AN ACCOUNT OF Several Travels Through a great part of GERMANY In Four Journeys I. From Norwich to Colen II. From Colen to Vienna with a particular Description of that Imperial City III. From Vienna to Hamburg IV. From Colen to London WHEREIN The Mines Baths and other Curiosities of those Parts are Treated of Illustrated with Sculptures By EDWARD BROWN M. D. Fellow of the College of Physicians of London and of the Royal Society LONDON Printed for Benj. Tooke and are to be sold at the Sign of the Ship in St. Paul's Church-yard 1677. Imprimatur G. Jane R. P. D. Hen. Episc Lond. à Sacris Dom. Sept. 26. 1676. TO THE READER HAving given the English World an Account of some remote and seldome travelled Countries of Europe in the Year 1673. I remained indifferent as to the publishing any thing more concerning nearer or better known places a great part whereof hath been delivered by some good and observing Writers upon which consideration though written some years since these Papers have not come abroad and had still remained private had not the desires of Friends solicited this Publication and also a Promise in my former Book oblig'd me to say something of Vienna as likewise my Journey unto that Place from England by the Belgian Provinces and Germany and of my Return from Vienna by Austria Trans-Danubiana Moravia Bohemia Misnia Saxonia unto Hamburg hereof I have therefore given some Account in this Work not much engaging into the Policy and State Government of Places which have been so largely delivered as to make up just Volumes but have rather set down what is Naturally Artificially Historically and Topographically remarkable together with some Customes and Occurrencies which might be acceptable unto the Inquisitive Reader or serve as hints of further Enquiry to such Persons as may hereafter Travel into those Parts A JOURNEY FROM NORWICH TO COLEN in GERMANY IN the year 1668. I left the large and pleasant City of Norwich and went by land to Yarmouth a Port Town in Norfolk at the mouth of the River Hierus or Yare large fairly built and populous very considerable for the great Herring fishing in the Autumn and the commerce it maintaineth in the Streights Baltick British and German Seas With Italians French Spaniards Dutch Danes and Swedes I was here nobly entertained by that worthy and obliging person Sr. Iames Iohnson who also furnish't me with letters of Credit to Amsterdam Franckfort Venice and Vienna Whereby I was readily and handsomely accommodated in all Parts where I had afterwards occasion to travel August the 14. about six a clock at night I went aboard the Angel-Ketch in Yarmouth Road a Vessel of about 55 Tuns and we immediately set sayl for Rotterdam we left St. Nicholas-Sand on the Larboard and after that the Nowles a new Sand not taken notice of to be raised above twelve years before We kept our course all night East and by South and East South East The Sea burned at the head of the Ship at the beginning of the night but the Moon rising there appeared nothing but froth In the morning we discovered Gravesandt Steeple It is the custom upon all this coast to send out Pylot-boats continually to meet all Ships at Sea and furnish them with Pylots to bring them through the sands and no Ship is to refuse one Having taken in our Pylot we soon discovered Goréé Steeple and then the Briel We entred the River Mosa or Maes a Large and noble Stream which arising in the Mountaines of Vauge or Vogesus passing by Verdun Dinant Namur Liege Maestricht Ruremond Venlo and many considerable Places doth here fall into the Ocean we had a very pleasant passage up the River sayling by many neat Villages as Maese-sluys Schedam Delfshaven and handsome rowes of Trees upon the shore and arrived at Rotterdam about six at night This is one of the three chief passages by Sea into Holland the other being by Flushing and the Texell The nearest cut out of England into Holland is from Laistoffe Point to Gravesandt which is 28 Leagues and the deepest part of the Sea is about 28 Fathoms There lay two of the greatest Ships in Holland at that time near Rotterdam the Crane and the Wassenaer this latter built in lieu of that in which Admiral Opdam was blown up fighting against his Royal Highness the Duke of Yorke The Heads or Keyes between which we entred the towne by water are handsome and Ships of great burden are received into the middle of divers streets without difficulty their Channels being deep and large the houses are well built and the town Populous they have an Exchange or place for Merchants to meet at the streets are so clean that the Women goe about in white Slippers they being paved with Bricks laid edgwise The Landthuise hath a fair front In the great Church the Organs the Tower and the Monument of De wit upon the Bridge the Statue of Erasmus as also the house where he was born and the Pleasure boats of the States are worth the seeing It being then the time of their Kermis or Faire there were playes acted and many rarities shewn as Lions Leopards c and a great noise was made about a tall Woman to be shewn of seven foot high but the Boor of Leckerkir'k not far from this town was higher Parsons and Evans porters to King Charles the first did also exceed her but I have seldom heard of any that was taller than Martin Wierwski a Polander who at the age of forty two years was presented to the Emperour Maximilian the second as a rarity of nature and was full eight foot high whose picture as big as the life I saw near to the Franciscans Convent at Vienna in Austria From Rotterdam I passed by Overschee to Delft by the Powderhouse which is a handsome one built now at some distance from the towne to prevent the like accident which befell when the former took fire and blew up part of the town The Piazza or market-place is a very fair one having the front of the town house at one end of it and the high steeple of the new Church at the other In the old Church Van-Tromps Tombe is very well carved upon the side of the Wall himself lying upon a Canon encompassed with Arms and trophies In the middle Isle of the new Church there is a noble monument the Tombe of William of Nassaw Prince of Orange together with his Wife and Son Prince Maurice his Statua is in armour with his Dog at his feet and four Obelisks are supported by ten Marble pillars In a house of this Town there were shewn me in a Wall the marks of the bullets shot at Prince William who was thereby murthered 1584. and in another Church which was broad and spacious I saw a handsome Tomb for Sr. Charles Morgans Lady and the Monument of Peter Hein the Admiral who took the Spanish Silversleet The Hague Haga Comitis the ancient place of Residence
how a Theatre for Comedies is now built in that place It is divided into eight Chambers or Rooms which are so well filled that many Books are fain to lye upon the Floor and the Shelves stand so close that there is but just room to pass between them The Manuscripts stand distinct from the printed Books according to their Languages being divided into six Classes Theological Juridical Medical Philosophical Historical Philological There can scarce be a more admirable Collection than the Manuscripts in part of the first Chamber of Hebrew Syriack Arabick Turkish Armenian Aethiopick and Chinese Books It was begun at least the Books began to be placed in this receptacle by Maximilian the First but hath been much encreased by succeeding Emperours most of them since Rodolphus the First being much addicted unto Learning there having been large accessions from many noble Libraries and most upon the cost of the Emperours The choicest Books in the famous Library of Buda of King Matthias Corvinus Son unto Huniades are now in it The notable Library of Wolfgangus Lazius who was Library-Keeper was brought hither and Three thousand Books of Johannes Sambucus are now in this Repository Augerius Busbequius sometime Library-Keeper hereof added much unto it and in his two Turkish Embassies procured great number of noble Greek Manuscripts at Constantinople which are inscribed with his own hand Aug. de Busbeck emit Constantinopoli A great many were added from the Library of the Learned Johannes Cuspinianus Library Keeper and Counsellor unto the Emperour The notable Libraries and Mathematical Instruments of Tycho Brahe Kepler and Gassendus were purchased for it But the largest accession was made by the noble Library of Count Fugger which consisting of sixteen thousand Volumes was purchased by Ferdinand the Third Many were brought some few years past from the Ambrasian Library by Inspruck by the Learned Petrus Lambecius Library Keeper Historiographer and Counsellor unto the present Emperour who hath also an excellent Library which is like to be added unto the Imperial He then reckoned the Volumes in this great Library to amount at least to Fourscore thousand and by this time that number may be increased for he addeth some yearly And the number might almost be endless if they would make use of their priviledge for the Emperour hath a right to have two Books of all that are printed in Germany They have also a great advantage at Vienna to acquire good Manuscripts from the Turkish Dominions for the Emperour is obliged to have a Resident with the Grand Signor wheresoever he moveth or ordereth him to be even at the last sight of St. Godart the Emperour 's Resident was in the Turkish Camp And when I was at Larissa in Thessaly the Resident Signor di Casa Nova was inquisitive after Books to be found among the Greeks in Monasteries and other places And this Emperour like his Father will spare no cost toward such Acquiries By the especial favour of my noble Friend Lambecius I went many times into this Library and he was so courteous as to let me have what Books I desired unto my private Lodging He would shew me divers Books upon what Subject I required and offered me a sight of what Books he thought rare and estimable and amongst others I could not but take notice of these following A Letter of the present Emperour of China in the Chinese and Tartarian Languages unto the present Emperour of Germany weaved in a very fine Roll. Another old Roll written in unknown Letters yet a little resembling the Greek A Book in the Runick Language A very fair Manuscript of Ptolomy with the Mapps drawn in Colours The oldest Manuscript and true Exemplar of Livie in large Letters without distinction of Words or Sentences very uneasie to be read a thousand years old and brought not many years since from the Library near Inspruck An old fair Greek Manuscript of Dioscorides written eleven hundred years since in very large Letters without distance of Words or Accents wherein all the Plants are lively painted also the Pictures of Dioscorides Galen Pamphilus Cratevas and other ancient Physicians bought of a Jew at Constantinople for an hundred Ducats by Busbequius A Book of Geometrical Propositions demonstrated in the China Language Another fair one in the China Tongue with Pictures A noble old Greek Manuscript in great uncial Letters without stops points or distance of words An ancient Greek Manuscript of the Book of Genesis in large Letters without distance or accents thirteen hundred years ago wherein are Forty eight Pictures or Draughts in Miniature or Water colours much conducing to the knowledge of ancient Habits the manner of Feasting postures at Meals waiting of Servants and Musical Instruments Wherein I could not but take notice of the Golden Spot upon Josephs breast and the manner of the Execution of Pharaoh's Baker his Head being put through a forked piece of wood and his Hands tyed behind him A fair Book of Albert Durer wherein are many fine Paintings in Miniature or Limning as also a Sphere and within it a Globe carved and painted by him A fair Book of Michael Angelo wherein besides many rare things in Architecture are all the paintings and designs of the Belvedere in little A fair Alcoran in Arabick interlined with the Turkish to explain it The Bible in the Coptick and Persian Languages Luther's own Bible marked with his own Hand and interlined by him with Notes in many places A fair Greek Manuscript of the New Testament fifteen hundred years ago written in Letters of Gold upon Purple There was also a Magical Glass obtained by the Emperour Rodolphus whereby to see Apparitions and converse with Spirits which some conceive to be the same or of the like nature with that used by Kelly Of ancient Greek Roman and Gothick Medals and Coyns in Gold Silver and Copper to the number of sixteen thousand Among the Copper Coyns they pretend to have two of the Emperour Marcus Otho I let fall some Drops into this Ocean adding some Coyns Intaglia's and Inscriptions not to be found in that large work of Gruterus which having found in the Emperours furthest Dominions and Turkish parts long out of his possession where there had been no great enquiry after them were shewed unto his Imperial Majesty by Petrus Lambecius and so well accepted by him that he said I might have the use of what Books I desired and at my return into England he gave me a formal Pass in Latin for my safe Travel and that my Trunks or Goods might not be searched which takes off a great deal of trouble in passing so many Principalities and free Cities Commanding all in his own Dominions and Requesting all Princes in Germany to favour me and permit me to pass freely without molestation It was thus Subscribed Leopoldus Leopoldus Gulielmus Comes in Kinigseggs Ad mandatum Sacr. Caes Majestatis proprium Beüer The Rarities of the great Duke of Tuscany The Treasure of Loretto
was formerly a Monastery belonging to the Nuns of the Order of St. Clare and converted to this use 1595. They who are put in are forced to work and gain their Bread with hard labour I saw those who rasped Brazil having a certain task set them every day work so hard that being naked and in a sweat and the dust of the Brazil wood flying upon them they were all over painted of a beautiful red colour Which odd sight made me call to mind the Phansie of my Lady Marchioness of Newcastle of a Nation wherein the People were of Orange-tawny colour and the King of Purple They told us that some that were committed to their charge and not to be brought to work by blows they placed in a large Cistern and let the water in upon them placing only a Pump by them for their relief whereby they are forced to labour for their lives and to free themselves from drowning One we saw put into a narrow Dungeon and kept from meat Some are put into this House for a longer time some for a shorter It hath been a punishment for such as have drawn their Daggers or offered to stab any one And some Citizens though able and rich enough contrive it so that when their Sons are extravagant and masterless the Officers seize upon them and carry them into this House where they are not forced to any hard labour but kept in till they see sufficient signs of a mending their life This way of Correction may seem severe to many yet is not comparable to that which is said to have been formerly used in Germany Particularly at Colen in the white Tower at the North end of the Town near the Rhine where it is reported that such Youths who were not otherwise to be reclaimed were in a barbarous manner shut up in the white Tower The height and thickness of the walls secured them from escaping or from their complaints being heard Near the top was placed out of their reach a loaf of bread the last remedy against starving which while their bold necessity forced them to reach at they executed their last sentence upon themselves and miserably brake their own necks Somewhat like the Raspelhuis is the Spinhuis or House of Correction for the young women who live loosely are taken in the night or can give no account of their living They are put in for a certain time according as their fault meriteth and are bound to make lace sew or employ their time perpetually in some honest labour Those of the better sort are permitted to have Chambers apart In one large Room I saw about an hundred of them and some very well dressed and fine which was an unexpected sight to me and would sure be more strange to behold in France and England The Weeshuis or Hospital for Children where there are Six hundred Orphans carefully looked after and well educated The Dolhuis or a House for such as are Delirious Maniacal or Melancholical of both Sexes The Gasthuis or Hospital for the Sick being large and hath a great Revenue The Mannenhuis or Hospital for old Men and such as are no longer able to labour towards their own support Besides all which there are great Sums of mony collected for the poor so that there is not a Begger to be seen in the Streets and upon all assignations or appointments of meeting at the Tavern or elsewhere and upon many other occasions whosoever faileth to come at the exact time forfeiteth more or less to the use of the Poor The East-India-houses are remarkable and the great Stores of their Commodities Cinamon Green-ginger Camphire Pepper Calecuts Indico c. The ships are of a great burden their House was then enlarging although it was great before and a perfect Town for all Trades within it self The Admiralteyt or Admiralty where their Stores for War and Shipping are laid up is encompassed with water near to it there lay then 72 Men of War In the House we saw their Cables Grapling irons Pullies Oars Charges for Powder Lanthorns for ships c. At the entrance of the Gate hangeth up a Canoe with a man in it dryed up so as to be preserved from corruption and a Paddle in his hand he was enclosed up to the waste in the Canoe in such sort as the Fish-skins which were the cover to it being so sewed together that no water could get in he might keep the Sea in the greatest Storms without danger The top of this House as of divers others also in this City is a Reservatory for Rain-water which they have the more need of because they have little good water hereabouts The fairest Streets in the Town are Harlem-street the Cingel Princes Graft Kaisers Graft and the New Buildings in the Island towards Gottenburg And if they continue to build with Freestone they will still surpass these which I 'le assure you are in no small measure beautiful I saw a Globe to be sold made by Vingbomes between six and seven foot Diameter valued at Sixteen thousand Guldens The Meridian alone being of brass cost a thousand Guldens The Globe is made of Copper-plates excellently well painted with all the new Discoveries in it as that of Anthony Van Dimons Land found out 1642. in 42 degrees of Southern Latitude and 170 of Longitude those towards the Northwest of Japan and those places both about N. Z. and also in the Tartarian Sea beyond the Streights of Voygats New-Holland West-Friesland Cape d'Hyver c. but I have since met with a Book which doth somewhat contradict this entituled A Voyage into the Northern Countries by Monsieur Martiniere who went in one of the three ships belonging to the Northern Company of Copenhagen in the year 1653. and by that means had occasion to converse with the Norwegians Islanders Laplanders Kilops Borandians Siberians Zemblians and Samojedes who are Neighbours to the Tartars and Tingorses in his 46 Chapter he expresseth himself after this manner There having fallen into my hands several Geographical Charts of sundry eminent and much celebrated Authors I am much amazed to see how they are mistaken in the position of Zembla which they place much nearer the North Pole than really it is they divide it likewise by the Sea from Greenland and place it far distant from it when as indeed those two Countries are Contiguous the Coasts of Greenland butting upon the Coasts of Zembla so as did not the great quantity of Snow and the violence of the cold render those Borders uninhabitable the passage would be very easie by Land from Greenland to Zembla and from Zembla passing the Pater-noster Mountains to enter into Samojedia from thence into Tartary or Muscovy as one pleased But of the truth of this we shall be further informed at the return of Captain Wood. I was amazed likewise to see they had described the Streight called Voygat not above ten French Leagues in length whereas it contains above five and thirty Dutch Leagues which is
or Bingium was an old Roman Fortress upon the Rhine where the River Navus or Naw entreth into it over which latter there is a handsome Stone-bridge In this Town were many of the Duke of Lorrain's Army sick and wounded who three weeks before had maintained a fight against the Forces of the Elector Palatine near this place From Bing we continued our Journey to Mentz at Rudesheim in Rhinegaw a place noted for good Wine they shewed us a Boy whose hair was thick and woolly like to the African-Moors but of a fine white colour which being somewhat an odd sight I took away some of his hair with me Mentz Moguntia Moguntiacum and by the French Mayence is seated over against the Confluence of the River Main with the Rhine or rather a little below it in a fertile Country abounding in all Provisions and good Wine it lieth at length and is most extended towards the River and that part excelleth the other towards the Land which is not so populous or well-built It is a strong place and well guarded it hath many Churches and Monasteries and some fair Buildings especially those of publick concern as the Palace of the Elector and others But the narrowness of the Streets and many old Houses take away much from the beauty of the City It is an University begun about the year 1486. or as others will have it 1461. This place also challengeth the Invention of Printing or at least the first promotion or perfection thereof And the Territory about it is famous for the destruction of the Roman Legions under Varus by the Germans Gustaphus Adolphus King of Sweden was wonderfully pleased upon the taking of this City 1631. entring into it in State upon the 14th of December it being his Birth-day which began the 38th year of his life and kept his Court and Christmas here where at one time there were with him six chief Princes of the Empire twelve Ambassadours of Kings States Electors and Princes besides Dukes and Lords and the Martial men of his own Army At the taking of the Town they found great store of Ordnance and Powder and the City redeemed it self from Pillage by giving the King a Ransome of Eighty thousand Dollars and the Clergy and Jews gave Two and twenty thousand more of which the Jews paid Eighteen thousand Archbishop Wambold saving himself upon the Rhine and retiring to Colen The King caused also two great Bridges to be made one over the Main founded upon fifteen great flat bottom'd Boats the rest being built upon great Piles of Wood Another over the Rhine supported by sixty one great flat Boats each lying the distance of an Arch from one another and many Families of people living sometimes in the Boats under the Bridge The Bridge over the Main is taken away but that over the Rhine is still continued Upon which I saw the present Elector passing in his Coach a Person of great Gravity of a middle Stature having long grey Hair and was very Princely attended his Name Joannes Philippus of the Noble Family of Schoenburg Elector and Archbishop of Mentz Bishop of Wurtzburg and Bishop of Worms Arch-Chancellour of the Empire for all Germany the first of the Electoral Colledge in all publick Conventions he sits at the right hand of the Emperour and is a Successour of the famous Boniface an English man Bishop of Mentz who so much promoted the Christian Religion in these parts But though his Dignity and Place excelleth the two other Ecclesiastical Electors of Colen and Triers yet his Territories come short and they lye not together but scatteringly with those of the Palatinate Spier Franckfort and divers places in Franconia But of late he hath much encreased his Power by seizing the great City of Erfurdt in Turingia which he hath since much beautified and strengthned by a Citadel built upon St. Peters hill From Mentz I passed by water up the River Main to Franckfort a free City of the Empire called Trajectum Franconum a Passage or Ford of the Franks as serving them for a Retreat when they entred or returned from Gaul at present Franckford upon the Main to difference it from Franckford upon the River Oder which is an University It is a large Town divided into two parts by the River the lesser called Saxonhausen or Saxon-houses united to the other by a Stone-bridge over the Main of twelve or thirteen Arches It is a place of good Trade and well seated for it as having the advantage of the River Main which passeth by Bamberg Schweinfurt Wurtzburg Guemund or Gaudia mundi and also the Tauber and other Rivers running into it affordeth conveniency for Commerce with the remoter parts of Franconia and the Main running into the Rhine makes a large communication both up and down that Stream But this place is most remarkable for the Election of the Emperour which by the Laws of the Golden Bull should be in this City as also for two great Marts or Fairs kept in March and September at which times there is an extraordinary concourse of people from remote parts in order to buying and selling of several Commodities especially for Books as well printed here as in other parts whereof they afford two Catalogues every year and have no small dealings that way by the Factors of the Germans Hollanders Italians French and English although at other times their trading in Books seems not great for when I was there out of the time of the Mart the Stationers Shops being shut up made but a dull show Here are also a great number of good Horses bought and sold and on the North-side of the City there is a spacious place for a Horse-Fair The City is strong and well fortified and most part of the Town are Lutherans In the German wars the King of Sweden having taken Hanaw sent a Messenger to Franckfort to know whether the City would peaceably and speedily set open their Gates unto him and accept fairly of a Garrison or stand to the hazard of a Siege And although they were unwilling to yield yet for fear of the worst they consented That the King should have free passage for his Army through the City and that for the better assurance of it six hundred of his men should be received for a Garrison into Saxonhausen and also that the Magistrates and People should take an Oath unto his Majesty So that upon the 17th of November 1631. the King's Army passed through Saxonhausen over the Bridge quite through the Town Colonel Vitzthumb was left Governour in Saxonhausen and the King himself rode bare-headed through the Streets and by his obliging behaviour did generally win the affections of the beholders and three days after returned thither again with the Landtgrave of Hessen-Cassell and the Landtgrave of Hessen-Darmstadt where they met the Seventeen Earls of the Wetteraw or Veteravia and were feasted in the same room where the Emperours at their Coronation use to be entertained In Saxonhausen there is