left his natiue country and seated himselfe in Antwerpe at that time one of the famousest Mart-townes of the world where he did many notable things worthily deseruing great commendation among which that is most memorable that of his owne proper cost and charges he caused a goodly crosse of free stone to be set vp without the Emperours gate in that place where the malefactours are vsually woont to be executed and put to death Beneath this crosse at the base or foot of the same stood Mary and Iohn and beside them a little farther off hung the two theeues the one vpon the right hand and the other vpon the left vpon their seuerall gibbets This William died vpon the seuenth day of Ianuary in the yeere of our Lord God 1511 and was buried in the cloisters of the Franciscane Friers in Antwerpe leauing his sonne LEONARD ORTELL sole Executor and heire not only of his goods and substance but also of his vertues and good qualities For they report that he was a man so deuout and religious that it was an hard matter to finde him from his booke serious meditation on heauenly matters This Leonard maried ANNA HERVVAYERS and by her had issue two daughters and one some named ABRAHAM whose life we heere purpose to describe borne vpon the second day of Aprill in the yeere of our Lord God 1527. Hee was euen in his child-hood of singular towardnesse great capacity and passing quicke conceit and that which is very strange in youth hee was neuer giuen to the reading of any trifles or idle vanities Wherefore his father purposing to make him a scholar began first himselfe to instruct him priuatly at home in his owne house in the Latine and Greeke tongues For the old man was very learned in both these languages But see how these good purposes were soon crossed by the vntimely death of his most louing and kinde father who departing this life in the yeere of Christ 1535 left this his sonne to be further informed and taught abroade by strange schoolemasters whose care and diligence to profit him whatsoeuer their learning were was nothing so great and painfull notwithstanding euen vnder these he made such profit in the Artes and liberall Sciences that he was not much inferiour to the best of his degree and time For as I said before no vaine pleasure or trifles pastimes which commonly are the ouerthrow of many yongue men could euer with-draw him from his setled purpose or alienate his minde from his booke Yet his greatest delight and commendation consisted in the knowledge of the Mathematicall sciences which for the most part he studied and practised without an instructor or teacher atteining only by his owne paines and industrie to the great admiration of others euen to the vnderstanding of the greatest and deepest mysteries of the same In the thirtieth yeare of his age hauing many great matters in his head and loathing to liue idly at home in his owne natiue country he began to entertaine a conceipt of trauelling into diuers and sundry forreine parts and countries of the world To Frankford vpon the Main by reason of the great Marts or Faires there held at two seuerall times euery yere he went very often In the yeere of our Lord 1575 he went with Iohn Viuian of Valence a Marchant but a great louer of learning and Hierome Scoliers of Antwerp to Leige Trier Tungren and Mentz of which iourney and peregrination of theirs there is at this day a booke of his exstant in print wherein he hath learnedly described the particulars obserued by them In the yeere of Christ 1577 with Immanuël Demetrius of Antwerpe hee trauelled beyond the Seas into England and Ireland Italy that nource of great wits that worker of strange woonders that mother of reuerend antiquities and ancient monuments hee visited thrise The third time that he went thither which was in the yeere 1578 he went in company of George Houfnayle of Antwerp who was so excellent a painter that he was greatly esteemed and beloued of the illustrious princes Albert and VVilliam Dukes of Bayern of Ferdinand Duke of Austrich yea and of Rudolphus himselfe at that time Emperour of the Germanes But this his consort to the great greefe of his friends and such as loued his singular qualities left his life at Prage in Bohemia vpon the thirteenth of Ianuary in the yeere of our Lord 1600. This man was woorthy of longer life if the Fates would respect men for their great parts and excellent vertues But so it is that Death like as the sythe in Haruest cutteth downe without distinction aswell the yongue as old There was nothing either in Germanie or in France that was woorth the seeing that this our authour had not seene and viewed with a censorious and iudicious eie At length hauing ouercome so many tedious and toilsome trauels he returned againe to Antwerpe his natiue soile There and then he began to apply himselfe to benefit succedent ages to write of those countries by him viewed and seene to set out in Charts
vpon what ground Calis-Malis In the lesser of the two foresaid isles stood the towne of Gades and in the greater Iulia Gaditana Augusta which before as appeareth out of Strabo was called Neapolis Now they call both towne and island Cadiz It is the seat of a Bishop who also is intitled Bishop of Alger This Isle was first discouered and inhabited by certaine Phoenicians of Tyrus as is euident out of most ancient records Vpon this isle some are of opinion that the Geryones afterward planted themselues whose droues the Aegyptian or Tyrian Hercules forcibly draue away At one corner of the isle stood the temple of this Hercules famous both for builders superstition riches and antiquity Why it should be holy saith Mela his bones there buried are a sufficient cause Vpon the other corner Strabo affirmes the temple of Saturne to haue been erected In the said temple of Hercules Caesar found the image of Alexander the great as Suetonius in his life reporteth A fountaine there was very holsome to drinke which with a strange kind of contrariety diminished at the floud and increased at the ebbe of the sea In this temple as the same author affirmeth were certaine brazen pillars of eight cubits wheron were ingrauen the costs bestowed in building of the same Here also the same author out of Artemidorus acknowledgeth a temple dedicated to Iuno Dionysius describes therein the temple of Age and of Death and tels of certaine altars consecrated to the Yere to the Moneth to Arte and to Pouerty Hercules pillars are here extant saith Isidore and here growes a kind of tree like a palme with the gum whereof the glasse of Epyrus being mingled is turned into a precious stone The inhabitants of old were famous for their skill in nauigation and from this their ancient trauersing of the seas they do not as yet degenerate But their principall gaine consisteth in making of Salt and in catching of Tunies for which they haue euery yeere an ordinary fishing These fishes being cut in pieces pouldred and barrelled are dispersed all Europe ouer This isle was esteemed by antiquitie the worlds extreame Westerne limit whereupon saith Silius Italicus in his first booke And Gades the vtmost bounds of men c. Also in his 17. booke Gades lands farthest end And Calpe bounding Hercules And Baetis crystall streames That bathe Apolloes steeds For here the Poets faine that the Sun being weary of his dayes labour drencheth himselfe in the Ocean and takes his rest wherefore Statius also calles it Gades the Sunnes soft bed Yea at this very time our Netherlandish Mariners call the Westermost Cape of this isle which by the inhabitants is named El cabo de San Sebastian Het einde der Werelt that is to say The Worlds end This ancient inscription found vpon this isle is by Appianus in his booke of Inscriptions alleged out of Cyriacus of Ancona as followeth HELIODORVS INSANVS CARTHAGINIENSIS AD EXTREMVM ORBIS SARCOPHAGO TESTAMENTO ME HOC IVSSI CONDIER VT VIDEREM SI QVISQVAM INSANIOR AD ME VISENDVM VS QVE AD HAEC LOCA PENETRARET In English thus I Heliodorus a mad Carthaginian commanded in my last will that they should in this tombe bury me at the worlds end to see if any more franticke than my selfe would come thus farre to visit me But that all this inscription is counterfeit and new I learne out of Anthony Augustinus his eleuenth chapter of ancient coines Concerning this isle you may reade more at large in Strabo and Philostratus And of the city reade Brunus in his volume of cities GVIPVSCO GVIPVSCO is a part of that Northerne tract of Spaine called of olde Cantabria it borders vpon the kingdome of Nauarre and the Pyreney mountaines which diuide it from France and it is bounded Westard by the prouince of Biscay The inhabitants in Ptolemey are called Varduli At this present some call it Lipuscoa others Lepuscoa but corruptly as Stephan Garibaio borne in the country writeth Some ancient records of this country do not vndeseruedly name it The wall and fortresse of Castile and Leon. It is a mountainous place euery where so abounding with yron and steele that for quantity and goodnesse of this mettall it is excelled by no other region in the world Wherefore from hence to their great commodity all the neighbour-countries are abundantly supplied with all kind of iron-tooles and instruments Here likewise they make warlike armour and artillery as namely Great ordonance Harquebuzes Caliuers Harnesse Swords c. so good and in such plenty as people of all nations are desirous to haue them They themselues also are a people very warlike So that this region a man may rightly call Mars his armory and the inhabitants his workemen Such as dwell vpon the coasts spending the greatest part of their time at sea reape vnto themselues great profit by taking Newfoundland fish called Baccalaos and Whales of whose fat they make great quantitie of Traine-oile Heere also they boile Salt mixing it I know not for what purpose with Oats and with Hempe-seed The head citie is Tholosa situate at the confluence of the riuers Araxis and Oria others there are also of note as Placencia swarming with Smiths Motrico or rather Monte de Trico so called of the rocke Trico that hangs ouer it The port of Sant Sebastian which is the largest most commodious vpon all the coast Hither people of sundry nations do trafficke At first it was called Hicuru afterward Don Bastia and corruptly Donastia which in signification is all one with Sant Sebastian For Don in the Biscain tongue signifieth Saint as Santo in Spanish But by the inhabitants it is commonly called Vrumea For this region differing altogether in language from the residue of Spaine hath many townes called by diuers names according to the difference of languages some whereof I thought good here to note for the benefit of those that reade histories The sundry names therefore of diuers townes in Guipusco are these that follow Salinas alias Gaza both signifying salt Mondragon alias Arrasale Monreal alias Dena Aspeitia alias Vrasueitia Saluatierra de Traurgui Olite alias Ariuierri Renteria alias Villanueua de Oiarcum Penna Oradada alias Puerto de Sant Adrian Elicaur alias Licaur Marquina alias Elgoiuar Azcoytia alias Vrazgoitia Miranda de Traurgui Araxa Arayça Also the hill Aralar is called Arara and the riuer Vidoso Vidorso and Alduida and Beyouia This riuer runnes betweene Spaine and France In describing this region Stephan Garibayo is very copious in the 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. and 14. chapters of his 15. booke And Florian del Campo writes somewhat of it in his first and second chapter And Nauagierus in his Iournall affirmeth that there is so much yron and steele dig'd out of the mines of Guipusco as yeeldeth 80000. duckats of yerely gaine The words of Plinie in his 34. booke and 14. chapter are not I thinke to this place impertinent Vpon the coast of Cantabria saith he which the
FRance fol. xj The Foundation of the Empire fol. xxxviij xxxix France fol. xliijj G. GEographia Sacra fol. j. The Geography of Holy Writers fol. j. The Geography of the Ancients fol. vj. Goodwins sands fol. ix Gallia described by Strabo fol. xj xij Gallia described by Caesar fol. xiij Germany fol. xv xvj Great Greece fol. xxij Graecia fol. xxvij Great Britaine fol. xlij Galizia fol. xliij H. THe Holy land fol. ij Hibernia fol. ix Hellas fol. xxvij I. IVdaea fol. iij. Iewry fol. iij. Israël fol. iij. Ireland fol. ix Illyris fol. xvij Italy fol. xviij Italy of the Gaules fol. xix Isole de Trimite fol. xxij Icaria fol. xxviij Ilands of the Ioniā sea fol. xxix Iasons voyage fol. xxxv Ireland fol. xlj K. The Kings Monastery f. xl L. THe Low countreis fol. xiiij Latium fol. xxj Lesbos fol. xxviij Lemnos fol. xxviij Limbourgh fol. xlv M. MAn fol. ix Monte Circello fol. xxij Magna Graecia fol. xxij Moesia fol. xxiiij Mar Maiore fol. xxv Mona fol. xlvj N. THe Nauigation or voyage of Aeneas fol. xxxiij O. THe Orkeney iles fol. ix The Oracle of Iupiter Ammon fol. xxxij P. PAlestina fol. ij The Peregrination of S. Paul fol. iiij The Peregrination of Abraham fol. v. Pannonia fol. xvij Pontus Euxinus fol. xxv The Peregrination of Vlysses fol. xxxiiij The Paradise of Thessaly fol. xxxvj The Paradise of Antiochia in Syria fol. xxxvij R. THe Roman world f. vij The Roman empire f. vij Rhodus f. xxviij Rhenia f. xxviij S. SHepey fol. ix Spaine fol. x. Sicilia fol. xxiij Samos fol. xxviij Sardinia fol. xxix Sardegna fol. xxix T. TEnet fol. ix Tuscia or Tuscane fol. xx Trinacria fol. xxiij Thrace fol. xxvj Tempe Thessalica fol. xxxvj V. THe Voyage of Alexander the Great fol. xxxij The Voyage or nauigation of Aeneas fol. xxxiij W. The West Iles. fol. ix Spectandum dedit Ortelius mortalib orbem Orbi spectandum Galleus Ortelium Papius Α Χ Ρ Ω VITAE SCOPVS A DESCRIPTION OF THE WHOLE WORLD THIS Map next ensuing containeth and representeth the portraiture of the whole earth and of the maine Ocean that enuirons compasseth the same all which earthly Globe the Ancients who were not as then acquainted with the New world not long since descried diuided into three parts namely Africa Europe and Asia But since that discouery of America the learned of our age haue made that a fourth part and the huge Continent vnder the South pole a fifth Gerardus Mercator the Prince of moderne Geographers in his neuer-sufficiently-commended vniuersall Table or Map of the whole world diuides this Circumference of the earth into three Continents the first he calles that which the Ancients diuided into three parts and from whence the holy Writ beares record that mankinde had their first originall first was seated the second is that which at this present is named America or the VVest Indies for the third he appoints the South maine which some call Magellanica as yet on very few coasts thorowly discouered That this orbe or masse of the earthly Globe containes in circuit where it is largest 5400 German or 21600 Italian miles antiquity hath taught late Writers haue subscribed to their opinion And these so manifold portions of earth sayth Plinie in the 11. booke of his Naturall historie yea rather as some haue termed them the pricke or center of the world for so small is the earth in comparison of the whole frame of the world this is the matter this is the seat of our glorie Here we enioy honours here we exercise authoritie here we hunt after riches here men turmoile and tire themselues here we moue and maintaine ciuill dissensions and by mutuall slaughter make more roome vpon the earth And to let passe the publike tumults of the world this in which we force the borderers to giue place and remoue farther off and where we incroch by stelth vpon our neighbors lands as he that extends his lands lordships farthest and cannot abide that any should seat themselues too neere his nose How great or rather how small a portion of earth doth he enioy Or when he hath glutted his auarice to the full How little shall his dead carcase possesse Thus far Plinie The situation of this earth and sea the disposition of the seuerall regions with their inlets and gulfs the maners and inclinations of the people and other memorable and note-worthy matters are described by men of ancienter times such as follow PTOLEMEY of ALEXANDRIA CAIVS PLINIVS 2 3 4 5 and 6 books of his Natural history ARISTOTELES DE MVNDO written and dedicated to Alexander the Great STRABO in 17. books SOLINVS POLYHISTOR POMPONIVS MELA DIONYSIVS APHER and his Expositor EVSTATHIVS APVLEIVS in his booke of the World DIODORVS SICVLVS in his fiue former books MARTIANVS CAPELLA PAVLVS OROSIVS in the beginning of his History AETHICVS and another of that name surnamed SOPHISTA not yet printed IVLIVS the Oratour called by Cassiodore PRIMVS BEROSVS described the antiquitie of the World ANTONIVS AVGVSTVS if the title be true set downe the Iournals of the Romane empire SEXTVS AVIENVS the sea-coasts STEPHANVS the cities VIBIVS SEQVESTER in an Alphabeticall order the Riuers Fountaines Lakes Woods Hilles and Nations thereof TYPVS ORBIS TERRARVM QVID EI POTEST VIDERI MAGNVM IN REBVS HVMANIS CVI AETERNITAS OMNIS TOTIVSQVE MVNDI NOTA SIT MAGNITVDO CICERO HOMINES HAC LEGE SVNT GENERATI QVI TVERENTVR ILLVM GLOBVM QVEM IN HOC TEMPLO MEDIVM VIDES QVAE TERRA DICITVR Cicero EQVVS VEHENDI CAVSA ARANDI BOS VENANDI ET CVSTODIENDI CANIS HOMO AVTEM ORTVS AD MVNDVM CONTEMPLANDVM Cicero HOC EST PVNCTVM QVOD INTER TOT GENTES FERRO ET IGNI DIVIDITVR O QVAM RIDICVLI SVNT MORTALIVM TERMINI Seneca VTINAM QVEMADMODVM VNIVERSA MVNDI FACIES IN CONSPECTVM VENIT ITA PHILOSOPHIA TOTA NOBIS POSSET OCCVRRERE Seneca EVROPA WHy Europe should be so called or who was the first Authour of this name no man as yet hath found out vnlesse sayth Herodotus in his fourth booke we should thinke that the whole region borrowed this name from Europa daughter to the King of Epyrus This Plinie calleth the Nurse of the victorious and conquering people of all other nations of the world most beautifull and farre surpassing the rest and so it is sometimes compared to Asia and Africa not for his greatnesse and compasse but for his might and power Certaine it is that this part being most plentifully inhabited is for multitude of nations inferiour to neither of the other The North and Westerne sides hereof are bathed by the Ocean the South coast is disioyned from Africa by the Mediterranean sea Then Eastward by the Aegaean sea now called Archipelago by the Euxin sea named at this present Mar Maggiore by the lake of Maeotis now termed Mar delle Zabacche by the riuer Tanais commonly called Don and by the Isthmus or straight of the maine land
which is from the head or fountaine of this riuer directly vnto the North Ocean it is diuided from Asia according to the opinion of Glarean And thus it beares the shape of a Peninsula which signifies a place of the earth almost disioyned and cut from the Continent and so well neere on euery side enuironed with waters as in the Table it selfe is manifest The head hereof Rome was whilome conqueresse of the earth The regions thereof as they are now called are Spaine France Germanie Italie Slauonia Greece Hungarie Poland with Lithuania Moscouia or more significantly Russia and that Peninsula which conteineth Norway Sweden and Gotland Among the Isles thereof the first place is due to Britany conteining England and Scotland then followes Ireland Groenland Frisland and Island all situate in the maine Ocean In the Mediterran sea it hath Sicilia Sardinia Corsica Candia Maiorica Minorica Corfu Negropont and others of lesse note the particular names and situations whereof are to be seene in the Table This our Europe besides the Roman Empire reuerenced of all the world hath in all if you adde those foureteene which Damianus à Goes reckens vp only in Spaine eight and twentie Christian Kingdomes whereby you may estimate the worthinesse of this region It is a place out of measure fruitfull and the naturall disposition of his aire is very temperate For all kindes of Graine for Wine and abundance of Woods it is inferior to none but comparable to the best of the others It is so pleasant and so beautified with stately Cities Townes and Villages that for the courage and valour of the people and seuerall nations although it be lesse in quantitie and circuit yet might it well be accounted and indeed of all ancient Writers hath it euer beene accounted superiour vnto the other parts of the World most renowmed also hath it beene both in regard of the Macedonian Empire and the great command and power of the Romans The praises thereof you may reade in Strabo who in his third booke and seuen bookes following hath most learnedly and excellently described it Peruse also other ancient Geographers Of late Writers amongst other things by the way Volateranus Sebastian Munster Dominicus Niger Georgius Rithaimerus in their Geographies haue endeuoured to paint it out in his colours But Pius the second Christopher Cella and Anselmus his brother haue described it a part and by it selfe Diuers Iournals ouer all Europe in a maner together with the distances of places haue beene committed to writing by Cherubin Stella John Herbacius and George Mayerus The like hath beene done by William Gratarolus in the end of his booke which is entitled De regimine iter agentium or A direction for trauellers AFRICA THis the Ancients haue diuersly distinguished but at this present it is diuided by Iohn Leo of Africa into foure chiefe parts Barbarie Numidia Libya and the Land of Negros BARBARIE which is accounted the best they circumscribe with the Atlantick Mediterranean seas with mount Atlas with the region of Barcha bordering vpon Aegypt NVMIDIA called by the inhabitants Biledulgerid and abounding with Dates for which cause the Arabians call it by no other name but the Date-bearing region is bounded Westward by the Atlantick Ocean Northward by mount Atlas it stretcheth East as farre as the citie Eloacat which is an hundred miles distant from Aegypt and the sandie Deserts of Libya embrace it on the South LIBYA the third part is named in the Arabian tongue Sarra which word signifies a Desert It beginnes East from Nilus and thence runneth West as farre as the Atlantick sea Numidia lies to the North of it and the Land of Negros to the South Now followeth the fourth part which they call NIGRITARVM terra either from the inhabitants which are of a blacke colour or from the riuer Niger that runneth thorow the countrey It is confined North by Libya South by the Aethiopick Ocean West by Gualata and East by the Kingdome of Gaoga And here we are to note that according to this their diuision all Africa is included within the Mediterran Atlantick and Aethiopick seas and the riuer Nilus wherefore Aegypt and Aethiopia are accounted parts of Asia which we notwithstanding thinke more properly to belong to Africa For the true Aethiopia containes at this day Presbyter Iohns Empire which by all late Writers is ascribed to Africa We therefore with Ptolemey iudge that it ought to be bounded by the Mediterran and Ocean seas rather than by any riuer whatsoeuer and so it hath the forme of a Peninsula being ioyned to Asia by an Isthmos or small neck-land which lies betweene the Mediterran sea and the gulfe of Arabia The South part hereof was vnknowen to our ancestours till the yeere 1497 whereas Vasco de Gama first doubling the Cape de buona speranza or of good hope and sailing about Africa came to Calicut in East India This Southern part by the Persians and Arabians is called Zanzibar At the foresayd Cape of good hope the inhabitants are exceeding blacke which we thought in no wise to omit because all men suppose the cause of blacknesse to be heat and the nearenesse of the Sunne wheras here the Sunne scorcheth no more than about the Streight of Magellan if we measure the heat of the place according to the position of the heauens and distance from the Equinoctiall line where notwithstanding the people are reported to be maruellous white But if we will needs ascribe this blacknesse to the scorching heat of the Sun let vs consider what makes the Spaniards and Italians looke so white whenas they are equally distant from the Equinoctiall with the inhabitants of the foresayd Cape namely the one towards the South and the other towards the North. Presbyter Iohns people are of a browne colour in Zeilan and Malabar the inhabitants are coale blacke yet all in one the same distance from the aequator and vnder the very same parallele of the heauens * And on the contrary why did Herodotus and Pindarus describe such as inhabited the same climate with themselues namely Colchis to be of a blacke colour and curled haire Herodotus in his Thalia makes the Indians blacke like the Aethiopians which the experience of our times confirmeth I know Herodotus will haue the cause hereof to be the seed of the parents which he sayth is not white as that of other people but blacke To whom Postellus also subscribeth and imputeth the originall of this blacknesse vnto Chams curse Against which opinion I haue nothing to allege Let the trueth of the matter rest vpon the authours credit But this a man may thinke more strange that in all America there were no blacke people found besides a few only in one place called by them Quareca What then is the efficient cause of this colour Is it the drinesse of the heauen or of the earth Is it perhaps some hidden propertie of the soile Or a kind of qualitie inherent to the nature of men
Or is it all these vnited in one But these things we leaue to be considered by them who do more curiously search into the secrets of nature This portion of the world is called by the Greeks Libya and by the Latines Africa because it is not molested with extremity of colde or if we may credit Iosephus from Afer one of Abrahams posteritie Another deriuation of the name you haue set downe by Iohn Leo in the beginning of his first booke of the Description of Africa who deriueth it from the Arabick theme Faraka signifying to disioine or separate because it is disioyned from Europe by the Mediterran sea from Asia as he saith by the riuer Nilus or rather as the best authours haue taught by the Arabian gulfe called of the Greeks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mare rubrum the red sea of the Hebrewes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 iam-suff mare algosum vel iuncosum the sedgie sea of the Arabians the neere inhabitants Bahci ' lkulzom the sea alkulzom Vpon the like reason doth Iul. Caesar Scaliger thinke that Sicilia was so called of Seco which signifieth to cut for that this Island was thought of the ancients to haue beene a portion cut from the maine Continent and sometimes to haue beene ioined to Italie Others after their maner nullo digno autore nullo solido certo argumento do fetch the name of Africa from Africus a king of blessed Arabia whom they affirme to haue brought colonies hither and to haue first inhabited the same The principall islands of this part for here to expresse all by name we thinke it not necessarie because they are to be seene in the Table are Madagascar the Canaries the isles of Cape verde and S. Thomas island situate vnder the aequinoctiall which aboundeth with sugar Among the olde Writers none haue particularly described this region But concerning the same reade Salust his Bellum Iugurthinum Hanno his nauigation about Africa in Arrianus and Iambolus his voyage in Diodorus Siculus and likewise Herodotus his Melpomene Barlaams narration of the inner Aethiopia or India is extant in the Augustan Librarie Of late Writers reade Aloysius Cadamostus Vasco de Gama Francis Aluarez who trauelled Aethiopia But of all others Iohn Leo hath most exactly described it and Ludouicus Marmolius and Liuius Sanutus Iohn Barros also pron iseth a volume of Africa Concerning the riuer Nilus the greatest in all the world you haue the letters of Iohn Baptista Ramusius and Ierom Fracastorius Of Africa likewise you may reade at large in the second volume of M. Richard Hakluyts English voyages AFRICAE TABVLA NOVA AFRICAM GRAECI LIBYAM APP EDITA ANTVERPIAE 1570. The New World commonly called AMERICA THat all this Hemisphere or halfe-rundle which is called America and in regard of the large extension The New world should lie concealed from our ancestours till the yeere of Christ 1492 at what time Christopher Columbus a Genoway first discouered the same is a matter surpassing the measure of human admiration For considering both the diligence of ancient Geographers in describing the World and the commodious opportunitie of most large Empires for the searching out of new Regions then also the insatiable auarice of mankinde leauing nothing vnattempted for the attaining of Golde and Siluer wherewith these Countries incredibly abound I haue often wondered how it could so long haue beene hidden from our World Some there are which suppose that this Continent was described by Plato vnder the name of Atlas my selfe also am of opinion that Plutarch speaking of the face in the bodie of the Moone makes mention thereof vnder the name of a Maine continent Some thinke that Seneca rauisht with a Poeticall furie presaged the discouerie hereof in these Propheticall verses in the very end of the 2. Act. of Medea venient annis Secula seris quibus Oceanus Vincula rerum laxet ingens Pateat tellus Typhisque nouos Detegat Orbes Nec fit terris vltima Thyle In English thus Long hence those yeeres will come When th' Ocean shall dissolue Natures fast bonds and barres Then shall huge lands appeare Typhis shall then detect New worlds nor Thyle then Shall bound the paths of men Like to those Sibyllin verses which as Iacobus Nauarchus writeth were found at the foot of the promontorie of the Moone commonly called Rochan de Sinna vpon the Ocean sea-shore ingrauen vpon a foure-square pillar in the time of Don Emmanuel King of Portugall to this or the like purpose Voluentur saxa literis ordine rectis Cùm videas Occidens Orientis opes Ganges Indus Tagus erit mirabile visu Merces commutabit suas vterque sibi In English thus The stone with mystick letters row'ld shall bee When West the treasures of the East shall see The Portugals and Indians a thing admir'd Shall truck their wares on either part desir'd Howbeit that these verses are not ancient but grauen in our times nor part of Sibylles Prophesies but counterfait I was aduertised being in hand with the second edition of this my Theatrum from Rome by Caesar Orlando a Ciuilian in his letters out of some printed works of Gaspar Varerius in which since that I my selfe haue read the same And afterward I found it confirmed by Amil. Resende in his Antiquities of Portugale namely that in the time of Don Emmanuel King of Portugale one Hermes Caiado of the same countrey caused them to be ingrauen and buried in the earth and when he supposed that the marble began to corrupt with the moisture of the ground pretending some cause of recreation he inuites his friends to a countrey-house of his neere vnto which this fained Prophesie lay hid Wherefore being all set at meat in comes his Bailiffe with newes that his Labourers had by chance digged vp a stone engrauen with letters They all immediatly runne forth they reade it they admire it they highly esteeme it and are ready to adore it c. See how apt Caiado was to delude his friends Marinaeus Siculus in his Chronicle of Spaine writes that there was found in Gold-mines an ancient piece of coine with Augustus Caesars image vpon it and for the more confirmation of the matter that it was sent by the Archbishop of Consance to the Pope But I am of opinion that it was there lost by the same familie which first found it Iosephus Acosta in his booke De Natura noui orbis indeuours by many reasons to proue that this part of America was originally inhabited by certaine Indians forced thither by tempestuous weather ouer the South sea which now they call Mare del Zur But to me it seemes more probable out of the historie of the two Zeni gentlemen of Venice which I haue put downe before the Table of the South sea and before that of Scandia that this New world many ages past was entred vpon by some islanders of Europe as namely of Groenland Island and Frisland being much neerer thereunto than the Indians nor disioyned thence
25. and Plutarch in his naturall questions concerning the face in the orbe of the Moone All these are in some sort confirmed by Platoes fables or histories in his Timaeus concerning the isle Atlantis whose sea he affirmes to be vnnauigable by reason of the slime or oaze remaining of the same isles inundation But concerning the ship called La Victoria learne thus much it is not sayd amisse Bare names oft times things named doe resemble Manifest it is by this ship which vnder this happy name the first voyage that euer she made was the only ship that caried away the victory of sailing quite ouer the maine Ocean for so many ages before For departing from Spaine by the Streight of Magellan to the Moluccos thence hauing doubled the Cape of Buona Esperança and returned whence she first put forth she was the first of all ships and inall ages that euer circumpassed the whole earth The same ship made out of Spaine a second voyage as farre as S. Domingo and home againe Thither also she made a third voyage but in her returne she was quite lost neither was it euer knowen what became of her Antiquity would haue thought she had beene taken vp into the skies and placed among the Constellations like another Argo Nor had this propheticall verse of the peerelesse Poet beene vnfitly alleged in her commendation Then comes another Tiphys another gold-fleeced Argo Let Plinie now cease to maruell that out of a small hemp-seed should grow that which was of force to cary vp and downe the globe of his earth We in our age haue seene with the very same thing this world of ours much greater than his nauigated round about Ours I say which that you may more perfectly vnderstand do but compare the first Table of our Theatre with the first of our Parergon or By-worke and you shall see the difference And here I suppose I shall not bestow my labour altogether in vaine by adding certaine particulars not commonly knowen concerning the first discouery hereof Which by all our late Writers is not vnworthily ascribed to Christopher Columbus For in the yere 1492 he was the first man that laid it open made it knowen and communicated the vse and benefit thereof to the Christian world Howbeit I finde that the North part of America which lieth neerest vnto Europe and to some of our European isles namely Groenland Island and Frisland and is called Estotiland was long since discouered by certaine Frislandish fishers driuen by tempest vpon that coast and afterward about the yere 1390 that it was reuisited anew by Antonie Zeno a gentleman of Venice and that by the authority of Zichmi then King of the said isle of Frisland a Prince in those times very valiant and ouer all that sea for his warres and victories most renowmed Concerning this his expedition there are extant in Italian certaine Collections or briefe extracts drawen by Francis Marcolino out of the letters of Nicolas and Antonie Zeno gentlemen of Venice who liued in these parts Out of which Collections I adde this that followes touching the description of this region Estotiland he saith abounds with all things necessary for mankind In the mids therof stands an exceeding high mountaine That you many better vnderstand this relation peruse our Table of America and Scandia from whence issue foure riuers that water the whole country The inhabitants are witty and most expert in all kind of handicrafts A language and letters they haue peculiar to themselues Howbeit in this Kings Library there are certeine Latine books no whit vnderstood by them which might perhaps before that time be there left by some of their European neighbors that had traffique with them They haue all kinds of mettall but specially gold wherewith they mightily abound They exercise trade of merchandize with the people of Greenland from whence they fetch hides pitch brimstone The inhabitants say that towards the South there are countries rich of gold and replenisht with inhabitants There are also many great woods out of which they haue matter for the building of their ships and cities whereof and of fortresses there are great numbers Of the loadstones vse in nauigation they are vtterly ignorant They also make mention of Drogeo a region toward the South inhabited by Canibals and such as are delighted to eat mans flesh for want whereof they liue with fishing which they very much vse Beyond this there are large countries and another New world but the inhabitants are barbarous and go naked howbeit against the cold of Winter they arme themselues with beasts skinnes These haue no kind of mettall they liue by hunting For weapons they vse long and sharp-pointed staues and bowes They make warres one vpon another Gouernours they haue and lawes wherto they yeeld obedience Southward of this place they liue in a more temperate climate hauing cities and idol-temples wherin they sacrifice liuing men whose flesh they afterward deuoure These haue the vse of gold and siluer Thus much concerning this tract of land out of the foresaid collections or extracts wherein this also is worthy the obseruation that euen then our European Pilots by meanes of the loadstone sailed those seas For I am of opinion that there is not to be found in any history a more ancient testimony touching the foresayd vse of this stone And these things I was the willinger to adioyne to this Table because I see none of them that haue written the histories of the world so much as once mention this matter But concerning the loadstone or sea-compasse you are to vnderstand that the first inuentour therof was Iohn Goia a citizen of Melfi whom Alexander Sardus in his booke De inuentoribus rerum calleth Flauius Campanus For so write the Italians and so much is confirmed by Antonie Panormitanus in this one verse of his First Melfi Sailors taught the loadstone how to vse and that in the yere of our Sauior 1300. This Melfi called Amalphis in Latine is a towne situate vpon the sea-shore of Lucania Goropius ascribes the finding out of this secret to our Danes or Dutchmen being persuaded hereunto because the names of the 32. winds written vpon the compasse are by all Pilots and Mariners be they French Spaniards or of what nation soeuer expressed in the Dutch tongue which I confesse to be true if you except the Italians only for they both write and speake of these winds in their owne mother-language Howbeit seeing all our nauigatours of Europe be they Spaniards French English or Dutch do expresse them in our language I am verily of opinion that as it was first found and vsed by the Amalfitans or Italians especially within their owne Mediterran sea so was the knowledge therof from them deriued vnto our Netherlanders and most of all to those of Bruges whose city at that time before all traffâ—que was reduced to Antwerpe was a famous mart-towne and frequented by Italians especially of Venice as the foresaid Zeni report
Ocean affronteth there is a craggie high mountaine a thing very admirable wholly consisting of the same matter he meaneth yron CARPETANIA THis region lies in the very heart of Spaine which Plinie Liuie call Carpetania The people called Carpetani were knowen vnto Strabo and the Carpitani with .i. by Ptolemey Polybius calles them Carpesios and so doth Liuie in some places Their chiefe citie is Toledo The description whereof you may reade in Nauagierus Pedro de Medina and George Brunus All Carpetania is not set downe in this Table but that part only from Toledo Eastward Concerning Toledo because I haue not read it in any other authour I will adde that which Roger Houeden in the second booke of his Chronicle of England reporteth He calles it Tulette and these be his words In this city there is an hill out of which are daily taken aboue a thousand camels loads of earth and yet it neuer decreaseth for though you dig neuer so deepe an hole yet by the morow if any raine fall it will be filled vp againe The earth taken out of this hill is transported to the neighbour prouinces and sold to wash mens heads and their apparell aswell Christians as Pagans The said Roger liued about the yeere 1200. CARPETANIAE PARTIS DESCR 1584. Cum priuilegio Imp. et Belgico ad decennium GVIPVS COAE REGIONIS TYPVS Vardulorum siue HANC INSVLAM PERLVSTRABAT ET SVA MANV DEPINGEBAT GEORGIVS HOEFNAGLIVS ANTVERPIAN BELGA Dum extendar FRANCE ALl that tract of land from the riuer of Rhene included by the Ocean the Pyreney mountaines the sea Mediterran and mount Appennine as farre as Ancona the ancient Writers by one generall name called Gallia For Westward by the Pyreney hilles it is disioyned from Spaine North it borders vpon the French and British Ocean East the riuer Rhene and the Alpes from sea to sea include it in like maner as the Pyreney mountaines doe West South it is accoasted by part of the Mediterran sea ouer against Prouence It was called Gallia in regard of the peoples whitenesse for the high mountaines and the heauens rigour exclude the heat of the Sunne from this part hereof it comes that their white bodies change not colour Wherefore the Graecians name the Gaules or ancient inhabitants of France Galatas in regard of their milke-white colour for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Greeke signifieth Milke from which name the Latines haue called them Gallos This deriuation the greatest parts of Writers doe approue yet some there are that deride it supposing them rather to be so called of raine which in Hebrew is Galah and in the olde British language Glau as who should say A most ancient nation rain'd vpon and drenched in the very floud of Noah This region of theirs was of olde diuided into Gallia Cisalpina which in regard of vs lieth beyond the Alpes being that part of Italie which at this present is called Lombardie and Transalpina which is included within these fiue bounds namely the riuer Rhene the Ocean the Pyreney mountaines the Mediterran sea and the Alpes This Gallia Transalpina by Caesar in his Commentaries is diuided into three parts Belgica Celtica and Aquitanica Belgica which is enuironed by the Ocean sea and the riuers of Rhene Marne and Senie vsing most part the Dutch tongue and at this present called the Low-countries Celtica or Lugdunensis which is comprehended within the riuers Garomne Marne Senie and Rhosne It is now called France For the Celtae were subdued by the Francks of Germany so that at length they were named Westerne Francks from whom the prouince it selfe is denominated Aquitanica before named Aremorica which extendeth from the riuer Garomne to the Ocean and to the Pyreney mountaines West and by North it is confined with that part of the Ocean which is called the Bay of Aquitane Westward it hath Spaine North Celtica or France properly so called and South the country of Prouence It is now called Gascoine and the inhabitants differ both in stature and language from the residue of France These are the ancient limits of the Gaules Howbeit the countrey of the French which at this day beares the title of a Kingdome and is commonly called the Kingdome of France hath not so large extension but towards the North only is so much the narower as it is cut off by an imaginary line from Strasbourg vpon Rhene to the port of Calais and it comprehends all that tract of land which is conteined within this line the Ocean sea the Pyreney mountaines the sea Mediterran and the Alpes Postellus in his booke of the whole world reckons vp the peculiar Shires or Prouinces of this Kingdome in maner following In the East it hath Prouence Sauoie Swisserland Bressia Borgogne Lorraigne Champanie Henault Cleue and Flanders on the North Picardy Normandy and Bretaigne on the West Bretaigne Aniou Poictou Xantoigne and Gascoigne and on the South Gascoigne Bearne Roussillon Dauphnie Vellay Forest Auuergne Limosni Perigort and Angolesme East of Poictou lie the prouinces of Bourges Bourbon Beaioulois Lionnois the Countie of Burgundy Auxerrois Niuernois Berry Tours Vendosme beyond Aniou le Beaulse Gastinois Valois beyond Sens and not farre off le Perche Druise and le Mans neere Bretaigne And thus at this present are these Prouinces named But albeit Postellus accounteth Sauoy Swizzerland Loraigne Henault Cleue and Flanders among the Prouinces of France yet are they not now vnder the gouernment of this Kingdome for all of them haue peculiar princes not subiect to the crowne of France Concerning the French King Villa Nueua reports two memorable things First That in the Church of Rhemes there is a vessell full of neuer-decaying oile sent from heauen to anoint the Kings of France at their coronation Secondly That the same Kings doe heale the disease called in English The Queenes euill only with touching the place affected All France is described in a large volume by Robert Caenalis reade also concerning the same argument Gilbert Cognatus Nazorenus Iohannes Marius Chassanaeus in his twelfth booke De gloria mundi Postellus in his booke Of the whole world Aimon in the beginning of his storie of the Franks Sebastian Munster Belleforest Theuet and other Describers of the world Touching this region also and the disposition of the inhabitants you may learne somewhat out of the second booke of Laonicus Chalcocondylas of Athens Of ancient Writers Caesar surpasseth all Diodorus Siculus in his fifth booke and Ann. Marcelinus in his fifteenth booke haue many notable things concerning this region Likewise Claudius Champier of Lions wrote in French a Treatise of the first originals of the principall townes in all France Symphorianus father to this man discourseth of the riuers and the miracles of waters and fountaines in France The city of Paris is described in verse by Eustathius à Knobelsdorf and the city of Lions by Champier GALLIAE REGNI POTENTISS NOVA DESCRIPTIO IOANNE IOLIVETO AVCTORE Candido lectori S.D. Gallia tota iam
all Italie Neere vnto this lake is the territorie of Rosella called of Virgill Rosaea rura velini Velino's fields bedecked with roses sweet of all Italie the most fertile which fertilitie was such as Varro witnesseth that a rod being left in it ouer night the next day it might not be seene for grasse and therefore it is called Sumen Italiae The sweet bread of Italie In former ages they haue reported that the plaine of Stellate was the goodliest and best soile of all Italie but now as Blondus saith the places about Bonony and Mutina do far surpasse the rest Sabellicus according to the common report of the common people attributeth these epithets vnto the chiefe cities of Italie Venice the rich Millane the great Genua the proud Florence the faire Bonony the fertile Rauenna the olde Rome the holie and Naples the noble But the commendation of this country set out by Plinie with as great a maiesty of words as that countrey doth excell the rest of the countreys of the world I cannot but I must needs before I passe from it set downe in this place by way of digression for so he speaketh of it in his third booke and fift chapter ITALIE the nurse and mother of all nations chosen by the prouidence of God to adde a lustre to the very heauens themselues to vnite dispersed kingdomes to temper and mollifie their rude and vnciuill maners to draw the dissonant barbarous and sauage languages of so many diuers people by the entercourse of one refined speech to a conference and parley to teach ciuilitie to men and briefly to make this one a common countrey for all the nations of the world But what shall I say more Such is the excellencie of all places that any man shall come vnto such is the maiestie of all things and of all people which do possesse it The citie of Rome which in it seemeth only to excell and to be a worthy face for so glorious a necke with what words or eloquence may I expresse it How beautifull is the countenance of Campania by it selfe how great and many are the glorious pleasures and delights of the same That it is manifest that in this one place nature hath shewed all her skill in a worke wherein she meant especially to delight And now indeed such is the vitall and continuall holsomnesse of the temperate aire such fertile plaines and champian grounds such sunny banks such harmlesse forests such coole and shady groues such fruitfull and bountifull kinds of woods such fertility of corne vines annd oliues such goodly flocks of sheepe such fat beeues so many lakes such store of riuers and fountaines euery where watering and bedrenching it so many seas hauens or ports as it were bosomes of the land euery where open and ready to entertaine and receiue the traffique of all lands and it selfe running into the sea as it were willingly offering it selfe and earnestly desiring to helpe and succour mortall men distressed in the same I doe omit to speake of the fine wits natures and maners of the people of the same as also of the seuerall nations ouercome by it partly by valour and partly by humanity The Graecians themselues a nation exceeding prodigall of their owne praise and glory haue iudged so of it calling a great part of it Magna Graecia Great Greece Of the ancient writers Caius Sempronius Marcus Cato Polybius in his second booke but most exactly Strabo as he doth all things els haue described this countrey Of the latter historiographers Blondus Iohannes Annius Viterbiensis in his commentaries vpon Berosus and other authors imprinted together with him Pontanus in his first booke of the famous acts of King Alphonsus Volaterrane Sabellicus Bernardus Saccus and Dominicus Niger but most exactly Leander Gaudentius Merula hath most excellently described Gallia Cisalpina which indeed is not the least part of Italie ITALIAE NOVISSIMA DESCRIPTIO AVCTORE IACOBO CASTALDO PEDEMONTANO FORVM IVLII FORVLY or FRIVLY THe originall of the name of Forum Iulij Leander saith diuers writers haue diuersly sought and censured Some doe thinke it so called of Iulius Caesar Blondus seemeth to affirme it to haue tooke his name of the citie Forum Iulij Antiquities do testifie that this region hath beene called Aquilegia of Aquilegium his chiefe or metropolitane city Lastly it is certaine that it is called Patria of the Venetians which name as yet also it reteineth to this day Blondus saith that it was long since called Liburnia but from whence when or for what cause it was so called he sheweth not The first that had here ought to doe were the Euganei Veneti Troiani Galli and after those the Romans vnder whom it did continually persist so long as the fortune and maiestie of the Roman Empire did stand sound and whole which at last declining it came into the hands and iurisdiction of the barbarous nations which oppressed Italie especially the Lombards and so remained vnto the time of Charles the great After that the gouernment thereof was in the power of the Patriarch of Aquileia vntill at length the Venetians desirous to enlarge their territories on this side reduced it wholly vnder their iurisdiction who at this day possesse it The situation of the region is thus It beginneth from a plaine abbuttant vpon the sea and so by a little and little encreasing first it riseth vp in little hilles and then into very high mountaines which almost on euery side so enclose his borders that this plaine enuironed about with the toppes of mountaines as with a wall sheweth like a Theater it is open but at one narrow straight by the which as by a gate ferrying ouer the riuer Sontio from Taruisio it may only be entred The other borders of it the Alpes on euery side doe limit and therefore not to be come vnto but by the sea-ports or valleys of the mountaines or els ouer their tops It hath vpon the sea-coasts very many hauens In this most goodly countrey are large champians watered with many pleasant streames and those fields exceeding fertile for it aboundeth with vines yeelding a kinde of wine which Plinie reckoneth and commendeth for the best and calleth it Vinum Pucinum of the place The mountaines of this countrey are very rich almost of all sorts of mettals to wit of Iron Lead Tinne Brasse Quicke-siluer Siluer and Golde They haue also Marble white blacke and party-coloured Pretious stones as Carneols Berylls c. and crystall Here are all sorts of fruits and apples of a most excellent taste Woods both for fuell timber and hunting most stately pleasant and beautifull meddowes and pastures most excellent pasturage for cattell The aire is temperate The fields of themselues doe abound with all things necessary for the vse of man as also for pleasure and delight The people of this countrey are most apt not only vnto all artes and liberall sciences but also for all merchandise and such other trades of life The most famous cities in it
the inhabitants The valleies are pleasant and fruitfull The shady groues and woods do affoord many pleasures and delights The goodly meddowes and pastures are richly decked with herbs and sweet-smelling flowres and euer-running streames And amongst other heere is great plenty of Medicke fodder wherewith they feed and fatte their cattell Heere also grow many excellent physicke hearbs of soueraigne vertues against diuers and sundrie diseases It bringeth forth diuers plants as the Plane tree Vitex or Agnus castus the Turpentine tree the Oliue tree Siliqua Siluestris Arbute or Strawberry tree wild Saffron Madder Liquirise Tubera or Sowbread It hath also some hoate baths continually distilling from their fountaines which do cure aches and many other like maladies In diuers places there are springs of salt water whereof they make a kind of brine or pickle It is well watered with many fine riuers and those stored with sundrie sorts of fresh fish The sea also on ech side yeeldeth great plenty of fish both tunies sword-fishes and lampreies There in many places is found the best Corall both white and redde Heere is most pleasant hunting and hawking for in these quarters diuers and sundrie sorts of wild beasts do lodge and as many birds and fowles do breed and build wild boares harts hindes goates hares foxes lynces otters squerrells martens badgers ferrets porkupines tortuses both of the waters and of the mountaines Of fowles phesants partridges quailes wood-cocks ring-doues crowes c. as also of many kinds of hawks it is euery where full It maintaineth some herds of cattell and flocks of sheep and goats It breedeth excellent horses very swift and of great stomacke Mettals heere were found in old time and now also it aboundeth at this day with diuers kinds of mineralls hauing indeed euery where mines of gold siluer iron salt marble alablaster crystall marchasite red-lead or vermillion copperas alume brimstone c. many kinds of corne wheat siligo beerbarly rie trimino we call it I thinke Turky wheat barly rise and of sesamum infinite store It aboundeth also with all kind of pulse legumina the Latines call them oile wine and hony and those in their kinds the best There are heere euery where orchards thicke set with oranges limons and pome cittron trees Heere also is made great plenty of excellent silke farre better then any kind of silke made in other places of Italie The Cotton tree Gossipium groweth heere plentifully But what shall I speake of the kind temperature of the aire For heere the fields both winter and summer are continuallie green But aboue all things there is nothing that doth argue the same more soundly then that airy dew or heauenly hony which they call Manna that euery where distilleth from aboue and is heere gathered in great abundance So that that which the Israelites in the wildernes did admire and hold for a strange wonder heere kind nature doth affoord of her own accord It is adorned also with many goodly market towns where marts and faires are kept at certaine times of the yeare Heere in some places still is obserued the ancient custome of the Romanes vsed at funerals and buriall of the dead where a chiefe mourner Praefica they called her is hired to go before the rest of the mourners and she to guide their mournefull ditties and to keepe time in their howling lamentations The funerall being done and all ceremonies performed the dead mans friends and kindred bringing their meat and iunkets do banquet altogether at the dead mans house The women of this country naturally for modesty and for that the waters of these places are good and wholesome drinke naught but water It is a shame for any women to drinke wine except she be very old or be in child-bed c. See more in the same authour Cassiodore also in his Variar hath in diuers places many things of this country APVLIAE QVAE OLIM LAPYGIA NOVA COROGRAPHIA CALABRIAE DESCRIP Per Prosperum Parisium Consent Cum Priuilegio decennali SICILIA THere is not one either of the ancient Historians or Cosmographers that hath not made mention of this Iland or curiously described the same especially Strabo Plinie Solimus and others Diodorus Siculus calleth it The soueraigne of all other Ilands Solinus in like maner writeth of it That whatsoeuer this country breedeth either of the nature of the soile or inuention of man it is little inferiour to those things which are esteemed of greatest worth Of the later writers Vadianus hath thus set it out in his true colours SICILIA not only for richnesse of the soile for which cause it was of the ancients dedicated to Ceres and Bacchus and was accounted the Garner of Rome but also for the multitude and antiquity of his townes famous actes victories and quarrels betweene the Romans and Carthagians both contending for the mastery is more famous then any other Iland whatsoeuer In Plinies time there were 72. cities at this day they report it to containe twelue Bishopricks of great iurisdiction and large diocesses The Dukes of Swevland possessed it a long time It was assaulted and taken by the English Lorreiners especially at that time when they made their voiage into the Holy land against the impious Saracens Lastly it fell vnto the Kings of Arragon and so at this day it remaineth vnder the obedience of Spaine Neither is there any other Iland that I know in the whole world that both Greeks and Latines haue indifferently partly in respect of the goodnesse of the soile and situation partly for the great accidents that heere haue happened by their writings made more famous He that would be further satisfied of the particulars let him read Benedictus Bordonius who hath in one booke comprised a discourse of all the Ilands of the World Leander Albertus Dominicus Niger Franciscus Maurolycius Marius Aretius all which haue most learnedly described the same Lastly Thomas Fazellus that countrie-man borne who hath most curiously and liuelily described the true countenance of this his natiue soile where you shall find the particular story of the mount Aetna now called by an Arabicke name Monte Gibello of which also Petrus Bembus hath put forth a seuerall Treatise Tully hath written something of this Iland in his orations against Verres Thucydides in his sixth booke hath very well laid downe the history of the originall and first inhabitants of the same as Diodorus Siculus hath done in like maner in his fifth booke Hubertus Goltzius hath out of ancient coines added great light vnto the histories of this country SARDINIA SEbastian Munster in his Cosmography hath an excellent description of this Iland done by Sigismundus Arquerus Calaritanus a Sicilian The same is described by Leander Albertus Benedictus Bordonius Nicolas Leonicus besides that which you may reade of it in old writers amongst whom Pausanias hath written some things that are not common This Iland the state of the Roman Empire decaying came into the hands of the Saracens from whom it was
againe wonne by those of Pisa Now together with the kingdome of Sicilia it is gouerned by the Spaniard MALTA sometimes called MELITA QVintinus Heduus hath passing well described this Iland and hath set forth a peculiar Treatise of the same The landing of S. Paul and his shipwrecke heere vpon this coast hath made this Iland famous But not many yeares since by the ouerthrow of the Turks huge nauy the knights of Hierusalem to their eternall fame manfully defending the assault it is now againe made more famous See also Fazellus of this I le ELBA anciently called ILVA THis Iland in these our daies is in subiection to the Dukes of Florence and by a strong castell newly built it seemeth to be very defensible and safe against the inuasions of the Turks Of the new order of knight-hood by the name of the Knights of S. Steuen answereable to those of Hierusalem in Malta instituted in the yeare 1561. by Cosmus Medices Duke of Tuscane read Caelius Secundus in his historie of the warres of Malta That this Iland had many veines of mettall it is cleare by the report of ancient Cosmographers And now Leander saith it hath a rich mine of iron where also the Loadstone is found as he writeth Matthiolus telleth that from hence Liquid alume is brought and conueied vnto vs. Diodorus Siculus in his fifth booke hath a large description of this Iland where he calleth it by the name of Aethalia CORCYRA now CORFV IT is an Iland of the Hadriaticke sea subiect to the state of Venice In it is a very strong castell of the same name where is continually maintained a garrison against the Turks Beside the ancient Geographers these later writers Volaterranus Bened. Bordonius and Nicolas Nicolay in his Eastern obseruations with others haue described this Iland ZERBI of old writers called LOTOPHAGITIS THe ouerthrow of the Christian nauie neere this Iland which happened in the yeare of Christ 1560. hath made this iland more famous Of the situation bignesse and gouernours of this Iland read Iohannes Leo Africanus in his fourth booke of his description of Africa INSVLARVM ALIQVOT MARIS MEDITERRANEI DESCRIPTIO Cum Priuilegio The Ile ISCHIA THat this Iland hath been in former times called AENARIA ARIMA INARIMA and PITHECVSA Homer Aristotle Strabo Pliny Virgill Ouid and other good writers are sufficient witnesses Now it is called ISCHIA of the name of the city there built vpon the top of an hill in forme somewhat like the Hucklebone as Hermolaus Barbarons testifieth which of the Greeks is named Ischia or rather of the strength and defenciblenes of the place as Volaterranus thinketh Although it be sure that these be but synonymes of one and the same iland yet Mela Liuie and Strabo do seeme to make Aenaria and Pithecusa two distinct iles as also Ouid may be thought to do in these verses Inarimen Prochitamque legit sterilique locatas Colle Pithecusas habitantum nomine dictus By Inarime he saileth by Prochyte ile by barren Pithecuse A town on toppe of loftie cragge where wilie Apes do vse Where by Pithecusas as I thinke he vnderstandeth the city ancientlie as also now it is of the same name with the whole iland Which although now it be obserued to be ioined to the I le yet in former ages it was called Gerunda and was apart and disioined from the I le as Pontanus a man of good credit doth testifie in his second booke which he wrote of the warres of Naples where he affirmeth that in his time it was ioined vnto the Iland by a causway made between them Prochita not farre distant from hence which Plinie doth write to haue been seuered from Pithecusa doth shew that this was sometime adioined to and sometime disioined from this Iland The same authour doth affirme which Strabo also doth approue that all these sometime were cut off from the maine continent and to haue been part of the cape Miseno This doth the forenamed Pontanus in his sixth booke confirme in these words That Aenaria saith he was cutte off from the maine continent many things do demonstrate namely The torne rocks The hollow ground full of caues The nature of the soile like vnto that of the continent leane drie and spuing out hotte springs and fountaines It breedeth flaming fires in the middest of the earth wherefore it is manifest that it conteineth much Alume Andreas Baccius in that his famous worke of the Bathes of the whole world writeth that this iland doth counterfait Campania of which it was sometime a part not only in respect of the fertility of the soile but also for likenesse and similitude of the bathes Erythraeus vpon the 9. booke of Virgills Aeneiads doth thinke it to be called Arima of a kind of people or beasts so named and that Virgill was the first that when he translated that of Homer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Ionicke preposition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 altering the declension and number did make the new word Inarime Yet Plinie in the 6. chapter of his 3. booke and Solinus surnamed Polyhistor are of a contrary opinion which do affirme it to be of Homer also called Inarime And as the same Pliny reporteth it was called Aenaria for the ships of Aeneas put into harborough heere Pithecusa not of the great store of Apes there found but of Coopers shops or warehouses But this opinion the same Erythraeus in the foresaid place laboureth to ouerthrow as not altogether consonant to the truth for that of tunnes made for this purpose he protesteth that he hath not read of in any authour whatsoeuer Yet Seruius in my iudgement seemeth vpon the forcited 6. of Virgils Aeneads to stand for Pliny where he saith that by Cumae there was a certaine place named Doliola that is if we should interpret it Tunnes And it is more likely that this Iland should take the name from that place with which sometime it was vnited according to the opinion of these good authours rather then of apes for I regard not the fable of Ouid of which beasts none are heere or euer were That this Iland from the beginning hath been subiect to earth-quakes flames of fire and hot waters from thence oft breaking out we are certified by Strabo and Pliny The mountaine which Strabo calleth Epomeus and Pliny Epopos now they call it S. Nicolas mount which for the same cause they report to haue burned inwardly at the bottome and being shaken with an earthquake to haue somtimes cast out great flakes of fire Heere hence arose that fable of Typhon the giant wherof you may read in Homer Virgill Silius Italicus who calleth him Iapetus Lucane and others as the same Strabo interpreteth which they fable to lie vnderneath this hill and to breath out fire and water That it is on euery side wonderfully fertile of the last writers Io. Elysius Fran. Lombardus Io. Pontanus Solenander Andreas Baccius and especially Iasolinus the authour of this
witnesseth in his Obseruations it paieth yearely to the great Turke 12000. ducates of Gold A description of this you may read of in the tenth booke of Martin Barlet of the life of Scanderbeg Thus farre generally of Illyricum now I thinke it not amisse to speake something of this our Mappe which doth not comprehend all Illyricum according to the iudgement of the forenamed authours Pliny only excepted who doth restraine the bounds of it as we said into a more narrow roome There are in this Chart Histria Slauonia Dalmatia Bosnia Carinthia part of Carniola and part of Stiria all almost tributary vnto the kingdome of Hungary except a few prouinces abuttant vpon the sea which belong to the Venetians The Turke hath subdued the greatest part of them to his obedience All which countries almost are described in their seuerall Tables in this our Theater and therefore in this place we speake nothing at all of them Only I thinke it not amisse to adde this one story of Stiria That this country doth breed those Strumosi that is a kind of people subiect to wennes and that there are often seene some with such huge great wennes that they do hinder their speach and a woman giuing sucke as Aubanus writeth doth cast it ouer her shoulder like a sacke or wallet least it should let the child from taking the breast And indeed we in the yeare 1558. iournied from Frisach by Vienna to Venice where we saw to our great admiration a man whose chin beginning at his eares was almost as broade as from shoulder to shoulder and hung downe euen to his breast I say not without great admiration against that of Inuenall Quis tumidum guttur miretur in Alpibus It is no wonder great to see the wenne amongst the Alpes They commonly attribute the cause of the wenne to the water and aire which heere the inhabitants do vse and draw into their bodies Rithmaimer this country-man borne in his treatise of the situation of the World hath a peculiar description of Stiria Of Bosina read D. Chytraeus his Chronicle of Saxony Of these Illyrians read more at large in Dominicus Niger Volaterran and Lewis Verger in the Cosmography of Sebastian Munster as also Laonicus Chalcondylas who in his tenth booke Notiliar hath written something of this countrie worth the reading All this tract except those shires which border vpon Germanie doth speake the Slauonian tongue which that I may say something of it by the way of some is now called Windish was thought to be that which the Latines called Lingua Illyrica the Illyrian tongue and at this day is very farre spread as being generally spoken of all the nations inhabiting between the Gulfe of Venice and the North sea For the inhabitants of Istria Dalmatia Bosna Morauia Bohemia Lusatia Polonia Lithuania Pruthenia Scandinauia Bulgaria and Russia that wide and large kingdome and many other neighbour counrries vp as high almost as Constantinople do speake that tongue so that it is also much vsed amongst the Turkes SCHLAVONIAE CROATIAE CARNIAE ISTRIAE BOSNIAE FINITIMARVMQVE REGIONVM NOVA DESCRIPTIO AVCTORE AVGVSTINO HIRSVOGELIO The other Mappe of ILLYRICA I Had purposed as I promised in the Preface to this booke to haue set out of euery country but one Mappe or Table and that as exact as might be therefore when the famous man Iohannes Sambucus had sent vnto me a more absolute description of this country to be inserted into this our Theater I had determined to haue left the other out But as it is oft times both delightfull and profitable to know diuers opinions of one and the same thing so also I perswade my selfe it will not be altogether vnprofitable sometime to see the different descriptions of sundry authours of one and the same countrie Againe lest the studious and diligent Reader should misse in this our last edition that which was to be had in our first we haue thought good to reteine also aswell the one as the other and to place it heere in this place as an in-come or by-matter I doubt not but it will be a thing well pleasing to all students of Cosmography ILLYRICVM IOAN SAMBVCVS ORTELIO SVO S. Mitto hanc quòque tabellam qua necessaria confinia Pannonia declarantur fluuiorum aliquot locorum situs Hirschuogelij recte mutaui Angelini autem studio plurima adieci et interualla correxi vt parum quis si cum Hirschvogelij haec coniungat desiderarit si qui errores sint dies certiora docebit Viennae Vale 25. Octob. 1572. Cum Imperatoriae Regniae Maiestatis Priuilegio The Dukedome of CARINTHIA or KARNTEN and the County Palatine of GORCZ THis Dukedome of Carinthia which as Rithmayer affirmeth should rather be written Carnithia hath vpon the East and North Steyrmarcke vpon the West and South the Alpes and Friuli Carniola is part of this prouince In this country are many valleies and hilles very good wheat grounds many Lakes and Riuers amongst the which the chiefe is Drauus or as they now call it Dra. The more famous cities of this tract are S. Veit Villach and Clagenfurt S. Veit the Metropolitane city is a city of good note hauing a very faire large market place wherein standeth a goodly conduite of running water which we saw in building in the yeare 1558. The diameter or breadth of the cesterne we tooke to be about seuen foote ouer This cesterne made of one whole stone of white marble and there amongst other monuments of antiquity digged out of the ground was a thing worth the seeing As they go out of the city toward Clagen-furt there is a very wide champion that offereth it selfe as yet bestrewed with many ruines of ancient buildings they commonly call it Solfeldt Paracelsus in that his Chronicle of this country if so be it be his nameth it I cannot tell vpon what ground Liburnia I do rather iudge Soluense oppidum the towne Solue which Pliny maketh mention of in Carina to haue long since stood heere This is that place where the princes are wont to be crowned abroad in the open aire a strange and vnusuall kind of ceremony curiously described by Pius the second in his Europa Villach a towne whose houses in their forefront gorgeously painted and set out with histories and variety of colours yeeld a beautifull and goodly shew to the beholders It is seated vpon the riuer Dra in a plaine enclosed with very high steepe rocks with a great stone bridge ouer the riuer Clagen-furt a strong city anciently called as Lazius witnesseth Claudia Some there are that write that the citizens of this city are so hardly bent against theeues that vpon the least occasion of suspicion of theft a man shall there without examination be hanged and then the third day after that he is hanged they sitte vpon the triall if so be that they find him to haue been vniustly executed they bury him very honourably if iustly they let him hang still But Rithmayer saith
maner Pomerland at this day hath forty cities enclosed with walls and ditches besides certaine goodly castles and monasteries Amongst the which these are the chiefe Stralsund Stettin Grypswald Stargard Colberg and Anglame Fiue hundred yeares since before the enterteinment of Christian religion which was in the yeare 1124. and when they left the Slauonian tongue Pomerland was greater and not much inferiour to a kingdome For Bugslaus the first brother of Wartislaus the first sonne to Swantibore who died a Pagane when as his nephews leauing their country for the alteration of the language adioined Pomerell to Spruise POMERELL which the Polanders do at this day call Casub corner Cassubia is no very small prouince It extended it selfe from the borders of Pomerland to the riuer Wixel or Weissel and conteineth these cities Dantzk Putzka Dirsow Stargard Nauburg Smecha Tauchel Nakel Hamerstein Baldeburg Frideland Conitz Schoneg Slochow c. which cities haue for the most part castles belonging to them beside which there are these castles Moseuantz Talkenborch Subitz Lauterberg and these Monasteries Polpelin Sukow Tzernitz Oliua where the Princes of Pomerell were wont to be buried euen to Mestewin the last of that line who died at Dantzk and was buried at Oliua in the yeare 1295. Read more of Pomerland in the Saxon Chronicle of Dauid Chytraeus This mappe we haue taken out of Munsters Cosmography The Dukedome of OZWIECZIN and ZATOR THis Dukedome is a part of the kingdome of Poland where it toucheth Silesia Sometime it did not belong to this kingdome The territorie of OZVVIECZIN the Germanes in their language call it Auschwitz fell vnto the kings of Poland in the time of Cazimir the third in the yeare 1454. ZATOR about 400. yeares after in the raigne of Sigismund the first was reduced vnto the crowne of Poland and was vnited to that body in the yeare of Christ 1548. as Cromer in his Chronicle of Poland testifieth POMERANIAE WANDALICAE REGIONIS TYP LIVONIAE NOVA DESCRIPTIO Joanne Portantio auctore DVCATVS OSWIE CZENSIS ET ZATORIENSIS DESCRIPTIO ROMANIA anciently called THRACIA THat country which now they call ROMANIA the ancients called THRACIA It was a large and wide prouince hauing on the East Propontis Mar di Marmora and Pontus Euxinus the Italians call it Mar Maiore the Gretians Maurothalassa the Turkes as Busbequius saith Caradenis the blacke sea as both nations vnderstand on the South Mare Aegeum the Turkes call this Acdenis the white sea Archipelago on the West Macedony and Pannony on the North the mount Haemus Monte Argentaro and both the Moesiaes The aire is neither very kind nor the soile very fertile and except it be in those places which do butte vpon the sea it is barrein and cold Ptolemey diuideth it into thirteen shires namely these Danthletica Bennica Bessica Caenica Coeletica Corpialica Drosica Maedica Samaica Sapaica Sardica Sellitica Vrbana and Vsdesica The latter writers haue diuided it into these six prouinces Europa Hoemimontum Moesia Secunda which is the same with Moesia Inferior Rhodope Scythia and Thracia properly so called Lastly it was since called by one name Romania which it still retaineth Yet about Constantinople I vnderstand the Turkes do call it Galatia where also at this day there is the city Galata which we call Pera and the old Historiographers named Cornu Bizantium the horne of Constantinople The famous MOVNTAINES of this country are Hoemus Monte Argentaro or Catena mundi the chaine of the world the Italians call it the Turkes Balkan the Slauonians Cumouiza Rhodope Valizu or Czernaniwerti they now call it Orbelus Karopnitze Pangaeus Malaca or Castagna and diuers others of lesser note The RIVERS are Hebrus Marisa Nessus Nesto or Mestro the Turkes call it Charasou Melas now Lameta or Larissa and Strymon as some thinke although others do rather iudge this to be a riuer of Macedony The famous CITIES are Abdera now Asperosa as Niger thinketh or Polystylo as Sophianus or Astrizza as Nardus affirmeth Apollonia Phinopolis Philippolis Nicopolis vpon the riuer Haemus Nicopolis vpon the riuer Nessus Hadrianopolis the Turkes call it Endrem as Busbechius writeth or Edernay as Postellus teacheth Selyhria Debeltus Heraclea Lysimachia Hexamili and Bysantium famous in all ages so named of Bysa who first built it afterward it was enlarged and fortified by the Emp. Constantine and of him was called Constantinopolis but at this time corruptly and more short Stamboli This now as also long since it was is the most famous and honourable city of all this country next after Hadrianople Andernopoli it is commonly called then Sophia and others of lesse estimation This country also hath adioined vnto it a necke-land or demi-ile which they call the Foreland of Thrace Heere is Callipolis Gallippoli and Sesto famous for the loue of Leander Dauid Chytraeus in his Chronicle of Saxony hath diuers things worth the noting of the prouinces of this chart The ilands in the Archipelago mare Aegaeum neere to Romania are SAMOTHRACIA commonly called Samandrachi and THALASSIA of Ptolemey which others call Thassus and to this day it reteineth some similitude of that name for the latter writers do name it Tasso In Propontis or Mar di Marmora is PROECONNESVS or Elaphonnesus which some haue named Neuris Now the Turkes and Greekes do call it Marmora whereof that sea tooke the name In Bosphorus the Latines call it Stretto di Constantinopoli the straites of Constantinople the Greekes Laimon the Turkes Bogazin are the Insulae CYANEAE which Strabo calleth Symplegades now Pauonare or Iarcazes oft mentioned in the writings of ancient Poets who after their maner did feine them first to haue floted vpon the water and to be moueable and then by the sailing of the Argonautes to haue been setled and fixed Beside the old Geographers Ptolemey Strabo Pliny and Pomponius Mela which haue written of this country the latter writers also are not to be neglected especially the singular learned VVolfangus Lazius his commentaries of Greece and Bellonius his Obseruations Petrus Gyllius hath most curiously and diligently described the city Constantinople which city a man may say was by the prouidence of God ordeined to be the head of many kingdomes and to haue beene sometime called New Rome and at this day Romania so that the famous poet Tibullus may seeme to haue spoken not without iust cause and by a kind of diuine inspiration when he said ROMATVVM NOMEN TERRIS FATALE REGENDIS O Rome thy name doth giue thou shouldest the world command And in the iudgement of Romulus the Gods would haue it VT ROMA SIT CAPVT ORBIS TERRARVM That Rome should be the head of all the World as Liuy hath left record in the first booke of his Decades ROMANIAE quae olim Thracia dicta VICINARVMque REGIONVM VTI BVLGARIAE WALACHIAE SYRFIAE ETC. DESCRIPTIO Auctore Iacobo Castaldo Cum priuilegio decennasi M.D.LXXXIIII SCANDIA OR THE NORTHREN Kingdomes THis Mappe conteineth almost all the Northen tract of the knowen world
for thou seest how straite and narrow it is what heere is wanting may be supplied out of the Tables following two of Tileman Stella the third intituled the Peregrination of S. Paul and the fourth intituled the Peregrination of the Patriarch Abraham For if all these should haue been portraitured and ioined together in one and the same Mappe it would grow too much too great yea it would be so great and huge that it would exceed this which heere we giue an hundred times and so by reason of the greatnesse it would not only be troublesome in vse but also vnpleasant to the eie In the hart and middest of the plotte where thou seest Syria as it hath been sufficiently replenished and filled with places so in places round about vpon the coasts on all sides it is most empty and barren so that it would appeare like a small iland in the vast ocean and would soone haue growen into a great burdensome and chargeable bignesse to no purpose or profit at all We haue vpon the side in a void place set the Mappe of the whole World whereby the diligent student of Diuinity by conferring might easily see what and how great a portion of the same the holy history doth mention and comprehend and at once iointly with the same labour to find out the situation and position of two famous places mentioned in the holy Scriptures namely of the situation of the country Ophyr and the earthly Paradise Of the which although many men do write many and diuers things and the opinions of the learned be different yet we haue also set downe our iudgement willingly giuing leaue to the learned Reader in his discretion to take which him pleaseth and he may read if he thinke good that which in our Geographicall Treasurie we haue written more at large of Ophyr Of Paradise also there is the like controuersie and question amongst the Diuines The most men do place it in the East others in Syria Postellus vnder the pole Arcticke Some there are which do gesse it to haue been vnder the Equinoctiall line Goropius our countrieman is perswaded by many arguments that it was in Indoscythia a prouince of India in the East abutting vpon the riuer Indus Some of the old writers did imagine it to reach as high as the sphere of the moone others do place it in other places Caesarius the brother of Nazianzene in his Dialogues in what place he supposeth it to be I cannot deuise for he maketh Donaw one of those foure riuers namely that which sacred antiquity called Phison this Saint Hierome and Eusebius do vnderstand to haue been Nilus in Aegypt others Ganges in East India S. Augustine against the Manicheies hath this opinion Beatam vitam Paradisi nomine significatam existimo By Paradise I do thinke the blessed life to be vnderstood Others more later which purposedly haue written of the situation of Paradise are Moses Bar Cepha in the Syriacke tongue and translated by the learned Masius Pererius vpon Genesis Iohn Hopkinson an Englishman in a peculiar treatise where also thou maist see a Geographicall Mappe of the same Others also haue done the like as Beroaldus in his Chronicle Vadianus in the description of the three quarters of the World and Ludouicus Nugarola in his booke intituled Timotheus or Nilus c. Phison one of the riuers of Paradise which some do expound to be Ganges which runneth too farre toward the East this Mappe by reason of his narrownesse cannot by any meanes containe the situation of which thou maist see in another Mappe of ours in this our by-worke intituled Aeui veteris Geographiae tabula A Geographicall chart of the old World GEOGRAPHIA SACRA Ex Canatibus geographicus Abrahami Ortelii Cum privilagio Imp. Regis et Cancellariae Brabantiae ad decennium MDXCVIII Ophiram regionem quia haec tabula compraehendere non poterat hanc aream universalem hic seorsim delineavimus in qua illam ex dissentientium scriptorum iudicio notaevimus Nostram verò de eadem sententiam si quis intelligere aveat Thesaurum nostrum Georgraphicum adeat censuramque suam per me enim licebit addat REVERENDO ET ILLVSTRI DNO GVILIELMO GRIMBERGIO ANTVERPIENSI PRAESVLI DIGNISSIMO Abrah Ortelius obsequij deuotionisque ergò dedicab consecrabatque Haec notula locum Ophirae designat DOMINI EST TERRA ET PLENITVDO ORBIS TERRARVM ET VNIVERSI QVI HABITANT IN EO Psal 24. PALAESTINA OR The HOLY LAND CANAAN The most ancient name of this country was Canaan which it tooke of Chanaan the sonne of Cham whose posterity diuided it amongst themselues and first inhabited it Their names were these Sidon Heth Iebusy Emory Gergesy Heuy Arky Siny Aruady Semary and Hamathy Gen. 10.15.16.17.18 Euery one of these gaue his owne name to that part of the country of Canaan which he enioied for his portion and possessed and of them mention afterward is made Gen. 13.14.15.23.24.25.27.34.36.38.49.50 Exod. 3.13.23.34 Num. 13.22.32 Deut. 1.2.3.4.7.20 Iosu 2.3.5.7.9.10.11.12.13.15.16.17.19.24 Iudg. 1.3.10.11.18 1. King 7.1 Chron. 1. Iud. 5. Psalm 105.106.134.135 Esa 21. Ezech. 16.27 This country was called by the name of the Land of Canaan vntill the Israëlites hauing partly slaine and partly subdued all the posterity of Canaan possessed the same from which time it began to be called the Land of Israel which name was by the Angell giuen to the Patriarke Iacob for that he had wrestled with God and from thence the country grew to be called by that name Gen. 32.28 For the word Israël in the Hebrew tongue signifieth to preuaile with God or a mighty man preuailing against the mighty God Heere hence were the sonnes and ofspring of Iacob named Israëlites and the country wherein they dwelt the Land of Israël as is apparant out of the booke of Iud. and the 1. booke of the Kings Although the whole land of Chanaan were indeed generally called Israël yet neuerthelesse the portion or iurisdiction of euery Tribe which seuerally Iosua assigned to euery one of the twelue Patriarkes receiued a proper appellation of the chiefe of that family as is apparant by diuers places of Holy Scripture The names of the Tribes were these Ruben Simeon Iuda Zebulon Isaschar Dan Gad Aser Nephtali Beniamin Manasse Ephraim and so the name of euery one of the sonnes of Iacob remained in his posterity and place of abode in the same so that the whole land of Chanaan was diuided into twelue parts as the holy Scripture doth testifie Then vnder Roboam when as Israel and that kingdome was rent into two parts the Tribes of Iuda and Beniamin being vnited retained the name of Iuda and that for these reasons First for that of the two it was the mightiest Secondly by reason that out of it the Messias was to come it was the more famous and the name of the whole was taken from the most honourable But the other tenne Tribes which were commanded by the Kings of Samaria still retained the
this continent and circuite curtuous Reader that thou beest not caried away with a vaine and false perswasion of the knowledge of things done in the whole world or if you please so to call it within the compasse of that part of the world described by the old Cosmographers all ancient HISTORIOGRAPHY both SACRED and PROPHANE is comprehended in these all famous acts of mortall men which from the beginning of the world euen vnto the daies of our fathers haue been registred by learned men haue been done and performed For euery storie before the forenamed Columbus written in Latine Greeke or any other language exceeded not the limits of the Roman Empire or the conquests of Alexander the Great if you shall only except the trauels of Marcus Paulus Venetus by land into China and the nauigation of Katherino Zeni by the ocean sea into the North parts of which we haue spoken in the discourse to the Mappe of Mare del zur which I make no doubt all learned historians and others will easily grant me Whereupon we may see how maimed and vnperfect the history of the world is when as it is very apparant that this part of the earth then knowen is scarse the one quarter of the whole globe of the world that is now discouered to vs. And which is especially to be considered rather than to be commended we may truly say that now which Cicero in his third oration against Verres wrote then most falsly when he said of that age There is now no place within the vast ocean none so far remote and distant from vs none so obscure or hidden whither in these our daies the couetous and bad minds of our men doth not cause them go Certaine recordes and testimonies of ancient writers concerning Geographicall Mappes Anaximander scholler to Thales Milesius did set forth as Strabo witnesseth the FIRST GEOGRAPHICALL CHART Now Anaximander who liued in the time of Seruius Tullus the VI. king of Rome was borne in the first yeare of the 35. olympiade which was the first yeare of the raigne of Ancus Martius the 4. king of the Romanes 639. yeares before the birth of Christ The same Strabo maketh mention of a mappe of the HABITABLE WORLD done by Eratosthenes Socrates when he saw Alcibiades to stand so much vpon his welth and great possessions brought him to a mappe of the VVHOLE VVORLD bid him there to find out the prouince of Athens which when he had found he againe willed him to point to his landes and when he answered that they were not in any place there described he saith Art thou then proud of the possession of that which is no part of the World Aelianus in the 28. chap. of his 3. booke De varia historia Hamo Carthaginensis setteth out a mappe of his nauigation into the ATLANTICKE SEA wherein he made a discouery of the COASTS OF LIBYA which he caused to be hanged vp in the temple of Saturne Aristagoras Milesius had a Table of Brasse in which was cutte the VVHOLE COMPASSE OF EARTHLY GLOBE the VVHOLE SEA with all the RIVERS emptying themselues into the same Herod in his V. booke Augustus and Agrippa set out a mappe of the VVHOLE VVORLD to the publicke view of all men as Pliny in the second chapter of his third booke hath left recorded Amongst the Aegyptians there were continually kept certaine Chartes containing all the TRACTS BOVNDS and COASTS both of sea and land as Apollonius in the fourth booke of his Argonautickes doth witnesse Saint Hierome affirmeth that a MAPPE of PALAESTINA made by Eusebius Caesariensis was lost long before his time That Charles the Great Emperour of Rome had a Siluer Table wherein the VVHOLE VVORLD was portraitured those authours who liued in his time and haue written of his life and histories do constantly affirme Theophrastus Eresius bequeathed and gaue by his last Will and Testament certaine mappes in which were described the SITVATION of the VVORLD on condition that they should be put and reserued in the lower part of the gallery which he built and adioined to his schoole as Diogenes Laertius writeth in his life I haue described a Charte of the VVORLD in 12. sheets of parchment Thus Dominicanus the authour of the Annals of the city Celmar in Germany who wrote about the yeare of Christ 1265. speaketh of himselfe in that his worke There are certaine GEOGRAPHICALL CHARTS mentioned and cited by Stephanus Byzantinus in the word Αινος The Emperour Domitian put Metius Pomposianus to death because he caried about the country certain mappes of the VVORLD portraitured in sheets of Velame as Suetonius recordeth Varro in the second chapter of his first booke of Husbandrie hath these wordes There I light vpon by chance Caius Fundanius wy wiues father and Caius Agrius a Knight of Rome a disciple and follower of Socrates with Publius Agrasius the Customer whom I found looking vpon a Mappe of ITALY drawen and described vpon a wall Heere also Vitruuius what he speaketh in the eighth book of his Architecture that these things are and may be so the HEADS OF RIVERS do sufficiently prooue which we do see are described in the Chartes and Mappes of the World Florus who seemeth to haue liued in the time of Traian the Emperour hath these wordes I will do that that Cosmographers are wont to do who vse to set out the SITVATION of the VVORLD in a small chart or table Iulian the Emperour in an Epistle to Alypius thus writeth I was euen then newly recouered of my sicknesse when thou sentest the GEOGRAPHY and yet the map which thou sentest was neuer the lesse welcome For there are in it not only better and more true descriptions but also certaine excellent Iambicke verses wherewith thou hast much graced it But that the Ancients were wont to describe the VVORLD and globe of the earth in Mappes it is manifest out of Plutarcke in the life of Theseus as also out of the fourth booke of Propertius the Poet where he bringeth in Arethusa thus speaking to Lycorta Cogimurè TABVLA PICTOS ediscere MVNDOS We forced are to vnderstand By charts the state of Sea and Land AEVI VETERIS TYPVS GEOGRAPHICVS Abrah ortelius Regiae M t s Geographus describ cum Privilegijs decennalib Imp. Reg. et Cancellariae Brabantiae Antverpiae Ambivaritorum 1590. EN SPECTATOR PILAE TOTIVS TERRAE ICHNOGRAPHIAM AT VERERIBVS VSQVE AD ANNVM SALVTIS NONAGESIMVM SECVNDVM SVPRA MILLES QVADRINGENT COGNITAE TANTVM GEOGRAPHIAM The ROMANE WORLD OR The ROMANE EMPIRE AMmianus Marcellinus thus writeth in his foureteenth booke At such time as triumphant Rome which shall flourish as long as men do liue vpon the earth began first to grow into credit and honour in the world that it might still rise by degrees and lofty steppes into a firme league of eternall peace vertue and fortune which often times iarre did fully consent and agree For if either of them had opposed themselues it surely had neuer come to that
absolute height and greatnesse The people of this city from the first infancy euen vnto the last of childhood which was limited almost within the compasse of three hundred yeares abode the bitter assaults and warres of their neighbours round about them then hauing growen to a striplings age and past the rodde after many outragious furies of Mars it passed the Alpes and narrow sea Being come to mans estate and best yeares from all quarters of the wide world it brought away the laurell the signe of conquest and triumph but now being old and beginning to dote and sometime only bearing the name of conquerour rather than winning ought indeed it hath betaken it selfe to a more quiet kind of life Therefore this city reuerend for so many glorious conquests of stout and fierce nations and for so many good and wholesome lawes which it hath enacted hath now at last like a kind and thrifty father both wise and wealthy committed her patrimony and possessions to the Emperours as vnto her naturall sonnes to be ruled and gouerned And lately although the tribes and wardes be idle the hundreds and wapentakes still and quiet and there be no dissensions in the Senate house but that the more secure and calmer times such as Numa Pompilius liued in were come againe yet in all parts of the world wheresoeuer it is regarded as a Mistresse and Queen in all places the reuerend gray haires of the graue Senatours euery where the very name of the Roman Nation is greatly esteemed and honourable Thus farre Ammianus Moreouer this you shall find in Sulpiciaes Satyricke poeme Two things there are which raised great Rome to that height valour in warre and wisdome in peace As this Romane Empire in the iudgement of all men was esteemed very great and large so also indeed it was especially if you shall compare it with those which haue been in former ages as that of the Assyrians Persians and Grecians Item with those which since their fall haue sprong vp in their places as namely that of the Othomans amongst the Turkes the Sophies amongst the Persians of the great Cham ouer the Tartars in Asia and of Prester Iohn as we call him ouer the Aethiopians or Abyssines in Africa But if you shall compare it with that Monarchy which Charles the fifth Emperour of Rome within the memorie of our fathers established in diuers parts of the world and Philip his sonne in our age hath enlarged and shall by looking into an vniuersall mappe of the Earthly globe conferre and measure the greatnesse of this with those others by the eie you shall plainly and truly discerne that this for largenesse may not only be preferred farre before all those other forenamed but also euen before that of the Romanes The kingdome of the Portugals after that by diuers nauigations they had subdued vnder their obedience the marine tracts and sea coasts of East India together with the ilands there about if it did reach and were extended vp as farre within the land as it commandeth about the shore it might doubtlesse be accounted none of the least Empires Seeing now therefore that this also at this day is vnder the obedience of the said K. Philip who doth not see that this Empire is the greatest that euer was in the world Of the Empire of Rome as it stood in his daies Tertullian in his booke De Pallio speaketh thus honourably Reuera Orbis cultissimum huius Imperij rus est that is In very deed the whole world is nothing else but a farme well stocked and stored belonging to this Empire Lastly Ouid in his second booke De Fastis thus writeth of it Gentibus est aliis tellus data limite certo Romanae spacium est vrbis Orbis idem All other nations in the Earth their certaine bounds may name The compasse of the World and Rome they only are the same ROMANI IMPERII IMAGO Originis Incrementi et Culminis Imperij Romani breuis enumeratio Primo sub Regibus septem Romulo Seruio etc. per annos ducentos tres supra quadraginta non amplius quam vsque Portum atque Hostiam intra decimum octanum miliariū Romanum processit Imperium Sub Consulib verò inter quos interdum Dictatores et Decemuiri ac Tribuni militares fuerunt per annos quadringentos septem supra quadraginta vsque trās Padum Italia est capta Africa Hispaniaeque subactae Gallia et Britannia tributarie sunt factae Illyrici Histri Liburni Dalmatae sunt domiti ad Achaiam transitum est Macedones expugnati cum Dardanis Moesis et Thracibus est bellarum ad Danubium est peruentum ac in Asia pulso Antiocho primum pedem posuerunt Romani Mithridate victo regnum Ponti est captum cum Armenia minori quam idem tenuerat in Mesopotamiam progressum est cum Partbis foedus initum contra Carduenos Saracenoe ac Arabas pugnatum Judaea omnis victa Cilicia et Sÿria in potestatem redacta ac tandem in Aegÿptum peruentum Sub Imperatoribus autem a Diuo Augusto nempe ad Theodosij superioris et Honorij ac Arcadij eius filiorum tempora per annos quadringentos quadraginta Cantabri Astures totaque Hispania sub iugum missa est Alpes maritimae Cocciaeque et Rhetiae Noricum Pannoniae et Moesiae Imperio accesserunt Omnis ora Danubij in Prouincias est redacta Pontus omnis et Armenia maior Mesopotamia Assÿria Arabia Aegÿptus in Imperij Romani iuna concesserunt Atque hoc modo his Principibus viris populi Romani virtute ac immortali eorū gloria hoc Augustissimū Imperium ad summū fastigium perductum fuit Cuius limites fuere ad Occidentē Oceanus à Septentrione Rhenus et Danubius ab Oriente Tigris à Meridie Atlas mons quae omnia in hac tabula ob oculos historiae candidatis ponuntur Ex Liuio Dionÿsio Plutarcho hanc genealogiam septem Regum desumpsimus atque huic tabulae in historiae Romanae studiosorum gratiam adiecimus In qua maxima linea est Regum mediocres sunt coniugum mintinae verò filiorum filiarumque Circuli duplicibus circumferentijs descripti masculos denotant simplicibus autem foeminas Diuina mens ciuitatem populi Romani egregia temperataque regione collocauit uti Orbis terrarum imperio potiretur Vitruuius lib. 8. Cum Gratia et Priuilegio EVROPE IN the diuision of the world diuers haue placed Africa in the third part some few haue made no more but Asia and Europe only and Africa they make a part of Europe saith Salustius This is that which S. Paulinus in Antonius out o the opinion of the same Salust thus writeth of Europam Asiamquè duo vel maxima terrae Membra quibus Lybiam dubiè Sallustius addit Europae admixtam postit quum tertia dici Europe and Asia vast the Earthly globe between them share Yet whether Africke should a part of this our Europe be or make a
third part by it selfe Salust doth doubt I see But Philostratus also in Isocrates doth diuide the world into Asia and Europe yea Isocrates himselfe in his Panegyricos Moreouer in Varroes booke De lingua Latina these words are read As all the world is diuided into Heauen and Earth so Heauen is seuered into his quarters and the Earth into Asia and Europe Againe the same authour in his booke of Husbandrie writeth thus First when as the world by Eratosthenes was very fuly and naturally diuided into two parts the one toward the South Asia doubtlesse he meaneth the other in the North Europe we call it S. Augustine in his 16. booke De Ciuitate Dei Lucane in his 9. booke and Orosius in the first booke of his history haue the like wordes to the same sense Notwithstanding custome since hath preuailed with all Historiographers and Cosmographers which haue written either in Latine or Greeke iointly to diuide the globe of the earth into these three parts Asia Africke and Europe the last of which we haue taken vpon vs to describe in this place not only in forme of a mappe or chart like a Geographer but in this present discourse like an historian Concerning the forme of it therefore it is manifold as Strabo writeth It is a Peninsula or demy-ile and not an iland although Silenus as Elianus writeth did sometime to Midas so relate of it For it is on all sides as you may see in the mappe bounded and beaten with the salt sea but only vpon the East where it is by a small necke ioined to the greater Asia Yet by what limits they are there distinguished the ancient and the later writers do not altogether agree For those which are more ancient as Aristotle Plato Herodotus and others which do follow their opinion do diuide Europe from Asia by the riuer Phasis a riuer of Colchis falling into the Euxine sea Mar maiore or Maurothalassa as the Greeks call it neere Trapezonda some mappes do now call that riuer Fasso others Phazzeth the Scythians as Theuet reporteth Debbassethca or which is all one by that Isthmos or neckland which is between the foresaid Mar maiore or Pontus Euxinus and the Caspian sea Mar de Cachu the ancient called it Mare Hyrcanum the Hyrcane sea which formerly all old writers thought to be but a bay or gulfe of the Scythian or Northren ocean as Strabo Pliny Mela Dionysius Plutarch in the life of Alexander and in his discourse of the face in the sphere of the Moone and Iornandes a more late writer haue left recorded Yet all of them were deceiued Only Herodotus truly as this our latter age doth approue and find to be so doth affirme this to be a sea of it selfe and to haue neither in-let nor out-let or to be intermedled with any other sea Dionysius Arrianus Diodorus Polybius Iornandes and Ptolemey haue diuided it from Asia by the riuer Tanais Don or Tana as now the Italians name it who thinketh that both the rise of this riuer and the land Northward from whence it commeth are both vnknowen and vncertaine All doubt where to place and lay their bounds as indeed who neuer perfectly knew those places toward the East and North not being then discouered but only described by them from the fabulous reports of others as for example the Riphaean and Hyperboraean mountaines which are feined inuentions of the Greekes as Strabo writeth together with Aluani montes heere described by Ptolemey where now not only these mountaines but also no other at this day are to be seene but in their places diuers huge and vast woods great fennes and bogges or large champion plaines Orpheus also long since described in this part of the continent I meane between Maeotis palus the fenne Maeotis now called Mar delle Zabacche and Mar della Tana and the sea Cronium an huge wood Likewise Dionysius Afer heere abouts placeth an Infinite wood as he termeth it from whence he saith Tanais or Don doth spring which after many windings and turnings at last falleth into the forenamed fenne Maeotis Isidorus heere hath the Riphaean woods in which he saith Tanais doth first take the beginning That Donaw Danubius doth diuide Asia from Europe Seneca in the sixth booke Natural doth manifestly affirme of which his opinion what we do thinke we will God willing set downe in the discourse to the Mappe of Dacia Hitherto we see the forenamed authours to doubt and disagree between themselues of the limittes of these two parts of the world If therefore they shall find me a meet vmpier and arbitratour in this matter I would not vnfitly and as I hope to the liking of all parties decide the controuersie thus I would make the bounds to be Tanais or the riuer Don the straights or narrow peece of the maine land that is between this riuer and the riuer Rha Athel which emptieth it selfe into the Caspian sea the East branch of the same Athel then from his head vnto the riuer Oby and so euen vnto his mouth or fall into the Northren sea For by this mouth I do easily perswade my selfe that antiquity did verily beleeue that the Caspian sea did vnlade it selfe into the maine Ocean For that the name of this riuer Oby is ancient it is very likely for that montes Obij certaine mountaines called Obij are placed heereabout in this tract by Athenaeus which he saith formerly were called of the ancients montes Riphaei the Riphaean hils but then in his daies montes Alpes the Alpes Againe Iornandes in this continent not farre from hence describeth Ouim or Obim a Scythian nation or family And that these foresaid mountaines are in this place not where Ptolemey and Pomponius Mela haue placed them very many men of great credit and learning in these our daies sufficient witnesses do stoutly auouch Amongst which Baro Herberstein in his history of Moscouy is one Paul Oderborne in his treatise written of the life of Basilides is another lastly Antony Wied in his mappe of Moscouy may be the third Now they name it vulgarly by diuers and sundrie names but commonly they call it Cingulum mundi The girdle of the world as the said Herberstein doth affirme In a Mappe of these countries set out by Master Ienkinson an Englishman who trauelled through these parts it is called Zona Orbis The girdle of the Earth Moreouer I haue in some sort for this diuision Iornandes and Aethicus vpon my side where they say that the Riphaean mountaines do part Asia and Europe Againe these selfe same hils yea and in this tract are the montes Hyperborei not where Ptolemey placeth them And they are the same with montes Riphaei Obij and Alpes Thus farre of the diuision of Asia from Europe Pliny calleth this part of the world The Nurce of all Nations Mardonius as Herodotus doth tell of him auoucheth it to Xerxes To be by farre the beautifullest of all places of the World to be a most goodly and gallant
country yeelding all maner of fruites and fruitfull trees and those in their kindes the best and to be such that it were pity that any king in the World should haue ought to do in but he Varro in his bookes De re Rustica of Husbandrie writeth That it is a more temperate and healthfull soile than Asia Statius in his Achilleidos more than once or twice calleth it The Mighty prouince of the World Maxima terra viris foecundissima doctis Vrbibus Europe for multitude of warlike men and scholers deeply learned doth farre excell thus Mamilius writeth of it Aristotle the prince of Philosophers maketh the inhabiters of this part of the world to be A very stout and couragious people The same authour affirmeth that All kind of beasts and cattell heere are in their kind greater and stronger than in Asia and Africke But of the nature of this country the maners and customes of the people let vs heare what Strabo that excellent Geographer saith in his second booke This part is most fertile of valiant and prudent men It is all generally habitable excepting only a very small portion toward the North and abutting vpon the Hamaxici which dwell vpon Tanais Don Maeotis palus Mar delle Zabacche and Borysthenes Nieper or Dnester which place by reason of the extream cold is not habitable Yet certaine bleake and mountainous places inhabited although in respect of the nature of the soile they are tilled and manured with greater difficulty yet hauing gotten good skilfull and industrious husbands those also are tamed and much bettered which heeretofore were badly vsed and kept only by theeues and out-lawes And indeed the Greekes when they dwelt vpon the rocks and mountaines dwelt well and conueniently by reason of their wise cariage in ciuill matters arts sciences and knowledge of those things which necessarily are required to the maintenance of mans life In like maner the Romanes hauing brought many sauage and fierce Nations vnder their seruile yoke seated I meane in places not very conuenient to dwell in in respect of the nature of the country either for that it was rough and craggy or wanted hauens or was too bleake and cold or for other causes taught them to vse merchandise before vnknowen and haue brought them from a sauage and brutish life to liue ciuilly and more humanely But those parts which are situate in an equall and temperat climate there nature administreth all things necessary for the maintenance of man and beast Now when as those Nations which do inhabite and dwell in fertile and rich countries are maintainers of peace and quietnesse and those which are seated in barren and vnfruitfull countries are most hardy and stout it commeth to passe that both are helpfull one to another while these do vse their weapons for their countries defence those againe do help and maintaine them by the profits that they raise out of the earth by their arts and mysteries as also by their learning wisedome and policy euen as in like maner also the dammage is mutuall and either side feeleth a sensible hurt when the one part doth not helpe the other yet the estate of the souldier and warlike man is somewhat better if they be not one come with multitude And the nature of Europe serueth very fitly for this purpose for it is all diuersly distinguished by lofty mountaines and lowly plaines so that euery where the husbandmen and souldiers the politicians and the martiall warriers do dwell together yet so as the greatest number are peaceable men which kind of life they enioy especially by the meanes and labour of their captaines first of the Greekes then of the Macedonians and lastly of the Romanes Therefore both in peace and warre it is sufficient of it selfe to maintaine and defend it selfe for it hath great plenty both of stout souldiers painfull husbandmen and politique statesmen In this also it doth excell that it bringeth foorth passing good fruits such I meane as are necessary for the maintenance of mans life with all sorts of mettall for what vse soeuer Spices or sweet smelling things and pretious stones are brought hither from forren countries WHICH THINGS VVHOSOEVER HAVE NOT THEY LIVE NEVER A VVHIT WORSE THAN THOSE DO THAT HAVE THEM Moreouer this is especially worth the noting that hauing wonderfull store of cattell sheep and oxen it breedeth very few dangerous wild beasts Thus farre the learned Strabo Many other things thou maist read of this Europe together with the nature and condition of the people of the same in that treatise which Hippocrates the prince of Phisitions wrote of the care and waters This Europe also and not any other place of the world beside doth yeeld Succinum or Electrum Amber we call it the Germanes Gleslum yet it is not found in Eridianas a riuer falling into some Northren sea as Herodotus doth fabulously report or in Padus a riuer of Italy Po as the poets iestingly affirme nor in the Electrides certaine fained ilands in the Hadriaticke sea as some men of better credit and more diligent searchers out of the truth as Pliny EVROPAM SIVE CELTICAM VETEREM sic describere conabar Abrah Ortelius CLARISS D. NICOLAO ROCCOXIO I.V.L. PATRICIO ANTVERP EIVSDEMQ VRBIS SENATORI HANC ANTIQVAE EVROPAE NOVAM TABVLAM ABRAH ORTELIVS DEVOTISSIME DEDICAB CVM PRIVILEGIO DECEN NALI IMP. REGIS ET BRABANTIAE CANCELLARIAE 1595. saith haue seriously thought nor in Spaine as Aeschylus beleeued nor in certaine rockes at the further end of the gulfe of Venice mare Hadriaticum as some more sober men haue giuen out nor in Liguria as Sudinus Metrodorus and Theophrastus would haue men thinke nor in Ethiopia neere Iupiter Ammons temple or in Scythia as Philemon imagined nor in Britaine as Socatus nor in the Glessariae ilands in the Germane occan as Pliny hath taught nor in Bannonia or Baltia a certain iland as Timaeus ha h broached nor in a certain riuer as Dion Prusaeus hath taught but neere vnto the neckland or peninsula Haestarum in the bay Pautzkerwicke and Frisch-hast Sinus Clilipenus in the Balticke or East sea not farre from Dantzk in Pomerell or Sprese where hitherto it hath been taken a thing wholly hidden from the ancients to the great gaine and enriching of the Nations neere inhabiting and not many other place of the world beside In the same Europe are there many goodly and stately cities amongst the which the most famous in all ages are Rome and Constantinople which afterward was called New-Rome and now are London Venice and Paris The riuers of greater note are Rhein Isther or Donaw and the Thames the woods more notable are Ardene in Gallia 500. miles of length reaching from the riuer of Rhein vnto Tourney in France and Hercynia in Germany 40. daies iourney long as Pomponius writeth and 9. daies iourney broad as Caesar in his Commentaries reporteth a greater wood than which or more vast there is no history maketh mention of Thus much of Europe But whereof it
is likely therefore that the etymology and reason of the deriuation of the word Europe which was vnknowen vnto the old writers is to be sought and fetched from no other language else but from that which was most vsuall in this part of the world For that the inhabitants of any country should take the name of their natiue soile from strangers it is so absurd and hard to be beleeued that there cannot any thing more foolish or contrary to truth be inuented or deuised Wherefore I thinke it good concerning this matter heere to lay downe the iudgement of Goropius Becanus our countryman who thinketh it to be so named not of a woman which it is probable either neuer was or neuer came heere but à latitudine videndi of the largenesse of his prospect as he speaketh namely because I do cite his owne words out of the 9. booke of his Origines it doth not only looke toward Asia on the East and South Africa on the South and West but also the New-found-world beyond the Hyperborei on the West and North. Neither shall any man perswade me that Europe had the name from Greece or the Greeke language seeing that it was first inhabited of the Cimbers Cimmerij descended from Gomer the elder brother before it was possessed of the Greeks Iones come from Iawan a yonger brother but the 4. son of Yapheth we make a dipthong by setting the 5. vowel of the Latins before the 2. which neither the Latins nor Greeks do admit Therefore if so be at any time they would change the words in which this did light for We they put Eu turning it backward Therefore our men do term it Verop not Europ whereby they vnderstand a worthy company of men for Wer a mono-syllable pronounced like a dipthong signifieth losty great excellent that which is best in euery kind of thing which notwithstanding some do write ur without a dipthong yet with a long vowell Therefore as of Terues they formed Tereus so of Werop the Latines Greeks haue made Europe so named of the excellency of the Nation which doth farre surpasse all other men of the World For Hop as I haue shewed before signifieth a company or multitude of men More of this word thou maist see in his 8. booke Thus farre out of his workes which are foorth in print that which followeth is taken out of a booke of his which he also hath set foorth yet not imprinted but such as he vsed priuatly and hath many additions in sundrie places in the margin written with his owne hand which he had prepared against the second edition But I waighing saith he and comparing this name with that which I haue read in holy Scripture another reason farre more excellent and better commeth into my mind We see that to Yaphet was promised enlargement or a farre spreading of his posterity or as some other interpret the word ioy and gladnesse which then he truly had enioied when as Christ had redeemed vs by his death and pretious bloud which blessing doth agree to this part of the world rather than to any other vnder heauen beside and therefore all other countries generall do call Europe THE KINGDOME OF THE CHRISTIANS and the Europeans are called of the Turkes and Arabians GIAVVR that is Christians E therefore doth signifie a lawfull contract and mariage VR excellent and HOP hope whereupon it commeth to passe that Europe signifieth The excellent hope of a lawfull mariage which is proper to this portion of the world which Noah gaue to Iapheth his sonne to inhabite For although that the posterity of Sem was by Abraham for many ages wedded to God yet at length he put her away and diuorced her from him But the wedlocke whereby God by Christ is wedded to Europe his Church shall neuer be dissolued so that Europe may most properly be said to be Iaphets portion But of this word we will speake more in our Francica Thus farre Goropius Which I haue very willingly communicated to the curtuous Reader leauing it to the censure of the learned to be iudged Yet I know that these things haue been very bitterly skoffed at already by a certaine learned man but one wholly ignorant of this tongue and therefore of lesse iudgement in this argument There are some which do thinke that this Europe was in the holy Scripture called IAPETIA Thus farre of Europe to which before I do altogether leaue I will ad out of Herodotus in his Polymnia the words of Mardonius to Darius spoken of this country That it is a country most goodly and beautifull bearing all maner of excellent fruitefull trees and those in their kind the best and to be such that it were pity that any man but a king only should possesse The BRITISH ILES Now THE EMPIRE OF Great Britaine PLiny saith that in the Atlanticke ocean there be many ilands named BRITANNICAE INSVLAE The British ilands but the two greater ALBION and HIBERNIA Ireland are properly so called Of these ALBION in regard that it is both the greatest and as it were commander of the rest is most properly called BRITANNIA And I might easily be drawen to beleeue that all these ilands were recorded in the ancient monuments of the Greekes before they were once named or knowen to the Romanes and to haue generally been called CASSITERIDES as who say The Stannaries and that properly CASSITERA which the Romans call Britannia And although I am not ignorant that Cassitera is held of Dionysius and Stephanus to be Indica Insula an Indian an iland or an iland belonging or neere adioining to India yet I am not a whitte moued from that my opinion For I do verily thinke that this was deliuered by them rather of ignorance than of sound knowledge grounded vpon the skill of Geography and we know that this is also a common errour in these our daies to call all countries and ilands vnknowen or farre remote and distant from vs Indian iles by which name not without a manifest ignorance of the truth they call all that whole continent of the New world together with the circumiacent ilands first discouered and found out in the daies of our grandfathers and such also as daily are descried they call by that name On my side is Pomponius Mela a man out of all doubt of good iudgement and credit who calleth them CELTICAS Celtickeiles as if they were neere neighbours to the Celtae I do know that these Cassiterides are of others otherwise described as of Diodorus Siculus a little aboue Lusitania Portugall of Pliny oueragainst Celtiberia Valentia neere Artabrum promontorium cabo de finis terrae by Strabo and Ptolemey where now there are no ilands at all and therefore not these nor euer were any whereupon it is apparant that these ilands were rather known to the ancients by name than true situation Now all men do iointly commend these ilands for the great abundance of Tinne and Lead which they yearely did
sunt Condrusi Trevirorum clientes Vbij ceteris humaniores horum civitas florens et ampla AQVITANI hominum multitudo his optima gens ad bellum gerendum Sontiates hi equitatu plurimum valent The LOW COVNTRIES THe word Belgium which Caesar in his Commentaries of the warres of France vseth more than once or twise hath long and much troubled the Readers For some of them do thinke that Caesar by it meant a city which some of whose number are Guicciardine and Marlianus do interpret it to be Beauois in France others Bauays in Henault of this later sort are B. Vigâ—nereus and our owne Chronicles The learned Goropius thinketh that the Bellouaci a people of this prouince were vnderstood by it Some there are which thinke that Caesar vsed Belgium for Belgica as Liuy doth Samnium for the countrie of the Samnites of this opinion was Glareanus Iohn Rhellicane saith that it conteined a part of Gallia Belgica but which part it should be he doth not name H. Leodius would haue it to be that part which is about Henault where the said Bauays now standeth But omitting these opinions let vs heare what Caesar himselfe speaketh of this his Belgium Hee in his 5. booke where he speaketh of the distributing of the Legions in Belgia hath these words Of the which one he committed to Quintus Fabius the Legate to be led against the Morini another to Quintus Cicero against the Neruij the third to Titus Roscius against the Essui the fourth he commanded to winter with Titus Labienus in Rhemes in the confines of Triers three he placed in Belgium ouer these he set as commanders Marcus Crassus the Treasurer and Lucius Munatius Plancus and Caius Trebonius the Legates one legion which he had taken vp hard beyond the Po with fiue cohorts he sent against the Eburones And a little aboue in the same booke where he speaketh of Britannia you shall find these wordes The sea coast of Britaine he meaneth is inhabited of those which by reason of pillage and warre went from Belgium thither all which for the most part are called by the names of those cities where they were bred and borne Heere first it appeareth very plainly that Caesar vnder the name of Belgium comprehendeth not only one city but many then that he vnderstandeth not by it all Gallia Belgica seeing that he nameth the Morini Neruij Essui Rheni and Eburones all which nations he himselfe and other good writers do ascribe to Gallia Belgicae Therefore it is more cleare than the noone day that Belgium is a part of Belgica but what part it should be that is not so cleare That it is not about Bauacum Bauais in Henault as Leodius would haue it it is manifest in that that this is situate amongst the Neruij which Caesar himselfe doth exclude out of Belgium Neither can I be perswaded that it was neere the Bellouaci but rather that it was that part of Belgica which is more neere the sea and lieth vp higher toward the North namely where about the three great riuers the Rhein Maese and Scheldt do meet and fall into the maine ocean these do affoord an easie passage and fall into the sea and from thence a short cut into Britaine Moreouer it is more likely that they should passe the sea which were acquainted and vsed to it and were seated vpon this shore and bankes of these riuers then those which dwelt vp higher into the country to whom the sea was more fearefull and terrible They therefore that went from Belgium into Brittaine did only change coast for coast Of the originall and reason of the word Belgium and Belgica the opinions of sundrie writers are diuers Some there are which deriue it of Belgen or Welgen a word of our owne which signifieth a stranger Another man of great learning and iudgement fetcheth it from Belgen or Balgen signifying to be angrie to fight Our Chronicles do thinke it so named of Belgis the chiefe city of this prouince Neither do they agree in the placing and seating of it for one of them placeth it at Bauais a towne in Henault the other at Veltsick a village about Oudenard They which thinke it so named of the city Belgis which notwithstanding is no where else read of in any good authour either Geographer or Historian they haue Isidore in the 4. chapter of the 13. booke of his Origines for their patrone where he thus speaketh Belgis is a city of Gallia whereof Gallica the prouince tooke the name The same hath Hesychius the Grecian before him in his Lexicon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is Belgy was so named of the city Belges as also Honorius in his counterfeit of the world Iustine in his 24. booke citeth out of Trogus Pompeius one Belgius Pausanias nameth him Bolgius a captaine of the Gauls from whom it is like they tooke their name if you will beleeue Berosus that chaungling For he writeth Beligicos siue Belgicos appellari à Beligio aut Belgio Celtarum rege The Beligici or Belgici were so named of Beligius or Belgius a king of the Celtes Of the city Belgis we haue written in our Geographicall Treasury Well let vs leaue these to the censure of the learned and so proceed to certaine testimonies of ancient writers which we thinke wil be both pleasant and profitable to the student of Chorography Caesar in his 1. booke of the warres of France thus speaketh All GALLIA is diuided into 3. parts of the which the Belgae do inhabite one the Aquitani another the third those which in their language are called Celtae but in the Latine Galli Againe within a few lines after Of all these the Belgae are most stout and hardy because that being further off from the quaint behauiour and maners of the prouince and for that they haue no trafficke with merchants or such as do bring in those things which effeminate mens mindes againe because they are next neighbours to the Germanes which dwell beyond the Rhein with whom they make warre continually Item in the same page he thus describeth the situation of their country The Belgae do dwell in the skirts of Gallia they do belong to that part which is within the riuer Rhein they are vpon the North and East sides of it The same authour in his 2. booke hath these words Caesar found that many of the Belgae came from the Germanes which long since passed ouer the Rhein and seated themselues there by reason of the great fertility of the place and that they had driuen out the Gauls which formerly had dwelled there and that these were the onely men which in the daies of our fathers all Gallia being sore troubled kept the Teutones and Cimbres from entering within the lists of their territories whereupon it came to passe that the memoriall and record of these their famous acts haue made them to take much vpon them and to be highly conceited of their great stomacks and skill in martiall affaires Suet. in
riuer Aleman commonly called Altmul yet all men of other countries ignorant of the Germane tongue do vse the word Alemanie for all Germanie and by Alemanes do meane all the Germanes But the inhabitants at this day name themselues Teutschen Tuisiones whether of god Tuisius sonne of the earth of whom Tacitus maketh mention or of Tuisco Noë his sonne of whom Pseudoberosus speaketh I leaue to the iudgement of the learned reader for to me it is vncertaine And thus much of the name Ouid writing to Liuia doth grace it with a very heroicall surname and honourable titles when he calleth it ORBEM GERMANVM ORBEM NOVVM ORBEM IGNOTVM The Germane world The new world and The vnknowen world Ptolemey surnameth it THE GREAT Pliny in the third booke of his Epistles vnto his friend Macer calleth it LATISSIMAM A most wide and spacious countrey Learne the forme of it out of Dionysius and Priscian his interpreter or as some call him Rhemnius in his periegesis in this verse Haec tergo similis taurino dicirur esse In forme they say it 's somewhat like vnto a large buffe hide but falsly for this is truly spoken of Spaine as Arid Papius before me hath well obserued The situation and limits of this countrey are diuers and sundry wayes described according to the diuersitie and alteration of times Plutarch in Marius doth extend it from the Exterior or Outmost sea and the Northern parts to the rising of the Sunne neere the fenne Moeotis Mar delle Zabbache where it toucheth the Ponticke Scythia Pomponius Mela also and Pseudoberosus do confine it with Sarmatia Europoea And Martian stretcheth it fron Hister Donawe to the Ocean euen vp as high as the deserts of Sarmatia But the word Armeniae is falsly read for Sarmatiae that I may with Pintian by the way correct this fault in this authour Dionysius Apher also placeth the Germanes at the fenne Moeotis Yea and P. Diacono in his first chapter vnder the name of Germanie comprehendeth also all Scandie or Scone in Denmarke where he describeth that denne or caue neere the Scricsinners in which seuen men slept And this I thinke to be that Exteriour Germanie which Eusebius in his sixt booke De Praepar Euang. describeth toward the North. Isidore therefore rightly placeth the Riphaean mountaines at the head of Germanie Others haue made the sea the Alpes Vistula the riuer Wixell and the Rheine to be the limits of the same But Tacitus taketh from it whatsoeuer is betweene Donawe and the Alpes For he confineth it within these limits namely the Rhene Donawe the Dacia's Transsyluania and Walachia and the Sarmatia's Russia with whom also Ptolemey the prince of Geographers consenteth But Strabo and Pomponius do notwithstanding extend it euen to the very Alpes and so by these mountaines do diuide it from Italy as it were by a certeine naturall rampart or bulwarke And this is yet at this day the true and naturall Germanie which on the North side is circumscribed with the sea on the South with the Alpes on the West with the Rhene and on the East with Vistula Wixell or Odera Moreouer Suetonius Tacitus and Dion do diuide this true Germanie into the VPPER and LOWER they call that the VPPER GERMANIE which is neerer the fountaines or head of the Rhene that the LOWER which reacheth from thence to the Ocean But beyond the Rhene also namely in Belgia Ptolemey hath other two Germanies to wit a SVPERIOR and INFERIOR To whom agreeth Marcellinus who nameth this the SECOND that the FIRST But I do not iudge these to pertaine to the true Germanie but that it was so improperly called of the Germanes who as Dion witnesseth afterward possessed it and fixed their seats there And first of the Tungri who as Tacitus writeth first of all other passed ouer the Rhene Item we read in Cesar of certaine Belgae sprung from the Germanes Hence it is that he witnesseth that the Neruij Aduatici Atrebates Ambiani Morini Menapij Caletes Verocasses Veromandui Catuaci Condrusi Eburones Caeresi Paemani Segni were generally GERMANI TRANSRHENANI the Germans beyond Rhene Tacitus saith that the Vangiones Triboci and Nemetes were called Germanes Suetonius recordeth that Tiberius the Emperour placed fortie thousand Germanes in France neere the banke of the Rhene Eutropius writeth that there were of them foure hundred thousand Item by the testimony of Pliny we are made to beleeue that the Germane nation did dwell euen as high as the riuer Scaldis the Sceldt And that at this day the Germans are seated beyond Scaldis vp as high as the straits of the Ocean the language which they vse doth manifestly proue So that Dion in his 53 booke hath truely related that they haue spread themselues as farre as the British ocean vp to the citie Bononia or Boloigne which Zosimus calleth a citie of Lower Germanie GERMANIAE VETERIS typus Ex conatibus geographicis Abrahami Ortelij DVBIAE POSITIONIS QVAEDAM Achiri Alcetienses Ames Ampsani Aravisci Attuarij nisi sint Ansuarij Aviones Ballonoti Butones nisi sint Gutones Calydona Caracates Carini Cathilci Caulci Chaubi Cinesia Cubij nisi sint Vbij Foeti Fosi Guarni Harmi Iaravaci Landi Luij nisi sint Ligij Marsigni nisi sint Maruigni Mugillones Nusipi nisi sint Vsipetes Poenina castra Quadriburgum Reudigni Ribisca Scinthi Sibini Solcinium Suardones nisi sint Pharodeni Subatij Toenij Vadomarius Varini Venaxamodurum Zumi Locorum vocabula circa Caroli Magni tempora primum nata inter vetusta non numero ea itaque nec in ipsa tabula neque hic seorsum nominare visum fuit Cum Privilegio Imperiali Regio et Belgico ad decenn 1587. DN IACOBO MONAVIO SILESIO PATRICIO VRATISLAVIENSI VIRO ET ERVDITIONE ET HVMANITATE ORNATISSIMO ABRAHAMVS ORTELIVS HOC MVTVAE AMICITIAE MONVMENTVM LIBENS DONABAT DEDICABATQVE Plutarch in 6. Conuiual writeth that they weare apparell only against frost and colde of Winter Pomponius writeth that the men do couer themselues with barkes of trees And the same man with Tacitus writeth that they all vse a cassocke for a couering fastened together with a button or thorne and that in their childhood they go naked euen in the greatest colde and dead of Winter Neither is there any other habit for women than for men but that the women oft times do couer themselues with linnen garments Pliny hath noted that they also sowe flax and that the women make cloth of it neither do they know any finer garment than that and that they mingle it with purple Euery mother giueth sucke to her owne childe neither are they committed to bondmaids and nurses We learne out of Eusebius sixth booke de Praeparat and out of S. Clements ninth booke de Recog that they giue not themselues to childish things or any thing which they thought to be vnprofitable as namely to stage-playes painting or musicke Yet they haue giuen themselues to making of verses but such as are rude and simple as witnesseth the
cannot away withall for they loue to liue more freely and gentlemanlike by no meanes they will be drawen with great labour and trauell to prepare great and sumptuous banquets and dainties and then when they haue done to eat and drinke them vp In warre they arme themselues with two iauelings or darts a peece Some of them also do cary great shields which they call Thyrei for they do vse wooden bowes and shafts whose heads they dip in a very strong poison for whosoeuer he be that is wounded except he presently drinke treacle or some other holsome soueraigne antidote or shall by and by cut off all the place which is wounded that it run no further the whole body will surely rot and perish They doe delight to flie to steepe and craggie places not easily to be assaulted or come vnto and there to abide and dwell Thus far Leo the Emperour Of HISTRIA which also is contained in this Mappe thou hast a large and fine description in the twelft booke of Cassiodore his Variarum directed to the lieutenants and gouernours of this country where in respect of the great fertility and store of fruits that it yeeldeth he nameth it Rauennae Campaniam Campany of Rauenna and the store-house of the Emperiall city ITALY THey which vse to compare the situation of countries to other things do liken Italy to an oken leafe as Pliny Solinus and Rutilius haue done or to an iuy leafe as Eustathius The later writers do more truly liken it to a mans legge One in our time hath described all Europe in the form of a maiden in whose right arme Italy is portraitured and not vnfitly in my opinion if one do exactly consider the nature of the country and famous acts done in the same for euen as the strength of the body doth for the most part shew his force and ability in this member so this prouince in times past declared to the world by this his arme of what power all Europe the whole body is likely to be That Italy hath had diuers inhabitants partly Barbarians and partly Grecians it is manifest out of the ancient records both of Latines and Greekes For at the first it was inhabited by the Aborigines Siculi Pelasgi Arcades Epei Troiani Morgetes Ausones and Oenotri And therefore it was called by diuers and sundry names as AVSONIA OENOTRIA of the people and nations possessing it IANICVLA of Ianus SATVRNIA of Saturne and lastly ITALIA which it still retaineth of Italus their King or as Varro witnesseth of buls or oxen for the ancient Gretians did in those daies call buls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and because that this country did breed and maintaine many goodly buls it was of them called Italia or as others affirme which more regard poeticall fables for that Hercules from Sicilia hither followed a worthy bull which was named Italus Of the Greekes also it was named HESPERIA of Hesperus the sonne of Atlas or which pleaseth others better of Hesperus the euening starre whereof also in old time Spaine was called Hesperia For for the same reason that Italy was sometime of the Grecians called Hesperia was Spaine of the Latines called Hesperia Yet for distinction sake Virgil in the first and seuen bookes of his Aeneiads calleth Italy Hesperiam Magnam Great Hesperia But it was also by others named by other names For I see that of Macrobius Dionysius Halicarnassaeus Marcus Cato Isaac Tzetzes c. it was called APENINA ARGESSA CAMESENA TVRSENIA SALEVMBRONA and TAVRINA Stephanus writeth that it was called CHONIA and BRETTIA A part also of it was called by writers of good note MAGNA GRAECIA Great Greece of the Grecians that sometime dwelt in it They report as Aelianus writeth that there haue dwelt heere so many and sundrie nations more than in any other country of the world by reason especially that all times and seasons of the yeare are very mild and temperate againe for that the goodnesse of the soile is excellent well watered and very fertile of all maner of fruites and yeeldeth great store of pastorage Item because it is crossed with many riuers and hath the sea very commodious lying round about it and the sea coast on all sides open and cut into sundrie baies inlets creekes and hauens seruing very fitly for the entertainment and harborough of goodly tall shippes Lastly the extraordinary kindnesse and humanity of the people inhabiting it hath been a great meanes to draw others to seat themselues heere The Italians were euer as Iulius Firmicus witnesseth very famous for their princely curtesie and gentlemanlike behauiour Aethicus calleth this country Heauenly Italy and The Queen of the World Rutilius Rerum dominam The mistresse of all Nations Dion Prusaeus The most blessed and happie country of all Europe Halicarnassaeus in his first booke saith that for many reasons It is the best country of the whole World Strabo saith That none may sufficiently expresse in wordes the due commendations of this country according to the worth of the same But I thinke it not amisse to set out the praises of this country by this one commendation of Pliny wherewith he concludeth that his famous worke which he wrote of the history of Nature In the whole World saith he the cope of heauen Italy is the most beautifull country and of all things it doth possesse the soueraignty it is another nurce and mother of the World for men women captaines souldiers seruants famous arts and occupations worthy wittes and inuentions commodious situation wholesomenesse and temperature of the aire easie accesse of all nations many safe hauens kind blasts of windes sufficient good water pleasant and healthfull woods goodly hils and mountaines great store of deere and wild beasts and those harmelesse fertility of soile and multitude of people Whatsoeuer is necessarily required for the maintenance of man and beast is heere to be found and no where better Corne Wine Oliues Wooll Linnen Woollen and Bullockes Neither did I euer see better horses or more esteemed at the runnings or horse-races than those bred in our owne country For mettals as Gold Siluer Copper and Iron so long as they pleased to search for them it was inferiour vnto none all which it still retaineth in her wombe Now it yeeldeth all maner of liquors of sundrie force and vertue together with all sorts of graine and pleasant toothsome fruites Thus farre Pliny You may adde to these if you please that which the same authour writeth in the fifth chapter of his third booke Item that of Polybius in his second booke of Varro in the second chapter of his first booke of Husbandrie of Strabo neere the end of his sixth booke and lastly of Virgil in diuers place Si factum certa mundum ratione fatemur Consiliumquè Dei machina tanta fuit If that we shall confesse that heauen by heauenly skill was rais'd And in the same the massie globe by due proportion pais'd as Rutilius in his second booke speaketh of Italy
last epistle describeth in the territories of Consilinum Stylo a city of this tract Marcilianum suburbium which he termeth the natiue soile of Saint Cyprian of which that by the way I may speake one word of this there is nothing spoken which indeed is strange in the liues of the Fathers or Martyrologies of the Saints or in any other authour to my remembrance Nor which is more strange in any of those writers which like as Gabriel Barry and Prosper Parisius haue particularly named and wrote of the seuerall Saints of this country But of the Nature Situation proper Qualities and Antiquities of this prouince I will not speake one word more because the same is most exactly and learnedly done by two learned men both borne heere who therefore knew it well before I began once to set pen to paper to draw this my Mappe I meane Gabriel Barrius in his booke intituled Calabria where he so largely and curiously tricked out Great Greece Brutium and the tract possessed sometime by the Locri that euen that Reader which hardly will be satisfied with such like stories may doubtlesse heere take his fill and Antony Galatey who hath painted out his Iapygia which is in truth the ancient Calabria that his Reader shall not only depart skilfull and cunning in the knowledge of this country bur also much bettered in his vnderstanding and instructed with rules of good learning and Philosophy in him also there is a description of the city Gallipoli Of Tarentum a city of this prouince Iohannes Iuuenis harh set out a seuerall treatise Of Diomedes iles belonging to this country we haue gathered these few lines which follow DIOMEDES ILES Now ISOLE DE TRIMITE PLiny describeth two ilands by this name so many also doth Strabo mention whereof the one he saith is inhabited the other wast and desert Ptolemey reckoneth vp fiue all called DIOMEDES ILANDS and so many there are at this day called by seuerall and distinct names if one shall account rockes and all Whether euery one of these were knowen to the ancients by seuerall names or not I know not Festus Stephanus and others call properly one of these Insula Diomedea Diomedes I le like as amongst the Britannicae insulae the Brittish iles one is properly named Britannia Brittaine One of them Tacitus calleth TRIMERVS or peraduenture Trimetus for otherwise I doe not see from whence that name of Trimite whereby the greatest of them at this day is called and of it the rest should come Pliny calleth another of them TEVTRIA the other for ought I know the ancients left vnnamed as for Electris and Febra which Seruius mentioneth at the eleuenth booke of Virgils Aeneids or Sebria and Aletrides whereof Pomponius Sabinus vpon the same place speaketh I do very willingly confesse that I haue not found them spoken of by any ancient writer They are seated in the Adriaticke sea not farre from the sea-coast of Puglia opposite to Monte de S. Angelo Mons Garganus or Promontorium Garganum Not within kenning or sight of Taranto Tarentum a city of Apulia as very falsly at the same place Seruius hath set downe The name was deriued by the testimony of all writers both Latines and Greekes from Diomedes the king of Aetolia Artinia Nicetas calleth it whom they report after the surprising of Troy in his returne homeward not being enterteined of his owne nation to be driuen hither and to be interred heere and that his temple monument or tombe did remaine in the greatest of them properly called Diomedea S. Maria di Trimite and that the Plane tree was first brought hither for to shaddow Diomedes tombe Pliny in the first chapter of his twelfth booke of the history of Nature hath left recorded Into Trimerus as Tacitus writeth Augustus banished sent his neece Iulia conuict of adulterie where he furthermore addeth that she endured that punishment of exile the space of twenty yeares In Platina in the life of Hadrian the first I read that Paullus Diaconus was once condemned thither by Charles the Great Of Diomedes birds which Iuba calleth Catarractae Aristotle Charadrij of others Erodij a kind of Cormorant or rauenous sea foule proper to these ilands for they are onely to be seene in this one place of all the world if we may beleeue old writers read Ouid in the thirteenth booke of his Metamorphosis where he thus speaketh of them Si volucrum quae sit dubiarum forma requiris Vt non cignorum sic albis proxima cignis The doubtfull formes of birds most strange if that you seeke to know They be no swannes yet white they be as white as any snow Suidas maketh them to be like to storkes Aristotle in his Wonders calleth them vaste and huge birdes with very long and bigge bils Pliny with Solinus do write that they be like the Fulica a kinde of coote of colour white hauing teeth and eies of a fiery sparke Some there are which do thinke them to be Heronshawes Robert Constantine testifieth that the country people of these ilands do now call them Artenae and that they make a noise like the crying of yong children Item that the fatte or grease of them is a soueraigne remedie against diseases arising of cold causes Blondus writeth that he vnderstood by some of the inhabitants of these iles that these fowles still retaining the name of the Diomedean birdes are of the bignesse of a goose But to be very harmelesse creatures yet neither doing them nor the Church any maner of pleasure They which desire to know more of these birdes as also of the Metamorphosis and transmutation of Diomedes consorts into these fowles or of their nature and quality as of their kindnesse toward Grecians honest-men Strabo calleth them and their curstnesse to strangers wicked-men as Strabo hath and of the purifying of the temple and of other poeticall fables deuised of them let them haue recourse to the authours aboue named to which they may ad that list that which Aelianus hath written in the first c. of his 1. booke S. Aug. in the 16 c. of his 18 book De ciuitate Dei Antigonius Antony Liberalis Lycophron and his Scholiast Isacius At this day these ilands are vnder the command of the kingdome of Naples are al generally called by one name Tremitanae ilands de Trimite euery one by a seueral proper name by it selfe as thou maist read in our Geographical treasury They are now all desert void of inhabitants only that except in which sometime was the temple of Diomedes where now is the Monasterie vulgarly called Santa Maria de Trimiti possessed by regular canons which Eugenius the fourth Pope of Rome enlarged and endowed with great reuenews as Blondus recordeth These as Zacharte Lillie reporteth go to Church so diligently heare diuine seruice so deuoutly and relieue those which by storme and tempest are driuen thither so charitably that they are not onely very famous and reuerently esteemed of those that dwell
than 10000. men together with their wiues children nobles princes and kings This MYSIA or as for the most part the Latines write it MOESIA Ptolemey diuideth into the VPPER and NEATHER Superior Inferior this in the Code of Iustinian is called SECVNDA that PRIMA the Second and First The neither is named of Iornandes MINOR SCYTHIA the Lesser Scythia of Zosimus SCYTHIA THRACENSIS Scythia of Thrace of Plutarch in Marius SCYTHICA PONTICA Scythia of Pontus and the inhabitants of the same Celtoscythae of Polyaenus PONTICA MARITIMA Pontus vpon the sea of Ouid and others PONTVS simply without any addition Some there are which do call it FLACCIA of one Flaccus a Romane whom it is certaine out of Ouid was sometime heereabouts lieutenant for the state of the Empire Neither doth this seeme to be altogether false or vnprobable for the name Waiachia or Valachia whereby it is knowē at this day doth import so much By Ouid also in sundrie places it was described vnder these names Sarmaticū solum Geticū littus Cymmeriū littus and Barbaria the Sarmatian soile the Gottish or Cymmerian shore and Barbaria These countries are very fertile of all maner of fruites and commodities so that as Solinus witnesseth the Romanes commonly called it Cereris horreum Ceres barne The poet as Procopius in his 4. booke AEdifici noteth calleth these people Enchemachous such as fight aloofe and farre off Mysos in palustra feroces and Quum Geticis ingens premeretur Mysia plaustris when Mesia great was much oppressed with Gottish waines thus Claudian the poet writeth of them Dant illis animos arcus plenaque pharetrae They much presume vpon their bow and cunning great in archery as Ouid in his first booke de Ponto writeth of them Aelianus sheweth that they were able by their owne strength and power to keepe out the Scythians from entring their country and euery way to defend the same from that furious and violent enemy Strabo saith that they were exceedingly giuen to robbe and steale Vix hâc inuenies totum mihi crede per orbem Quae minus angusta pace fruatur humus Scarse maist thou find in all the world so small a plot of ground Where bloudy wars their hideous noise more oftentimes do sound as the forenamed poet writeth of this country as also this that followeth in another place In quibus est nemo qui non coryton arcum Telaque vipereo lurida felle gerat Amongst these men ther 's none but hath his sturdie bow With poisoned arrowes sharpe and swift to fight against his foe How faire and stout they were thou maist see by this of Florus One of the Captaines saith he stepped out before the army and entreating their silence demandeth who are you It was iointly with one voice answered of all We are Romanes lords of all nations of the world To which answeare they replied againe So you are indeed if you can conquer vs. Posidonius in Strabo affirmeth that they forbeare the eating of flesh for religion and conscience sake and do feed only vpon butter and cheese Of the fabulous story of a kind of horses heere if thou desire to know see Elianus as also Solinus of the strange hearb growing in that part of the country called Pontica In Moesia also is the prouince called DARDANIA which we said was called MYSIA MEDITERRANEA Vpland Moesia for that it is farre remote and distant from the riuer Donaw Of the inhabitants and people of this country the same authour thus speaketh In all their life as I heare by report from others these people do onely bath or wash themselues three times once as soone as they are borne another time when they marry and againe at their death Of the Triballi a people of this country take this of Pliny as he alleadgeth it out of Isigonus They do bewitch and kill with their eies such as they do stedfastly looke vpon any long time together especially if they be angrie which mischiefe of theirs striplings are most subiect vnto and soonest hurt by But that is most notable and worth the obseruation that in ech eie they haue two sights apeece He that desireth to read more of this country especially of the Lower Moesia let him repaire to Ouids 3. booke de Ponto at the 1. 4. and 10. Elegies Of their barbarous manners rites customes and ceremonies thou shalt find much in the 7. Elegie of his 5. booke de Tristibus of the riuer Donaw or Ister which Elianus in the 23. chapter of his 14. booke de Animalibus calleth The king of Riuers Of Apollonius in the fourth booke of his Argonautickes it is named Cornu oceani the horne of the sea for that it runneth through the middest of those countries which heere we haue described it is not amisse in my iudgement to say something of that also That Ister or Donaw of all the riuers of the Romane Empire for greatnesse is next vnto Nilus we do read in the fragments of Salust Gyraldus in his Syntagmata Deorum affirmeth that the kings of Babylon were wont to reserue certaine of the water of Donaw or Ister in ther treasuries amongst their pretious iewels Caesarius Nazianzenus brother in his dialogues saith that this is one of the riuers of Paradise and to be that which the holy Scripture calleth Phison which I will easily grant him to be true when he shall perswade me that by Paradise is meant the whole world or massie globe of this lower element of the earth which I do verily beleeue he thought to be true Seneca in the sixth booke of his naturall Philosophy saith that this Donaw doth part Europe and Asia Notwithstanding all writers generally both Latines and Greekes aswell ancient as those of later times do attribute this to the riuer Done Tanais And what is he I pray you that euer dreamed that Germany which is beyond this riuer should be a country of Asia Shall we correct the copy Or shall we retaine that reading in Horace vpon the credit and perill of Acron his expositour where he saith that Tanais is also called Danubius I leaue it to the censure of the learned This we know for a certainty aswell Tanais as Danubius is of the inhabitants neere about called Done and surely I thinke that both the Greeke Tanais as the Latine Danubius were made of the barbarous Done or Tane which in that language peraduenture for ought I know may signifie a riuer or streame so Nilas as Pomponius Mela seemeth to affirme tooke his name of Nuchul which generally signifieth a riuer as all men meanly skild in Hebrew or Arabicke can testifie with him Isidore also in the ninth chapter of the seuenteenth booke of his Origines seemeth to be of this opinion where he writeth that Rhabarbarum rhew barbe groweth in solo barbarico in a barbarous country beyond the Donaw For we know at this day that it groweth neere the riuer Rha which is beyond the Donaw Eastward In Pliny we
PONTVS EVXINVS Aequor Iasonio pulsatum remige primum Ex conatibus geographicis Abrahami Ortelij Cum Priuilegio Imp. Reg. et Belgico Ad decennium 1590. THRACE VNder the name of THRACIA many and diuerse countries with sundry people are comprehended for except the Indies it is the greatest country of the world as Herodotus doth testifie for Pliny doth confine it by the riuer Ister Pontus Propontis the Aegean sea and the riuer Strymon Yea and Strabo in the first booke of his Geography according to the opinion of Homer extendeth it as farre that way as the riuer Peneus which riuer Ptolemey attributeth to Macedonia Marcellinus maketh the Scordisci to be a people of this country Appianus to these conioineth the Illyrians So also doth Mela vpon the West who moreouer vpon the South to it doth assigne the mount Athos Many of the ancient writers likewise doe make the peninsula or demy-iland Pallene a portion belonging to this country Yea if one may credit Eratosthenes the hill Olympus doth part Macedonia from Thrace And the Epitome of Strabo in his seuenth booke maketh yet a farre other description of the bounds of this region For in Strabo himselfe the description of Thracia is wholly missing This Epitome I say seuereth Thrace from Macedony by the mouth of the riuer Nessus Yea and indeed in succedent ages the compasse of this country was not much lesse for Ammianus Procopius Sextus Rufus and the booke of Records Notitiarum do diuide it into these sixe shires or prouinces Moesia the Second or Lower Scythia Europa peculiarly calling this part by the generall name of that quarter of the world wherein the whole did stand Rhodopa Haemimontus and Thracia properly and specially so called Heere hence it is that in Trebellius and Orosius there is mention made of the THRACIA'S in the plurall number Yet this our Mappe is not so farre extended toward the North. For we haue indeed followed the description of Ptolemey in butting and bounding it who seuereth it from other Northren countries by the mount Haemus And this true THRACIA we do thinke to haue beene so named of the inchanting Nymph Thraca as Eustathius out of Athenaeus teacheth vs hauing been in former times called PERCA And had beene also sometime as many do verily thinke knowne by the names of ARIA ODRYSA CRESTONIA and SCYTONIA Iosephus a most graue authour affirmeth that it was of the Iewes called THYRAS The abouenamed Ptolemey in it nameth these foureteene shires Dantheletica Sardica Vsdicefica Selletica Moedica Drosica Coeletica Sapaica Corpialica Coenica Bessica Bennica Samaica and Vrbana Plinie diuideth it into fifty or two and fifty as I remember Dalechampius hath Regiments Strategiae shirewickes I thinke they call them in some places of England Hundreds or Wapentakes I would call them This Thracia properly so called Ammianus likeneth vnto the halfe Moone or to a Theater whose higher part is enclosed with high and steep mountaines which do diuide this same country from Dacia The lower part openeth toward the Aegean sea Of the nature and quality of this country Virgil speaketh on this manner Terra procul vastis colitur Mauortia campis A martiall country li'th farre off vast champions it conteinth Plutarch teacheth vs that it hath in it many huge fennes and bogges and that it is diuided or crossed this way and that way by diuerse deep and dangerous riuers Pliny saith that the soile of Thracia is very fertile for all manner of corne and commendeth the wheat of the same for waight and heauinesse Item for goodnesse he affirmeth that this kinde of wheat possesseth the third place Athenaeus testifieth that it beareth some vines especially about Biblina which otherwise is called Oesyma Item Pliny highly commendeth Vinum Maroneum the wine of Marogna or Marolia as Lewnclawe calleth it Homer also affirmeth that the Achiui were wont by shippe to transport wines from Thace into Grecce Xenophon writeth that in the mount Pangeus there is a gold-mine and Strabo affirmeth the like to be about Philippi Heere also is the Thracian stone which is kindled by the water and quenched with oile as Pliny witnesseth But because no man of all the ancient writers hath better described this countrie than Pomponius Mela let vs heere him speake It is saith he a countrie that cannot much bragge either of the goodnesse of their soile or wholesomenesse of their aire nay indeed except it be in some place neere the sea coast it is barren cold and verie vnkinde to all things generally that are set sowne or laid into the same It seldome beareth any apple-trees or other fruit-trees yet vines do heere and there grow in diuers places but the grapes neuer ripen kindly or come to any perfection except in some places where the vine-dressers do by the leaues keepe the cold from them It is a countrey much more kinde to men yet they are none of the properest for they are very clownish vnhandsome and rough hewed fellowes but otherwise for number and hardinesse for they are many and those very vnciuill this nation farre surpasseth others neere adioining This latter also is auerred by Pausanias who affirmeth it to containe such wonderfull multitudes of men that if you shall except France Gallia it may for ought that I know in all likely-hood for multitude of men be preferred before any countrie in the world Item Herodotus saith that next after the Indies it is the greatest countrey of the whole earth Liuy calleth it a desperate and most fierce Nation and Solinus he saith that they are a verie stout and hardy people Sextus Rufus maketh them the most cruell and furious people that euer he saw or heard of which Florus well expresseth by this example when he writeth that certaine of them being taken by the Romanes and giued as the manner of captiises is did bite the fetters and manacles with their teeth and so themselues to haue sufficiently punished their owne barbarous cruelty and that there are of their parents euen from their cradle trained vp to this wild inhumane kinde of life Sidonius doth teach vs in these words Excipit hic natos glacies matris ab aluo Artus infantum molles nix cimbrica durat Pectore vixaliter quisquam sed ab vbere tractus Plus potat per vulnus equum sic lacte relicto Virtutem gens tota bibit Creuere parumper Mox pugnam ludunt iaculis hos suggerit illis Nutrix plaga iocos pueri venatibus apti Lustra feris vacuant rapto ditata iuuentus Iura colit gladij consummatámque senectam Non ferro finire pudet Tali ordine vitae Ciues Martis agunt So soone as infant heere is borne The thing they say is sure To frost and snow their tender limmes They presently inure Scarce one of many thousands heere Doth sucke the Nurces teate Warme blood of warlike horses heere For most part 's infants meat This diet mak'th them bold and hard And as they come to growth They
Perinthij made it a free corporation and endowed it with many large and ample priuiledges After him as Themistius Euphrada in his sixth oration testifieth Theodosius the Great did beautifie it with diuerse gorgeous and costly buildings Moreouer Iustinian the Emperour as Procopius an eie-witnesse affirmeth adorned it with many most faire and beautifull workes of curious Architecture But especially he graced it by that glorious worke of that stately temple of Santa Sophia which he repaired being a little before burnt downe and vtterly defaced by fire and of it bestowed such cost that the Emperour himselfe as Glycas witnesseth boldly said that in this edifice he had exceeded euen glorious king Salomon in that his building Which worke of his as P. Diaconus writeth of it did so much excell all other buildings that in the whole world beside there was not to be found another that might in any respect be compared vnto it Whereupon Corippus thus speak th of this Church Iam Solomoniaci sileat descriptio templi Cedant cunctorum miracula nota locorum That stately worke of Salomon great Iudahs glorious king May now be still and bragge no more The greatest woonders of the world may well giue place to this No eie hath seene the like before Consta Manasses calleth it Orbis ornamentum The glorie of the world which he verily beleeueth the very Seraphim themselues did reuerence and adore But if any one be desirous to know the fashion and modell of this building let him haue recourse to Procopius his first booke of Edifices Of this church Paulus Lyrus Florus wrote a treatise in heroike or hexameter verse as Agathias in his fifth booke testifieth So that it might seeme that there was nothing more that might be wished for the further beautifying of this city Sozomen doubted not boldly to affirme That Constantinople both for multitude of men and store of wealth and money by all mens ioint consent did farre excell euen great Rome it selfe Moreouer Nazianzen writeth That Constantinople for beauty and brauerie did as much excell all other cities of the world beside as the highest heauens in glory do exceed the lowest elements Whereupon of some it was graced with these proud titles VRBS AETERNAE VRBS REGIA NOVA SECVNDA ROMA The eternall City The Emperiall City New Rome and Another Rome In the praising and tax of the chiefe cities of the Romane Empire this city in a Councell there held was placed in the second degree but in former times as Egesippus testifieth it possessed only the third place Zosimus writeth that there is no other city whatsoeuer whether you respect the large compasse and circuite of the wals or great felicity of it euery way that may iustly be compared vnto it The buildings of it are so close and neere together and the houses and streets are so pestered and thronged that whether a man keepe home or walke abroad he shall be so crowded and thrust that scarcely he might go without danger by reason of the huge throng of men and infinite of multitude of cattle alwaies passing to and fro in the same He that desireth to know all the glorious ornaments and woonderfull things worthy of obseruation to be seene in this city let him read George Cedren his historie of the life of Theodosius the Great Where he doth not onelie receite them all and reckon them vp curiously but also he doth most artificially describe them and paint them out in their true colours This city was taken in the yeere of Christ 1453. by Mahomet the first of that name Emperour of the Turkes who at this daie do yet possesse it Manie other things pertaining to the beautie and magnificence of this city are to be seene in the booke of Records of both the Empires and in Procopius his first booke De Aedificijs Of the originall and famous buildings of this city read George Codinus for no man hath handled that argument better than he But of the later writers Petrus Gyllius hath most exactly and learnedly described the same Of the Thracians this one thing in this place I cannot omit namely That in former times they bore a great sway in forren countries and were great Lords out of their owne natiue soile For they conquered and had vnder them a great part of Asia which is situate ouer against them and caused it after their name to be called THRACIA ASIATICA yea and toward the South beyond the bounds of their owne country vpon the Aegean sea where Pausanias described THRACIA CARIA they had long since placed their colonies This prouince Porphyrogenneta calleth THRACESIVM Xenophon doubted not to call this kingdome the greatest of all other between the Ionian sea and Pontus Euxinus Moreouer Strabo maketh mention of a certaine nation dwelling aboue Armenia which were called Thraces Seraperae To this Thracia is annexed a Chersonesus or Neckland which thereupon was sirnamed THRACIA CHERSONESVS Suidas calleth it CHERSONESVS HELEESPONTIACA of the sea Hellespontus neere neighbour vnto it It is also named PALLENE of Halicarnasseus and Stephanus who moreouer addeth that it was inhabited of the Crusaei Xenophon saith it was a most rich soile and fertile of all manner of things whatsoeuer and withall affirmeth that in it were eleuen or twelue great and goodly townes But wee out of all ancient Historians haue much exceeded this number as the Mappe doth sufficiently approue This Neckland or Chersonesus belonged sometime to Marcus Agrippa after whose decease as Dion reporteth it fell vnto Augustus Caesar He that desireth out of ancient writers a more ample description of Thracia let him read Wolfangus Lazius his Histories of Greece Item the fifth booke of Agathias a Grecian borne A strange thing it is that William Brussius writeth of this Chersonesus that by no manner of meanes or diligence vines can be made to grow heere in any great abundance GRAECIA OR HELLAS THat country which the Latines call GRAECIA Greece of the Greekes themselues generally was named HELLAS yet the out-borders of it are not the same according to euery mans description and limitation That was truly and most anciently called Greece which Ptolemey Pliny and Mela name ACHAIA in which Athens the first and most flourishing Vniuersity of the World and most renowmed citie of these parts was seated Heere Iupiter himselfe as Athenaeus witnesseth kept his Court. It is a free city as Pliny calleth it and needeth as he saith no further commendations so famous and honourable it is and euer hath been beyond all measure or conceipt of man Yet it is manifest not only out of the writers of the common sort of Historiographers but also euen out of Strabo himselfe the prince of Geographers that many countries are comprehended vnder the name of Graecia or Hellas as namely Macedonia Epirus Peloponnesus and those other prouinces and shires conteined vnder these names so that all Greece as it is generally taken is on three sides bounded with the Ionian Aegean Archipelago and the Libyan
Africa are generally or indefinitly named these seuerall prouinces of those greater parts are only to be vnderstood The bounds of this prouince of Africa on the West are the riuer Ampsaga and the Mauritania's the countries of the Moores their next neighbours on the North lieth the Midland sea Arae Philenorum a village betweene it and Cyrenaica is the vttermost bound of it Eastward the Inner Libya and the deserts of the same do confine it vpon the South This countrey was otherwise sometime called ZEVGIS and ZEVGITANA It comprehendeth within this compasse these three shires NVMIDIA named of some MASSYLIA BYZACIVM and TRIPOLITANA Diodorus Siculus diuideth this prouince into foure nations the Poeni Libophoenices Libyi and the Numidae At such time as the Romans bore a sway here and Scipio Aemilianus commanded their legions in these parts this Africa was diuided into two prouinces that neere Carthage they called OLDE AFRICA that which conteined Numidia NEW AFRICA as Pliny Appian and Dion do ioyntly testifie Numidia and Byzacium were vnder the command of the Consuls that wherein Carthage stood belonged to the iurisdiction of the Proconsuls as Sextus Rufus reporteth And this diuision they made as Pliny writeth by a certaine ditch drawen betweene them In the first booke of Iustinians Code and in the seuen and twentieh title of the same thou shalt finde another maner of diuision of this countrey and a farre other maner of gouernment of it by Presidents and Lieutenants Numidia beside the great store of Marble there found called by the name of Numidian marble and the maruellous plenty of Deere and wilde beasts which it yeeldeth hath nothing worth the remembrance as Pliny affirmeth Liuy Pliny and Solinus do giue it the praise for the best horsmen for seruice in the warres of any countrey whatsoeuer They doe as highly commend the fat soile of Byzacium which is such that it yeeldeth an hundred for one yea it hath beene knowen that one bushell of wheat being sowen hath yeelded at haruest the increase of an hundred and fifty bushels againe The Lieutenant of this place sent from thence vnto Augustus Caesar Emperour of Rome forty eares of corne sprung and growen vp from one root and one graine as was probable Item there were sent likewise to Nero from thence three hundred and forty stalks with eares of corne come vp of one and the some graine To this also may be adioyned the goodnesse of the soile which is such as Columella reporteth of it that the husbandman after he hath layd his seed in the ground from seed-time to haruest neuer looketh to his fields nor once medleth with it more for that searse any weed or other such thing which vsually hindereth the growth of corne doth here come vp of it owne accord except it be either set or sowen by hand Halicarnasseus also maketh mention of this great fertility of Africa But Titus the Emperor of Rome in one word doth sufficiently declare the woonderfully fruitfulnesse and plenty of all things here in an Oration of his written vnto the seditious and mutinous Iewes where he nameth it Altricem orbis terrarum The nourse of all nations of the world Yea and Saluianus in his seuenth booke termeth it Animam Reipublicae Romanae The soule of the Romane Common-wealth or politicke body there where thou mayst reade many other things worth the obseruation of the riches command and power of this countrey Herodian maketh it a country very fertile of men Polybius on the other side doth as much commend it for the great abundance of cattell and all sorts of liuing creatures that it breedeth So that for multitude of Horses Oxen Sheepe and Goats it doth farre surpasse almost all the rest of the world beside And that which is most woonderfull of all other it is no strange thing here as Columella out of Dionysius Mago and Marcus Varro telleth vs to see Mules to breed and bring forth yoong so that the inhabitants do as oft see the foales of Mules there as we do of Mares here The same authour in the first chapter of his fourth booke sayth that the people are very ingenious and witty Hirtius calleth it Gentem insidiosam A treacherous nation Maternus nameth it Gentem subdolam A wily and crafty people so that Vlgetius doubted not to say That for wiles and wealth the Romans were alwayes inferiour to the Africans Iuuenal the Poet termeth it Causidicorum nutâ—iculam The nurse of prating petifoggers Athenaeus recounteth the Carthaginians amongst those nations which delight much in quassing and carowsing and vse to be often drunke Saluianus in his seuenth booke De Prouidentia sayth that they are generally so inhumane such drunkards so deceitfull fraudulent couetous treacherous disloyall leud lecherous and vnchaste that he that is not such an one he surely is no Africane Lastly there is as he there addeth no maner of wickednesse or villany that they are not giuen vnto All histories do make mention of the vnfaithfulnesse and false-heartednesse of this nation which indeed is such and they for the same so greatly noted and famous that they grew for it into a common by-word among all such nations as had any conuersation or ought to do with them And thus much of this Africa a land as the Poets terme it most rich for triumphs the fortresse or castle as Cicero calleth it of all Prouinces belonging to the Romane Empire The Ilands neere adioyning and belonging to this country more famous and of better note are Melita Menyx Cosura and Cercina beside some other lesser ones and of lesse account of which as also the people riuers mountaines townes and cities see this our Table That Sardinia that goodly iland which lieth ouer against Genua did sometime belong to this Africa Iustinian doth testifie in the seuen and twentieth Title of the first booke of his Code But of CARTHAGE the chiefe and metropolitane citie of this prouince although Salust sayth it is better farre to say nothing at all of it than to speake little yet notwithstanding I thinke it not amisse to adde somewhat of that also in this place This city of the Latines was called CARTHAGO of the Greeks CHARCHEDON Solinus Polyhistor reporteth that it was first called CARTHADA which word sayth he in the Phoenician tongue of neere affinity to the Hebrew and Arabicke signifieth Ciuitatem nouam The new city And indeed truth it is that _____ in the Arabicke dialect and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Kariat hadátha in the Syrian doth signifie A new city or castle Hereupon it is that Stephanus nameth it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 NOVAM VRBEM The new city He moreouer calleth it OENVSSA CACABE and CADMEIA but vpon what ground and authority I know not Cadmeia peraduenture it was named of the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which in that language as also in the rest of the orientall tongues deriued from hence signifieth the East or first and chiefest both which may well agree to this city for the first
Lucanus 8. INCERTAE POSITIONIS LOCA Amythaonia Apeliotes Athos Cephro Cessan Colluthium Cusi Elysius Eurychorian Focis Litrae Melite Metole Metopium Nelupa Pyrae Taeniotis Tevochis Tityus REGIONES Dulopolis Pentapolis NOMI Anthites Anytios Aphthala Bathrithites Crambetites Croites Omnites Phanturites Ptenethu Sebrithites Thermopolites VRBES Abotis Achoris Anthiti Anysis Arcadia Arieldela Arype Asphinum Atharrabis Auaris Bosirara Bucaltum Burgus Seueri Byblos Calamona Cassanoros Chiris Chortaso Cos Cotenopolis Crambutis Crialon Cros Cyrtus Flagoniton Gavei Gazulena Helos Isidis opidum Juliopolis Iustiniana II. nova Maximianopolis Mucerinae Muson Mylon Naithum Narmunthum Nupheum Oniabates Paprinus Paremphis Pasteris Ptemengyris Pempte Philadelphia Pinamus Paebebis Polis Precteum Praesentia Proxenupolis Psinaphus Psinaula Psochemnis Python Sadalis Sampsira Sargantis Scenae Sella Senos Sosteum Spania Syis Terenuthis Thamana Theodosiana Ticelia Tindum Tisis Titana Tohum Toicena Trichis Tyana Vantena VICI Anabis Daphnusium Diochites Nibis Phoenix Psenerus Psentris Psinectabis Psittachemnis MONS Laemon FLVVIVS Phaedrus INSVLAE Hiera Nichocis Horum vocabulorum et ceterorum que in ipsa tabula describuntur testimonia et auctoritates veterum videre sunt in nostro Thesauro Geographico Ex conatibus geographicis Abrahami Ortelij cum Priuilegio decennali 1595. The Mappe doth shew the situation of this countrey and therefore I shall not need to speake ought of that What the great fertility and richnesse of soile of this prouince was that worthy commendation vulgarly spoken of it wherein it is sayd to be The common barne of all the world doth sufficiently shew For although it neuer raineth here yet it breedeth great plenty of men and beasts with all maner of cattell whatsoeuer But this indeed their riuer Nilus by his inundation euery yeere bringeth to passe wherupon as the poet Lucan writeth this is Terra suis contenta bonis non indiga mercis Aut Iouis in solo tanta est fiducia Nilo A land that of it selfe is rich enough It need'th no forren aid Ioues helpe it scorn'th so much it stand'th vpon the bounty of the Nile Yea they were woont proudly to vaunt as Pliny testifieth that they caried in their hands the dearth or plenty of the Romans those mighty conquerours The riches and wealth of this countrey one may easily esteeme by that of Diodorus who writeth that the Kings of Egypt vsed yerely to haue of Alexandria only a Subsidie of aboue twelue thousand talents item out of Strabo in whom I reade that Auletes father to Cleopatra leuied yeerely in Egypt a Subsidie of twelue thousand and fiue hundred talents which doth amount according to Budey his estimation to seuenty fiue hundred thousand French crownes and that as he there addeth vnder a very loose and bad kinde of gouernment Eusebius in his second booke de Praepar Euang. reporteth that Osiris their king did erect and make for Iupiter and Iuno his parents and for other gods temples and shrines of beaten gold and siluer a maruellous shew of their woonderfull wealth and riches Of the golde-mines of this countrey Agatharcides hath written something But so many endlesse and immortall works yet extant hauing hitherto euen to this day abode all assaults and iniury of time do sufficiently shew what their great command and power in former times hath beene as namely are those huge Pyramides so many Obelisks of solid marble of one whole stone of such woonderfull height Colosses Sphinges Statues and Labyrinths so many gorgeous Temples of which this one countrey could shew more than all other countreys beside whatsoeuer as Herodotus who himselfe was an eye-witnesse of the same doth plainly affirme The infinite number of people and inhabitants which Philo in his booke of Circumcision ascribeth vnto it gather out of Iosephus and Egesippus who writeth that beside the citizens of Alexandria which as Diodorus testifieth were three hundred thousand free men there were seuenteene hundred and fifty thousand enrolled and made free-denisons of Rome at once It is a very prudent and wise nation as we may vnderstand by diuers histories very ingenious in the finding out of any maner of artes and sciences very quicke of conceit in the search of any inuention whatsoeuer as Aulus Gellius hath left recorded They are fit and able to attaine to the vnderstanding of all maner of diuine knowledge as Macrobius affirmeth who also calleth Egypt The mother of all artes But Trebellius Pollio in the life of Aemilianus the Tyrant sayth that it is a furious and outragious nation easily mooued to sedition tumults and rebellion vpon euery light occasion And Quintus Curtius sayth that they are a light headed and giddy brained people more fit to set matters abroach than to follow them wisely when they are once afoot Hadrianus the Emperour as Flauius Vopiscus in the life of Saturninus reporteth calleth it Gentem leuem pendulam ad omnia famae monimenta volitantem A light and vnconstant nation hanging as it were by a twin'd thread and mooued at the least blast and puffe of newes that might stirre Seneca to Albina calleth it Infidam A faithlesse nation Ventosam insolentem A bragging proud and insolent nation Pliny in his Panegyricke to Traian the Emperour termeth them Nequitias tellus scit dare nulla magis No countrey in the world I am sure More vilder knaues did ere endure sayth the Poet Martiall Philo in his booke of Husbandry sayth that they haue Innatam insignem iactantiam that is that they it bred in the bone that an Egyptian should be a famous bragger Yet he sayth that they are withall wise and ingenious Apuleius termeth them Eruditos Learned Egyptians and Themistius Euphrada Sapientissimos homines Very wise and cunning fellowes Philostratus sayth that they be much giuen to Theology and study of heauenly things Strabo hath left recorded that they were no warlike people Of famous knaues they possessed the middle ranke according to that olde prouerbe Lydimali secundi Aegyptij tertij Cares The Lydians are the great knaues The Egyptians meane knaues be The clownish hobs of Caria are The least knaues of the three as Eustathius vpon Dionysius Afer reporteth Of the customes and maner of life of this nation Porphyrius speaketh much in his fourth booke intituled Of abstinence from flesh meats The most famous cities which we haue read of in the ancient writers of both languages are these First ALEXANDRIA which Athenaeus nameth The beautifull and golden citie the Councell of Chalcedon The great citie Marcelline The head of all cities in the world Eunapius Another world Dion Prusaeus sayth that it is the second citie of all that are vnder the cope of heauen The chiefe temple heere called Sebasteum or Augusteum that is Princely or Emperiall hath no peere This thou mayst see described by Philo Iudaeus in his booke De vita contemplatiua The Serapium another stately building in this citie so adorned and beautified with diuers goodly galleries many gorgeous and lofty columnes and pillars set out with most liuely imagery and diuers
and sundry other rare works and deuices the best that the most excellent Architects of the world might inuent that next after the Capitoll of which reuerend Rome doth so much glory the whole world it selfe hath neuer seene ought more rich and sumptuous at Ammianus Marcellinus writeth of it Strabo in the seuenteenth booke of his Geography doth most brauely describe the whole citie The like doth Statius Alexandrinus in his fifth booke of Loue and Diodorus Siculus in the 17 booke of his history Item Hirtius in his booke De bello Alexandrino THEBAE was the next citie of great note famous for the multitude of gates that sometimes it had and thereupon it was otherwise called Hecatompylos Hundred-gate and Diospolis Gods-towne item Busyris and Thebestis as S. Hierome affirmeth MEMPHIS an ancient towne renowmed by reason that their kings ordinarily kept their Court here was accounted one of the greatest cities of this kingdome COPTOS a great Mart-towne well frequented with Arabian and Indian merchants Of this city the whole prouince tooke the name as we haue elswhere shewed before ABYDVS the Court and Emperiall seat of Memnon their king famous for the temple of Osiris I omit SYENE with diuers others for it were more than needeth here to recken them vp all because they offer themselues at an instant to him that shall but cast his eye on the Map Besides that Herodotus Diodorus Pliny Iosephus Marcellinus Philostratus Eusebius and diuers other good authours yet extant and in many mens hands haue most eloquently and diligently described them and set them out in their true and liuely colours The situation of this countrey the riuers mountaines cities and strange things there to be seene we haue already described according as the capacity of the place assigned would permit Now it remaineth that with like breuity also we do out of Diodorus Herodotus Strabo Athenaeus Aelianus Plutarch Philo Eusebius Pliny Heliodorus Lucian Ammian Clemens Athanasius Prudentius and others speake something of their religion Eusebius in his first booke De Praepar Euang. teacheth me that the Egyptians were the first men that euer honoured the Sunne Moone and the rest of the Starres for immortall Gods But not only the Holy scripture but euen profane authours also doe plentifully testifie that they were euer from the beginning the vainest men of the world and in this their diuine seruice and choice of gods of all other most fond and foolish for beside the gods of the Gentiles as Iupiter Iuno Vulcane Venus Bacchus and such others which they had and worshipped common with all the world yet by their seuerall and different names as Isis Osiris c. they moreouer as Artemidorus and Cicero in the third booke of the Nature of gods do testifie consecrated all kinde of beasts and liuing creatures Herodotus affirmeth that they accounted all maner of beasts which they had in Egypt as sacred and holy so that as Dion reporteth they farre surpassed all nations of the world in multitude and variety of gods Neither did they only reuerence these as gods but also Anubis Orus Typhon Pan whom they called Mendon and painted him with a goats head and the Satyrs Item another which as Plutarch in Osiris writeth they called Cneph Moreouer Minutius Felix sayth that they worshipped a man and in the city Anabis did all maner of diuine seruice vnto him as vnto an immortall God as Eusebius auoucheth who furthermore addeth that they had another peculiar god which they called Canopus and expressed in the forme of a pot This Bembus hath described in his Hieroglyphicall table Athanasius and Heliodorus doe testifie that they accounted the water but especially Nilus for a god Of foure footed beasts the Crocodile the Oxe the Mneuis the Lion the Beare the Cat the Hee-goat the Monkey the Ape the Bull the Ramme the Shee-goat the Hogge the Dogge the Ichneumon or Indian rat the Woolfe the Sheepe the Weazell and the Shrewmous they put into the inuentory of their gods Of fishes the Oxyrinchus the Lepidotus the Latus the Phagrus the Maeotis fishes proper to the riuer Nilus and the Eccle beside the Cantharus as Porphyrius in his booke De sacrificijs testifieth Of birds the Eagle the Ibis and the Hawke beside the Owsell or Blacke-bird if we may beleeue Hyginus and the Vulture and Rauen as Aelianus affirmeth with the Sparrow as Porphyrius in his Treatise De Abstinentia maketh vs beleeue Iosephus in his second booke against Appion sayth that they worship the Ferrit They had beside these the Dragon or serpent the Aspis which they named Thermathis and the Beetle The counterfets of these for the most part they adored and worshipped as gods yet some delighted rather to honour the very beast themselues aliue so that it was felony for a man to kill any of them although it were by chance And if so be that one of them should fortune to die of any disease they vsed to bury it with mourning and great solemnity Item certaine vegetable things without life as Onions Leekes and Garleeke they did adore with diuine honour as S. Hierome against Iouinian testifieth of the Pelusiotae Nay they did not content themselues with these naturall things but euen certeine monsters such as were neuer seene in the world they did in like maner consecrate for gods as the Cynocephalus with a dogges head worshipped of the Hermopolitani and Cepus honoured of the Babylonians To these you may adde out of Athanasius the Serpenticipites idols with serpents heads and Asinicipites with asses heads Moreouer in the villages and vpland townes Lucian reporteth I know not whether in iest or earnest that some held the right shoulder for a god but those that dwelt ouer against them the left Some did sacrifice to the one halfe of the head others to a Samian cup or dish Diodorus Siculus reporteth I blush to speake it that they accounted the priuy parts for a god Eusebius in the second booke De praeparat Euangel seemeth to restraine it only to Osiris Clemens in the fifth booke of his Recognitionum addeth blush foolish idolaters for I will tell it and let another say surreuerence that the Egyptians worshipped the Iakes and a Part for their gods which also is auerred and iustified by Minutius Felix This is that which Lactantius reporteth of them that they reuerenced certaine beastly and shamefull things Philo Iudaeus sayth that all things vnder the cope of heauen are consecrated and enrowled amongst the number of their gods And Sextus the Philosopher sayth of them that there was not any thing which they did not hold for sacred Thus much of their gods more thou mayest see of this matter in Clemens but especially in Iuuenall the Poet. These do hold themselues to be the first and most ancient Nation in the world and to haue first had the knowledge of God to haue built temples groues and conuents in honour of them as Lucian testifieth Afterward when the light of the Gospell began to shine forth
pleasant Tempe in Thessalia Tempe quae syluae cingunt super impendentes The Tempe which the ouer-hanging groues do round inclose as Catullus the poet in his Argonautickes hath left recorded It is as Pliny saith about three lands breadths ouer sesqui iugerum AElianus calleth it Plethrum The length which they do define to be from the mouth of the riuer Gannum euen vnto the bay now vulgarly called Golfo di Salonichi then Sinus Thermaeus is as Liuy testifieth fiue miles or as AElianus saith which is all one forty furlongs These mountaines Liuy writeth are so high steepe and craggy on all sides that a man may scarce looke downe from off the toppe of them without a dazling of the eies and giddinesse of the braine The noise also and depth of the riuer Peneus which runneth through the middest of the valley is very terrible Pliny saith that the stately toppes of these mountaines on euery side do rise by little and little vp higher into the aire than a man may well discern Within these hils the goodly riuer Peneus doth runne which for his crystall waters rowling ouer the smooth pebbles the goodly meddowes and grasse alwaies fresh and green vpon the bankes the ouerhanging groues and trees continually resounding with the melodious harmony of sweet singing birds is so pleasant and delightsome as any in the world beside But because all these authours haue spoken of it as it were by the way and not of set purpose I thinke it not amisse to set downe in this place the description of it done by AElianus as you may read in the first chapter of his third booke De varia historia where it is most curiously and absolutely set out in his true and liuelie colours These therefore are his wordes There is a place between Olympus and Ossa the two loftiest mountaines of all Thessaly disioined one from another by the diuine prouidence of eternall God by a faire plaine or leuell running between them the length of this plaine or valley is fortie furlongs It is from one side to the other in some places two or three lands breadths ouer in some places it is somewhat broader Through the middest of this valley runneth the riuer Peneus into which also other riuers falling and mingling their waters with his do much encrease the streame of Peneus This place is most pleasant and delightsome by reason of his great varietie of all sorts of alluring and inticeing pleasures neuer made by any art or industry of man but by nature it selfe shewing all her skill in the beautifying of this valleie at such time as it was first made There is in this place great store of iuie alwaie green and flourishing alwaie budding and putting forth his pleasant slowres euer clinging and winding in maner like the goodlie vine about the tallest trees and clambring vp by little and little vntill it come euen to the verie toppe In the same places grow the aie-green yeugh-tree which lifting vp it selfe aloft vpon the rockes shaddoweth the caues holes and cliffes which beneath lie lurking in the vale All other things whatsoeuer do flourish blossome and beare flowers are there to be seene this is a most gallant and glorious shew for the eies to behold In the plaine when the sunne is at his height in summer you shall haue manie goodlie shaddowie groues and diuers places of shelter into which trauellers desirous for to refresh their wearied limmes from the violence of the heat and their noisome sweat do betake themselues as into the most pleasant and delightsomest innes and harboroughs that are in the world Moreouer of ouerflowing wels and pleasant springs of most coole and fresh waters running heere and there in sundrie places of this valleie there are verie manie and diuers which if we shall beleeue the report of our fathers haue been verie wholesome and soueraigne to sundrie sorts of diseased persons that haue washed themselues in the same Againe diuers birds heere and there dispersed in these groues and woods do make the guests great mirth at their banquets with their sweet singing and pleasant tunes especially those which haue the lowdest and sweetest voices do so please and hold the eares of the heares that those which passe by this waie are so rauished and delighted with this their musicke that they instantly forget all their trauels and businesse On ech banke of the riuer such are the delights pleasures and recreations for the wearied trauellers as before we haue mentioned Yet the riuer Peneus going on leasurely and smoothly like an oile runneth quietly through the middest of the Tempe About this riuer by reason of the trees which grow vpon the bankes and their farre-spreading boughs is a most goodly shade so that such as row in boates vp and downe vpon this streame for almost a whole day together may saile in the pleasant shade free from the violence and schorching heat of the sunne The people which dwell vpon this riuer do oft times meet in companies sometimes in one place and sometimes in another Hauing done diuine seruice and ceremonies in due forme and maner they banquet and make merrie Therefore those which do these seruices and performe these ceremonies being very many it is no maruell though such as come hither to walke for recreation those which trauell by this way or saile vp or downe this riuer vpon what occasion soeuer do continually smell a most sweet and fragrant sauour In this maner this place was consecrated with great honour religious seruices These things and many other hath Aelianus written of these Tempe TEMPE Delineatum et auditum auctore Ab. Ortelio cum privilegio decennali 1590. Est nemus Aemoniae praerupta quod undique claudit Silva vocant TEMPE per quae Penëus ab imo Effusus Pindo spumosis volvitur undis Ovid. i. Metamorph. Of these also Procopius although he nameth them not by name hath written in his fourth booke De Aedif. Iustiniani Imperatoris There is a braue description of these places in Catullus his Argonauticks But I thinke it good here to set downe out of diuers writers certaine seuerall things of these Tempe as they are here and there dispersed in their works Maximus Tyrius in his xxxix oration hath left recorded that diuine honour in olde time was done to the riuer Peneus for his maruellous goodly beautie and farre-surpassing cleere waters Pliny writeth that this riuer doeth admit into his channell the streame of the brooke Eurotas but so as it swimmeth aloft like oile and hauing caried it so for a certaine space casteth it off againe as refusing to quaint and intermeddle his siluer streame with his filthy stincking troubled waters The same authour sayth that here groweth great plentie of Laurell Polypody Dolichus a kinde of beane Wilde-time and Water-lilly but this hath a blacke flower if we may beleeue Apuleius Pausanias in his Phocica writeth that the temple of Apollo at Delphos was built of Laurell boughes which grew in this
Bappenheim Gulich Meissen and Vnistingen Foure LORDS OF THE SOILE Millan Scala Padua and Mirandula Foure BORROVGHS of the Empire Aldenburgh Meidenburgh Rotenburgh and Mecklenburgh Foure KNIGHTS or Seruants Waldeck Hirten of Fulchen Arnsperg and Rabnaw Foure SOVLDIERS Andlaw Meldingen Strondecke and Fornberg Foure LORD ABBOTS Fulden Campidon Wissenburgh and Murbach Foure HVNTSMEN Hurn Vrach Scomburgh and Metsch neere to Curia Foure VILLAGES Ingelheim Altdorff Lichtenaw and Deckendorff Foure MOVNTAINS of the Empire Nunsterberg Friedberg Heydelberg and Nurnberg Foure OFFICES hereditary to the Dukedome of Switzerland The Sewer of Waldprugh The Cupbearer of Radach The Marshall of Merkdorff and The Chamberlaine of Kemnat Yer many of these dignities are altered and changed into others or wholly abolished and extinct by the death of those which held them as it is at large to be seene in Munsters Cosmography If any man be moreouer desirous to know the names of the Imperiall cities let him repaire to the same authour he shal be satisfied to his full content Item Charles the Fourth Emperour of Germany did make besides these many other constitutions When the Emperour sitteth in his Maiesty and chaire of Estate then the Archbishop of Trier sitteth ouer against him the Archbishop of Mentz vpon his right hand and the Archbishop of Colen on his left The King of Bohemia taketh his seat vpon the right hand of the Archbishop and by him the County palatine of Rhein placeth himselfe the Duke of Saxony sitteth vpon the left hand of the Archbishop and by him the Marquesse of Brandenburgh But of these offices diuers authours do write diuersly wherefore it being not our purpose to make a large discourse of this matter we send the Reader for further satisfaction heerin to the forenamed Sebastian Munster and other Historiographers of Germany who haue handled this argument more amply Otho III Saxonioe Dux Othonis II filius a princibus Germanis Imperator Romoe dictus a Gregorio Vpontif Max. consanguineo suo Bruno antea Vocabatur quem ille pontificem crearat diadema imperiale accepit Sed cum Saxoniam peteret Imperator Gregorius pontifex a Iohanne ponti Vrbe pellitur Quare Otto irarum plenus maximis copÿs Italiam ingressus vi Romam capit De his consule Munster Crescentium consulem dissidyÌ„ authorem cum suis coÌ„plicibus punit Gregoriumque pristinae dignitati restituit Cum veró consideraret sapientissimus Coesar perpetúo oestuare Gallos et Italos transferende imperialis maiestatis cupiditate a Germanis et inter Germanos quoque propter electionem nonnuÌ„quaÌ„ dissensiones defuis se apud suos Maiores tulit cum Gregorio sanctionem vt in posterum sola authoritas eligendi Imperatoris penes septem Germanioe principibê° prima rios remaneret Erat tum Otto natus annos 28 et propter ingeny proptitudinem miraculum mundi dictus factum hoc as serunt Aº salutis nonagentesimo septuaâ—â—me quarto licet scriptores tempore multum varient quod lectori manifestuÌ„ erit ex lectiâ—â—e Historiarum Nomina 4 Comitum et Militum Imperij superius omissa hic legenda ponimus 4 Comites Imperij SwartzeÌ„burgeÌ„sis Clivensis Ciliae et Sabaudiae 4 Milites Imperij Andelato Meldingensis Strongendoch FrauweÌ„berg The KINGS MONASTERY of Saint Laurence for Friars of the order of Saint Hierome in Escuriall in Spaine SCENOGRAPHIA TOTIVS FABRICAE S. LAVRENTII IN ESCORIALI AD PHILIPPVM II. HISPANIARVM ETC. REGEM CATHOLICVM Michaelis vander Hagen Antverpij carmen Caesarcas moles atque alta palatia Regum Ne posthac Latium aut Graecia iactet ouans Pyramides et aquaeductus mira Amphitheatra Et Circos veteres Inclyta Roma premat Prisca fides sileat vasti Miracula Mundi Nam faciunt nostra ad secula prisca nihil Vitus enim Hesperioe Rex Maximus ille Philippus Miracla exuperans omnia condit opus Non opus at Molem qualem neque tota vetustas Vidit et hoec oetas non habitura parem Nempe Duces olim parti monimenta triumphi Victi erexerunt ambitione mala Atque trophaea Dijs posuerunt capta profanis Aut operis magni in secla perenne decus Relligionis Apostolicae verum vnicus ille Defensor voti Rex memor vsque pij Sancti operis dudum aeternos molitur honores Quo maius nihil hic Maximus Orbis habet Is Collegium enim Augustum et Regale dicauit Laurenti sacrum tempus in omne tibi Cuj certo numero praesunt Hieronymiani O felix Ordo ô corda sacrata Deo Non est hîc aliud nisi Magni Sponsa Tonantis Maies tate Dei terribilisque locus Est vbi Maiestas et Magnificentia Regis Prodiga inexhaustas et bene fundit opes Regia sic summi est ibi Principis atque supremj Numinis ô qualis gloria quale decus Quis gazas quis splendorem fando explicet omnem Angustum ingenium est linguaque nostra nimis Quis vero Regi par atque secundus Ibero Miraclum Mundi solus et ille facit Macte animis porro tua tanta potentia crescat O Heros populi Inuicte Philippe tuj Euge autem ô felix Hispania et euge Madrida Quoe nisi tam Magno haud Proefide tanta fores The MONASTERIE or place of residence for the monkes and friars hath a very goodly Steeple wherein doe hang a fine ring of Bels with a Clocke and Diall with an Index shewing the Naturall and Planetary howres The Wardrope Hall or Roome where the monkes and friars do vse to dine and suppe with the spittle are most goodlily built with Sollers Galleries and Walkes Moreouer heere is a faire Cloister or Square where publike praiers are daily read In the middest of this square is a very fine garden most artificially diuided into beds and curious knots In the middest of it is a goodly piece of worke built eight square in maner of a temple with fountaines of the best iasper To this Cloister is adioining the Chapter-house with another roome very like vnto it The Seats of the monkes are round about by the sides but the Seat of the Priour doth farre excell the rest a famous piece of worke made of marble gloriously set out with pictures and curiously arched ouer the head The LIBRARY which is vpon the toppe of the Abbey is 185. foot long and 32. foot broad It hath three sundrie roomes In the first are all the Liberall Sciences protraitured At the feet of euery picture are the Bookes of that facultie very orderly and finely placed all of them gilt and bound alike Heere also is an huge Parchment booke wherein all manner of liuing creatures that are in all the whole world elsewhere to be seene are most curiouslie drawen and expressed in their true and liuely colours In the Second are onely manuscript Latine Greeke and Hebrew bookes of Diuinity In the beginning of euery booke is set the picture and counterfet of the authour of the same In like maner the third roome is furnished only