called by an vsuall prouerbe The Barne or Granarie of Paris It hath no vineyards which defect some thinke is rather to be imputed to the sloth of the inhabitants than to the intemperature either of the soile or of the climate The cities here of principall note are Amiens in Latine Ambianum famous both for antiquitie and the Episcopall sea It is enuironed around with the riuer Somme Wherefore some fondly thinke it to be named Ambianum ab ambitu aquarum because it is compassed with waters It is one of the strongest townes in all France The vulgar suppose it to haue beene built by the souldiers of Alexander the great Vnder the diocesse of Amiens is Abbeuile the name whereof is new as appeareth by the deriuation which in Latine is Abbatis villa that is The Abbats towne for out of an Abbey it increased at length to the greatnesse and forme of a citie It is now the head citie of the county Ponthieu which region is so called à multitudine pontium of the multitude of bridges because it is in diuers places pestered with Marshes and Fennes Picquenie stands in this prouince also built as the common sort imagine by one Pignon a principall souldier of Alexander the great Likewise in Vermandois you haue the towne of S. Quintins which many suppose to haue beene Augusta Veromanduorum being the ancient seat of the Earles of Vermandois and the head of that region Peronne so often spoiled in warres who can be ignorant of Guise also seemes to be a Fort against Lutzenburgh Hence the Guisian familie deriue their name Other cities there be of lesse moment as Corbie Roye Nelle Hen Cattelette Mondidier c. In a little French pamphlet intitled Chemins de France or the wayes of France Picardy is diuided into three parts The Lower The Higher and Picardy properly so called wherein are contained the Regions of Vermandois Retelois Tartenois and Tirasse Picardy properly so called is described in this our Table PICARDIAE Belgicae regionis descriptio Joanne Surhonio auctore Cum Imp. et Reg. priualegio decenn 1579 PROVENCE THat portion of France which ancient Writers called Narbonensem and Bracchatam Caesar and Plinie doe comprehend vnder the name of Prouincia part whereof is conteined within the riuers Rosne and Durance the Alpes the riuer Varo and the Mediterran sea the inhabitants as yet call by the name of PROVENCE Petrarch writes it was sometimes called Regnum Arelatense The middle-age writers call it Prouinciam Viennensem tertiam It bordereth West vpon Languedoc North vpon Daulphine East it is confined by Piemont and South by the Mediterran sea and the Isles Stoechades This euer was and now is accounted the most fertile region of France for Strabo saith it yeelds all sorts of fruits that Italie affoordeth If we may credit Belleforest it beareth sugar about the towne of Yeres Manna is here gathered as the same authour affirmeth The principall cities of this prouince are Massilia commonly Marseille which was the ancient Ionica Colonia of the Phocaean Greeks being as Caesar 5. Ciuil reports compassed by the sea on three sides and on the fourth side hauing a passage to the land Strabo writes that the hauen is in forme of a Theater and that within compasse thereof they haue docks for the building and a storehouse for the furnishing of ships Here was a temple of the Ephesian Diana and another of Apollo Delphicus The citizens were treble-tongued speaking Greeke Latine and French as S. Ierome reporteth out of Varro Of this citie reade more largely in the 43. booke of Trogus Pompeius and in a Panegyricke speech vttered before Constantine the great by Anonymus or one vnnamed The citie Arelatum commonly Arles vpon the riuer of Rhosne which by Ausonius is named Arelas or Gallula Roma as likewise double Arelas because as learned Vinetus obserueth it was heretofore by the said riuer diuided in twaine Now it may well be called single Arelas looking of a farre other shape and all situate vpon that side of the riuer which is towards Italie This Ammianus makes the renowme of many cities And Suetonius saith that heere was a Romane colonie planted by Tiberius the Emperor his father Procopius affirmes that it was heretofore the head citie of the Burgundians Next followes Aquae Sextiae so called saith Strabo because that very Sextius which subdued Salyes built this citie after his owne name and after the name of certaine hot bathes in the same place Now it is corruptly called Aix These bathes Strabo in his time supposeth to haue turned colde and so Robert Caenalis at this present affirmeth that they haue lost their ancient vertue The Parliament of the whole prouince is here resident Of this citie Gabriel Simeonius writeth that he neuer saw either a more pleasant place or a more courteous people Then haue you the citie Cabellio now called Cauaillon Tarascon retaining still the ancient name Carpentoracte commonly Carpentras Vasio now Voiton the same with Forum Vocontiorum as some thinke Taurentum and Telo Martius which some now interpret to be Toulon Forum Iulij now Frejus Olbia which perhaps is Yeres Antipolis Antibe Segusteron Cisteron Vintium Venze Glanatica Glandeues Dinia Digne Tecolata thought to be S. Maximines Grinicensis Grasse All famous for antiquitie Moreouer here is the towne of S. Baume situate vpon a craggie hill in which is a caue where the inhabitants hold opinion that Mary Magdalen did penance and ended her dayes Likewise at the mouth of Rhosne the reader may see on the one side the field called La Craux and on the other side La Camargo This last named they say is miraculously fertile of wheat And Belleforest thinks it to be called Camargo à castris Marij of the campe of Marius here pitched Whereas the other named La Craux is out of measure barren yeelding nought but stones for which cause it is by ancient Writers most aptly called Campus Lapideus or The stonie field The isles adiacent to this prouince are the Stoechades dispersed as Pomponius writeth from the shore of Liguria or Genoa as farre as Marseille Plinie makes them three in number naming ech And Strabo saith there are three of importance and two small ones not worthy to be mentioned About these isles growes most excellent Corrall as Plinie witnesseth which Belleforest reporteth still to continue In commendation of this prouince Petrus Quinqueranus Bishop of Sens hath written a peculiar volume On this side the riuer Durance this Region bordereth vpon that part of the Popes iurisdiction which is commonly called Conte de Venacin in Latine Comitatus Venuxinus and Veneticus wherein stands the Citie and Vniuersitie of Auignon which in times past was the Papall sea namely from Pope Clement the fift in the yeere 1300. till Gregorie the second for the space of 60. yeeres Petrarch then called it The French and Westerne Babylon Besides other notable things in this citie seuen there are seuen times told right worthy the admiration namely seuen Palaces
well be deemed inuincible and the most puissant of nations As touching their bodies they are verie healthfull and want nothing Nor is there any nation that I know gouerned by better lawes Thus much and more concerning this people and countrey who list may reade in the same authour Deutschlanndt GERMANIAE TYPVS Per Franciscum Hogenbergium conciunatus Anno partae salutis M.D.LXXVI vbiorum Coloniae Cum Gratia et Priuilegio Magnifico Nobili ac Praecellentj viro ac Domino D. Constantino a Lÿskirchen florentissimae Agrippinensis Reipub. Confuli Seniori Franciscus Hogenbergius nuncupat GERMANIE on this side RHENE commonly called THE NETHERLANDS or THE LOW COVNTRIES THis Table representeth not all the Lower Germanie but only that part which King Philip sonne to Charles the fifth challenged by right of inheritance And it conteineth these 17. Prouinces the Dukedomes of Brabant Limburgh Lutzenburg and Guelders the Earledomes of Flanders Artois Henault Holland Zeland Namur Zutfen the Marquesat of the sacred Empire the Signiories of Frisland Mechlin Vtreight Ouerissell and Groemingen Regions as ciuill and as well manured as any in the world wherein according to Guicciardin are to the number of 208. cities fortified with walles rampiers or ditches and villages with churches aboue 6300 besides a great number of hamlets castles and forts And this tract beginning from the East maretine part at the riuer Amisus commonly Eems the bound hereof towards the Ocean hath these bordering Princes the Earle of East Friez the Bishop of Munster the Duke of Cleue the Archbishops of Colen and Triers and the French King along the Southwesterne shore as farre as the riuer Aa the extreame Westerne bound of these Prouinces The aire though it may seeme ouer-moist is notwithstanding most healthfull and agreeable to the constitution and digestion of the inhabitants who are heere very long liued especially in Kempenland the Northermost part of Brabant It is euery where watered with riuers and sufficiently adorned with woods and groues either for pastime of hunting or beautifull prospect Mountaines it hath none saue only about Lutzenburg Namur and in Henault where it riseth in some places into hilles It aboundeth with corne and fruits of all sorts and medicinable herbs Here also groweth great plentie of that graine which commonly is called Buckwey but the people corruptly pronounce it Bockwey as if you would say The Beech-herbe for the seed or graine albeit lesse in forme is three-square altogether like the nut of the Beech. So as it may truely be called Beech-mast or if you will 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Whether this simple were knowen of ancient times let Herbalists enquire Howbeit in some sandie places which the inhabitants in regard of abundance of heath or linge call Heath-ground as in Kempenland the North part of Brabant it growes not in such plentie But this kinde of heath yeeldes such excellent feed for cattell as by the confession of neighbour-countries their flesh is as pleasant and delectable to a mans taste as any other This region I suppose that Plinie in his 17. booke and 4. chapter most truely describeth when he saith What better feed than the pastures of Germanie And yet vnder a thin flag you haue immediatly a mould of barren sand It breedeth no creatures hurtfull to mankinde All the foresaid regions the greatest part of strangers most ignorantly mistaking part for the whole call by the name of Flanders and the inhabitants Flemings whereas Flanders is but a part only and but one Prouince of the seuenteene as in the Table you may plainly see These therefore are in as great an error as if a man to signifie Spaine should name Castilia Andaluzia or any other particular Prouince or speaking of Italie should mention Tuscan or Calabria c. or discoursing of the whole kingdome of France should nominate only Normandy or Bretaigne c. and so should imagine himselfe to haue spoken of all Spaine all Italie or all France These regions Iohn Goropius Becanus in his Becceselanis hath most learnedly described as likewise Peter Diuaeus of Louaine and Hubert Thomas of Liege Iohannes Caluetus Stella a Spaniard writ in his owne language a Iournall of King Philips progresse thorow all these Prouinces wherein you shall finde many particulars worth the reading that giue great light to the knowledge of these countries and cities But whoso desires to haue more full and absolute instructions of these places let him peruse Guicciardin and he will then thinke that he hath not read of these Prouinces but seene them with his eyes Lately also Dauid Chitraeus in his Saxon historie hath written both largely and learnedly of the same argument Whereas the inhabitants in most places speake both the Dutch and French languages and the countrey for traffique and other occasions is frequented by Spaniards and strangers of sundry nations hence it is that diuers cities townes and riuers are called by more names than one for euery man calles them according to his owne language by a name much differing from the proper name vsed by the inhabitants The ignorance of which multiplicitie of names hath made some authours otherwise not to be discommended to fall into intolerable errours and amongst the residue Dominicus Niger in his Geographie who puts downe Anuersa in stead of Tarauanna and Antorpia which notwithstanding in the copie printed by Henrick Peterson he corruptly calles Antropicia he placeth vpon the banke of Tabuda thirty leagues from Tarauanna whereas all men know that Antorpia and Anuersa signifie one and the same citie of Antwerpe Likewise Machelen and Malines Leodium and Liege Nouiomagum and Nieumeghen Traiectum on the Maese and Trait for which he falsly writes Trecia he supposeth to be two seuerall townes ech couple whereas in very deed they signifie but one The citie Raremutium also he most grosly affirmeth to be called Liege and in another place he will needs haue the same Raremutium to be named Rhamon but by his description I coniecture that he meanes by his Raremutium and Rhamon nothing els but the towne of Ruermond So Rhenen a citie of Guelders standing on the banke of the riuer Rhene in regard of the affinitie of name he takes to be all one with the Bishopricke of Rhemes in the Prouince of Champaigne in France But being vtterly vnacquainted with the state of our countries his errors may seeme the more pardonable Howbeit lest others studious in Geography should fall into the like absurdities I thought good to annex vnto this page the coÌ„mon synonymas or sundry names of certaine particular places Antwerpen in Low Dutch in Latine Antuerpia and Andouerpia in High Dutch Antorff whereof in Latine they call it also Antorpia the Italians terme it Anuersa the Spaniards and French men Enberes and Anuers Aken in Dutch in French Aix and in Latine Aquisgranum Hertoghenbosche in Frâ—â—ch Boissedue and in Latine Silua ducalu Loeuen in Latine called Lâ—uanium and in French Louuain Lisle in High Dutch Kijsel in Latine Insula Liege in
Hamelen concerning which the learned and famous Physitian D. Arnold Fretaghius wrote to me in a letter the story ensuing his words be these I chanced of late to light vpon a Saxon and a Chronicler of Saxonie He reports that 130. yeres ago the citie of Hamelen vnder the iurisdiction of Duke Ericus being exceedingly pestered with mice there came a iugler that offered his seruice to the townes-men to driue them away this offer was most acceptable vnto them because they could keepe nothing in safetie from those mischieuous vermine Being agreed with the townes-men by the sound of a bell he drawes all the mice out of the citie Then he demandeth his promised hire They denie it him Well in a great rage he departs the citie and within a yeere after returneth and sounding the same bell which before he had vsed to coniure the mice he drew after him vnto an hill not farre off a great number of the citizens children whither being come both they and he immediatly vanished A girle of the company either for wearinesse or by Gods appointment stayeth a good distance behinde who returning home and being asked what she saw makes report that her fellowes were gone vp the hill with the iugler Then euery man runnes to seeke his childe but in vaine for from that time forward they could neuer know what was become of them Hauing read this I iudged it either to be a fable or as it is in very deed a most wonderfull and strange narration Discoursing therefore with certaine citizens of this place I made mention heereof They all affirmed it to be true and sayd that the yeere the day and the number of children that were lost was registred in the records of the citie of Hamelen and it is yet a custome among them in their bonds and couenants which they write in an ancient hand to vse this forme or clause of speech Don onser kinder ausgangh that is to say From the departure of our children And they say that the way or street thorow which they were led for the perpetuall memorie of their mishap was called by the inhabitants Die Bungloese straess and that it is not lawfull thereto ring a bell If you haue perhaps read this storie heretofore I doe now call it to your remembrance If you know any thing that may stand me in stead I pray you impart it as leasure and occasion shall serue Fare you well and loue your Fretaghius From Groenninghen the ninth of Nouember 1580. A description of the territory of NVRENBERG OVt of Pighius his Hercules Prodicius I haue thought good to set downe the originall and description of this place his words be these When the barbarous Hunnes ouerran a great part of Europe and oppressed also the people Norici inhabiting Bauaria certaine principall families of them for shelter and refuge fled vnto the forrest Hercynia planting themselues in a commodious place by the riuers of Pegnitz and Regnitz and so vpon an hill by nature strongly situate and free from hostile incursions they built them a rude and homely castle as the Chronicles of Bauaria doe beare record Within a while their number was increased by the neighbour-husbandmen and the shepheards of the forrest Hercynia and so of a medley of diuers sorts and professions of people they grew at last to the bignesse of a towne But giuing themselues to a base and dissolute kinde of life without gouernours without lawes and continually molesting the neighbour Prouinces with riots and robberies it seemed good to the German Emperours to send thither a colonie of olde souldiers which might serue in stead of a garison for the place to bridle their outrages and to prescribe vnto them lawes of ciuilitie Some report that Henry of Bauaria first brought it into the forme of a citie adorned it with the church of S. Giles enacted lawes and enuironed the castle with a larger wall Also that Conradus the second ioined it to the Empire for at the beginning it was a popular estate One onely ciuill discord in the time of Charles the fourth changed it into an Aristocratia or gouernment of a few principall persons by which meanes the whole authoritie came into the hands of the Senatours who euer since haue vsed such equitie and moderation in their gouernment as there hath not at any time in so great a multitude of common people and diuersitie of nations growen any notable sedition or pernitious mutinie In the citie there are three degrees of people that is to say Senatours Merchants and Artizans Ancient and honourable families there are 28. out of which alwayes are supplied new Senatours who all of them are six and twentie in number Thirteene of these called Burgomasters doe consult of matters of Estate and the other thirteene they call Scabins who being alwayes assisted by three stipendarie lawyers doe vpon Court and Leet dayes execute iustice and decide controuersies among the citizens It is forbidden by their ancient lawes S.W. Herberts opinion confirmed that any professed lawyer or any that beares the title of a Doctour should be admitted to their senate or to the gouernment of their Common wealth Out of either of the said halfes or thirteenes they chuse euery Lunar moneth or new moone a new Consull so that euery yeere the chiefe magistracie falles by turnes for the space of a moneth to euery man of both the foresaid thirteenes Fiue there are of the same company that in criminall causes do make inquiry giue sentence and allot punishment to malefactours They haue likewise a Iudge or President for their suburbs who executes iustice among the pesants and villageois Out of the same company also they yerely elect two Treasurers men of sufficient yeeres credit and honesty who take charge of the customes and reuenues of the whole citie and haue the receit and disbursing of the same All the said magistrates and others that haue any authoritie are chosen only out of the foresaid number of Senatours Two hundred there are yeerely nominated out of the three Estates and the whole citie who once a yeere or vpon any vrgent occasion being assembled by the magistrates do sit in common counsell The State or company of merchants albeit very great and honourable are freed notwithstanding from all publike offices and endowed with most ample priuileges wherefore following their priuate traffike they do in this citie as in a common ware-house hoord vp the riches not only of Europe but of the most remote countries and islands in the world The labourers and artizans which are the last and meanest degree are suffered to haue no conuenticles nor meetings priuate or publike in the citie no solemne banquets nor festiuall assemblies of many together vnlesse it be for a matter of religion or some great funerall for they hold it a thing pernicious to the publike tranquillitie hauing found by often experience that most dangerous factions and seditions haue growen of such popular meetings where people in their drunkennesse
mother a Bohemian neece to Duke Wenceslaus by the brothers side A sonne of his called Mieslaus in the yeere 1001. was married to Rixa daughter of Erenfrid County Palantine neece to the Emperour Otho the third by his sister Melchitis and this man was the first that receiued the kingly diademe from Otho the third But after his decease the Polonians hauing by sedition expelled out of their kingdome the Emperours niece and his sonne Casimire Conradus the Emperour reseruing to himselfe a certaine tribute annexed Silesia to the crowne of Bohemia This Emperour was an Vratislauian borne and perhaps gaue the name of Vratislauia to his natiue citie which is now commonly called Breslaw But hereof I cannot certainly affirme ought This one thing is not to be doubted that the Silesians had no affection towards the Polonians whenas by the practise and industry of Iohn the first king of Bohemia father to the Emperour Charles the fourth they vnited themselues to the Bohemians Some there are by what authority or opinion I know not which affirme that in the same place where Breslaw now stands was built in times past by a Prince called Liguis the city of Budurgis mentioned in Ptolemey For it is apparent out of histories that Mieslaus Duke of Poland who was first created King by the Emperour Otho the third and in the yeere 965. embraced Christianitie did anno 1048. erect a woodden church or chapel to the honour of S. Iohn Baptist Whereby you may gather that in those dayes there was no great matter of building at Breslaw Moreouer Gotefridus the first Prelate of that church being an Italian preferred the village of Smogra before the citie of Breslaw hauing there his Schole and College Likewise about this time it is thought that the foundations of other the principall cities of Silesia namely of Lignitz Glogaw Luben c. were layd for out of monuments and Annales no certainty can be gathered whenas the ancientest writings in all Silesia are the letters of the Emperour Frederick the second which were written in the yeere 1200. all the residue being consumed and lost either by fires or inuasions which haue beene very terrible in these parts But by the good indeuour of Frederick Barbarossa Silesia was both pacified and so distributed among the sonnes of Vladislaus king of Poland that it seemed not altogether to be dismembred from that crowne But when the Polonians perceiued that Silesia grew full of Germans and that the Princes began to fauour them reiecting the lawfull heires they aduanced to the kingdome of Silesia one Vladislaus Locticus a cruell enemy to the Germans This was the occasion that they betooke themselues to the protection of Iohn king of Bohemia who being sonne to the Emperour Henry the seuenth married the daughter of Wenceslaus king of Bohemia and was inuested into the kingdome 1302. Wherefore after the decease of this Iohn of Lucelberg Silesia was subiect to twelue Bohemian kings one after another six whereof were Emperours one a Bohemian another an Hungarian fiue of the house of Austria two Polacks but descended from Austria by the mothers side Of the Polonian race remained as yet in Silesia the Princes of Lignitz and Teschnitz for those of Munsterberg deriue their pedegree from George king of Bohemia Vratislauia the head-city of Silesia being burnt to ashes in the yere 1341 began then so stately to be built of stone as at this present both for order and beauty of houses and largenesse of streets it is little inferiour to any of the cities in Germanie Concerning other more true ornaments of a Common-wealth I shall not need to speake seeing it is manifest to all Germanie that scarse in any other region there are to be found so many Schooles such numbers of learned Professours and of excellent wits It beseemes me not to speake too gloriously of my countreymen yet thus much I may boldly say that there is almost no Princes court nor any famous common-wealth where the vertue and learning of the Silesians findes not entertainment The gentlemen likewise albeit addicted to tillage and good husbandry yet are they so warlike withall that no indifferent Iudges can deny but that by their valour the remainder of Hungarie is defended It is a region very fruitfull of corne especially in one place aboue the rest which is most carefully manured by our people It aboundeth with fish-pooles The famous riuer Odera confineth it East and North and South it is diuided from Bohemia by Sudetes But the situation best appeareth in the Map Of Silesia you haue somewhat written by Aeneas Syluius and by others which are ignorant of the countrey But Laurentius Coruinus could haue brought more certainties to light had not the age wherein he liued been fatally ouerwhelmed in ignorance Thus much Iohn Crato concerning his natiue countrey Silesia It containeth twelue Dukedomes one Bishoprick the Bishop whereof hath his residence at Neisse and sometimes at Breslaw for there is a Cathedrall church and a College of Canons Heere are foure Baronies also In this region about Striga and Lignitz is found a kinde of medicinable earth commonly called Terra sigillata like that of Lemnus and of equall force some quantitie whereof Iacobus Manouius Citizen and Senatour of Breslaw hath often bestowed vpon me The Chronicles of Silesia were of late written by Ioachimus Curius wherein he hath so curiously described the situation and the antiquity of their townes and cities the gouernment of their state and their memorable acts that the studious may here finde an absolute history I am informed by Iacobus Monauius that Francis Faber hath described it in verse also SILESIAE TYPVS A Martino Helwigio Nissense descriptus et Nobili doctoque viro Domino Nicolao Rhedingero ded MORAVIA MORAVIA is thus described by Ioannes Dubrauius in his Bohemian story Morauia was called of olde Marcomania because it confined vpon Germany at that place where Dariubius entreth Hungary For Mark in high Dutch signifies a limit or confine and thereupon Marcomanni are such as inhabit the borders of a countrey Concerning these people Arrianus in his relation of Germany the farthest of these nations saith he are the Quadi and Marcomanni then the Iazyges a people of Sarmatia after the Getes and lastly a great part of the Sarmatians Howbeit at this present because it is bounded by the riuer Mora from the same riuer the inhabitants are called Moraui and the countrey Morauia On three sides as it now stands it is diuided by mountaines woods forests or riuers on the East from Hungary West from Bohemia and North from Silesia for on the South part towards Austria it is plaine being some where separated therefrom by the riuer Thaysa and in other places by another obscure riuer The principall riuer in Morauia is Mora which enuironeth the chiefe city called Olmuntz and from thence running into Hungary dischargeth himselfe with his tributary streames into the chanell of Danubius For Mora receiuing into his bosome the riuer
and engins both for offence and defence against the assault of Pirates The village is inhabited almost of none els but Cooks Ostlers Shoemakers and such like fellowes which attend heere ready to do any businesse for such as resort hither almost all the yeare long in great numbers for deuotion and to prouide and serue them with such things as they want Heere is also the town and castle called Fabriano whose inhabitants do almost altogether liue by making of Paper which thereof is called Charta Fabriana There are also many other goodly towns in this prouince which are excellently described in Leander Franciscus Pamphilus hath also written in verse a description of this Shire The Mount Apennine in this place hangeth ouer this country with craggy topps exceeding high in which is that huge caue that they call Sibyllas caue in their language Grotta de la Sibylla and which the poets faine to be the Elysian fields For the common people do dreame of one Sibylla to be in this caue which heere possesseth a large kingdome full of gorgeous buildings and Princely palaces beset with pleasant gardens abounding with many fine wanton wenches and all maner of pleasures and delights all which she will bestow vpon them which through this caue which is alwaies open will go vnto her and after they haue been there the space of one whole yeare they haue free liberty giuen them by Sibylla if they please to depart and from that time being returned vnto vs they affirme that they liue for the rest of their time a most blessed and happy life This caue is knowne also to our countrie-men by the name of Vrow Venus bergh that is The Lady Venus mount Whereupon they vulgarly sing certaine Dutch rimes of one little Daniel for so the ballad calleth him who after that he had liued a whole yeare in this caue at last it repented him of this kind of life therefore heere he leauing his Loue departeth goeth to Rome commeth to the Pope confesseth his sinne and desireth to be absolued The Pope not deeming the sinne to be veniall the staffe which by chance he had in his hand withered and drie sticking it into the ground said that his sinnes should then be pardoned when this staffe shall beare Roses Daniel by this answeare despairing of his saluation went away very heauy and discontent and presently taking two of his nephewes his sisters sonnes with him returneth againe vnto his Paramour Within three daies after the staffe was obserued to put forth blossomes Daniel was sought for vp and down but could no where be found For they do beleeue that he spent the rest of his life in this caue But the story of this ballade is a worthy matter for a poeticall head and to be deemed as true as the rest of their fictions CORSICA CORSICA an Iland of the Mid-land sea was anciently inhabited of diuers nations At this day it is diuided into two parts The East part they call Banda di dentro The inner side the West part opposite to this Banda di fuori The outter side That end which is next to Italie Di qua da i Monti On this side the mountaines That next to Sardinia Di la da i Monti beyond the Mountaines Yet the people of what part soeuer in respect of the situation of the mountaines do call one another Tramontanesse but himselfe Cismontanum The iland is very hard to be entered or come vnto as being on all sides enclosed with steepe and high hilles The inner part is almost wholly mountainous and therefore is no very good corne ground yet is it highly commended for rich wine being transported to Rome of the place is called Vinum Corsicum It breedeth Horses of great stomacke and Hounds of extraordinary bignesse Heere iâ— as Plinie affirmeth the beast Musino a kind of ramme which in the steed of wooll beareth an hairie shagge like the goate now they call it Mofoli Strabo speaketh of this beast in Sardinia as if it were proper to that iland The Italians do account the inhabitants of this I le for valiant and stout souldiers Ancient writers haue affirmed that heere is found a kind of bitter Hony The Tyrrheni first possessed this Iland and afterward the Carthaginians from these the Romanes tooke it who held it vntill such time as the Saracens draue them out these the Genowaies at length expelled Then being taken by the citizens of Pisa it became subiect to the Bishops Lastly it was brought againe vnder the obedience of the Genowaies to whom at this day it doth belong Leander Alhertus hath so exactly described this Iland out of the Commentaries of Augustine Iustinian that a man may not easily find what moreouer may be added or desired SENENSIS DITIONIS ACCVRATA DESCRIP Cum Priuilegio CORSICA MARCHA ANCONAE OLIM PICENVM 1572. APRVTIVM now called ABRVZZO IN the kingdome of Naples there is a prouince which they call Abruzzo the Latines anciently named it Aprutium why it was so called as it is vncertaine so that it tooke not his name of the Brutij as some haue been of opinion I make no question Some there are which thinke it so named ab Apris of Bores for that the country being foresty and full of woods it swarmeth with wild hogges other some do deriue it ab asperitate montis Apenini from the cragginesse of the mount Apeninus which heere in this tract is very hideous steep and high The greater and better sort of writers do beleeue that in it some part of the ancient name of Praetutiana doth as yet remaine For Volaterranus Blondus Domi. Niger Leander and Scipio Mazella do perswade themselues that the Samnites and amongst them the Praetutiani the Peligni Marucini Ferentini Vestini Marsi Caraceni and Albenses haue formerly inhabited these places It is bounded at this day on the North side by the Hadriaticke sea on the West by the riuer Tronto anciently called Truentum on the East by Fortoro in old time named Frento vpon the South it hath the mount Apenine although in some places it stretcheth it selfe beyond the same This prouince Alphonsus the stout king of Arragon diuided into two parts Abruzzo the neather and Abruzzo the higher Abruzzo the higher which we haue described apart by it selfe is seuered from the Neather by the riuer Pescara which old writers called Aternus Scipio Mazella in his curious description of the kingdome of Naples affirmeth that this country is by situation and nature of the place very strong and inhabited by a stout and sturdy nation and the soile is very fertile of wines and cattell The chiefe cities of it are Aquila Interamna or Teramo Amatrice Atri Pinne and long since heere haue stoode Amiterno and Furconio both now defaced yet of their ruines and ashes is raised Aquila some fiue miles off built vpon the toppe of an hill as Volateran and others haue written This city is seated in a place most fertile of all maner of things necessary so
map hath shewed abundantly who in it doth reckon vp beside the 18. naturall bathes which others haue written of 35. other first discouered by himselfe The same author also beside these baths doth make mention of 19. stoues or hot houses fumarolas they call them and 5. medicinall sands soueraigne in Physick for the drying vp of raw humours Of this fire heere in the bowels of the earth Aristotle in his booke of the Miracles of Nature affirmeth that heere are certaine stoues which do burne with fierie kind of force and exceeding feruent heate and yet neuer do burst out into flames But Elysius Pandulphus and Pontanus do report the contrary There is a place in this Iland Ischia about a mile from the city of the same name which of the raging fire that happened heere in the time of Charles II in the yeare 1301. is at this day called Cremate For heere the bowels of the earth cleauing in sunder by the flashing fire that flamed out a great part of it was so consumed that a small village being first burnt down was at the last vtterly swallowed vp And casting vp into the aire huge stones intermedled with smoke fire and dust which falling againe by their own force and violence scattered heere and there vpon the ground made a most fertile and pleasant iland wast and desolate This fire continued the space of two moneths so that many both men and beasts were by it destroied and many shipping themselues their goods forced to flie either to the ilands neere adioining or to the maine continent Yet this iland for many things is very fruitfull for in it there are excellent good wines and those of diuerse kinds as that which they call Greeks wine Latine Sorbinio and Cauda caballi It beareth good corn about S. Nicolas mount In it the Cedar the pomecitron and the Quince tree do grow euery where most plentifully Alume and Brimstone are found deep within the earth it hath had long since some veines of gold as Strabo and Elysius haue written and now hath as Iasolinus affirmeth About the hill commonly called Monte Ligoro there is great store of phesants hares conies and other wild beasts neere the cape of S. Nicolas they take much fish and withall find much Corall Not farre from thence is the hauen Ficus or Fichera where the water boileth so hot that in it flesh or fish are sodden in a short time and yet notwithstanding it is of a pleasant tast and very sauory There is a fountaine which they call Nitroli in which this is admirable that besides his great vertues for the cure of certaine diseases if you shall lay flax in it within three daies at the most it will make it as white as snow Whereupon the authour of this Table saith that this I le for bignesse good aire fertility of soile mines of mettall strong wines doth far surpasse the other 25. ilands which are in the bay of Naples Betweene the foreland called Acus the needle and that other named Cephalino there is a great caue or safe harborough for ships especially for pinnaces those lesser sorts of ships Heere it is like that Aeneas landed of which Ouid speaketh as also Pompey when as he sailed from Sicilia to Puteoli whereof Appian writeth in his 5. booke of Ciuill wars In this same Iland ouer against Cumae there is a lake in which there is continually great plenty of Sea-mews or Fenducks Larus or Fulica these are very gainfull and profitable to the inhabitants The words of Pliny speaking of this iland are worth the noting In the same saith he a whole town did sinke and at another time by an earthquake the firme land became a standing poole stagnum he calleth it although that the ancient printed copies for stagnum haue statinas in which place the learned Scaliger had rather read statiuas meaning standing waters The same Pliny hath left in record that if one heere shall cut down a Cedar tree yet it will shoot forth and bud againe Liuy saith that the Chalcidenses of Euboea did first inhabit this iland yet Strabo saith they were the Eretrienses But these also came from the I le Euboea I am of opinion that Athenaeus in his 9 booke although he nameth it not yet he meaneth this iland which he affirmeth he saw as he sailed from Dicaearchia vnto Naples inhabited by a few men but full of copies There is also neere vnto this Prochyta an iland so named not of Aeneas his nurse but because it was profusa ab Aenaria seuered from Aenaria or as Strabo in his 5. booke affirmeth from Pithecusae Notwithstanding in his I. booke he writeth that it was sundered from Miseno yet both may be true for aswell this as that by inundations and tempestuous storms were rent off from the maine land The poets same that Minas the giant lieth vnder this Iland as Typhon doth vnder Ischia Of which Horace in his 3. booke of Poems writeth to Calliope Andreas Baccius writeth thus of this ile It is a little ile saith he but very pleasant rich of mettals and hot bathes notwithstanding for the continuall fires which the continuall tides of the sea do kindle in it as Strabo writeth it neuer was much inhabited It retaineth still the ancient name for they now call it Procida Of this iland you may read more in Scipio Mazella in his additions vnto the tract of Elysius of the Bathes of Puteoli ISCHIA quae olim AENARIA Ab Aeneae classe hic appulsa sic nominata Nè mireris lector si Septentrionalem plagam non superiorem ut moris est sed contra inferiorem regionem spectare videas Id namque data opera fecimus Quo utilior magis necessaria atque amoenior Insulae pars verusque eius Situs in conspectu Caietae Cumarum Prochytae Baiarum Puteolorum et Neapolis obviam iret Omnia autem haec constant ratione Circini semper indubitata exceptis Mediterraneis locis circumvicinis Insulis Montium aliquot atque crematorum lapidum quantitatibus Quae tum situs tum ornatus perspectivae gratia ponuntur IVLIVS IASOLINVS DESCRIB CANDIA sometime called CRETA CReta which now they call Candia is bigger then Cyprus but lesser then Sicilia or Sardinia vnto which ilands only in the Mediterran sea it is inferiour Yet for worth and fertility it is equall to the best Ancient Historiographers do affirme that once it was famous for one hundred cities and therefore was called Hecatompolis In the time of Pliny it had not aboue forty At this day as P. Bellonius testifieth it hath not aboue three of any account that is Candy a colonie of the Venetians whereof the whole iland is now named Canea and Rhetimo The compasse of the iland is about 520. miles It is euery where full of mountaines and hils and therefore the inhabitants are much giuen to hunting There is in it neuer a riuer that is nauigable nor any venemous or hurtfull beast The excellent
that this is but a meere fable Moreouer Frisach a very ancient towne S. Lionhart Wolfsperg c. are townes also of this country In former times the Iapydes were thought to haue dwelt heere abouts The soueraignty and secular iurisdiction of this country doth belong vnto the Dukes of Austrich but as concerning Ecclesiasticall iurisdiction it partly belongeth to the Bishop of Salczburg and partly to the Patriarch of Aquileia as Paracelsus affirmeth in his forecited Chronicle But in the same place he hath a most ridiculous etymologie of the name of this prouince which he faineth to be fetched from the Latines namely that it should be named Carinthia as who would say Caritas intima Intire loue and affection As if the first inhabitants who seated themselues heere should haue been desirous to haue their country named by a name fetcht from a forrein nation and strange language not vnderstood of them The Reader not satisfied with this heere set downe by vs let him haue recourse vnto Sebastian Munster Sabellicus Pio II. c. I vnderstand also that one Iohn Saluian hath surueied this country whose description as yet I haue not seene Goritiae palatinatus The county palatine of Gorcz belonging to the Duke of Austrich is so named of Goercz the chiefe city of this country called of the Italians for it standeth in Italie beyond the Alpes Goricia of Ptolemey Iulium Carnicum as Leander thinketh Amasaeus as the same Leander saith gathereth by diuers antiquities heere found and remaining that Noteia sometime was seated heere about It is a towne situate at the mouth of the riuer Wipach formerly called Fluuius frigidus I meane where Wipach falleth into the riuer Natiso HISTRIA or ISTEREICH IT is almost a common thing generally as Pliny saith in his naturall historie that euery man describeth best and most curiously that country in which he was borne and brought vp And within a few lines after the same authour saith thus I will follow no one man altogether but as I shall find him in all points to speake most probably and consonant to the truth And therefore heere in this place the which I do almost euery where in these discourses vpon my Maps I haue determined amongst many others that haue described this prouince to offer to the view of the Reader a great description according to the capacity of the place of Lewis Verger that country man borne This man in the Cosmography of Munster saith that this Neckland or Demi-ile from the inner bay where Trieste now standeth hard vpon the shore vnto the S. Veit a towne situate in Fanatico vpon the riuer Fiume conteineth in length better then 200. miles The whole country is not very leuell and plaine yet the mountaines are neither very high steep nor barren but plentifully replenished with vines oliues and other fruit-trees corne pastures and cattell only in that part which bendeth toward the bay Golfo di Quernero sometime called Flanatico or Fanatico it hath a very high mountaine which they commonly call Monte maior This first presenteth it selfe to the eie of the seamen which saile hitherward in whose toppe there ariseth a very goodly spring of fresh-water It yeeldeth many rare hearbs and plants of singular vertues which do make Physitions farre dwellers from hence to resort hither in time of the yeare and with great toile and danger to clamber vp the same The riuers of Histria are three Fornio Naupertus and Arsia the first the country people call Risano the second Quieto the last Arsa which falleth into the bay Quernero or Fanatico and is now the vtmost bound of Italie The cities of Histria are Mugia Iustinopolis Isola Pitano or Piran as I thinke it is named in the mappe Pumago Hemonia Parenzo Osara Rubino Pola S. Veit all of them marine cities Pinguento Montana Portulae Grisignana Bullae S. Lorenzo Doi castelli S. Vincenzo Val Adignano Pamerano Albona Fianonae Petina Galigagna Coslaco and Pisino are vpland cities The most famous city of this whole country is Iustinopolis which they commonly call Capo d' Istria the head of Histria Pliny nameth it Aegida it standeth vpon a rocke in the sea farre remote from the continent vnto which it is ioined by a long bridge This city with many other is subiect vnto the Venetians the rest are vnder the gouernment of the Duke of Austrich c. Beside the ancient Geographers read also Leander Volaterran and Dom. Niger Cassiodore in his 12. booke Variar hath much of this prouince ZARA and SEBENICO ZARA we thinke sometime to haue been called Iadera and others do affirme that his territories anciently was called Liburnia SEBENICO is that which old writers called Sicum Both are marine cities situate vpon the Hadriaticke sea vnder the iurisdiction of the Venetians In that place where in this our mappe thou seest certaine ruines of old decaied buildings Dominicus Niger saith sometime did stand the city Essesia which now lieth leuell with the ground and the place at this day is called Beribir where Epigrammes in Latine and Greeke with many other monuments of antiquity are yet to be seen The authour of this mappe whose name we know not calleth the same Bergine Of this part of Illyria read the same Dom. Niger his sixth booke of Geography M. S. Cornelius Scepper sometime Embassadour of Ferdinand Emperour of Rome vnto Soliman the great Turke in his Iournall hath these wordes At Zara we saw the church of S. Io. de Maluasia so named for that the sailours of a hoy laden with Malmesy being in foule weather in danger of shipwracke vowed that if they escaped safe to land they would build a church whose mortar should be tempered with malmesy which was accordingly performed CARINTHIAE DVCATVS ET GORITIAE PALATINATVS WOLF LAZIO auctore Histriae tabula Petro Coppo descr ZARAE ET SEBENICI DESCRIPTIO HVNGARY HVngaria which it is certaine was so named of the Hunni or Hungari a people come out of Scythia which now inhabit it conteineth almost both the Pannonies the countries of the Iaziges and the Daci now comprehending Transsyluania VValachria and Moldauia On the South it beginneth at the riuer Dra on the North it is bounded by Sarmatia Europaea now called Polonia and Getia at this day named VValagria on the West it hath Austrich sometime the head of the Higher Pannonia vpon the East it is confined with Mysia which at this day they call Rhetia Donaw Danubius of all the riuers of Europe by farre the greatest runneth through the middest of it and so diuideth it into two parts the Heather and the Farder The HEATHER HVNGARIA is that which formerly were the Pannonies the Vpper and Neather this is seuered from the further Hungaria by the riuer Dra from Austrich and Bayern by the foote of the mount Caecius from Slauonia by Dra from Bosna and Rascia by Saw The head and chiefe cities of this part is Buda often they call it the imperiall seat of their kings Other townes of great account
the Portugals still called Cussij of Cush I make no question The people are blacke or of a deep tawny or blackish colour and blacke we say in our common prouerbe will take none other hue Whereupon the Prophet Ieremy in the 23. verse of the 13. chapter of his prophecy saith thus Can ישוכ Cushi the Abyssine or Blacka-moore change his skinne or the leopard his spots For the same reason also the learned Diuines do iudge that Dauid in the title or superscription of the seuenth Psalme by Cush did meane Saul for that his deadly hate was such toward him that by no good meanes that he might vse he could make him change his mind more than an Indian doth his skinne as Kimchi the great Rabbine doth interpret this place The people are by profession Christians as appeareth by the letters of the said Dauid written vnto Pope Clement the seuenth Of whose manner of life customes and religion we haue gathered these few lines out of the trauels of Francis Aluares written and imprinted in the Italian tongue In these countries there are very many Monasteries and Religious houses both of men and women Into the Monasteries of the men there is neither woman nor any liuing creature of the female sex that may enter or once looke within the gates Their Monkes which heere do hold their Lent for fifty daies together do fast for the most part only with bread and water For in these countries there is small store of fish especially in the vpland places for although the riuers are well stored of fish yet they giue not their mind to fishing because they know not how to catch them there is none skilled in that art In time of Lent certaine of these Monkes do not eat any bread at all only they liue vpon rootes and herbs some of them for all that time do neuer go to bed nor sleepe but as they sit in the water vp to the chinne In their Churches they haue bels as we haue but for the most part made of stone Their Ministers and Priests are married They say Masse and do go in procession with crosses and censers like as they vse in some Churches in Europe The Friars do weare their haire long but their Priests do not so neither of them weare any shoes nor any man neither Churchman nor Layman may once enter within the Church dores with shoes on his feet They keep Sundaies and Holy-daies vpon which they do no manner of worke They are all circumcised both men and women but they are also baptised in the name of the Father and of the Sonne and of the Holy Ghost yet not vntill the fortith day after their birth they which liue not till this day are buried vnchristened to all those that are baptized the holy communion or Eucharist as they call it is at the same instant administred powring a great deale of water into the childes mouth that he may so much the more easily get it downe The proper names which then are giuen them are all of some signification They affirme that they were conuerted vnto Christian religion by Candaces a Queen of this country spoken of in the 27. verse of the 8. chapter of the Acts of the Apostles whose proper name they thinke was Iudith They haue a booke diuided into 8. parts this they call Manda and Abetilis which they do verily beleeue was written by all the Apostles being iointly for that purpose gathered together at Hierusalem all the contents of this booke they do most diligently and strictly obserue The baser sort of people do without any controwlement or feare of punishment marry 2. or 3. wiues according to their ability and as they can tell how to maintaine them but these are excommunicated and forbidden by the Cleargy to enter into the Church Their lawes do tolerate diuorcements The Noble-men do esteem raw beefe serued in with fresh or hot bloud in manner as we vse our boiled meats with pottage or stewed broth for a great and dainty dish In all the kingdome of Prester Iohn they haue no manner of brasen or copper money but in steed of it they vse pure gold vncoined of a certaine weight In like manner salt yet not only in these prouinces but also generall throughout all Africa is vsed in exchange and buying and selling in stead of money In some places small pieces of iron bright and burnished do serue that turne But pepper amongst these people is of such great price that whatsoeuer a man will buy he may easily obtaine it for that merchandice These countries haue almost all sorts of beasts and fowles as Elephants Lions Tygres Losses Lynces the Latines call them Badgers Apes and Stagges contrary to the opinion of the old writers which haue generally denied that Africa doth veeld this kind of beast but in all that six yeare which Aluares this our authour dwelt in these countries he writeth that he neuer saw any Beares Conies Linnets Magpies or Cuccoes Yet Iohn Leo an African borne in his 9. booke saith that in Barbary there is wonderfull store of Conies The Locusts do more vex and hurt this country than any place of the World beside so that this plague is almost proper and peculiar to them Such oftentimes is the number and abundance of them that as they flie they do seeme to darken the aire and shadow the earth they flie together in such great flockes and thicke troupes that they do vtterly spoile and consume the fruits sometime of one prouince sometime of another wholly almost deuouring all their corn vpon the ground eating vp the leaues and barkes of the trees leauing their meddowes and pastures bare of grasse so that the people do oftentimes leaue their natiue soile where they were bred and borne and are forced for want of victuals to go seeke some other place to dwell in There is in these quarters a city named Cassumo sometime the seat as their histories do record and place of the Queen of Saba Maquedam that is as I thinke Antistes a Prouost or President they say she was called By whom they affirme that Salomon King of Isra l had a sonne named Meilech that is The King In this city they are perswaded that the Queen Cand ces did afterward dwell But it is best that the Reader that is desirous of further satisfaction to haue recourse to the same Francis Aluares who hath very curiously described those thing which he did most diligently obserue in that his Ambassage into these countries Item Iohn Bermundes who set foorth his Ambassage vnto the Abyssines in the Portugall language Let him also read a little treatise of Damianus à Goes which he wrot out of Ethiopia and Sabellicus his 10. Enneas of his 8. booke Of the originall of Prester Iohn and by what meanes he came out of Asia where he was knowen to writers about 200. yeares since and seated himselfe in Africa read Iohn Nauarchus in his Epistol Asiatica and Gerard Mercator in his
moorish fennes and bogges Those things also which the Poets do tell of the witchcraft of the sorceresse Circe and that fabulous transmutation and changing of men into diuers and sundry formes or shapes with Seruius I doe rather attribute to the force of nature than to magicke or witchcraft namely of the horrour of those which passe by that way whereby men do seeme to be changed into beasts and with Pliny I may say How infinite are those fables that are tolde of Medea of Colchis and others but especially of our Italian Circe who for her excellent skill in the arte magicke was canonized for a goddesse And be it farre from me and from euery Christian man that we should beleeue those things which it were wicked and profane to thinke or imagine For I haue read in the Ancyrane councell that they are woorse than Pagans and infidels who doe beleeue that any creature may by any man be turned and transformed into any other shape or similitude than by the Creatour himselfe who first gaue them that forme and fashion Therefore let all other men say what they will and perswade what they can they shall neuer make me beleeue these fables It seemeth that the fable arose of the nature and quality of the place for those places which lie out into the sea as this promontory doth are woont to be in more danger of storme and windes than any other places whatsoeuer Which blasts accompanied with the waues ebbes and tides of the sourging sea falling vpon the rocks cliffes and hollow places do cause such sundry sounds and noices that such as doe saile by this way not without a great horrour and trembling doe seeme as if they heard at one instant men mourne lions roare wolues howle dogs barke hogs grunt and beares to make a noice Hither do those words of Lucan in his sixt booke belong Omnia subducit Circaeae vela procellae That this promontory is full of trees especially of okes myrtles and bay-trees Theophrastus writeth from the relation of others Strabo sayth that it aboundeth with diuers sorts of roots peraduenture as there he addeth they affirme this of it that they may the better apply it in all respects vnto the fable of Circe And do you not thinke that this saying of Aristotle the Prince of Philosophers in his Admiranda did arise from hence They report sayth he that in the mount Circello there groweth a deadly poison of such great force that so soone as euer it is taken all the haire of the body immediatly falleth off and it so weakeneth all the parts and members of the same that they wex so litly and dwined that outwardly they beare the shew of dead carkeises such as it would grieue any man to beholde Strabo writeth that in this mountaine was an altar dedicated to Minerua and withall there is to this day to be seene a certeine goblet or bowle of Vlysses but this latter he affirmeth to be from the opinion and report of the vulgar sort only But passing ouer these fables let vs returne againe vnto the historicall narration of such things as in trueth are either here found or haue happened in this place Horace hath left recorded that the sea vpon this coast yeeldeth great store of good oisters which thereof are called Ostrea Circaeia Suetonius reporteth that Marcus Lepidus was by Augustus Caesar for euer confined and banished into this place Plutarch writeth that Iulius Caesar had a purpose hard beneath the city by a deepe channell to conuey the riuer Tiber another way and to turne the course thereof toward this Circaeium promontorium and so to haue caused it to fall into the sea at the city Anxur by which meanes those which for trade and trafficke were by ship to trauell vp to Rome he meant to make their passage more easie and safe but being preuented by death performed not what he had purposed Here also was the city CIRCAEIVM or Circaeia or as Strabo termeth it Circes towne That it was made a colony of the Romans by Tarquinius Liuy Halicarnasseus Cicero and Plutarch do ioyntly testifie Strabo sayth that it hath a good and conuenient hauen I would thinke that the mention or plot of this ancient citie Circaeia doth still remaine in this mountaine in that place where in this description thou seest certeine ruines and foundations of the walles as it were of a city rased long since and layd leuell almost with the ground which place at this day is called by the name of Citta vecchia that is as much to say as The old citie Certeine remnants of this name doth yet remaine to be seene engrauen in the top of this same mountaine as Angelus Breuentanus a man of good credit the authour of this description and a most diligent searcher out of the Romane antiquities doth from his owne knowledge plainly testifie yet much defaced as he also affirmeth and worne out with continuance of time to wit in this forme PROMVNTORIVM VENERIS CIRCAEIENSIVM XXI The forenamed Breuentanus thinketh that by this inscription is shewed the distance of this place from the city of Rome And it is to be seene at this day in that place of this mountaine where thou seest this marke of a starre * imprinted MAGNA GRAECIA OR GREAT GREECE THat a great part of the true and ancient Italy if not all of it together with all Sicily was sometime called by the name of GREAT GREECE I thinke there is no man meanly seen in Geographie that maketh any doubt for the Grecians did in former times possesse as Trogus writeth not only a part but welnigh all Italy Listen what Pliny in the fifth chapter of his third booke saith Of it the Grecians a Nation very prodigall in commending themselues haue giuen their verdict in that they haue named a great part of it Great Greece Hither also pertaine those wordes of Festus Italy was called Great Greece because the Siculi sometime passed it or for that many and the greatest cities of it were built by the Grecians Seruius in his Commentaries vpon the first of Virgils Aeneids writeth thus Italy was termed Megale Hellas Great Greece for that all the cities from Taranto Tarentum euen vnto Cumae were first founded by the Grecians And therefore it was not altogether vnfitly of Plautus in his Menechmis called Graecia exotica outlandish Greece Seneca in his Consolation thus speaketh of it All that side of Italy which coasteth along with the Neather sea Mar Tosco was called Great Greece That Campania Terra di lauoro was possessed by the Grecians Pliny doth plainly affirme Maximus Tyrius in his six and twentieth Oration describeth Auernus lacus the lake of Tipergola in Campania to be within the compasse of Great Greece And that these authours speake truth Trogus particularly sheweth in the twentith booke of his history in these wordes The Tusci which dwell along by the coast of the Neather sea came from Lydia Item the Venetians Veneti which now we see
and according to the testimony of Peter Quirini Christopher Fiorouanti and Nicolas Michele who in this our Ocean suffered that horrible shipwracke which we reade of in the Italian volumes witnesse also Lewis Cadamosta who in his Epistles written about the yeere 1454 affirmes this city of Bruges to be a Mart inferiour to none else in all the North parts of the world Wherefore that the citizens of Bruges receiued the vs◠of the sea-compasse from the Italians and out of Italian translated the names of the winds into their owne language and that from them the other nations before mentioned borrowed this knowledge I see not well how it may be denied Of the nature and admirable vertue of the loadstone you may reade many notable things in Liuius Sanutus his description of Africa printed in Italian at Venice The isles or Salomon which in this table you see described about Noua Guinea were not long since discouered by Oliuer Mendanio after he had conducted his fleet out of the part of Lima in Perú had sailed ouer this huge Ocean as I find recorded in Iosephus Acosta his 1. book 17. chapter De natura nouiorbis MARIS PACIFICI quod vulgò Mar del Zur cum regionibus circumiacentibus insusisue in eodem passim sparsis novissima descriptio SPE ET METV GENIO ET INGENIO NOBILI DN NICOLAO ROCCOXIO PATRICIO ANTVERPIENSI EIVSDEMQVE VRBIS SENATORI Abrahamus Ortelius Regiae M t s geographus lub merito dedicabat 1589. NEVV SPAINE THis Prouince was about the yeere 1518 forcibly subdued to the Spanish gouernment vnder the command and conduct of Fernando Corlez who with the great slaughter of his owne people but farre greater of the inhabitants fighting for their liberty conquered the same It is a region rich of siluer and golde for it hath very many riuers yeelding sands or graines of perfect gold Vpon the coast of this countrey are many commodious fishings for pearle Salt lakes here are diuers the water whereof through the heat of the Sunne is conuerted into excellent salt Here is great abundance of Cassia fistula and a kind of fruit in the Mexican language called Cacao somewhat resembling an Almond which is with them very highly esteemed for hereof they make a kinde of drinke to their owne taste most delicate The seas and riuers belonging to this countrey abound mightily with fish Their riuers also breed Crocodiles whose flesh is food to the inhabitants In these places this creature is for the most part aboue twenty foot long It is a countrey very mountainous and beset here and there with most lofty and cragged rocks So great is the diuersity of languages in these regions that one cannot vnderstand another without an Interpreter The principall Colonies to be seene in this Table which in New Spaine haue been planted by the Spaniards are first Compostella the seat of a Bishop and of one of the Kings counsels Colima by another name called the city of the Purification Guadalajara a towne most famous and head of the Kingdome of New Gallicia Mechoacan a Bishops sea also Sacatula the city of Angels a mother-towne and a Bishoprick Mexico a Kingly city or rather Queene of all the cities in the New world situate vpon the banke of a lake or rather of a fenne yea the very ground-plot of this city is so fenny that you cannot come thither nor depart thence but ouer bridges and cawseys The lake adioyning is salt being six leagues long and fiue broad Fishes it hath none but very small ones which more aptly may be called wormes than fishes of whose putrefaction which is there caused by the heat of Summer the aire is sometimes so infected that it is most vnholesome dwelling there yet is it as much frequented with inhabitants and merchants as any mart-towne in Europe It is a large city for in compasse it containeth about three leagues The other lake adioining to this is fresh water and very plentifull of fish wherein also stand many townes There are likewise a great number vpon the banks of either lake In this city as Ierome Giraua reporteth there was by Pope Paul the third established the seat of an Archbishop in the yeere 1547. This citie was taken by the Spaniards 140 yeeres after the first foundation thereof Montezuma at the same time being King the ninth in number A wonder how in so few yeeres it should grow to such largenesse and magnificence The nature situation and customes of this citie and of the territory adiacent who desires more perfectly to know may reade the relations of Fernando Cortez Extant they are in the volume intituled Nouus orbis and in the volume of Nauigations printed at Venice in Italian but especially John Gonsaluo who in his little booke of China hath a most large description of this region You haue also many notable discourses hereof in the third Volume of M. Hakluyts English voyages HISPANIAE NOVAE SIVAE MAGNAE RECENS ET VERA DESCRIPTIO 1579. Lectori Partium longitudinis huius tabulae inituum non fumitur Ptolemaico more ab infulis Canarijs versus Oriente sed à Toletano Hispaniensis meridiano Occidentem versus Notularum circa Mexico explanatio a. Escalpucoleo b. Tucuba c. Istapalapa d. Ximaloaca e. Teutitlan f. Gucytitlan g. Mexicalcingo h. Culiacan i. Catlavaca k. Nicsquique l. Cinarantepec m. Xiquicpico n. Ocellotepec o. Vcicilapa p. Mimiapa q. Tecaÿuca r. Chalcontengo s. Tapalcapan t. Tisquiquiac u. Xilocingo x. Chiconantla y. Techcistlan z. Caltoca The Prouince of CVLIACAN THis Prouince of CVLIACAN is part of the kingdome of New Galicia It was discouered vnder the gouernment of Charles the fifth in the yeere 1530. In this region is one only colonie of Spaniards called The towne of S. Michael Villages here are very many built by the inhabitants all which before the Spaniards arriuall were at their owne libertie yeelding obedience to no King or Gouernour The region is indifferently furnished with things necessary Out of the mountaines is digged great abundance of siluer The inhabitants are addicted to war and robbery They that dwell vpon the coast employ most of their time in fishing but the vplandish people liue by hunting They goe naked couering only their priuities with a piece of Cotton They haue many languages They lodge for the most part in the open aire They are a most beggerly nation CVBA and HISPANIOLA THis Island of Cuba is so called by the naturall inhabitants but by the Spaniards Fernandina and Joanna and as Peter Martyr reports Alpha and Omega In length it extendeth East and West 300 Spanish leagues containing in bredth fifteene and in some places twenty of the said leagues The land is very mountainous but rich of gold and excellent copper Madder which the Apothecaries because it is very apt to die wooll and leather call Diers-madder is heere found in great abundance It is in all places beautified with thicke woods with riuers and pooles of fresh water albeit there are lakes naturally
lake His words be these speaking of Sarte a riuer in this Prouince Sarte being come to the bridge commonly called Noien as farre as the towne of Malicorne how plentifully and miraculously it aboundeth with fish may appeare by this one example that not many yeeres past contrary to mens vsuall expectation here was taken a carpe of an ell and handfull long his tongue if we may beleeue the common report weighed six pounds which is confirmed also by a monument written vpon the Bishops palace They say that not farre from this place in the tract of Sagona there is an exceeding deepe lake it is named The causey-foord for it ends at the place commonly called Gay Chaucey out of which lake are taken carpes of so huge bignesse that one of them will suffice a meane family for an whole weeke together the experience whereof following the Court I learned in the towne of Blois Hitherto Robert Caenalis in his story of France CENOMANORVM Galliae regionis typus Auctore Matthaeo Ogerio La Mans. Neustria BRITANNIAE et NORMANDIAE TYPVS 1594. Cum privilegio decennali POICTOV AMongst the people of Aquitaigne some there are called by Ptolemey and Plinie Pictones by Caesar and Strabo Pictones with i in the first syllable and by Ammianus Marcellinus Pictauos Ausonius names the countrey Pictonicam regionem but later Writers call it in Latine Pictauia The inhabitants in their owne language terme themselues Poicteuins the region Poictou and the head city Poictiers which perhaps is all one with Ptolemey his Augustoritum The opinion of some who affirme it was thus named of the Pictes I holde altogether fabulous for out of Classicall writers it is apparent that Pictones is an ancienter name than Picti Poictou is now diuided into the Lower and the Vpper The Lower Poictou we call that which ends Westward vpon the sea of Aquitaigne and the Vpper which lieth Eastward towards Tourain and Berry South it confines vpon Xantoigne Angolesme and Limosin and North vpon Brettaigne and Aniou It is a countrey most fertile of corne and cattell rich in wheat and wine and abounding with fish Wild-fowle and beasts heere are great plenty and for that cause much hunting and hauking In this region are conteined 1200. Parishes vnder three Bishopricks namely Poictiers Luçon and Maillezais The principall places besides these are Roch-sur-yon Talmont Meroil Vouuant Meruant Bresuire Lodun Fontenay le Conte All which be in the Vpper Poictou In the Lower are situate Niort Partenay Touars Moncontoul Hernault Mirebeau Chalstelleraudt c. The head of all these is Poictiers which next vnto Paris is the principall citie in all France and is for the most part enuironed by the riuer Clain The antiquity of this towne sufficiently appeareth out of the Theater commonly called Arenas as likewise out of Gallienus his Palace and the Arches of Water-conducts as yet extant which the inhabitants call Arceaux de Parignè all which are Monuments of the Romans gouernment in this place Howbeit before their comming this citie was seated vpon another plot of ground as may be gathered out of the writings of Ammonius and Ado. For they make mention of a place called Olde Poictiers whereat they say was the diuision of the kingdome betweene Charlemaine and Pipin Kings of the Frankes Also in this table vpon the very same riuer of Clain towards Chastellerault you may see a place called Vieu Poictiers that is to say Old Poictiers The towne of Talmont or rather Talon du Monde in English The heele of the World is so called by the French because it stands vpon the vtmost border of this countrey towards the Ocean as if therefore it were to be esteemed the extreame part of the World Ouer against the shore of Poictou lie these islands Oleron by Plinie named Vliarius at the mouth of the riuer Charente called by Ausonius Charantonus fluuius and by Ptolemey Canentelum L'isle de Rez opposite to Rochell abounding with wine wherof it is named The isle Noir or Marmonstier which yeeldeth plenty of salt The isle Aulonne which in this Table is rather a Peninsula this aboundeth with wine and salt as doth another little isle called Chauet The Mappe also represents vnto you L'isle de Dieu or Gods isle and that likewise which is called Nostre-dame de Bouin By Saint Hillary the Apostle of Aquitaigne Ecclesiasticall Writers affirme that this region was conuerted to Christianity A more exact description hereof you may reade in Belleforrest who will referre you from himselfe to Iohn Bouchet his Chronicle of Aquitaigne Something you may learne out of Antony Pinetius in his description of Cities Theuet likewise is to be perused Concerning this region also Iohn de la Haye wrote a peculiar Treatise in French POICTOV PICTONVM VICINARVMQVE REGIONVM FIDISS DESCRIPTIO Auctore Nobili Dn̄o Petro Rogiero Pictone Regiae M t is Galliae consiliario etc. The region of BERRY called of olde BITVRIGES THe people Bituriges are mentioned in most of the ancient Geographers Plinie calles them Liberos and saith they were also named Cubos The country is now diuided into the Vpper the Lower The principall citie called at this present Bourges was named by Caesar as some thinke Auaricum Theobald Fagotius citizen of the same writeth that the territory adiacent is exceeding fruitfull and wanteth nothing that all France may affoord that the city is ancient as appeareth by diuers notable monuments that it is a towne of great trafficke that they haue an Vniuersitie flourishing with all kinde of learning insomuch as it may well be called The Honour of the liberall Arts and A Mart of learned men But concerning the originall of this citie and the deriuation of the name let vs giue eare to Iohn Calmey who writes thereof in maner following In the yeere of the worlds creation 1791. one Gomer of the nation of the Gaules bringing a Colonie into this region of the Bituriges planted the same in the chiefe citie the name of Ogygis being by Noah his grandfather imposed for honours sake vpon the inhabitants which by them for the fauor and loue they bare to their founder descended of Ogygis was afterward changed and they named themselues Bitogyges which in the Armenian tongue signifies The posteritie of Ogygis But as words by custome are often times corrupted for to make them familiar or more proper we will not sticke to adde detract or alter some letters or syllables so the name of this countrey and of the chiefe citie either by the force thereof or by the appointment of a certaine Prince named Biturix changed the name of Bitogyges into Bituriges Amongst other opinions some hold that it was called Bituris quasi Biturris of two ancient Towers which sometimes stood in this citie whereupon a certaine Grammarian hath written this verse Turribus à binis inde vocor Bituris that is Of Towers twaine Bituris I was nam'd Thus much out of John Calamaeus his booke of the originall of the Bituriges from whence
salt made which is carried hence in carts to the neighbour countries and yeelds great reuenue to this region SCODINGA situate in a long streight valley extending in length betweene a double ridge of high mountaines which beare vines in such places as are most open to the Sunne it is exceeding strong being fortified with two castles and diuers loftie turrets ARBOIS seated in a most pleasant soile and abounding with all necessaries especially with excellent and durable wine It hath large suburbs on all sides It is enuironed with ditches but such as they make gardens vpon Round about it are mountaines of most beautifull prospect watered with cleare springs and clad with fruitfull vines and sightly woods It is called Arbois ab Arboribus because it is so planted with trees POLIGNY a faire towne fortified with stately walles and towers the castle called Grimonia lying within it and on the one side it hath mountaines of woods and on the other side hilles set with vines the wine whereof is principall good PONTARLIER situate in a low valley betweene two mountaines on the bancke of Dubis Not farre hence stands the strong castle of Iura or Ioux on the top of an exceeding high hill so that for situation it is impregnable NOZEROY founded vpon an open hill in the very nauell or midst of this region All the houses in a maner are built of stone the Prince of the countrey hath here a castle called The Leaden castle because it is couered with lead Here is a Faire kept foure times in the yere In times past this towne before it was walled was named Nucillum of the abundance of hazel-nuts that grew round about it CHASTEL CHALON built and named by the Emperour Charlemaine both pleasantly and strongly situate MONTMOROT vpon a steepe mountaine planted with vines ORGELET abounding with merchandise The inhabitants are industrious and painfull and exercise themselues in clothing Their fields are barren for they are full of hilles and craggie rocks whereupon is grounded a common prouerbe which saith That Orgelet hath fields without grasse riuers without fish and mountaines without woods and groues The cities of Dole are first DOLE it selfe the head citie of the prouince a nurse of all learning and especially of the ciuill law most pleasantly situate vpon the riuer Dubis adorn'd with bridges walles and inuincible forts The houses churches and schooles both for greatnesse and curious building are most delightfull to the beholders QVINGEY a most ancient towne situate vpon the bancke of Louë ORNANS standing also among high mountaines by the riuer Louë LA LOY a most ample village ROCHFORT a pretie litle towne VERCELLES with ruinous and deformed walles In this countie stands BESANÇON a citie Imperiall and Metropolitan of both Burgundies the description whereof because I cannot condignly expresse in this page being exactly performed by Gilbert Cognatus Paradine and George Bruno in his volume of cities I cease here to speake any farther For sith their books are so easie to be had I referre all students to them To these also you may adde Robert Caenalis It were to be wished that Cognatus had not frustrated the hope of students for he promised in a booke to restore and bring to light ancient Burgundie together with a particular Map and the olde and new names of places But we haue hitherto expected him in vaine Howbeit not long since Lewis Gollusius published concerning this Countie in French a great and peculiar volume BVRGVNDIAE COMITATVS Hugo Cusinus sive Cognatus patriam suam sic describebat 1589. Cum Privilegijs Imp. Regis et Brabantiae ad decennium The Dukedome of BVRGVNDIE THat part of France which the Aedui whilome enioyed is now called The Dukedome of Burgundie It is limited North by Champaigne and Gastinois West by Niuernois and Burbonnois South it borders vpon Lionnois and East the riuer Rhosne diuides it from Sauoy and the county of Burgundy The head citie in times past was Augustodunum but now Diuio or Diuionum as Gregory Turonensis in his third booke calles it or as the inhabitants Digion hath gotten the superiority for here the supreme court of Parliament for the whole Dukedome is holden It is seated on the bancke of Oscarus commonly Ousch a riuer abounding with fish in a fertile and plentifull soile the mountaines adiacent yeelding strong and excellent wines as the said Turonensis reporteth who most learnedly describes it Some thinke it was built by the Emperour Aurelian but others affirme it to be much ancienter It is a citie both by arte and nature most strongly fortified against all hostile attempts certaine new forts being lately added Belna commonly Beaulne is the second citie of the Dukedome famous for the wines of Beaulne which all men commend This Citie is fairely built being impregnable in regard of a Castle which Lewis the twelfth erected here It hath an hospitall comparable for building to any Kings Palace Here also is the seat of the high court of Chancery In the territorie adiacent was built by Duke Otho about the yeere of our Lord 1098. the abbey of Cistertium in a woody and clammy soile which some thinke was so called in regard of certaine Cisternes there digged Vnder the iurisdiction of this Monasterie Belleforest reporteth that there are 1800. other Monasteries of Friers and as many of Nunnes Next followes Augustodunum which some though vpon no sufficient grounds of antiquitie suppose to haue beene called Bibracte now Auttun That this citie of ancient times was most large and populous it is euident out of sundry authours and especially out of Caesar Here are yet extant mightie ruines of a Theater of Statues Pillars Water-chanels Pyramides and many other monuments of antiquitie Likewise here are dayly digged vp coines little vessels and other such ancient fragments This citie hath endured two memorable ouerthrowes one by Caesar in his French warres and the other about the time of Galienus the Emperour But it was afterward reedified by Constantine the sonne of Claudius as the Panegyrick of Eumenius calling it Flauiam Heduorum doth testifie And at this very day it is adorned with stately temples and other buildings for publicke vses Then haue you Matiscona Caesaris or Matisconense castrum Antonini where he placeth in garrison the tenth Roman legion It is now called Mascon Of olde it was graced with the title of an Earledome It ioyneth the bancks of Araris by a bridge Here the Lords day of the Christians began first to be hallowed as Paradine reporteth out of the Edict of Guntram The relation of the citie of Mascon Philip Bugnonius hath elegantly and briefly set downe Cabilonum now Chalon vpon the bancke of Araris also anciently called Orbandale as reporteth Peter Sanjulian By Antoninus the foureteenth Roman legion was here put in garrison It was of olde the royall seat of Guntram which notwithstanding afterward Lotharius sonne to Ludouicus Pius so destroyed and abolished with fire as he left no mention at all of a citie yet now it is very
and vnder-homage so that hitherto the Princes on both sides haue vsed this custom namely that Boulogne no more acknowledgeth Artois nor S. Paul Boulogne Howbeit about this point in the latter treaty of peace 1559. there was some variance wherefore the matter being referred to Commissioners remaines as yet vndecided the King of Spaine holding still possession It is commonly supposed that Calais the next port of the continent vnto England was by Caesar called Portus Iccius from whence he sailed out of France thither But if we more thorowly consider the matter we shall finde it to haue beene another Port namely the towne of Saint Omer which that it was of old an hauen and a most large inlet of the Ocean sea euen the high cliffes which in a maner enuironing the citie do plainly demonstrate besides infinit other arguments and reliques of antiquitie which though no man should affirme it do most euidently conuince that the territorie adiacent was in times past couered with sea the trueth whereof is till this day also confirmed by common and constant report Yea Sithieu the ancient name of the citie for who knowes not that the name of S. Omer is but new manifesteth the same As if it were deriued of Sinus Itthius or Iccius Also that the said haue was in the prouince of the Morini which Virgil and Lucan doe call the farthest people And that this is most true an attentiue Reader may by many arguments easily gather both out of Caesar his entrance and returne from England Neither can the space of thirtie miles or thereabout which he sayth the island is there distant from the maine hinder my beliefe in this point whenas the violence of the sea especially in so narrow a place may easily either adde or diminish Nor doth the distance of the sea there from the maine to the continent much differ Sufficeth thus much to haue beene said concerning Portus Iccius Whether we haue hit the trueth or no let others iudge Moreouer this Prouince hath three Bishopricks to wit Arras S. Omer and Boulogne one and twentie Abbeys and seuen Nunries besides many Couents and Hospitals It hath many riuers also the principall whereof are Lys Scarpe Aa Canche and Authy besides others that are nauigable Great is the number of villages and hamlets thorowout the whole prouince The soile is most fertile and abundant of all corne and especially of wheat Wherefore in the ancient French tongue some write it was called Atrech that is to say The land of bread Nor is it destitute of woods and groues especially towards the South and West The garments of the Atrebates or Artesians S. Ierome in his second booke against Iouinian noteth for precious Also the Artesian mantles Vopiscus celebrateth in the life of the Emperour Carinus Likewise the same Ierome and other authours affirme that in his time it rained wooll in this prouince This region as others also adioyning Guicciardin hath most notably described Artois ATREBATVM REGIONIS VERA DESCRIPTIO Johanne Surhonio Monteusi auctore Illustri ac amplissimo viro Domino Christophoro ab Assonleuille equiti aurato Domino ab Alteuilla R. M t s consiliario primario Ab. Ortelius in hanc formam compraehendebat et dedicabat Cum priuilegio Imp. et Regiea Maitis FLANDERS THe extreme part of Europe opposite to England and Scotland enuironed by France Germanie and the Ocean is called by the inhabitants The low countries or lower Germanie but the French and all strangers in a maner call it by the name of Flanders But in very deed Flanders hath not so great extension For albeit Flanders properly so called was larger in times past yet at this present it is bounded by Brabant Henault Artois and the Ocean sea This they diuide into three parts namely Flanders the Dutch the French and the Imperiall which last part because it neuer acknowledged any superior besides the Prince of Flanders they name also Flanders proprietarie The Dutch Flanders hath these cities Gant Bruges Yperen Cortrijck Oudenard with Pammele Newport Furnas Bergen Sluise Damme Bierflet Dixmud Cassel Dunkerke Greueling Burburch and Hulst The French Flanders L'isle Doway and Orchies And Flanders Imperiall or Proprietary Aelst Dendermond Geertsberg and Ninouen The principall riuers are Scheld Lys and Dender Most part of the region is pasture-ground especially towards the West it breedeth faire oxen and most excellent and warlike horses It abounds with butter and cheese and yeeldeth wheat in abundance The inhabitants are most of them merchants and of flax wherof they haue in Flanders great plenty excellent good and wooll which is brought them out of Spaine and England they make great quantity of linnen and woollen cloth which they disperse farre and wide This Prouince of Flanders hath 28. walled cities 1154 villages besides fortresses castles and noble mens houses Among which Gaunt is the greatest citie Whereof Erasmus of Roterdam in his Epistles writeth in maner following I am of opinion saith he if you looke all Christendome ouer you shall not finde a citie comparable to this either for largenesse and strength or for the ciuill gouernment and towardlinesse of the people So far Erasmus It containeth in compasse three Dutch miles It is watered by three riuers which diuide it into twenty inhabited isles For multitude and beauty of houses Bruges excelleth almost all the cities of the Netherlands so famous a mart in times past as saith Iacobus Marchantius by that meanes the name of Flanders obscured all the regions round about Yperen stands vpon the riuer of Yperlee very commodious for Fullers By clothing it grew in times past to an huge bignesse till the English and men of Gaunt besieging it cast downe the large suburbs and greatly diminished the same As it is sayd in a common prouerbe that Millan for a Dukedome excelles all Christendome so doth Flanders for an Earledome It hath certaine prerogatiues for the Prince thereof writes himselfe Earle of Flanders by the grace of God which clause is proper to the stile of Kings For it is giuen saith Meierus to no Duke Marques or Earle in Christendome but only to him of Flanders whenas all others vsually adde By the clemency or By the assistance of God c. He had in times past sundry officers peculiar to a King as namely his Chancellour his Master of the horse his Chamberlain and his Cupbearer also two Marshals and ten Peeres as in France The armes of this region in times past were a scutcheon Azure diuided by fiue Crosse-barres of golde with another small red scutcheon in the midst Now it is a blacke lion in a golden field which some are of opinion he tooke for his armes together with the other Netherlandish Princes when they set forth on their expedition towards Syria in the company of Philip of Elsas for at that time the princes of Flanders Louaine Holland Lutzenburg Limburg Brabant Zeland Frisland Henault c. changing their ancient armes assumed to themselues lions of diuers colours
the earth receiue the ocean deep Nor land well able was his owne from sea to keep The place so dangerous is that none to it dare go And whether sea or land it be men skarce do know Yet now these our Ilands are habitable and easie and safely to be come vnto by the industrie and labour of man and not by the benefit and nature of the place ZELANDICARVM INSVLARVM EXACTISSIMA ET NOVA DESCRIPTIO AVCTORE D. IACOBO A DAVENTRIA Cum priuilegio HOLLAND THus Erasmus of Roterodam an Hollander doth describe Holland his natiue country Most learned men saith he do agree in this and that vpon great probabil ty that that iland of the Rhein vpon the maine sea which Tacitus maketh mention of in his 20. booke is the same that now they call HOLLAND A land that I must alwaies both highly commend reuerence as to whom indeed I owe my life and natiuitie And I would to God that it lay in my power to do it againe as great credit as it hath done me honour and good for the which I am much bound to praise the Lord. For in that that Martiall doth accuse this nation rusticitatis of clownish simplicity and that in that Lucane calleth the same trucem rough and vnciuill either it is nothing to vs or els I deeme both to be interpreted as a great commendation vnto the same For what nation in former times hath not been somewhat rude and vnciuill or when were the Romanes more to be commended then when they knew no other art or mysterie but husbandrie and discipline of warre If so be that those things which then were said of the Hollanders some man shall stand in they may be verified of them now what greater praise can be attributed to Holland my natiue country then if it may truly be said to loath those iests of Martiall which he himselfe calleth nequitias knaueries And I would to God that all Christians had such eares as these Hollanders had that they might either not entertaine those pestilent conceits of that Poet or at the leastwise would not be delighted with them If any man please to call this clownishnesse we do willingly beare that slanderous reproch as being a thing common to vs with the good Lacedemonians with the old Sabines the worthy Catoes so much commended And Lucane as I thinke called the Hollanders truces rough in no other sense then Virgill calleth the Romane acer stout and hardie Otherwise if any man do respect their homely and plaine maners there is no nation more prone to ciuility and curteous humanity in which there is lesse cruelty or surly sternnesse they are of a good nature plaine void of all trechery and guile inclined to no notorious vices only they are a little too much giuen to their pleasure especially in banquetting the reason of which I iudge to be the wonderfull plenty of all maner of things prouoking them thereunto and that partly by reason of the forrein commodities brought vnto them for that not only it possesseth the two mouths of the goodly riuers Maese and Rhein but also for that the greatest part of this West coast is continually washed with the maine sea partly by reason of the naturall fertility of the countrie which euery where is watered with many great and nauigable riuers well stored with fish and so hath abundance of pastorage and most fatte meadowes Moreouer the fennes and woods affoord infinite store of wild-foule and therefore they constantly affirme that there is no country in the world which in so little compasse and plot of ground conteineth more cities and townes not very big in quantity and circuite but for state of common-wealth and gouernment excellent For cleanlinesse and near keeping of their houses the Hollanders do beare away the bell from all other nations whatsoeuer by the iudgement of Merchants which haue trauelled ouer the greatest part of the world Of meane learned men there is no where greater plenty The reason why many of them come not to the height of that exquisite learning especially of the ancients is their wanton and riotous life or for that they esteeme more of honesty and vertue then great learning For it cannot be denied but that they haue good wits as is manifest by many arguments although indeed it doth not appeare by me whose gift that way is not great as in nothing els Thus farre Erasmus in his Chiliades This country of Holland almost wholly enclosed like a Peninsula with the sea and the mouths of the riuers Maes and Rhein is not very large as being in compasse not more then 60. Dutch miles yet it comprehendeth 29. walled cities which are these DORDRECHT about an hundred yeares since by a deluge and ouerflowing of the sea made an iland by this 4. riuers do runne It is a mightie city inhabited of very wealthy citizens and beautified with most gallant buildings both publike and priuate Heere is a great concourse of Merchants for in it is held the staple of Rhenish wine corne timber and other wares and merchandice which are brought downe by the Maes and Rhein into these countries to be sold HAERLEM this is the most stately and greatest citie of all Holland situate in a most pleasant place Hard without the town walls is a very fine groue whither the citizens vpon festiuall daies do withdraw themselues for their pleasure and recreation after their labour and toilesome busines This town is famous for clothing where it is certaine that there are tenne or twelue thousand clothes yearely made Heere the citizens do perswade themselues the mysterie of printing was first inuented and practised DELET so named of Delft which in their language signifieth a ditch Heere also the townesmen vse clothing Moreouer in this city they brue good beere which from hence in great plenty is transported into Zeland This towne in the yeare 1536. suffered great losse by fire the greatest part of it being vtterly defaced LEIDEN vpon the Rhein not far from his mouth where it sometime did fall into the sea which now you may perceiue to be stopped choaked with sand It is thought to be the most ancient city of this prouince for some do thinke it to haue beene so named of a Roman legion which sometime wintered in this place Certaine antiquities are heere yet to be seene to this day GOVDE vpon the riuer Isel in that place where it meeteth with the riuer Goude or Gouwe whereof the city tooke his name It is very populous AMSTELREDAM most stately built vpon the inlet or bay called Tie the most populous and frequent Mart towne of all these parts In euery street almost like as in Venice a man may passe from place to place by boate aswell as by foot to dispatch his businesse Heere daily from Norway kussia and other Northren countries as also from Spaine France England c. great store of shippes do arriue and ancher so that sometimes you shall see at once
and met the enemy before the towne Heyde entending to force the souldiers to retire being wearied with a tedious march but oft repelled and yet charging againe afresh at length they are beaten downe killed forced to flie and the towne is taken and fired There were slaine that day about 3000. Dietmarshers Duke Adolph labouring like a valiant captaine to keep his men in aray and to bring them on againe which began to flie receiued an hurt This battell was fought vpon the thirteenth day of Iune The Dietmarshers hauing receiued this ouerthrow submitted themselues to the King and the Dukes and obteining pardon they were againe receiued to grace and thus Dietmarsh which for many ages together by force of armes had defended and maintained their liberty became subiect to the Dukes of Holstein This the authour of this Mappe which heere we haue inserted into our Theater hath written of this country See also Albert Crantzius his Chronicle of Saxony Christianus Silicius a Dane hath lately set forth a little Treatise in which he hath described these warres between the Danes and the Dietmarshers and other things which do much make for the better vnderstanding of this tract OLDENBVRG THis country tooke his name from Oldenburg the chiefe city Albertus Crantzius in his Metropolis in the fifteenth chapter of the third booke writeth that this is one of the most ancient Earledomes of Germany for in the thirty chapter of his second booke he reckoneth Widekind Duke of Saxony who liued in the time of Charles the Great amongst the Earles of this country Iraenicus affirmeth that this city was repaired by Charles the Great who also there dedicated a church to S. Iohn Baptist consecrated by Edalgarge the Bishop In this I thinke he is deceiued that he reckoneth this city amongst the cities of the Wandalls and describeth it vpon that coast For this is another city different from that and is in VVagria a prouince of Holstein nothing neere Pomerland This the VVandalls called Stargard the Danes Brannesia ech according to the propriety of his owne tongue as the same Crantzius writeth The authour of this Mappe thinketh that the Ambrones a people which went into Italie with the Cimbers and were slaine and ouerthrowen by Marius as Plutarch recordeth dwelt heere about and their name yet to remaine amongst that people which they call Amerlanders The same he thinketh of the Alani Saxones which he verily beleeueth to haue sometime dwelt about the lake Alana in this prouince vpon ech side of the riuer Alana both in the Mappe are written Ana euen as high as the castell Oria and at this day to be called Lengener as who would say Alani and Auerlenger that is the Alanes on the further side Andrew Hoppenrode in his booke of Pedigrees hath something of the Earles of this County But Dauid Chytraeus hath written the best of any man of it in his history of Saxony THIETMARSIAE HOLSATICAE REGIONIS PARTIS TYPVS Auctore Petro Boeckel OLDENBVRG COMIT Laurentius Michaelis describ WESTPHALIA or as vulgarly it is called WESTPHALEN THis country seated between the riuers Weiser and Rhein runneth out toward the South almost as farre as Hessen his North border abutteth vpon Friesland The famous riuers Eems and Lippe Amasis and Lupias besides some other of lesser note do runne through this country The soile is reasonably fertile but of those things rather that do belong to the maintenance of sheep cattell and such like beasts than men It yeeldeth diuers kinds of fruits as apples nuts and acorns wherewith they feed and fatte their swine for of these they haue great store the gammons and legges of which dried in the smoke are from hence farre and neere transported and caried into forrein countries for the gammons of Westphalen bacon are accounted for a dainty dish at great mens tables These also that country people do sometime eat raw and take it for a sauory meat It is more fertile about Susate and Hammon but most rich of all commodities in the prouince of Paderborne and Lippe The diocesse of Munster is good meadow and pasture ground as also that tract which is about Weisser in some places It is woody all about Surland and the county of Berg. About Collen and the county of Marche it is not without some veine of mettall The people are goodly men of a tall and comely stature strong and able bodies and courageous stomacke It hath many good souldiers well trained and ready at an houres warning The Counties and Noble houses which do belong to this Countrie are in the iudgement of Roleuinge the County of Benthem Tekelenburgh March VValdecke Spigelberg Dinstlaken Oldenburg Diephold Rauesburg Limburg Arnsburg Ritburg Lippe Buren Rekelinchuisen Ludinchuyssen Steenuord Horstmare Borchlo Brunckhorst Gemme and Cappenberg to these also Hammelman addeth Delmenhorst Lingen and Sterneberg The people about the tract of Collen and in March are the Surlandi the Bergenses which dwell in the mountaines and such as are subiect to the Duke of Cleeueland the Emeslandi in the Bishopricke of Munster and the inhabitants about the riuer Eems and toward Friesland the Slachterlandi in the same prouince neere Cloppenburg and the Norlandi that is the Northren people in the tract of Osnaburg lastly the Delbruggij in the diocesse of Paderborne The chiefe cities of Westphalen properly so called are Munster Dusseldorp Wesall Oldenburg Osnaburg Minde Herworden and of lesse note Widenbrug and Coesueldt Some do account the ancient and true Saxony to be Westfalen and do thinke it to haue been inhabited long since by the Cherusci whose Prince or Generall Tacitus and Velleius do write to haue been that same Arminius who slew Quintilius Varus the Romane and put his three legions to the sword Herman Hamelman hath set out the description of this country in a seuerall treatise out of whom we haue gathered this briefe discourse he nameth and citeth for his authours Werner Roleuing Gobeline and others mo of lesse note writers which yet I haue not knowen The studious Reader to these may adioine Albert Crantz his Saxony Item Dauid Chytraeus his history of Saxony where he hath a large and learned description of this country Of this prouince this rythme and prouerbe is commonly spoken by trauellers Hospitium vile Cranck broot dun bier langhe mile Sunt in Westphalia Qui non vult credere loop da. Lodging base hard bed Kentish miles small drinke and brown bread In Westphalen be He that will not beleeue 't let him go see WESTPHALIAE TOTIVS FINITIMARVMQVE REGIONVM ACCVRATA DESCRIPTIO Qui olim Saxones postea se Ostphalos et Westphalos dixere Visurgi flumine distinctos Ostphalorum autem Vocabulum in Saxonum denuo euanuit At Westphali in hodiernum usque diem nomen retinēt Vetusque tanquam spurium respuentes Cum Imp. et Reg. M tm priuilegio ad decennal 1579. Christianus Schrot Sonsb descripsit Cum Priuilegio SAXONY ALthough this Mappe do beare the title of Saxony notwithstanding it conteineth not all
Tribocci did inhabit as Rhenan Munster and others do thinke It is apparent out of old records that it hath beene sometime vnder the iurisdiction of the citie Trier Afterward it was gouerned by Earles although not in that sence in which commonly the word is vsed now-a-dayes yet they notwithstanding were subiect vnto the Duke of Mentz as the foresaid booke of Records doth shew At this day it is dignified with the title of a Landtgrauie Besides many things in this citie worthy of commendation there is a most stately steeple vpon the chiefe church whose height is such that it doth not only exceed all the rest of all Germany but as I thinke of all Europe It is as Munster hath left recorded fiue hundred seuentie foure foot high Those of VVien in Austrich doe thinke their steeple vpon the Church of S. Steuen in height to exceed all others yet that is as Cuspinian reporteth but foure hundred and foure score foot high The steeple of S. Paul of London in England was in height fiue hundred thirty foure foot as the learned M. Camden affirmeth Ours of the Church of our Lady at Antwerp is but foure hundred sixtie six foot high But whether the Geometricall foot vsed by the Architects of these seuerall cities in measuring be equall or not let them seeke which are more curious in these matters That ours of Antwerp for workmanship and beautie doth excell all those others I which heretofore haue seene all the forenamed dare affirme Of this territory of Strasburg reade Beatus Rhenanus his first booke of his German histories PALATINATVS BAVARIAE DESCRIPTIO ERHARDO REYCH TIROLENSE AVCTORE ARGENTORATENSIS AGRI DESCRIPTIO Ex tabula Danielis Spekel The Dukedome of WIRTEMBERG IOhannes Pedius Tethingerus in his history of the famous acts of this countrey describeth this Prouince thus The countrey of VVirtemberg saith he in the very entrance almost of high Germany most pleasantly abbutteth vpon the coast of Switzerland situate especially vpon the bancke of the riuer Nicher some doe thinke it in former times to haue beene the ancient seat of the Charitini whose iurisdiction is very large On the East it bordereth vpon the Sueui Vindelici and Norici On the West vpon the Countie Palatine of Rhein the Prince Electour and Marquesse of Baden lastly it comprehendeth the mountaines of Swartzwald the Blacke-wood On the South the mountaines of Arbon and the Alpes of Switzerland so the inhabitants do call the higher mountaines of that countrey do ioyntly ouerlooke it On the North they haue the Franckes their neighbours and not farre off also is Othos wood And therefore the iurisdiction of VVirtemberg can not more fitly take his begginning than where Nicher ariseth which springeth from a small fountaine out of the high hilles of Arbona in the Dukedome of VVirtemberg neere vnto the villages Schwenningen in the confines of the towne Villing not much more than fiue hundred pases from the fountaine of Donaw Not farre from his fountaine it passeth by Rotwell and leauing vpon the left hand the head of Blacke-wood vpon the right Switzerland Alpes runneth by the Duchie of VVirtemberg with a wandering and crooked course so saluting here and there certaine noble mens castles and townes of the Roman Emperours from his first rise the space of fiue dayes iourney more or lesse being with diuers little streames from sundry places encreased and laden and so made nauigable at Heydelberg falleth very swiftly into the Rhein The whole countrey by reason of the nature of the soile whether for tillage or otherwise in respect of the fertility is not euery where alike For that part where Nicher ariseth and which bordereth vpon the Blacke-wood as also that which is abbuttant vpon the Alpes of Switzerland situate betweene Donaw and Nicher is somewhat rough vnapt for vines but yeelding indifferent good pasture for cattell The soile within the Alps is stony yet very good for corne in like maner by the sides of Blacke-wood the land is sandy of a red colour which notwithstanding is reasonable good corne ground Euery where the nation is much giuen to breed and bring vp cattell Nere vnto the forest of Blacke-wood there are recorded to be these Lordships subiect vnto the Duchy of VVirtemberg Hornberg Schultach Dornstad Nagold VVildberg Kalbe VVilde bath Newenstade By the Alps or neere vnto them these Lordships Baling VVrach Blawbeyren Heidenheim Tuthing vpon the banke of Donaw by the which as by a certaine trench they are seuered and diuided But euery where the confines of the iurisdiction of VVirtemberg do gather themselues into a ring as it were enclosed with a large band to the places neere to Nicher But whereas Nicher doth spread it selfe into the champian fields there it is not only more kinde for temperature of the aire but also the soile is more fit for tillage Euery where are riuers well stored with fish holesome springs pleasant lakes goodly valleys Euery where hilles beset with Vines well-grasing pastures and medowes fertile fields forests of woods and groues in the which are great store of Beeches many Okes innumerable companies of Deeres large pastures abundance of cattell in all places plenty of Wine Corne and Apples Vpon the brinke of crooked Nicher here and there are many goodly cities some of them of reasonable greatnesse others not so bigge but for building and beautie very glorious In the higher countrey vpon Nicher doe stand Hernberg Tubing Nurting Kurch then Stutgard which being built as it were in the center of the prouince is the chiefe citie and the palace of the princes of VVirtemberg and excelleth all the other cities in buildings multitude of people and greatnesse About the lower coast of Nicher at this day doe flourish VVabling Schrondorff VVinida Bachanauge Brackenauge Binnicke Bessicke Bieticke VVinsberg Megimill Lauff Greining VVahing Next vnto Statgard are Bebeling Lenberg Cannostade all which cities haue their seuerall Lordships many strong villages men and munition Moreouer generally the people of this countrey is for their manhood humanitie constancie and religion very renowmed The townes as I said before are not so great but are sumptuously built whereof some are sufficiently fortified by nature and benefit of the place other some by the industrie and labour of man The villages are so well inhabited that they are not much inferiour to prety townes their houses are of timber but very artificially built The castles are fortified by nature and situation as also by the ingenious arte of fortification and so are not easie to be surprised so that a man would thinke that another Laconia were yet extant amongst the Switzers such is the excellencie of the men both at home and abroad This Dukedome hath his name of VVirtemberg an ancient beacon which now is situate in the midst of his territory not very farre from Stutgard yet vpon somewhat a rising ground hilly place is neither for his strength nor building any terrour to the enemy But according to the custome of their ancestours who
Briomeck with a castle which belongeth vnto the same Bishop Then Schwatz where euery yeere great store of siluer as we sayd before is digged out of the earth Verona c. But that which we haue not thought good to conceale of Munster is well worth the reading There is saith he an hill called Nansberg three miles from Trent extending it selfe twelue miles in length and three in bredth in which there are three hundred and fiftie Parish-Churches two and thirtie Castles besides Salt and many pleasant and sweet smelling fruits In it all things do abundantly grow which are necessary for the maintenance of mans life But of this Countie see more at large in the same authour Ianus Pyrrhus Pincius of Mantua hath learnedly and at large set forth the historie of Trent in twelue books Of GOERCZ KARST CHACZEOLA CARNIOLA HISTRIA and WINDISKMARKE OF Windiskmarke Istria and Goerez we must speake hereafter and therefore in this place we will sursease to say ought of them Of Carnioll Karst and Chaczeoll to say the trueth I know not what to write Something notwithstanding that otherwise than in the other I do not deceiue the expectation of the Reader that shall not be vnpleasant vnto those which doe admire the wonderfull works of the Almightie I will speake in this place There is a place in this Map which the inhabitants call Czyrcknitzersee of a little towne neere vnto it called Czyrcknitz Lazius saith that Strabo calleth it the Mere of Lugey it is situate in the prouince of Carnioll This place so I call it for whether I may more truly terme it a lake a parke or a field I know not as the same Lazius hath euery yeere yeeldeth corne fishing and hunting But here I thinke it best first to set downe his description out of George Wernher a little more at large It is enclosed saith he on euery side with mountaines and is in length about a mile and a halfe but in bredth somewhat lesse In many places it is eighteene cubits deepe and where his depth is least it is equall vnto the full height of a tall man Out of the hilles round about on euery side certeine small brooks do runne ech from his seuerall channell from the East coast three from the South foure Euery one of these the farther they runne the lesse water they containe for the earth so continually soaketh it vp that at last it is wholly consumed by certeine stonie ditches so framed by nature as they do seeme to haue beene made and cut out by the arte and industrie of man Lazius thinketh them to be certeine signes and arguments of the sailing of the Argonautes vnder the earth Heere the waters doe so mightily swell that by no meanes they may be receiued whereupon it commeth to passe that the ditches doe in such maner swell backe againe that neither they only doe not receiue the water but also what they haue receiued they powre backe againe so exceeding swiftly that a nimble horseman by running shall hardly be able to auoid the violence of the streame Therefore which way soeuer the waters shall finde any way out they issue forth and spread themselues so broad that they make a great lake These waters do returne almost as swiftly as they came yet not by those ditches only but the ground euery where almost doth so receiue them as if they were powred thorow a sieue This when the inhabitants do perceiue will come to passe they by and by stopping the greater passages to the vttermost they may they runne thither to fish by great troops which is not only a pleasant passe-time to them but also is very gainfull and profitable For these fishes being salted are carried out in great plentie vnto the neighbour-regions round about Then the lake being dried succeedeth an haruest on that part where the soile is sowen and the same is sowen againe before the next floud It is so fertile of grasse that euery twentie dayes it may be mowen Who is it that which here doth not admire the wonderfull works of sporting nature Rhetiae alpestris decriptio in qua hodie TIROLIS COMITATVS Ex tabula Wolfgangi Lazij quam Joan Maior Viennensis aedidit Cum Gratia et Priuilegio GORITIAE KARSTII CHACZEOLAE CARNIOLAE HISTRIAE ET WINDORVM MARCHAE DESCRIP Haec tabula concinnata est ex corographijs Wolfg. Lazij cuiinsima Histriae pars ex alterius descriptione addita est ITALIE ITalie the chiefe prouince of the world as it hath often changed the name according to the alteration of times and states for it was called Enotria Ausonia Hesperia Saturnia c. so also his bounds and borders are diuersly described by diuers authours notwithstanding in later ages it is thus bounded First by the riuer Varus then by a straight passing by Alpes Coctiae now called Monte Genebrae by Mount Adula or S. Gothardes hill the Alpes of Rhetia or Monte Braulis and hilles adioyning then by the riuer Arsia the vtmost border of Istria thus it is bounded vpon one side the other sides do abut vpon the sea Ptolemey describeth it in the forme of an Isthmos or Peninsula which the sea incloseth on three sides the other is walled by the Alpes The ancient writers doe liken it vnto an Oke-leafe the latter doe set it out not without great resemblance in the proportion and shape of a mans legge from the hippe vnto the sole of the foot Italie hath the mountaine Apennine as it were a ridge or backe passing along from one end of it to the other like as we see in fishes the ridge bone to runne along from the head vnto the taile This mountaine which ariseth out of the Alpes where they decline from the lower or Mediterranean sea when as almost with a straight course nere Ancona it tendeth toward the Higher or Adriatique sea and there seemeth to end yet from thence againe declining from that sea it passeth thorow the middest of Italie toward the Brutij now Calabria inferiore and the Sicilian straights Elian affirmeth that in times past there were in this countrey 1197. cities Guido a Priest of Rauenna out of Iginus which six hunnred yeeres since wrote of the cities of Italie writeth that in his time there were but seuen hundred only Blondus diuideth Italie into 18. prouinces Leander into 19. and their names are these The olde The new LIGVRIA Riuiera de Genua ETRVRIA Toscana VMBRIA Ducato di Spoleto LATIVM Campagna di Roma CAMPANIA FELIX Terra di Lauoro LVCANIA Basilicata BRVTII Calabria inferiore MAGNA GRAECIA Calabria superiore SALENTINI Terra d' Otranto APVLIA PEVCETIA Terra di Barri APVLIA DAVNIA Puglia Piana SAMNITES Abruzzo PICENVM Marca Anconitana FLAMINIA Romagna AEMILIA Lombardia di qua dal Po. GALLIA TRANSPADANA Lombardia di la dal Po. VENETI Marca Treuigiana FORVM IVLII Friuli Patria HISTRIA Istria Plinie according to the opinion of Varro maketh the lake Cutilius in the territorie of Reatino to be the center of
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
are Aquileya adorned with the title of a Patriarchy This citie Mela nameth The rich In times past it was the seat of the Emperours and therefore it was called Another Rome and was in compasse twelue miles In it there haue beene accounted long since an hundred and twentie thousand citizens The great prosperitie and flourishing estate of this citie especially grew by the great thronging hither of Merchants for that from all quarters almost of the world by reason of the great commodiousnesse of the place easie and safe entrance vnto it aswell by land as by sea merchandise were conueyed to this citie as to a common ware-house That great trade of merchandise ended together with the fortune of the citie the Venetians growing mightie and drawing vnto themselues all meanes of trade and traffique so that now of a most flourishing and populous city it is almost wast and desert Vtina which also is called Vtinum the Italians vulgarly call it Vdene the Dutch Weyden situate in a plaine hath a strong castle built vpon the toppe of an hill raised by the labour and industrie of man conteining at this day fortie furlongs in compasse Tergeste Trieste vpon the sea shore a colonie of the Romans Goritia sometime if I be not deceiued called Noreia Here are many monuments of great antiquitie to this day remaining The citie Austria many thinke it in olde time to haue beene called Forum Iulij situate in the straights of the mountaines is a place strong and fortified by nature Thorow the middest of it doth runne the riuer Natiso vpon the which is a faire stone bridge S. Daniels towne seated vpon a very high and steepe hill Porto Gruaro vpon the South banke of Limine Then Spilimbergo Marano Montfalcone and others of which thou mayest reade in Leander out of whom we haue drawen this briefe description Iohannes Candidus hath written an historie of Aquileia whose copartener in his labour and trauell Leander writeth to haue beene Gregorius Amasaeus Of the monuments and antiquities of Aquileia Sabellicus hath written six bookes which are euery where to be gotten FORI IVLII ACCVRATA DESCRIPTIO Cum Priuilegio Ex Bibliotheca Nobilis et doctissimi Ioannis Sambuci Imperatoriae Mats. Historici 1573. IVLIAE ALPES IAPIDES ET CARNI The liberties of the citie of VERONA THe citie of the Cenomanes situate in Gallia Cisalpina or as now they call it Lombardie is within the iurisdiction of the Venetians a citie most stately built vpon ech banke of the riuer Adese but conioyned by foure faire bridges The same riuer as it doth diuide it into two parts so it doth almost on euery side enclose it round so that it is not only a commodity vnto the citie but also a defence and ornament vnto the same The soile of this tract is excellent good yeelding many things necessary and profitable vnto it Great store of oile and corne yeelding yeerely great gaines vnto the country people by selling and transporting it to forren nations Woll for finenesse excelling the other sorts of Italie The citie is most excellently and pleasantly seated beautified with faire and goodly buildings aswell priuate as publike It hath many famous monuments of antiquitie worth the regarding amongst the which is the Amphitheater which the common sort call Arena The sand of all those which remaine in Italie or in other places of Europe the whollest and least defaced either by iniurie of times or rage of barbarous nations Moreouer a triumphall arche in whose inscription this citie is termed COLONIA AVGVSTA VERONA NOVA GALLIENIANA There are also other monuments which here for breuitie sake we must omit The liberties or ground belonging to this citie is in length from the little towne Baruchello vnto Riua which is on the farther side of Lago de Garda sixtie fiue miles in bredth which beginneth at La torre delle confine vnto Riuoltella fortie miles and conteineth in all 1443378. fields so the common people of Italie call the measure whereby they measure their lands Seardeonius interpreteth it Akers whereof 1223112. are fertile 220266 are barren which notwithstanding dayly by the industry and diligence of the husbandmen are made more fruitfull There is in this tract a very high mountaine the Mappe placeth it betweene Lago de Gardo and the riuer Adese which they call Baldo This hill is very well knowen to Herborists and Apothecaries which flocke hither from all quarters and do gather many kindes of herbs and roots necessary in Physicke and good and holesome for the vse of man There is also here in a certaine vale called Policella a place named Negarina where there is a very hard stone to be seene hauing vpon it teats carued to the iust fashion and proportion of a womans breasts out of the which pappes water doth continually distill and droppe wherewith if a nurse or a woman giuing sucke doe wash her breasts dried vp by sicknesse or any other mischance it presently draweth downe the milke againe There are also other waters of this countrey giuen by the benefit of nature both pleasant and profitable But the studious Reader desirous to know more of this territory let him reade Blondus and Leander he shall be I dare boldly affirme satisfied at the full Torellus Sarayna hath written a whole booke of the antiquities originall gouernment and policy and famous men of the citie of Verona Georgius Iodocus Bergamus hath described Lago de Garda or Benacke lake in verse in fiue books Iulius Caesar Scaliger hath sounded forth the praise of the citie Verona and the lake Benacke in his funerall oration VERONAE VRBIS TERRITORIVM Ã Bernardo Brognolo descriptum 1579. Cum Priuilegio decannali The Duchie of MILLANE LEander in the description of Italie after a long discourse of the gouernment of this Duchie maketh this relation of Millane his chiefe citie The citie Millane saith he is so conueniently seated that besides the great store of fruite which the ground of his territories do yeeld out of Gallia Cisalpina or Lombardie all things aswell for pleasure and delight as for profit and necessarie vse in mans life may be easily transported thither It is so great that it may well compare with the greatest cities of all Europe It hath very longe and large suburbes by which it is greatly augmented some of them so huge that they may contend for bignesse with other great cities of Italie Notwithstanding of late yeares they suffered great wrecke by reason of the mortall warres and continuall troubles betweene Charles the fift and the French and Venetians By which they were by fire and sword almost vtterly ouerthrowne and destroied although now by great diligence and industrie of the citizens they are reedified againe Wide and deepe diches full of water do compasse both the citie and suburbes by which on euery side by boate and barge such great store of prouision is brought vnto it that there is not any thing heere which is not to be bought at a reasonable rate It is very
Manutius doth highly commend it both for learning and chiualrie Whether this be that Quintianum of which Optatus after speaketh I leaue to the learned to determine The riuer Mela or Mella of which Virgil maketh mention doth runne through the middest of this shire as also Catullus in this verse affirmeth Brixia Cygnaea positus in specula Flauus quam molli percurrit flumine Mella Old Brixia plac'd amidde the brookes as gardian of the Swans The riuer Mella kindly greet'th and watereth all his lands This riuer retaineth the name of Mella vnto this day Notwithstanding it runneth not by it now as you may see although not farre off from thence it passeth through his liberties The little riuer which runneth along by the city is now called Garza but I thinke that in old time it was also called Mella And I thinke I may truly affirme that the riuer Mella when it approacheth neere vnto the city spreadeth it selfe into two channells both of them retaining the same name do make a riuer-iland like as Nilus maketh Heracleopolites and then againe falling into one streame still keepe the name of Mella and hauing so heauily laden runne for many miles together at length it vnladeth it selfe into the riuer Ollio But before I finish the discourse of this Mappe I haue thought good to say somewhat of the Lakes of the same The lake Benacus called of the poet Catullus Lydius Capriolus thinketh to haue been so named of the city Benaco sometime seated vpon his brinke a mention of which to this day remaineth still in a village called Toscolano which thou seest vpon his west side standing vpon a brooke of the same name A memoriall of this city is preserued in an auncient monument whose inscription Manutius setteth downe in his Orthographie This lake is now called Garda of the castle Garda placed opposite vnto Benaco vpon his east banke This lake as Alexius Vgonius writeth in a letter of his to Cardinall Poole aboundeth with store of fish which for goodnesse do far surpasse all others It is enclosed on euery side with most pleasant hilles into it from all quarters the cleare fountaines flow Goodly meddowes vines oliues beeches laurell and cedars besides townes furnished with all maner of necessarie prouision like a crowne beset it round on euery side so that nothing at all of those things may further be desired which may make a champion country either beautifull to the eie or commendable for profit and commodities c. While I was writing of this there came into my mind what speech I once had of this lake with that most learned good man Benedictus Arias Montanus for we both had seene the same although not at the same time in which we both did protest either to other that we neuer in all our liues had seene a place either more pleasant for situation or more delightsome to the eie so that it was no maruell that Catullus did so highly commend in his Epigrammes that his Sirmion and the waters of this lake The other lake in this Cart is Sebinus or Seuinnus for Plinie vseth both made by the riuer Ollio This now they call Iseo of a town of the same name situate vpon his banke There is also another lake which they call Idro by what name it was called of the auncients or whether by any I doe not certainly know I know that a certaine learned man doth hold it to be Brigantinus Lacus whereof Plinie speaketh but why I am not of his opinion I haue shewed reasons in my Geographicall treasure Bresciano BRIXIANI AGRI TYPVS Brixia Cygnaea supposita in specula Cum priuilegio Imperiali Regio et Belgico 1590. Milliaria Italica decem The Dukedome of PIEMONT THat prouince which was formerly called Taurinorum regio is now termed Piemont or Pedemont for that it is seated at the bottome of the Alpes which do diuide France and Sauoy from Italie and so is as one would say The prouince at the foot of the hilles The bounds of this country are thus on the East the riuer Po on the South the Alpes of Liguria vpon the West the Alpes of France on the North Riuiera di Duria It hath many goodly fields full of pleasant and fruitfull hilles which yeeld corne and other sorts of graine excellent wines and fruite great store It is well replenished with Cities Townes and Villages Vnder the gouernment of the Lombardes it was called The Dukedome of Taurine so named of the city Taurin By them it was first reduced into the forme of a prouince vnder the iurisdiction of a Duke The gouernment of the Lombardes being come vnto a period it was made subiect to the Kings of Italie who were alwaies chosen by the Emperours after that it was gouerned by diuers Petie Kings and long since in later ages it was accounted as part of the iurisdiction of the Princes Earles and Dukes of Sauoy vntill the yeare 1536. when as Francis the first King of France tooke a great part of it and now it is againe restored to the Duke of Sauoy The chiefe city of this Prouince is Turin seated at the mouth of the riuer Dorra where it falleth into Po. This citie Ptolemey Plinie and Tacitus call Augusta Taurinorum That this citie in old time was a very famous citie it may easily appeare in that it was a colonie of the Romanes It lieth at the foot of the mountaines it is foure square and hath foure goodly gates It is very famous for the rich Isle and state of the citizens and is adorned with many goodly buildings amongst the which the Cathedrall Church is most beautifull It hath an Vniuersitie of all maner of goodly learning and is very well serued with all sorts of prouision of victuall The countrie is of a very good and fertile soile especially toward the East and South hauing Vallies most rich for veines of Iron Paulus Diaconus affirmeth that Taurin was the seat of the Lombardes vnto whom it was subiect vntill Desiderius their king was ouercome and taken by Charles the Great and then it was brought vnder the subiection of the Kings of Italie Emperours Countes Montferrate and Marchions and Dukes of Sauoy to whom at this time it is obedient Neere the head of the riuer Po toward Ripell or C. de Reuell and Paisana are quarries of most excellent Marble Vpon the North side of the fountaine of the riuer Po beginneth a certaine pleasant valley called the Vale of Po or as the inhabitants terme it the Vale of Luserna of the towne Luserna which standeth in it It runneth out in length thirtie miles and is not aboue foure miles broad In the entrance of his Eastend is Mambrinum in the end toward the West is a very high stone crosse The people of this place are commonly called The Christians but in some maners and customes which they vse they scarse follow the strickt rules of Christianity nay they do obserue most vngodly and wicked rites and ceremonies amongst which
situation antiquities famous men and other matters worthy of record of this prouince let him haue recourse to the most learned Iohn Boniface who hath a while since set forth a most exact and absolute historie of it There is also extant a description of the countrie of Treuiso done in verse by Iohn Pinadello but as yet it is not imprinted Thus farre the Author hath discoursed vpon this his Mappe to which I trust I may with his good liking adde this out of Zacharie Lillie his Breuiary of the world TARVISIVM now Treuiso a goodly city belonging to the Signiorie of Venice of which of all ancient writers Plinie did first make mention brought forth Totilas the fift and most famous king of the Gothes from whom it first began his greatnesse and to arise to that dignitie that now it hath obtained that the whole prouince of Venice should be called The Marquesate of Treuiso For Totilas gathering together a great armie conquered all Italie and entering the city of Rome did sacke and fire it Certaine haue affirmed that the citie Treuiso was built by the Troians vpon the faire riuer Sile which falleth into the Adriaticke-sea The city it selfe for walles castle and water is very strong for bridges priuate houses and Churches very beautifull and for diuers merchandise very famous It hath great store of corne wine oile fish and fruites The country hath very many castles and villages but worthy men commended for Religion and wisedome vertuous life and ciuill conuersation do especially commend this city Thus farre out of Lillie PATAVINI TERRITORII COROGRAPHIA IAC CASTALDO AVCT Milliaria TARVISINI AGRI TYPVS Auctore Io. Pinadello Phil. et I. C. Taruisino The Lake of COMO sometime called LACVS LARIVS LACVS LARIVS which now they call Lago di Como of Como the ancient town adioining vnto it tooke his name of the Fenducke a bird which the Greekes call Larus and the Latines Fulica of which it hath great plenty It runneth out from North to South in length fortie miles it is beset round with Mountaines whose toppes are couered with groues of Chesse-nut-trees the sides with vines and oliues the bottoms with woods which affoord great store of Deere for game Vpon the brinke of the Lake are many Castles seated amongst the which on the South side is Como a faire towne built by the Galli Orobij or as some thinke by the Galli Cenomanes Afterward Iulius Caesar placed a colonie there amongst which were fiue hundred Grecian gentlemen as Strabo testifieth whereupon it was called Nouum Comum It is seated in a most pleasant place that one would iudge it a kind of Paradise or place onely sought out for pleasure and delight for vpon the fore-side it hath the goodly Lake on the backe-side the champion plaines well manured and fertile of all sorts of fruite Vnto which you may adde the wholesome and sweet aire Of the brasen statue long since taken out of this citie see Cassiod 2. Variar cap. 35. and 36. This towne brought forth the two Plinies men worthy of eternall fame in whose honour and memory the citizens caused these Inscriptions to be engrauen in marble vpon the front of S. Maries Church which we wrote out in the yeare of CHRIST 1558. in our returne from Italie Vpon the right hand of the dore THE STATE AND CITIZENS OF COMO HAVE GRACED C. PLINIVS SECVNDVS THE MOST VVORTHY FREEMAN OF THEIR CORPORATION A MAN OF A PREGNANT VVIT HONOVRABLE FOR DIGNITIES FOR LEARNING ADMIRABLE WHO IN HIS LIFE TIME OBTAINED THE LOVE AND FRIENDSHIP OF VESPASIAN THE EMPEROVR BORE MANY GREAT OFFICES EXCELLED ALL VVRITERS OF HIS TIME IN ELOQVENCE AND VARIETIE VVITH THIS TITLE AND STATVE Such honour great and worthy fame me Pliny did adorne But much it grac'th mee more what heere is set Vpon the left hand TO C. PLINIVS CAECILIVS SECVNDVS THEIR VVEL-BELOVED CITIZEN VVHO HAVING BEEN CONSVLL AVGVR AND BORNE ALL OFFICES IN THE VVARRES A FAMOVS ORATOVR POET AND HISTORIOGRAPHER MOST ELOQVENTLY VVRITTEN OF THE VVORTHY COMMENDATION OF TRAIAN THE EMPEROVR BESTOVVED MANY BOONES AND BOVNTEOVS FAVOVRS VPON HIS NATIVE COVNTRY GRACING THE SAME VVITH ETERNALL CREDIT THE STATE OF COMO FOR THESE BENEFITS DID HEERE PLACE THIS MONVMENT THE FIRST OF MAY IN THE YEARE 1498. At home in peace abroad in war ech office haue I borne I liued I di'd and still I liue as yet But why may I not to these adioine the words of the same Plinie in his second booke vnto Caninius writing thus Doest thou studie or doest thou angle or iointly doest thou both For the Lake affoordeth store of Fish the woods plenty of Deere the priuatenesse of the place doth giue great occasion of study The same authour in his 4. Epistle vnto Licinus Sura hath a storie of a certaine strange spring not farre off from this Lake Paulus Iouius hath most excellently described this Lake in a seuerall Treatise out of the which we haue drawen this our Mappe befitting our purpose Moreouer Cassiodorus in his eleuenth booke of Varieties vnto Gaudiosus hath most exactly painted out the same Benedictus Iouius and Thomas Porcacchius haue written the histories of Como Read also Leander in his Italia and Dominicus Niger in his Geographie The territories and liberties of the Citie of ROME OF the city of Rome sometime the Empresse of the world and Liberties of the same because this place cannot beare so large a description as his worth doth deserue and for that it is better to say nothing at all of it then to say little I thinke it best onely to reckon vp those famous authours which haue written of it at large and to referre thee to them for further satisfaction Of which the more ancient are Q. Fabius Pictor Sex Rufus and P. Victor Of the later writers Blondus in his Italia Fabius Caluus of Rauenna Bartho Marlianus Andreas Fuluius Georgius Fabricius Lucius Faunus Andreas Palladius Pyrrhus Ligorius and Lucius Maurus And very lately Io. Iacobus Boissartus Iacobus Mazochius hath gathered and set out all his old Epigrammes Fuluius Vrsinus the Noble houses and Vlysses Aldroandus the statues of the same Hubertus Goltzius with no lesse art then diligence and great expences hath expressed in forme of a booke the table of his Fasti most cunningly cut in brasse LAKII LACUS VULGO COMENSIS DESCRIPTIO AVCT PAVIO OVIO TERRITORII ROMANI DESCRIP FORI IVLII VVLGO FRIVLI TYPVS TVSCIA THe bounds of Tuscia which in time past was called Hetruria are on the East the riuer Tyber on the West Macra on the South the Mediterran sea on the North the Apennine mountaines It is a most goodly beautifull and pleasant country The people are very ingenious and of a subtile witte indifferently fitte either for peace or warre for all maner of humane litterature or for trades and merchandise The nation hath alwaies been superstitious and much giuen to deuotion in religion as is apparant out of ancient writers The sea coast toward the Tyrrhen or Mediterran sea
is for the most part in this our age full of Forrests as also it was in the time of Vopiscus as he witnesseth in the life of Aurelian especially a little beyond the riuer Arno vntill one come beyond Plumbino The inner part of the country is almost as much oppressed with Mountaines In it are these cities more famous than the rest Florence Siena Luca Perugia Pisa Viterbo c. FLORENCE or as they call it Fiorenza is situate vpon ech side of the riuer Arno conioined by foure faire bridges it is a most goodly and beautifull city whereupon commonly they call it Fiorenza la bella Florence the faire as if indeed it might seeme to bee the flower of all Italie For it is adorned with stately buildings aswell Churches and religious houses as of priuate citizens Amongst all other the Church of S. Maria Florida wholly ouerlaid with Marble arched with a roofe of an admirable workemanship neere to which is built a goodly steeple for the bels all of fine marble not farre from which standeth the ancient Temple of Mars of forme round very ingeniously built and of a cunning workemanship now dedicated to S. Iohn Baptist The dores of this Church are of cast brasse a very rare and curious peece of worke especially those which are next to the Church of S. Maria Florida are such that all men of iudgement and experience must absolutely confesse that in all Europe beside the like are no where to be seene But to reckon vp all the worthy buildings of this citie aswell sacred as profane it were too tedious and would require more paper than this our purposed discourse will beare He therefore that desireth to know more of the particulers more at large let him reade Leander SIENA lieth vpon the top of an hill round begirt with high rocks of Tophus-stone gorgeously bedecked with many noble mens houses amongst the which is the great and large Church of our Lady equall to the stateliest and sumptuousest Churches of all Europe whether you respect the worth and price of the Marble whereof it is built or the excellencie of the worke and workemanship of him that made it Besides that there is a most stately house of tree stone built by Pope Pius II. with many other goodly houses Worthy of commendation and record is the large and beautifull market place with Branda the pleasant fountaine alwaies full of most cleare water PERVGIA is seated vpon the mountaine Apennine the greatest part of the countrie arising with goodly pleasant hilles fertile of strong Wines Oiles Figges Apples and other sorts of most excellent fruits Beneath the citie at Asisia as also toward Tuder neere Tiber the pleasant champion fields do spread themselues yeelding plenty of wheat and other kind of graine The city by reason of the nature of the place is very strong adorned with gorgeous buildings both of religious houses and churches as also priuate citizens together with a famous and large fountaine in the middest of the citie It is very populous and the citizens are very ingenious and of couragious stomackes apt indifferently either for any maner litterature or for seruice in the field PISA long since hath beene a famous citie and many waies richly blessed not onely before the flourishing estate of the Roman Empire but euen when it was at the full height as also many yeares after Many famous Marine-conquests which it hath made by which it brought the Ile Sardinia subiect to their command do auouch this to be true Panormo a faire citie of Sicilia they won from the Saracens and of the bootie and spoiles taken in that warre they began to build the great Church which they call DOMNVM as also the beautifull palace of the Bishop It hath an Vniuersitie or Schoole of all maner of Liberall Arts and Sciences whose foundation was laid in the yeare of CHRIST 1309. VITERBO lieth in a pleasant and spacious champion hauing the Cyminian hilles now of this citie called Mont Viterbo vpon his backeside stately for many faire buildings and works of rare Art amongst which is a famous fountaine from whence issueth water in such abundance as is wonderfull LVCA is seated in a plaine not farre from the hilles foot a city of goodly buildings The people are neat wise and ingenious which haue most discreetly retained and kept their libertie of a long time whole in their owne hands although they haue been often assaulted by their neighbours See more at large of this in Leander Myrsilus the Lesbian Marcus Cato in his Origines and their Expositor Ioannes Annius Viterbiensis who also wrote a seuerall treatise of the antiquities of Hetruria William Postell Volaterranus and Laonicus Chalcocondylas a Grecian in his sixth booke and others haue described this prouince Ioannes Campanus hath written most elegantly of the Lake of Perugia THVSCIAE DESCRIPTIO AVCTORE HIERONYMO BELLARMATO Me Ianus tenuit primus formataue ab illo Imposui leges populis nomina Ponto Inferno Supero missos auxiue colonos Imperiumque Italos trans fines foedera natis Dum seruata meis sed me discordia preaeceps Romuleae genti domitam seruire coegit Quae deous antiquae longo post tempore linguae Auxilij male grata mei male grata laborum Abstulit mansit nomen quod Thura dedere Archades aut Lŷdi quod vel mutare Pelasgi Non ausi sacras quibus has concessimus oras Cum priuilegio The Signiory of FLORENCE OF the city of Florence read Blondus who in his view of Italie reporteth thus of it They commonly affirme saith he that this citie was first begonne by Sylla's souldiers vnto whom this part of the countrie was by Sylla assigned and because they first began to seat themselues ad Arna fluenta about the riuer Arno they then intituled it by the name of FLVENTIA And indeed Pliny who of all the old writers first mentioneth this place saith that the Fluentini were seated neere the riuer Arno. These souldiers came hither about the yeare after the building of the city of Rome 667. whereupon it appeareth that Florence was founded about 83. yeares before the birth of Christ This city suffered much wrecke in the time of the warres of the Gothes Yet was it neuer either by Totilas or any other of those ragings Tyrants vtterly rased or spoiled And therefore that which some do write of the repairing of Florence by Charles the Great I can by no meanes allow when as the histories of Charles written by Alcuinus his schoolemaster do only mention his keeping of Easter heere at two seuerall times as he went by this way toward Rome It was preserued from a great hazard of vtter ouerthrow which it was like to haue fallen into by the manhood of one Farinata Vbertino when as they of Pisa Siena and others of Tuscane meeting at a market in a consultation by them held hauing generally determined to rase Florence to the ground said stoutly That while he liued he would neuer suffer
that after his death by the triall of Hoate Iron she would approue to the view of the world how wrongfully he was put to death The day came when as the Emperour sate to heare the causes and complaints of widdowes and Orphanes Together with these came the late Countesse bringing in her hand the Earles head and demandeth what death that Iudge is worthy of that had put a man to death wrongfully The Emperour answered He is worthy to lose his head She saith Thou art the same man who at the false suggestion of thy wife didst vniustly cause my husband to be beheaded The which when as the widdow approued vnto him by the maner of triall by hoat iron the Emperour yeelded himselfe into the hands of the widdow willing to abide his deserued punishment Notwithstanding by the mediation of the Bishop and the Nobility he obtained of the Countesse respite for tenne daies then for eight then for seuen lastly for six After the end of which daies the Emperour hauing examined the matter and being assured of the truth gaue sentence against his wife that she should be burned at a stake and giuing foure castles vnto the widdow redeemed his life These castles are in the Bishopricke of Luna in Hetruria or Tuscane and they are called after the names of the daies of repreeue The tenth The eighth The seuenth and The sixth Thus farre Syffridus which I thought good to set down in this place for to my knowledge no man els hath left any record of these castles neither are they named in this Mappe by our Authour notwithstanding that he hath described the country most curiously FLORENTINI DOMINII FIDELISSIMA ET NOVA DESCRIPTIO Auctore D. Stephano Monacho Montisoliueti The liberties of PERVGIA IOhannes Campanus writing of this country affirmeth that although he had trauailed and viewed many countries yet he neuer saw in all his life a more pleasant country and better manured then the country of Perugia All things seeme wast and wild to those that are farre off but if you shall come more neere nothing may be found more glorious either in respect of the husbandry of the land or wholesomnesse of the aire or fertility of the soile The riuer of Tiber runneth through the middest of this country and kindly watereth the same Not farre from which is the city Perugia situate vpon the Mount Apennine built long since as Trogus Pompeius affirmeth by the Achaians and of the twelue cities of Hetruria it is the chiefe It was called Augusta by the Emperour Augustus as the Capitall letters halfe a yeard square grauen vpon the gate do declare This city in regard of the nature of the place is inuincible richly beautified both with religious and priuate buildings of great state and is very populous This city aboue all the cities of Italie hath been euermore most fortunate and happie hauing retained the same state and gouernment little or nothing altered which it enioied before the building of Rome and that which afterward it had in the time when Rome was ruled by Kings Consuls Emperours and Tyrants at this time it reteineth Yet it hath endured many and diuers greeuous and bitter storms For in the time when Fabius Maximus was Consull as Liuie reporteth 4500. of his citizens were slaine In the daies of the Triumuiri Augustus besiedged it and forced it to great distresse for want of victualls tooke it and rased it to the ground and was wholly defaced with fire except only the Temple of Vulcane as Appian recordeth Afterward it endured the seuen yeares siedge and batterie of the cruell Tyrant Totilas and at length was sacked and spoiled c. Now it is subiect to the Pope of Rome and hath a famous Vniuersitie which was erected about the yeare of CHRIST 1290. as Middendorpius hath written Heere in the time of our grandfathers flourished the most renowmed Ciuilians Bartholus and Baldus In the precincts of this city is Lago di Perugia the lake of Perugia anciently called LACVS TRASVMENVS famous long since for a great ouerthrow heere giuen by Hanniball to the Romanes Appianus calleth it Lacus Plestinus but for what reason I know not It is in compasse as the foresaid Campanus writeth about thirtie miles The water of it is very cleare and pure there are no riuers which runne into it neither hath it any issue forth yet is his water so exceeding sweet that any man would thinke it were fedde from some running fountaine It hath in it three Isles whereof two which are toward the North are close together the one called the Greater the other the Lesser Maiores and Minores This is wast and not in habited only it hath a Church situate vpon the toppe of an hill The other which is neere to the liberties of Cortona conteineth about 200. families The third which is toward the South and is bigger then the other two is very populous and well inhabited The inhabitants almost giue themselues wholly to Fishing they sow little Corne yet they do not neglect to plant vines For wood fuell and fodder they go out into the fields and woods neere adioining Amongst the records of Lewis first Emperour of Rome there is mention of these three Ilands where he nameth them MAIOR MINOR and PVLVENSIS now Polueso where I perceiue that they yet retaine their ancient names No boggs fennes or spuing meeres do impech the shore this is full of Oliue gardens which vpon the hills on euery side do adorne the Lake and are for their wonderfull fertility very beautifull In the plaine which is between the Lake and the Hilles there is such abundance of Hempe and Flax so that in all Hetruria or Tuscane there is not more No country yeldeth better Wines or sweeter Apples The kinds of Fishes in the lake are not many but the abundance is wonderfull in which it farre excelleth all other Lakes of Italie heere also the fishing continueth all the yeare long yea euen in the dead of winter which no other Lake in all Italie affoordeth These fish in the winter are caried into Tuscane Vmbria and Picenta to Rome also they driue much cattell daily to be sold The same Campanus affirmeth that heere they take a pickerell partly coloured spotted with diuers green specks of the which he reporteth strange wonders namely that it doth engender with serpents and from thence it getteth those strange colours The common people saith Iacobus Greumus in the twentieth chapter of his first booke verily beleeueth that lampreies do engender with serpents which Plinie holdeth for a fable notwithstanding that hee often seemeth to be much delighted in writing of fables Athenaeus also writeth out of the report of one Andreas that these Lampreies which are bred of the viper if they bite the wound is deadly which opinion he afterward reclaimeth as false Againe he telleth of a Pike that lying vpon the drie land which when a fox assaied to catch one of his feetstooke fast in his teeth and both were
Sabellicus Volaterran and Iacobus Zieglerus passing well Stephanus Lusignanus hath in the French tongue written a peculiar booke of this Iland STALAMINE sometime called LEMNOS LEmnos an Iland of the Aegean sea lieth ouer against Thrace Romania between the Peninsula or Neck-land of Thrace and the mount Athon of Macedonie Famous long since for Vulcanes shoppe and now as much talked of for the medicinall earth which of the Physitions is called Terra Lemnia that heere is digged out At this day this ile is called of the Turks and Italians Stalamine It is 100. miles about as Bordonius affirmeth And is a plaine and champion country in respect of the Ilands round about it On the East side as Bellonius reporteth it is leane and no good corne ground between the South and West parts where it is more moist it is much more fertile Anciently it had two cities Myrina and Ephestias this latter is wholly desert and not inhabited is now called Cochino That at this day is a towne of small account situate in a Demy-ile or Peninsula ioined to the Iland by a narrow necke or Isthmos at this day it is called Lemno In this iland as Pliny testifieth there was a Labyrinth the third in estimation from that of Aegypt But Bellonius narrowly seeking for his foundation could not find any mention of it nor any of the country that could shew him any more then certaine pieces of it The same authour affirmeth that there are yet remaining in it 75. villages The earth which anciently was called Sphragida and Terra Lemnia commonly Terra sigillata is now as in old time it was wont digged out of the ground not without a certaine kind of superstitious ceremony euery yeare vpon the sixth day of August and at no time els For vpon paine of death it is decreed that no man either priuately or openly shall go thither to digge out ought The place where it is digged out they call Vulcanes mount Of the kinds of hearbs serpents and fishes which are heere very common and of the ceremonies and with what adoe the earth that is called Terra Lemnia is taken out of the ground and of diuers other peculiar things of this iland read the first booke of P. Bellonius his Obseruations Andreas Matthiolus also out of the letters of Albacarius vnto Angerius Busbechius hath a curious description and discourse of the ceremonies vsed in the digging out of Terra sigillata in those his learned commentaries vpon Dioscorides Of this also read Hodoeporicum Bizantium Hugoris Fauolij He that desireth the old ceremonies of digging out of the same let him haue recourse to Galen his nienth booke and second chapter De Medicam simplic CYPRI INSVLAE NOVA DESCRIPT 1573. Ioannes á Deutecum f. Cum Priuilegio LEMNOS INSVLAE descrÃptÃonem ex Petrà Bellonij libro de AuÃbus hoc Ãn loco tanguam parergon adÃecÃmus GREECE GReece which sometime was as it were the mother and nurce of all good learning and disciplines of a rich and wealthy country and which by his valour and magnanimity was Empresse Prince of the better halfe of the world is at this day driuen to that state such is the mutability and vnconstancy of fortune which turneth all things vpside downe that there is no part of it but either it is subiect to the Turke and enthralled to his slauish seruitude or els it is vnder the command of the Venetians or tributary to them The Turke possesseth the greater part the Venetians do only enioy certaine ilands in that sea Those which are vnder the Venetian gouernment are in better state in respect of Religion than those which are subiect to the Turke Those which are vnder the obedience of the Turke do conforme themselues to their maners as likewise those which are commanded of the Venetians doe imitate the behauiour of the Venetians Yet all of them do liue in such great darkenesse of ignorant blindnesse that in all Greece now there is not one Vniuersity or schoole of liberall sciences neither are they desirous to haue their children taught so much as to write and read And all of them generally do speake their ancient language but much corrupted although some of them do speake more purely then others Yet their moderne language doth come more neere to the old Greeke then the Italian to the Roman or Latin tongue Those which dwell in cities subiect to the Venetian iurisdiction do speake Greeke and Italian but the country people only Greeke those which dwell in cities commanded by the Turke do speake Greeke and the Turkish tongues those in the villages and vpland places only Greeke They haue also at this day as also they had in former ages diuers and different dialects for the people of one prouince do speake more pure they of another shire more barbarously and rudely whereupon that happeneth to this country which is incident to other parts of Europe that one doth mocke and scoffe anothers pronunciation which to his eares seemeth rude and clownish so that the Boies of Constantinople do mocke and laugh at the forreners for their pronunciation and diuers accenting of words different from them Much like as the Italian which speaketh the Tuscane or the French which speaketh French or the Spaniard which speaketh the Castillian languages do flout and hisse at those which are brought vp in other countries of the same kingdomes But that we may set out in the best maner the whole course of life of this nation I thinke it necessary to distinguish the Nobility and citizens from the common people and baser sort of men for they which are of greater reuenews and of better credit do vse the habit and fashion of apparell of those Princes to whom they are subiect so that those which are gouerned by the Venetians do imitate the Venetians those that are subiect to the Turke the Turkes But the common people vnder whose iurisdiction so euer aswell within the maine land as the ilanders do yet retaine something of the old customes of the Greeks for for the most part all of them do weare the haire of their head long behind and short before and do vse great double cappes The Ilanders in the forme of diuine seruice all of them both in rites and ceremonies aswell as in Ecclesiasticall gouernment do not any whit vary one from another All the Greeks generally after the Turkes maner haue not much houshold stuffe neither do they lie vpon feather-beds but in steed of them they vse certaine pillowes stuffed with flocks or wooll All of them do hate delaied wine that is wine mingled with water and to this day they keepe their old custome of carousing and liberall kind of drinking especially the Creets Yet in this they differ from the Germanes in that these prouoke one another to drinke whole cuppes those do sippe and drinke smaller draughts Whereupon Graecari was then and now still is vsed for Inebriari to be drunken But because that in drinking they
beast which the Latines call Alces the Dutch Elandt The people speake the Slauonian tongue like as also the Polanders do Their chiefe city is Vilna a Bishop sea and is as bigge as Cracow but the houses in it do not stand close together or touch one another but like as in the country gardens and orchyeards are between house and house All that Oke-timber which we call Wagenschott of which almost all the buildings carpenters worke and ioiners worke as well publicke as priuate is made in the Low-countries as also the greatest part of their furniture and houshold-stuffe is feld in these parts and from thence is through the East sea the Latines call it Mare balticum the Dutch Oostsee the Russians Wareczkouie morie and Germane ocean transported into these countries In SAMOGITIA which in their language signifieth Low-land the people are tall and of a goodly stature but rude and barbarous in their maners and behauiour vsing a sparing and homely diet The Russians call this prouince Samotzkasemla Heere is no maner of faire buildings but their houses are like houels or poore cottages made of wood and couered with straw or reed From the bottome vpward by a little and little their buildings are made lesse and lesse like the keele of a ship or great helmet In the toppe it hath one window letting in the light from aboue vnderneath which is the hearth or chimney where they dresse their meat In that house they hide themselues their wiues children seruants maides sheep cattell corne and houshold-stuffe altogether Sichardus in his history of Germany writeth that the people of Samogitia are descended from the Saxons and therefore although they be subiect to the kingdome of Polonia yet the Saxons challenging it to be a part of their iurisdiction they do affirme it to pertaine to the precinct of Saxony MASOVIA is a shire held of the king of Poland in homage The chiefe or Metropolitane city of this prouince is Warsouia where they make the excellent mead a kind of drinke made of hony c. VOLHINIA a country abounding with all maner of things a very fertile soile full of townes and castles PODOLIA is of such a fruitfull soile that the grasse in three daies will couer a sticke being cast into it It is so ranke and groweth so fast that a plough being left in it vpon the head-lands or grassie places of the field in a very few daies wil be so couered ouer that you shall hardly find it againe Heere also is great store of hony The head city is Camyenetz RVSSIA yeeldeth great plenty of Horses Oxen and Sheep of very fine wooll Their drinke is mead which they make of hony Wine also is brought hither from Pannonia Moldauia and Walachria The chiefe city of this prouince is Leunpurg the Latines call it Leopolis Lion-city MOLDAVIA is a part of Walachia whose metropolitane city is Sossouia commonly called Sotschen The inhabitants of this country are a fierce and cruell people but very good souldiours and therefore they are at continuall enmity with the Transsiluanians As the custome of the Thracians was in old time to marke the Noblemens children with a hot iron so they report that the Lords of Moldauia to this day do vse to marke their children assoone as they be borne with some kind of marke least a question might arise whether they were the right and lawfull heires or not and that aliens and strangers might be excluded from inheritance amongst them as Reinerus Reineckius in his discourse of noble families hath written Many other things of thse countries thou maiest read of in Matthias of Michow in his discourse of the Sarmaties Albert Crantz in his description of Wandalia Bonfinius in his history of Hungary and Laonicus Chalcondylas in his first and third bookes But of all Martine Cromer in his Chronicle of Poland hath most excellently described these countries and Sigismund of Herberstain in his commentaries of Moschouia See also Sebastian Munster Pius Secundus Pope of Rome and Dauid Chytraeus in his Chronicle of Saxony Iohannes Duglossus a most copious historian of the Polonians is cited by Ioach mus Cureus but as yet not published as he affirmeth George of Reichersdorff hath most curiously described Moldauia Laonicus Chalcondylas also in his second booke hath diuers things worth the knowing of this country POLONIAE LITVANIAEQ DESCRIPTIO Auctore Wenceslao Godreccio et correctore Andrea Pograbio Pilsnensi Cum Priuilegio Imp. Regiae etc. decennali SPRVSE GRomer in his description of Poland describeth this country on this maner Amongst many other nations of Sarmatia in Europe the Borussi by Ptolemey are placed very farre North in that coast where now as I thinke the Liuonians and Moschouites do dwell beyond the riuer Chernish next neighbours to the Ryphaeans Those with Erasmus stella I iudge to haue passed further South and West and possessed a great part of Sarmatia which is vpon the East adioined to the Russians and Moschouites and is enclosed on the South with woods and the Hercynian forrest and all that coast along by Pautzkerwicke or Frish-haff as some thinke Ptolemey calleth it Sinus Venedicus Pliny Clylipenus the Balticke and East seas euen vnto the riuers Vistula Wixel or Weissel and Ossa and to be called Borussi or Prussi by names not much different In this compasse now do inhabit the Liuonians Lithuans Samagites and the Pruissen yet retaining the ancient appellation nations distinct in respect that they are subiect to diuers states and gouerned by different lawes and policies but vsing altogether the same language vulgarly wholly differing from the Slauonians yet hauing diuers Latine words intermedled and mixt among but for the most part corrupt and formed rather after the Italian and Spanish termination than after the Latine Notwithstanding the Dutch and Germanes of late yeares conquering that part which lieth vpon the sea and is called Spruisse and Liuonia haue planted their colonies there Heere hence it is that the Dutch tongue is more familiar and vsuall to these people than that ancient and vulgar language especially in the cities and townes Which also is vsuall amongst the Lithuans who by reason of their neighbourhood and entercourse with the Russians and colonies from thence enterteined do much what speake the Russian language For in that Duglossus deriueth the name and originall of this nation from Prusias the king of Bithynia it is altogether fabulous and not worth the confuting Some do thinke that the Borussi in the German tongue were so called for that they were neere the Russi but whether truly or fasly I list not heere to dispute When and how the Latine tongue did intermedle it selfe with the vulgar language of the Borussians Lithuanians and Liuonians we dare not constantly affirme Erasmus Stella saith that Borussia Prussia or Spruse was rather assaulted by the Romanes then conquered and alleadgeth Pliny for his authour whereupon that followeth that together with the Empire the Latine tongue could not there be spread
aboue 4000. furlongs and where it is narrowest it is 1300. furlongs broad The Prussians Lithuanians and Russians dwell round about it the rest the Liuonian Gulfe doth bound Liuonia conteineth the CVRONES ESTHENI and LETTI nations different both in maners and language In the cities and townes they vse the Saxon or German tongue The country is full of wood plaine and champion without hils or mountaines for the most part lying lay and vnhusbanded notwithstanding that the soile is good and fertile For if you shall except wine and oile and some few other such things which nature yeeldeth to some countries that are situate in a more temperate climate for these only are brought in hither vnto them other things more necessary for the maintenance of mans life are heere found in such great plenty that they do liberally communicate them to strangers and forreiners They haue great plenty of Fish and Deere Munster affirmeth that the Hares in this country do in euery season of the yeare change their colour for in the winter they are white and in the summer they are gray From hence wax hony ashes stone-pitch pix arida liquid pitch the Dutch call it Ther we Tarre and that kind of corne which the Latines call Secale the Germanes Rogghe and we Rie is yearely brought vnto vs in great abundance It hath certaine cities very large and finely built of them the chiefest is RIGA a colonie of the Germanes of the Bishopricke of Breme commodiously seated vpon the riuer Duin It is a goodly Mart towne and the Metropolitane of the whole prouince RIVALIA they vulgarly call it Reuel the Russians Roliua built by Waldemare king of Denmarke famous for his goodly hauen vpon a bay of the Balticke or East-sea This for traffique is not lesse frequented or populous then Riga DORPATVM Derpt neere neighbour to the Russians which call it Iuriongorod The riuer Becke runneth by the walles of this city very commodious for traffique with the Russians This riuer is caried in one channell into the sea which running violently with a great fall from steep rocks worketh the same effect to the people neere adioining as Lewenclay saith that the cataracts or fals of the riuer Nilus did to the Aegyptians which in continuance of time by little and little grow to be deaffish and thicke of hearing Besides these cities there are certaine lesser townes fortified with goodly strong castles VENDA Wenden the more honourable for that heere the Grand-captaine or Master of the order keepeth his court It is situate in the middest of the country Then VELINVM Welum Parnaw vpon the sea Wolmer Veseburgum I thinke they call it Yseborg Wittestein Narua and others Willichius and Cureus do thinke that the Efflui and Limouij did sometime dwell in these quarters Of the forme of gouernment and ordering of their common-wealth which is at the prescript of the knights of the order of the Holy Crosse read Iohn Aubane Munster Lewenclay Gaguine in his Sarmatia and Herberstein out of whom we haue culled these particulars But Crantzius also in his sixth booke of Wandalia is to be read with Oderbornes second booke of the life of Basilidis and Dauid Chytraus his Chronicle of Saxony who hath written of the same with greater diligence than the rest POMERANIA or POMERLAND PEtrus Artopoeus Pomeranus in Munsters Cosmography thus describeth this country his natiue soile POMOERANIA saith he situate vpon the Balticke sea of the first inhabitants in their natiue language that is in the Wandall tongue is called PAMORZI It is still possessed of the first in-borne inhabitants gouerned by their proper Princes and was neuer subdued or made subiect to any forrein iurisdiction It is in all places very fertile well watered with riuers brookes lakes creekes and in-lets from the sea it hath many good hauens rich pastures and good corne grounds it hath great plenty of apples cattell deere fishes foule corne butter cheese hony wax and such like commodities it hath many rich mountaines populous cities townes castels and villages there is no void place or wast ground in it but those which lakes or mountaines do possesse Before Christianity was entertained here they spake the Wandall language and followed their fashions and maner of life vntill such time as they were subdued vnder the command of the Roman Emperours for then together with Religion they began to vse the Saxon tongue which to this day they retaine Thus farre Artopoeus Pomerye in the Wandalian language which is the same with the Slauonian tongue signifieth nothing els as Herberstein affirmeth but neere the sea or a marine coast The banke or sea-wall of this country is so strongly fortified by nature with such a strong rampart that heere is no feare of the sea breaking in to ouerflow them The more famous cities vpon this coast besides some other situate further within the land are Stetin Newgard Stargard c. STETIN sometime was but a small village inhabited by a few poore fishermen but after that Christianity was planted heere about Wineta vtterly destroied and the mart was remoued hither it begun presently so to flourish that now it is become the Metropolitan of the whole country It is most pleasantly seated vpon the banke of the riuer Oder from the which it ariseth by little and little higher vpon the side of an hill It is enclosed with a strong wall and deep trench GRYPSVVALD is a towne in the Dukedome of Wolgast which others do call the Dukedome of Barth this towne being long together much afflicted with ciuill warres was much hindered and impaired but in the yeare 1456. by erecting and placing of an Vniuersity there it began againe by little and little to lift vp the head IVLINVM a towne sometime not inferiour vnto the goodly cities of Europe whether you respect the wealth of the citizens or stately buildings of the same This was sometime a famous mart towne of the Wandalls Such a multitude of merchants did flocke hither from Russia Saxony Laussnitz Meisen and all parts of Wandal-land in such troopes that in all Europe except Constantinople there was scarce such a mart to be found but it was so shaken by the violent warres of the Danes that at last it was almost wholly brought to nothing such is the mutability of vnconstant fortune alwaies delighted in change Now they call it Wollin STRALSVND vpon the sea shore It hath had sometime his proper prince viz. the Duke of Barth It is a city very populous and greatly frequented by Merchants WINETA this sometime was also a city of good reckoning peraduenture it is now called Archon or Iulinum Wollin For the cities of Wandal-land according to the diuersity of languages of sundry nations had their diuers names That which the Wandalls called Stargard the Saxons named Aldenburg and the Danes Bannesia as Crantzius affirmeth But I thinke it good to set down the description of this country which the singular learned man M. Peter Edling sent me from Colberg in this
it hath the Tartars a warlike and stout people from whom it is defended and seuered partly by an artificiall wall made by the hand and labour of man partly by a naturall mountaine which runneth for many hundred miles together between the countries It is a country very fertile of all maner of things necessary for the maintenance of mans life caused not only by the goodnesse of the soile and temperature of the aire but especially by the husbandry and industry of the people For the men heere are not giuen to idlenesse but are very laborious and painefull To be idle heere it is counted a shamefull thing It hath wonderfull store of Gold Siluer and Rheubarbe The sea which beateth vpon this coast and the riuers which runne through the middest of this country do abound with all sorts of fish Vpon the mountaines vales and meddowes infinite flocks of cattell do feed and are maintained The woods forrests and groues are possessed with Bores Foxes Hares Conies Zebellines Martens and diuers other such kind of beasts whose skins are much set by for facings for gownes Of all kinds of birds it yeeldeth maruallous plenty especially of water-foule as is manifest by this that in Canton which is one of the least cities of this prouince there are spent euery day vpon their Tables tenne or twelue thousand Ducks and Geese They sow the drier ground with wheat and barly the wet plaine or moorish grounds withe rise which they cut or reap foure times in a yeare this is their chiefest diet and liuing The higher and steep places and sides of hilles are beset with Pine-trees amongst the which they sow panicke and pulse or horsecorne There is no place therefore no field no plot of ground vnfruitfull Euery where are Orchards Gardens Fruits Roses Floures of all sorts yeelding a most fragrant and pleasant smell and goodly shew to the beholders They plant flax in great abundance euery where whereof they make diuers sorts of linnen whereof they make their apparell but especially Sugar canes which heere groweth in maruellous great abundance and the Mulbery trees for the feeding of their silke wormes which are maintained with the leaues of this tree Tor Silke is the chifest merchandise and commodity whereof they raise yearely an infinite gaine and profit There are in this kingdome 240. goodly cities the names of which do all generally end in the syllable fu which in their language signifieth a city as Cantonfu Panquinfu The townes whereof there is infinite number they likewise end in Cheu Villages which are not to be numbred by reason of the continuall husbandry and tillage are very populous and wonderfully inhabited All their cities for the most part are situate vpon the banke of some great and nauigable streame fortified with broad and deep ditches and very high strong walles These wals from the foundation vpward are made of stone toward the toppe and battlement with bricke laid in steed of lime and mortar with lome or potters clay the same stuffe I meane whereof the China dishes so much esteemed of amongst vs are made The height of them and thicknesse is so great that fiue or six men may walke a breast vpon the toppe of them Vpon the wall are placed heere and there certaine high towers and bulwarkes out of which they may see all the fields ouer farre and neere round about On ech side of the wals so much vacant ground pomoerium the Latines call it is least that horsemen may passe them six and six in a rancke in battell aray These wals are so close and soundly wrought without any rifts or chinks that one would thinke them to haue been but newly made when as their histories do testifie them to haue been built two thousand yeares since The entrance into the cities is by great gates most wonderfully and stately built Their streets are as smooth and precisely plaine as if they were altogether made by line and leuell and are so large and broad that tenne yea fifteene horsemen may ride a breast through them which in many and sundry places are parted and seuered with stately triumphall arches gracing the cities beyond all measure Certaine Portugals do report that they saw in the city Fucho a turrette standing vpon forty marble pillars whose height were forty hand breadth and the thickenesse twelue after the measure which the Architects vse This they affirme in their iudgement for greatnesse for exquisite workemanship beauty and costlinesse doth farre exceed all the stately buildings of all Europe The greatnesse of their cities we do gather by this that they say the city Canton which we said was one of the least of their cities is twelue English miles in compasse beside 355. suburbes which do belong to it very great and populous The people are broad and round faced thinne haired flatte nosed and small eied although there be some amongst them reasonable well fauoured and handsome men The colour of their faces is somewhat like that of those which inhabite Europe yet those which dwell about Canton are of a browne complexion They seldome or neuer trauell further than their owne country neither will they easily suffer a stranger to dwell amongst them especially in the vpland places except they be publikely sworne to be true vnto the King and Country The wealthy and better sort of men haue all their apparell made of silke of diuers and sundry colours The base and meaner sort do weare a kind of stuffe made of white or blacke cotton and sometime linnen coloured or stained with party colours for as yet in these parts they know not how to make wollen cloth The men there as women do heere do weare their haire long which they winde vp in a knot to the crowne of their head where they bind and fasten it with a siluer bodkin The women comb their haire very trimly and do behang and set it out with gold spangles and diuers kind of pearles and pretious stones They paint and besmeare their faces with complexion such as the Spanish women do commonly vse They neuer once looke out of dores except they be carried in their littars vpon mens shoulders and attended by all the family CHINAE olim Sinarum regionis noua descriptio auctore Ludouico Georgio Cum priuilegio Imperatoris Regis Brabantiae ad decennium 1584. Concerning the faith and religion of this nation it is thus They do beleeue all earthly creatures and all things in the World and the gouernment and disposition of them to depend of Heauen and Heauenly powers For they do thinke that Heauen is the greatest of all Gods and therefore the character of it possesseth the first place of their alphabet They worship the Sunne the Moone and the Stars yea the very Diuell himselfe which they paint in the same forme as wee do heere in Europe that hee may do them no hurt as they say They haue stately and sumptuous Churches aswell in the country as in their cities They haue
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
the Paradise of Italy The hils that are which are but very few are exceeding bleake cold and barren so that they will beare nothing but barly Maroccho which we said was the chiefe city of this kingdome is accounted one of the greatest cities of the whole world for it is of such a wonderfull bignesse that in the raigne of Haly the sonne of Ioseph their king it had more than an hundred thousand families It hath about it 24. gates The wall of a maruelous thicknesse is made of a kind of white stone and chalke vnburned There are heere such abundance of Churches Colledges stoues or hothouses and innes as iustly more may not be desired Amongst the Churches there is none more artificially and gorgeously built than that which standeth in the middest of the city built by the foresaid Haly. There is another beside this first raised by Abdu'-lmumen his successour and enlarged by Mansor his nephew and lastly more richly set out with many goodly columnes which he caused to be brought out of Spaine He made a fountaine or cestern vnderneath the Church as large and wide as the whole Church it selfe The roofe of the Church he couered all ouer with lead At euery corner he made spoutes by which the raine water falling vpon the roofe might runne into the cestern vnderneath The steeple made of a very hard kind of stone like that of the Amphitheater of Vespasian at Rome is higher than that towre of Bononia in Italy The greeses or staiers by which they go vp to the toppe of it are euery one nine handfull thicke but in the outside of the wall are tenne This tower hath seuen roomes or lofts one aboue another Vpon the toppe of it is set another turret or spire like a pyramis sharpe toward the top This hath three lofts one aboue another into which they go vp from one to another by staires or ladders made of wood On the toppe of this spire vpon a shaft of iron in steed of a weather-cocke doth stand a most goodly Moone of pure gold with three golden globes so put vpon the iron shaft that the greatest is lowest the least highest of all If any man from the toppe of the steeple shall looke downe toward the ground the tallest man that is seemeth no bigger than a child of a yeare old From the toppe also of this the cape or fore-land which they call Azaphy being an hundred and thirty miles off may easily be descried And although one should skarcely find a greater Church if one should trauell all the world ouer yet the place is almost wholly desert for none do euer vse to come hither but vpon Fridaies Vnder the cloisters of this Church they report that there were wont to be an hundred Stationers and as many ouer against them on the other side of the Churchyard which daily heere kept shoppe where as now I do not thinke that all this whole city can affoord at this time one booke-seller Hardly the one third part of the towne is inhabited Heere hence it is that within the wals there are many vineyeards large gardens of palme-trees and other fruites with goodly corne fields most fertile and well manured for without the wals they cannot till the ground by reason of the frequent inrodes of the theeuish Arabians This one thing is most certaine that this city is suddenly growne old before the time for it is not aboue fiue hundred and six yeares since it was first built There is also in this city a very strong castle which in respect of the large bignesse the great thickenesse and compasse of the wals the high and many towers or lastly the goodly and stately gates built of the richest Tiburtine marble may iustly be accounted for a faire towne Within this castle is a most beautifull Church with a very high steeple vpon whose toppe is a golden moone with three golden globes of different bignesses all of them weighing 130. crownes There haue been some kings of this country who moued with the loue and valew of the gold haue attempted to take these globes downe and to put them into their purses but alwaies some strange euent or misfortune or other did hinder their purpose and crosse their desires So that it is now commonly amongst the people held for a very ominous thing for any man but once to offer to touch these globes with his hand Let this be sufficient to haue spoken of this city in this place he that desireth a larger discourse both of the city and castle let him haue recourse vnto Leo Africanus who in his 2. booke will satisfie him to the full In this kingdome also is the city TARADANT the Moores call it Taurent a very great and goodly city built by the ancient Africanes It conteineth about 3000. houses or families The people are more ciuill and curtuous than in other places heere about Heere are many artificers of diuers and sundry occupations The townesmen do yearely raise a great profit by keeping of a gard to defend merchants that from hence do trauell vp higher into the country from the assault of theeues and robbers and to conduct and lead them the neereest and best way for it is a place of great resort of strangers aswell of Christians as others There are also other cities as the mappe doth shew amongst the which is MESSA hauing a Church not farre from the sea which they do most religiously reuerence For there are some heere that most fondly do beleeue and affirme that the Prophet Ionas when he was sent of God to preach vnto the Niniuites was at this place cast vp of the fish which before had swallowed him The sparres of this Church and the beames are made of whale bones for it is a common thing for the sea to cast vp heere dead whales of maruailous bignesse Vpon the coast also of this country is found that kind of Amber which we call Amber-greese Not farre from this city is TEINT a towne where all those rich skinnes are dressed which are commonly called Maroccho pelts More of this kingdome thou maist read of in Leo Africanus Marmolius and in the Saracen history of Caelius Augustinus Curio where he hath a seuerall treatise of this prouince Thus farre of Maroccho it remaineth now that we should speake likewise of Fesse FESSE like as Maroccho is a kingdome so called of the chiefe city and metropolitane of the same This city is situate in the hart and middest of the kingdome It was built as they affirme about the yeare of our Lord 786. Neither is it only the head city of this kingdome but it is esteemed The Metropolitane of all Barbary and is vulgarly called as Marmolius testifieth The Court of all the West part of the World Some there are which do thinke it to haue been named Fesse of a masse of gold that heere was found when first they began to lay the foundations of the same for fes in Arabicke signifieth an heap or masse
Genes 13. signifieth an heap It stood ouer against Bethel Saint Hierome labouring to expresse the Hebrew letter Ain writeth it Hagai and saith that in his time 〈◊〉 parua 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a small heap of rubbish HEBRON Whâ—n Abraham returned out of Aegypt after his long Peregrination seeking a new resting place leaueth Bethel and trauelleth vnto Hebron Hebron oft mentioned in diuers places of Holy Scripture had many more ancient names Of which one was Cariath-arbe that is Tetrapolis Foure cities For antiquity diuided the principall and Metropolitane cities into foure parts wardes we would call them The first was the court of the Prince where also the Counsell the Nobility and Princes did keep The second was for the souldiers and military men The third was reserued for the husbandmen In the Fourth the artificers and tradesmen dwelt There also was the vale of Mamre so called of an Ammonite who possessed it Gen. 14. and made a league with Abraham Heere three guests who went to destroy Sodom and Gomorrhe were interteined of Abraham There Abraham buried Sara his wife Gen. 23. And therefore some thinke it was called Ciriath-arbe that is tetrapolis the city of 4 great men for that heere were buried 4. Patriarkes Adam Abraham Isaac and Iacob Gen. 25.35.49 IABOC the riuer Iaboc that is of emptinesse or scattering or wrestling The things done heere and the histories recorded are agreeable to the etymologie and reason of the name for heere Iacob wrestled with the Angell and therefore he was after that named Israel that is a Prince of God or preuailing with God But the place where he wrestled Iacob called Penuel that is seeing God or the face of God IERICHO Some do expound it his moone others his mon'ths or his smell We do approue the later exposition of smelling rather than either of the two former and that for the pleasant and fragrant smell which partly issued from the gardens and orchyeards of the rare and soueraigne Balsam a plant only growing in this place and partly from the Palmetrees which heere do grow in greater abundance than any where else in the world beside And therefore in the 34. of Deut. it is called the City of Palme trees IERVSALEM that is The vision of peace It enclosed two mountaines vpon the which it stood the name of the one was Sion vpon the which stood the castle or palace of Dauid Now Sion signifieth a watch tower a beacon The name of the other was Moria vpon which the temple of Salomon was built For the very name also doth shew that the fathers in old time did sacrifice in that place And Abraham lead his sonne Isaac to sacrifice him to the Lord to this mountaine As concerning the etymologie of mor-iah we are contented with that deriuation of Abraham who nameth it God shall see Therefore let this be receiued that mor-iah signifieth the beholding or the demonstration of God Yet other etymologies and deriuations are not altogether from the purpose and to be reiected as these the illumination of God or the feare of God IORDANIS A famous riuer running through the middest of the country arising out of the foot of the mount Libanus It hath two fountaines or heads like vnto our riuer of Thames one called by the name of Ior which name in the Hebrew tongue signifieth a brooke the other by the name of Dan. These meeting and running together in one channell they are called by one name Iordan compound of the names of the seuerall heads MACHANAIM that is two camps Gen. 23. These are the campes of God as Iacob himselfe nameth this place For as he returned out of Mesopotamia by Gilead the Angels of God met him Whereupon he called this place Mahanaim the tents or camp of God that is the presence and gard or garrison of the Lord. NAIM a city so called of the pleasant situation of it as seemeth by the etymologie of the word for Nahim signifieth pleasant delightsome Our Sauiour Christ going from Capernaum entreth into Naim and in the very gate and entrance of the city he raiseth the only sonne of a widdow from death to life and so turneth the heauinesse and mourning of the mother into ioy and gladnesse SALEM was the dwelling place of Melchisedecke Iosephus saith that it was that towne which afterward was named Ierusalem Neither will I oppose my selfe against this opinion receiued by so many great and learned men But there was another Salem which afterward was called Sichem as is left recorded in the 33. chapter of Gen. as we haue touched before Thou seest therefore how Abraham Loth Melchisedecke who was the same with Sem the sonne of Noe dwelt not farre one from another SAMARIA the keeper of God Obserue heere that our Authour mistooke the name of a man for the name of a place For Samariah 1. Chronic. 12.5 was one of Dauids friends that went with him when he fled from the presence of Saul or else one of the sonnes of Harim of the number of those that had maried strange wiues as is manifest out of 1. Esdr 10.32 when as the city was named in the Hebrew tongue not Samaria but Shomrom This city was the seat of the Kings of Israel the Metropolitane of the tenne tribes where their princes vsually kept their court It was battered and laid leuell with the ground by Hyrcanus the high Priest of the Iewes This afterward being reedified againe by Herod the sonne of Antipater was called for the honour of Augustus Caesar by a Greeke name Sebaste that is AVGVSTA Heere Philip whose consorts and fellow helpers were Peter and Iohn first preached the Gospell Actor 8.5 Samaria is spoken of 3. king 18.19 and 4. king 6.7.10.17 SAREPTA a melting house a refining or clensing house For the Sidonians which first inuented the maner of making of glasse heere first erected and built their furnaces or glasse houses In the time of that great famine which raged and was spread all ouer Iudaea Elias by the prouidence and commandement of God was sent vnto a widdow of Sarepta whom he together with her sonne preserued from famine and death 3. King 18. Moreouer in the 15. chapter of S. Matth. there is mention made of the Chanaanite woman that besought Christ to heale her daughter SICHEM or Sechem Gen. 12. Thither Abraham went presently after he came from Charram in Mesopotamia Sichem stood in that part of the country which afterward was allotted to the tribe of Ephraim neere the famous mount Garizim and not farre from whence not many yeares after the city Samaria was built The word Shecem signifieth a shoulder and the city peraduenture was so named of the situation neere the mount Garizim But the name also of the sonne of Hemor was Shecem of whom some thinke this place was so called This towne is oft spoken of in the holy Scriptures In the last chapter of Iosua it is expresly written that the bones of Ioseph were buried in this place
tooke the name and was so called or who first gaue it that name I thinke saith Herodotius there is no man vnder heauen doth certainly know or can vpon any probalibity gesse except one should thinke it so called of Europa Tyria But wherefore it should so of her be named I am wholly ignorant and I perswade my selfe and do verily beleeue that no man in the world doth truly know For that she as we read in the fabulous stories of the poets was violently taken out of Phoenicia a country of Asia and caried from thence into Cyprus or as others write into the iland Creta Candy all men do know well enough where as Eusebius his Chronicle doth witnesse being taken of Asterius king of Creta to wife she bare him Minoes Rhadamanthus and Sarpedon from whence she went not into Europe but into Asia as Herodotus hath left recorded But what is that to Europe this part of the world One might easilier beleeue it to haue been so named of Europus who as Trogus Pompeius witnesseth sometime in these parts possessed a large kingdome which also I do see to be auouched by Eustathius vpon Lycophron who maketh this Europus to be the sonne of one Himerus Pausanias saith that one Europa was king of Sicyonia a prouince of Peleponnesus in Greece to him Eusebius in his Chronicle doth ascribe who maketh him equall to the Patriarke Abraham to haue liued aboue 3550. yeares since about 1950. yeares before the birth of Christ There be some as Festus writeth that thinke it so named of the beautifulnesse and excellency of the country These we are sure are fabulous or vncertaine may we not therefore as they haue formed of Phrat Euphrates and of Koft Aegyptus as we haue shewed before thinke that of Riphath the sonne of Gomer Iapheths sonne to whom this part of the world was presently after the confusion at Babel assigned they haue likewise formed Europa And surely the name Riphath doth very manifestly shew it selfe in Riphaeis montibus the Riphean hils item in Riphaeo fluuio now called the riuer Oby in Ripe a city of Peloponnesus in Rhiphataeis the people of Paphlagonia as Iosephus writeth Ptolemey in the second booke of his Quadripartite in my opinion much more truly writeth that it was sometime called by a common name CELTICA namely of a principall Nation that first did inhabite it For there is almost no prouince in all this part in which in time past the CELTAE did not inhabit For in Spaine toward the West and beyond Hercules pillars are the Celtae as Herodotus affirmeth Item about the riuer Baetis as Strabo auoucheth the Ciltica Praesamarci are in the prouince of Lucensis and others otherwise named Nerij as Pliny saith Dion and Xiphilinus do shew that the Cantabri and Astares are the same with the Celtae Pliny nameth the city Celtica in the prouince Hispalensis Antonius hath the Celti item Celticum promontorium is the same that Cantabrum promontorium which now is called Cabo de finis terre What Geographer or Historian is he amongst the ancients that hath not made mention of the Celtebri In France were the Celtae and Celtogalatae and from thence are those in Britaine For that this iland was first peopled from hence lying so neere ouer against it it is a common opinion and very probable That the Gauls Germanes were vulgarly called Celtae all Historiographers do iointly agree and indeed Dion doth affirme that the Celtae did dwell vpon either side of the riuer Rhein the Celtae dwelt in Gallia Cisalpina Lombardy or Italy as Appianus writeth And againe vpon the Ionian sea that is the Hadriaticke which also Strabo doth auerre Silius Italicus placeth them about the riuer Eridianus Po In Epirus sometime dwelled the Celtae as Antonius Liberalis hath giuen out Stephanus placeth the same about the mount Haemus Arrianus neere the mouth of the riuer Donaw as also Strabo in Moesia The same authour writeth that the Celtae are intermedled with the Illyrij and Thraces Who also placeth them vpon the riuer Borysthenes Moreouer Aristotle in his booke De mundo ioineth the Celtae with the Scythians Heere hence the same Strabo and Plutarch do make their Celtoscythae In Plutarch in the life of Camillus I read that the Galatae which he maketh to haue come of the stocke of the Celtae passing the Northren sea came vnto the Riphaean mountaines Againe out of the forenamed Strabo I learne that the Nations dwelling Northward were in his time called Caltae The which also their ancient language which is called the Celticke or Germane tongue doth at this day sufficiently demonstrate which is the same only differing a little in dialect with that which is vsed in the ilands neere adioining to these places as in Island Groenland Friesland and others in this ocean Plutarke in Marius writeth that Celtica doth begin at the outmost sea that is the Atlanticke sea and so stretcheth it selfe out farre into the North and from thence vnto the fenne Maeoris Mare delle Zabacche Pomponius Mela calleth the Cassiterides which in another place we haue proued to belong to great Britaine or to be of the number of those which are named Brittanicae Celticke Ilands What is this else I pray you than plainly to affirme that THE CELTAE DO POSSESSE ALL EVROPE Which indeed is that which Ephorus in Strabo did see so many yeares since when as he diuiding all the world into 4. quarters saith that That part which is toward the East is inhabited of the Indians that which is in the South of the Aethiopians the North parts of the Scythians and the West of the Celtae The scholiast of Appollonius nameth the Hadriaticke sea Mare Celticum the Celticke sea And Lycophron describeth Celtos a certaine poole about the mouth of the riuer Ister Item he placeth Leuce an iland of Mar maiore Pontus Euxinus ouer against the mouth of the riuer Donaw May we not therefore properly as they call those that inhabit Asia Asians and those which dwell in Africa Africanes call these which dwell in Celtica Celtickes He that out of all ancient stories penned either in Latine or Greeke doth not know that the Celtae are the Germanes let him haue recourse to the 22. chapter of Hadrianus Iunius his Batauia and I doubt not but hauing throughly waied those many sound arguments and sufficient testimonies of ancient graue writers shall rest satisfied and sweare to our opinion If not let him listen to the Dutchmen and he shall heare them call one another in their familiar communication Kelt The French also or Gauls I call a German nation And I can proue by good arguments if it were a matter pertaining to this our purpose that the Germane or Dutch tongue is the ancient language of the Celtae and to be the same which hitherto they haue vsed in all places and now is spoken except in some places where the power of the Romanes so preuailed that they banished this and seated theirs in the roome It
people Paeones a common errour among the Grecian historians which Dion in his nine and fortieth booke did first discouer For of the Romans and of themselues they are called Pannonij The Paeones are a nation diuers from these lying betweene mount Rhodope and the marine coasts of Macedonia Ptolemey Strabo Dion Aurelius Victor and ancient inscriptions do diuide Pannony into the HIGHER and LOVVER Liber Notitiarum The booke of Remembrances into the FIRST and SECOND Optatus Afer maketh three Pannonies but vntruely seeing that those aboue named approoued authours doe describe but two and the coine of the Emperour Decius this countriman borne doth mention no more Solinus writeth that this country is very plaine and champion and as rich and fertile a soile as any other thereabout Appian saith that it is full of woods and that it hath no cities nor townes only the lands and fields are diuided vnto certaine farmes and families In Hygenus I reade that a price and custome was imposed vpon these lands according to the fertility and goodnesse of euery aker for there were fields of the first and second price woods yeelding yearely great plentie of maste woods of the meanest sort of feed and pastorage c. But Iornandes certaine ages after reporteth otherwise of this his natiue country and affirmeth it to be beautified with many goodly cities The people doe liue and fare as hardly as any people vnder heauen hauing neither good ground nor good aire nor hauing of their owne growing either oile or wine but very little and bad neither doe they regard to plant and set these commodities the greatest part of the yeare being there very colde and bitter nothing else almost but a continuall vnkinde Winter Dion writeth that they haue some Barley and Millet Strabo saith Spelt Zea and Millet of which they make their bread and drinke and withall affirmeth that he writeth not this by heare-say or relation from others but of his owne experience and knowledge as he learned and saw at such time as he was Lieutenant there Yet he saith they are a most stout and hardy people but hauing nothing woorthy the name of honesty and ciuility being generally very hasty and bloudy minded killing and slaying without any respect or feare of God or man and that vpon euery crosse word and light occasion Solinus auoucheth the same to be true saying that this country is very strong and well furnished with couragious and stout men Tibullus in his fourth booke saith that they are a wily and crafty people Statius and Paterculus called them Feroces fierce and cruell But the same author doth againe asmuch commend them not only for their great loue of military discipline but for their skill and knowledge of the Latine tongue and for that diuers of them are learned and studious of the liberall sciences Ausonius nameth them Armiferos a warlike people Eusebius in his tenth booke de Praeparat Euangelica giueth out that these people especially those that dwelt about Noricum Bauaria or Bayern did first finde out the vse of copper or brasse Herodian saith that they are bigge bodied very tall ready to fight and to kill and slay vpon euery occasion but of so dull a conceit and simple that they doe not easily perceiue whether one deale or speake ought craftily and subtilly or meane well and plainly The Panegyricke of Mamertinus nameth this Pannony the Empresse of all nations for valour and like as Italy renowmed for ancient honour Pliny saith that this countrey yeeldeth great plenty of mast or akornes The same authour also in his historie of Nature hath left recorded as if it were a matter of some moment that heere the herbe saliunca a kinde of lauender doth naturally grow of it owne accord Oppian commendeth the Pannonian dogges which Nemesianus in this verse affirmeth to be good hunters Nec tibi Pannonicae stirpis temnatur origo The hounds heere bred are not the woorst that ere I see The Pannonian cappes made of beasts skinnes or furres such as souldiours vse to weare Vegetius in his booke of warre doth highly commend This country afterward Probus the Emperour permitted to haue vines and by the helpe of the souldiers himselfe did plant them in mount Almus Arpatarro neere Sermium Sirmisch the place where he was borne as also vpon mount Aureus Meczek in Moesia superior Seruia as Sextus Aurelius Victor in his life doth testifie In Paeonia a prouince heere abbuttant vpon mount Rhodope toward Macedony in Greece the soile is rich and fertile of golde that many men haue found lumps of golde-ore of more then a pound weight And in the confines of this country Aristotle in his Admiranda doth write that oftentimes the earth or vpper soard being by continuall showers washed away that kinde of golde which they call apyrum quicke-golde if I may so call it such as haue not touched the fire is found without digging or any other labour But heere againe I doe also obserue an error very frequent amongst the Greeke writers mistaking Paeonia for Pannonia For Pannonia or Hungary euen to this day is so rich of golde that it is wonderfull and scarse to be beleeued of such as haue not seene it as Bonfinius Broderith and Ranzan doe iointly affirme who do all write that they haue seene very many golden twigges of vines some as long as ones finger others of halfe a foote long but of the richnesse of Paeonia for mines of golde I haue neuer heard nor read in any authour to my remembrance Diogenes Laertius in the life of Pyrrhus Eliensis hath noted that the Paeones doe vse to cast the bodies of dead men into pondes or deepe pooles Maximus Tyrius in his eight and thirtieth oration writeth that the Paeones did worship the Sunne and that the signe or idoll of the same which they adored was a little dish put vpon the end of along pole and set vpright But whether this be meant of them or of the Pannones for that this authour is a Grecian I know not I leaue it to the consideration of the learned The like is that place of Aelianus in the twelfth chapter of his seuenth booke de Animalibus where he writeth a discourse of the laborious painfulnesse of the women of this countrey well worth the reading and obseruation Tzetzes also in the three hundred and eighteenth chapter of his tenth Chiliade nameth the Paeones for the Pannones where he hath something perteining to this our purpose Antigonus in his booke de Mirabilibus writeth that in Illyria and Pannonia is that kinde of beast which they call Monychos Aelianus termeth it Monops Others Bonasus Diaconus in the eighth chapter of his second booke of the historie of Lombardie writeth that Pannonia breedeth great plenty of Buffes or Bugles Bisontes and that he heard of an honest old man that fifteene men haue beene knowen to lie together vpon one buffe hide noting thereby the huge greatnesse of this beast And thus much of both those
Entribae Erasinij Gondrae quae et Cyndrae et Rondaei Hypselitae Ligyrij Maduateni Mypsaei Podargi Priantoe Pyrogeri Sabi Satro centae Scaeboae Sindonaei Trisplae MONTES Cissene Dunax Edonus Ganos Gigemorus Libethrius Melamphyllon Meritus Mimas Nerisum Pindus Zilmissus FLVVII Aristibus Cebrinus Cius Cyndon Edon Zorta VICI Aliphera Asae SINVS Bennicus NEMVS Abroleua FONS Inna CAMPVS Areos pagos Plura erant his addenda uti quoque in ipsa tabula referenda ex Zonara Cedreno Nicephoro ceterisque Byzantinae historiae graecis scriptorib at quia hos inter veteres non numero consulto omisi Cum Imp. et Belgico privilegio decennali 1585. round vntill they die In this countrie is the riuer Cochryna of whose water if any sheepe do drinke they bring foorth none but blacke lambes Between Byzantium Constantinople and the Chersonesus there is an hill which they call The holy mount neere to which the sea oftentimes carieth vpon the top of his waters a kinde of slimy substance called of the Latines Bitumen In Agria a shire of this country the riuer Pontus carieth downe in his channell certaine stones much like vnto coales which being kindled and water cast vpon them they burne the better but being blowne with bellowes they go quite out There is no manner of vermine or venemous creatures that can abide the smell of this kinde of siring Amongst the Cinchropsoses there is a fountaine of whose water whosoeuer shall drinke they die immediately In Botiaea there groweth a stone which by the heat or reuerberation of the Sunne beames kindleth and casteth foorth sparks and flames of fire Plutarch writeth that there is a spring not farre from the hill Pangaeus of whose waters if one fill one and the same vessell and then weight it he shall finde it to be twise so heauy in the winter as it was in the summer Plutarch whom Tzetzes calleth The yonger another nameth him Parthenicus reporteth certaine things of the herbe Cythara the stones Pansilypus and Philadelphi found in the riuers Ebrus and Strymon which because they are more like to fables than true stories I do in this place willingly omit To reckon vp heere the seuerall Nations Mountaines Riuers or Cities of this country I thinke it nothing necessary because they are at one view better to be seene in the Mappe it selfe Yet of the city Byzantium now Constantinople for that it is sooft mentioned in ancient histories to say nothing at all for that we do in some sort hold it an iniury I thinke it not amisse to write these few lines following of the description of it The first founder of BYZANTIVM which was also in times past called LYGOS was as Trogus and Eustathius do thinke one Pausanias a Captaine of the Spartanes and that as Cassiodorus writeth at such time as Numa Pompilius was king of the Romanes It was so called of Byzantes the sonne of Ceroessas a captaine of the Megareans whom Eustathius affirmeth to haue beene the vprightest and most iust man that euer the earth did beare This city is situate vpon an high cliffe at the narrowest place of Bosphorus Thracius the frith or streights of Constantinople in a very fertile soile and vpon a fruitfull and commodious sea fertili solo foecundo salo as Tacitus writeth In respect of which situation being strongly fortified by nature it is thought to be almost inuincible Whereupon Trebellius Pollio calleth it claustrum Ponticum The blocke-house of Pontus Orosius termeth it Principem gentium the soueraigne of all Nations Sextus Rufus Arcem secundam Romani orbis The second bulwarke or fortresse of the Romane Empire Procopius Arcem Europae Asiae obicem ponentem The Castle of Europe and barre against Asia Themistocles Euphrada Magnificentiae officinam The shop of all manner of brauery and courtlike fashions and Ouid he calleth it Vastam gemini maris ianuam The huge gate of the two seas to wit Propontis Mar di marmora and Pontus Euxinus Mar maiore For the rampart and wals of it which Pausanias and both the Dions so highly commend were so strong that the Athenians vsed in former times as the same Eustathius writeth to cary all their goods and treasure thither and there to bestow it holding it to be a place impregnable and not to be surprized by any enemy whatsoeuer Of the great felicity of this city you may read many things worth the obseruation in diuerse ancient writers especially in Polybius Herodian Xiphiline Dion Prusens and Themistocles Euphrada in his sixth oration who deemeth the citizens thereof to be most happie men both for the goodly riuer which passeth by it temperature of the aire fertility of the soile wherein it standeth capacious hauen and creeke of the sea gorgeous church and stately wals of the same Heerupon grew that daintinesse luxury drunkennesse and wantonnesse of these people which vices of theirs are noted by Athenaeus in the tenth booke of his Deipnosophiston and Aelianus in the foureteenth chapter of the third booke of his varia historia This city fortune often frowning vpon it was sometimes possessed of the Spartans or Lacedemonians after that it was vnder the command of the Athenians Then shaking off their yoke it began by a little and a little to chalenge vnto it selfe a kinde of soueraignty and freedome from any forren iurisdiction which it held for a while vntill Vespasian the Romane Emperour subdued it and reduced it vnto the forme of a prouince While it thus stoode vnder the command of the Romanes it was by Septimius Seuerus who held on Nigers side assaulted battered raced to the ground and of a goodly flourishing city made a poore and beggerly village and withall was adiudged to belong vnto the Perinthij But Antonius Caracalla Seuerus his sonne restored them to their ancient liberties and was called by the name of ANTONIA as Eustathius testifieth Yet for Antonia that I may note this by the way an ancient brasse coine of the Emperour Seuerus which I haue doth teach vs that it ought to be read Antoninia For vpon this peece of money was stamped ΑÎΤΟÎΕΙÎΙΑ ΒΥΖΑÎΤΙΩΠΣΕΒΑΣΤΑ that is Antoninia the Emperiall city of the Bizantini But after this it was againe wasted by Gallienus the Emperour and all the citizens and garrison souldiers thereof slaine and put to the sword Yet for feare least the Scythians Getes and other barbarous nations might breake in to the Romane territories on that side it was againe reedified repaired and fortified by the same Emperour But Constantine worthily in deed and name surnamed the Great did yet farre more strongly fortifie it and adorne it with the most goodly temple of Santa Sophia and moreouer gracing it with many stately ornaments and curious workes of Architecture which he caused to be brought out of Asia Africa Europe yea and from Rome it selfe and after his owne name by proclamation caused it to be intituled and called by the name of CONSTANTINOPOLIS that is Constantines city Item he tooke it from the
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
Delians was wholly waste and void of inhabitants It is wonderfull to see how time doth alter the state of all things In this iland it was not lawfull as Strabo and others report to keepe a dogge to bury a dead man or to burne his corps as then the custome was Thucydides sayth that no man might either be borne or die here Therefore the corpses of dead men were from thence conueyed into the next I le called RHENIA which is a very small iland waste and wholly desert distant from hence not aboue foure furlongs Plutarch sayth that Nicias made a bridge from one to the other Thucydides in his 1 and 3 booke writeth that it was taken by Polycrates the tyrant of Samus annexed by a great long chaine to Delos and consecrated to Apollo Delius Antigonus affirmeth that neither cats nor stags do breed or liue here Athenaeus describeth a kinde of table that is made in this iland therupon it is called Rheniarges It was by violence of storm rent off from Sicilia vtterly drowned as Lucian in his Marine dialogues writeth To these adde that which Seruius hath left written at the third Aeneid of Virgil. Of Delos read the hymne which Callimachus hath written of this I le ICARIA THe tale death and buriall of Icarus gaue occasion of the name both to this iland as also to the sea which beateth vpon it For long since it was called DOLICHE ICHTHYOESSA and MACRIS Strabo saith that it was desert yet greene and full of goodly medowes and pastures The same authour maketh it a colony of the Milesij Notwithstanding Athenaeus commendeth vinum Pramnium a kind of wine so called of Pramnium a mountaine in the iland where the vines wherof it is made did growe This wine he moreouer affirmeth to be otherwise called Pharmatice Of the fabulous story of Icarus reade Ouid Pausanias and Arrianus CIA THat iland which Ptolemey calleth CIA Strabo nameth CEVS Ceus sayth Pliny which some of our writers call Cea the Greeks call HYDRVSSA It was seuered by tempestuous from Euboea and was sometimes 500 furlongs in length but pr sently after foure fift parts of it which lay Northward being deuoured swallowed vp of the foresayd sea it hath now only remaining these two townes Iulis and Carthea Coressus and Paccessa are lost and perished Aeschines 〈◊〉 his epistles nameth Nereflas for a towne of this iland but vntruly and falsly as I thinke From hence that braue garment so much esteemed of fine dames came as Varro testifieth The first authour and deuiser of this loose gowne was Pamphila the daughter of Latous who is by no meanes to be defrauded of her due commendat on s for this her inuent on as being the first that taught how to make that kind of thin sarsnet wherewith gentlewomen might couer their bodies yet so as notwithstanding their beauty and faire faces might easily be discerned thorow Aelianus in his varia historia writeth that it was a custome here that they which are decrepit and very old do inuite one another as it were to a solemne banquet where being crowned they drinke hemlocke ech to other for that they know in their consciences that they are wholly vnprofitable for any vses or seruices in their countrey beginning now to dote by reason of their great age CRETA now CANDY ALthough there be many things which do make this iland famous and much talked of amongst Historians and Poets as the comming of Europa the louers of Pasiphaë and Ariadne the cruelty and calamity of the Minotaure the labyrinth and flight of Daedalus the station and death of Talus who thrise in a day as Agatharcides reporteth went round about it yet there is nothing that made it more renowmed than the natiuity education and tombe of Iupiter Yet it was also much honoured for the natiuities if we may beleeue Diodorus Siculus of many other Gods as namely of Pluto Bacchus Pallas and Dictynna whom some thinke to be Diana so that one may not vnfitly call this iland THE CRADLE OF THE GODS Moreouer they say that in the confines of Gnosia Cinosa neere the riuer Therene the manage of Iupiter with Iuno was celebrated and kept The history of Minoes the Law-giuer and Radamanthus the seuere Iusticier hath made it more talked of than any other I le in this ocean That it is very full of mountaines and woods and hath also diuers fertile valleies and champion plaines Strabo doth sufficiently witnesse Solinus maketh it to be a country well stored with wild goates Item he sheweth that the sheep especially about Gurtyna are red and foure horn'd Pliny calleth it The natiue soile of the Cypresse tree for which way soeuer any man shall goe or wheresoeuer he shall offer to set his foote especially about mount Ida Psiloriti and those which they call The white hils except the soile be planted with other trees this tree sprowth vp and that not only in any peculiar or made ground but euery where of it owne accord naturally Cornelius Celsus speaketh of Aristolochia Cretica That there is heere no Owle or any mischieuous and harmefull creature beside the Phalangium a kind of perillous Spider Plutarch Pl ny Solinus AElianus and Antigonius do iointly testifie Ammianus Marcellinus in his 30. booke doth commend the dogges or hounds of this iland for excellent hunters These Iulius Pollux in the fifth booke of his Deipnosophiston diuideth into two kindes Parippi light foot and his kinde and Diaponi Toyler with her whelpes that is The one sort excelled for swiftnesse of foote the other for painefulnesse and sure hunting Pausanias Liuius Aelian Xenophon and Ctesias commend the inhabitants and people of this I le for the best Archers Plutarch saith they are a warlike people and very lasciuious item deceitfull rauenous and couetous Athenaeus he affirmeth that they be great wine-bibbers and cunning dancers S. Paul in his Epistle to Titus chap. 1. ver 9. calleth them by the testimony of Epimenides a poet of their nation Alwaies liers euill beasts and slow bellies Notwithstanding Plato in his Lawes writeth that they more regard the sense and true vnderstanding of matters than words and quaint termes Diodorus Siculus reporteth that the I le was first inhabited of the Eteocretae a people bred and borne there indigenae whose King he calleth Creta yet this king Solinus nameth the king of the Curetae and from hence the iland was called CRETA But if we may beleeue Dociades whom Plinie citeth it tooke the name of Creta a nymph so called It was also named CVRETIS of the Cureti a chiefe nation which did sometime inhabite it this doth Plinie and Solinus testifie Item they affirme that it was before that called AERIA Item MACAROS Blessed and MACARONNESOS The blessed ile of the temperature of the aire Stephanus calleth it IDAEA and CTHONIA Item TELCHIONIA of the Telchines the inhabitants as Gyraldus witnesseth Item HECATOMPOLIS of the hundred cities which in former times it had as Plinie Solinus and
Strabo out of Homer reporteth who otherwise saith which Plato iustifieth that it had only fourescore and tenne Yet I in this my mappe out of the writers in both languages haue gathered an hundred seuerall names of cities and more many of which for that I knew not their situation and place I haue set apart by themselues as certaine other places heere mentioned by some authours Amongst the greater iles of the midland sea this as Eustathius testifieth possesseth the fourth place In Strabo Diodorus Heraclides in his Commonwealth and Athenaeus in his Deipnosophiston beside other you may read many things of this iland SARDINIA Now SARDEGNA OF those seuen ilands of the Midlandsea more famous and memorable than the rest for their greatnesse some there are as Eustathius writeth which make this the third They which describe countries by their formes and proportions do liken this to the print of a mans foot whereupon it was sometime named ICHNVSA and SANDALIOTIS of the Greekes it was called of Sardon Hercules his sonne SARDON of the Latines SARDINIA This by the testimonie of Pausanias in his Phocica may be compared to those iles which either for greatnesse or goodnesse of soile are most highlie commended Polybius saith That for greatnesse multitude of men and all manner of excellent fruites it beareth the bell from other ilands in this sea AElianus calleth it The best nurce for cattell Strabo maketh it The best soile for corne whereupon Florus termeth it Annonae pignus a pawne for all maner of prouision Prudentius writeth That a nauie which should bring ouer into Italy the store of graine in Sardinia would burst all the barnes of Rome Saluianus nameth this iland Vitalem vrbis Romae venam the vitall artery or veine wherein the life bloud of the citie of Rome doth consist Sidonius in Panegyrico Maiorani saith that it is very fertile of siluer It is an iland verie rich and fertile of siluer as Pomponius writeth Item hee writeth that the soile is much better than the aire and as it is verie fruitfull so is it for the most part pestilent and vnwholesome the which Strabo also confirmeth where he saith That in sommer time it is verie dangerous for sickenesses especially in those places where it is most fertile To these discommodities the hearb Sardonia also may be adioined which as Dioscorides in the foureteenth chapter of his sixth booke writeth that if it be eaten troubleth the braine taketh away a mans memorie maketh him yawne and so to die as if he laughed There is also the Solifuga as Pliny calleth it or Solipungia as Festus a little creature much like to the Spider vpon which whosoeuer shall chance to sit he lightlie shal be dangerouslie hurt The Musmo a beast like to a ramme which Pliny saith is proper to Corsica Strabo attributeth to this I le to whom also AElianus in the foure and thirtith chapter of his sixteenth booke De Animalibus doth seeme to giue his voice Suidas saith that heere are bred the best and finest purples Nonnius Marcellus by the authority of Varro in his booke De genere vestimentorum commendeth the Sardinian tapestrie except there be a fault in the copie and for Sardineae it should be written Sardianis of Sardis the citie of Asia which I do rather thinke to be true and more probable for of the Sardian tapestrie we maie read in Athenaeus and others Claudianus in the later end of his treatise De bello Gildonico doth most finely describe Calaris Calari or Caglire the chiefe city of the same Strabo maketh the depth of the sea heere to be M. elles Other things proper to this ile you maie see in Pausanias Solinus Eustathius Claudian and others This iland of Iustinian in his Code is reckoned amongst the iles of Africa CORSICA THis iland the Grecians called CYRNVS the Latines CORSICA of Corsa a certaine woman so named as Eustathius thinketh or rather of the toppes of the craggie mountaines as Dionysius hath written For as Strabo saith it is rough and very vneuen in many places not passable nor scarce habitable There is no iland Dionysius saith more woodie That it is full of tall trees very fit for ship timber Theophrastus in his fifth booke of the History of Plants teacheth that the Romanes out of those woods heeretofore at one time cut downe such wonderfull store of timber that of it they made a flote that was driuen with 50. sailes Some do thinke that it was called of Ouid Therapne The Scholiast of Callimachus saith that in his time it was named TYROS Beleeue him that list Pliny out of Diodorus writeth That it is very full of Box and that the Hony heere is bitter Item that it hath abundance of Foxes Conies and wild fowle but as for Oxen Goates Woolues Hares and Stags it breedeth not any at all as Polybius in his 12. booke witnesseth Procopius in his 3. booke of the warres of the Gothes saith CRETA Iouis magni medio iacet insula ponto Ex conatibus geographicis Abrahami Ortelij Incertae positionis locorum nomina LOCA Adrasus Athrona Corium Hippocoronium Onychium Pergamia Tripolus POPVLI Ceretae Drÿitae Lÿcij Orij FLVVII Amnisus Oaxes Tethrÿnes Triton MONTES Asterusia Arbius Carine Lasion Othrÿs Styracium STAGNV̄ Coresium TEMPLV̄ Rocceae Dianae INSVLAE Asticla Naumachos Vrbium Cretae nomina quorum situs ignoratur Albae Arcadia Archidium Asos Aulon Axus Biennus Boeae Cantanus Catrea Caunus Chalcetoriū Clatos Cytinos Dulopolis Drauca Elyrus Etia Glamia Grammium Hierapolis Holopyxos Hydramia Hattia Lasio Istros Lycastos Marathusa Methymna Miletus Mycenae Myrina Nauphra Naxus Oaxus Olus Olyssa Pergamum Phalanna Phalannea Pharoe Proefus fortè Prasum Priesus Pyloros Rhaucos Rhizenia Rhytium Satra quae Eleutherna Sibyrtus Strenos Syia Syrinthos Tegea Therapnae Loca incoḡita positionis Alalia Blesino Carax Enconiae Prosidium Vapanis Incognitae positionis vocabula Sardonica VRBES vel LOCA Agraule Aradis Biora Carbia Caput Tyrsi Celiem Charmis Cochlearia Elephantaria Fan. Carisy Ferraria For. Traiani Gemellae Ad Herculē Longones Lugudonec Media Metalla Molaria Nafa Othoca Porticenses Sarrapos Sorabile Tharpos Turobolis Ad Turres Viniolae Ad Puluinos POPVLI Aconites Balari Pellidi Sossitani Diagebres qui quondam Io laenses fortè ijdem cum Iliensibus that it breedeth Horses but so little that they are not much bigger than sheep Item Apes if one may beleeue him very like vnto a man in shape and proportion Liuy in his 40. booke of his History hath giuen out That there hath been heere such maruellous plenty of Hony that Marcus P narius a Praetor caried out from thence 100000. pounds at once In bignesse of all the iles of the midland sea it chalengeth the third part That the ilanders are more sauage and inhumane than wild beasts and to liue by robbing and cutting of throats we do read in Strabo That they are very long liuers Eustathius sheweth and before him Athenaeus affirmed the same Martianus Capella hath giuen vs notice of 33. cities which
inhabitants who built it and enclosed it with an huge wall and ditch were Easterlings Cadmonim or such as came thither from Kedem the East Againe in respect of the greatnesse power goodly beauty and lusture of it it might iustly and indeed so it did as we shall shew in that which followeth deserue the name of Cadmia that is the chiefe and principall metropolitane city and it may be that for the same reason it was also of them called Cacabe Stellaris the glistring starre of _____ Caucabi a starre answerable to Asteria or Asteris an iland in the Midlandsea Asterius the name of a place in the ile Tenedos Astron or Astrum a riuer of Troas issuing out of the mount Ida as Pliny testifieth Item a great and goodly city of Argia in Peloponnesus with diuers other places in Greekland of the like denomination all deriued from Aster and Astrum which in the Greeke tongue signifie A starre There are many learned men which do thinke that in the Holy Scripture this city is called and described by the name of THARSIS And thus much of the ancient names and appellations of this city for in succedent ages it hath beene called also by diuers others beside these as we shall shew hereafter Yea and ancient writers haue graced it with diuers honorable titles and epithites calling it Celsam and Almam The Stately and Honourable city Carthage Apuleius nameth it Romani imperij aemulam terrarum orbis auidam Prouinciae magistram venerabilem Africae Musam coelestem Camaenam togatorum The great enuier of the Romane state and yet it selfe desiring all the souereignty of the world The honourable mistresse of the Prouince The heauenly Muse of Africa The delight and paradise of the gentry of the land Of Solinus it is intituled Alterum post vrbem Romam terrarum decus Next after the goodly city of Rome the only glory of the world Of Ptolemey Manilius Pliny it is called Magna The great city Of Victor Vticensis Suidas Maxima orbis terrarum The greatest city of the whole world And that not without iust cause for Orosius testifieth that it was twenty miles about within the walles almost round enclosed with the sea The abridgement of Liuy sayth that it was foure and twenty miles about Strabo maketh it in compasse three hundred and threescore fâ—rlongs stadia which do make fiue and forty Italian miles How true this is I leaue to the discretion of the learned Reader to determine This city was situate in a peninsula or demy-ile ioyned to the continent of Africa by a neckland Isthmos the Greeks call it of three miles bredth or as Appian the diligâ—nt Chorographer of this place reporteth 25 furlongs ouer Siluis Italicus thus writeth of it Haec caput est non vlla opibus certauerit auri Non portu celsouè situ non dotibus auri Vberis aut agili fabricanda ad tela vigore The more famous places in it are Megara a part of the city so called Byrsa the castle which conteined in circuit as Scruius hath noted two and twenty furlongs in this stood the temples of Iuno Aesculapius and Belus The Theater Thermae Gargilianae and Thermae Maximianae certeine hot bathes The Delphicum or temple of Apollo the chapal dedicated to the goddesse Memoria the Horse-race Hippodromus Basilica Celerinae the church of Theoprepia Lypsana a certeine place so called 〈◊〉 Via coelestis Heauen walke except the copy in this place be faulty and corrupt In the middest of the city there was a groue and in it the temple of Iuno as the famous Poet Virgil hath left recorded Item the temple of Elisa as Siluis Italicus testifieth What places afterward AFRICAE PROPRIAE TABVLA In qua Punica regna uides Tyrios et Agenoris vrbem Illustri ac Amplissimo viro Domino Christophoro ab Assonleville Equiti aurato Altevillae domino Regis Catholici Consiliario primario Abrahamus Ortelius dedicabat lubens merito EX CONATIBVS GEOGRAPHICIS ABRAHAMI ORTELII Cum priuilegio Imperiali Regio et Belgico ad decennium 1590. Sinus Carthaginensis ipsaeue vrbis atque locorum aliquot vicinorum plenior descriptio LOCA INCOGNITAE POSITIONIS ex varijs antiquae notae auctorib Abba Achris Adis Agar Alele Bada Baste Canthele Caputbada Cemma Cilla Cillaba Decimum Ethine Graesa Hermio Ismuc Lectum Locha Males Mamma Marthama Massilia Menephessa Meschela Miltina Nargara Ophe Oroscopa Parthos Phara Phellina Pithecussae Salera Sarsura Sintae Solis campus Syllectum Tegea Tergasa Thabena Tholuns Thon Tinges Tisiaus Tisidium Tocas Tricamarum Tuman Vazua Zama Zella Zincha Zona Ex Augustino Cypriano et concilio Carthaginensi Abarina Abbir Accura Acyrega Agra Amaccura Anthypatiana Asuaga Avasafa Audurus Ausciaga Auspha Autumnum Ballita Barus Becena Begetselita Bobba Buslacena Calama Capra picta Carpeta Cartemita Casae Medianae Casae Nigrae Centuriones Chullabi Cibaliana Colusita Diaba Dionysiana Eugitana Fetulae Foratianum Formae Furnae Galbae castrum Gazana Gazanfala Getabinustum Girpa Gor Gradus Iacena Iosiniana Lemella Limata Liniacum Luperciana Mactarum Marcellianum Mileuis Midila Mirita Migirpa Muzula Nice Obba Opte Pambestum Piste Rucuna Rusugoniotum Subulae Sullestiana Synica Tabeae Tambada Tarassa Telepte Thagabe Thibarum Thucabarum Thygate Tibina Timida Tisigita Tubunae Tyzica Vcrensia Victoria Vinianum Vlula Vnzibilis Vzalis Zataria Ziquensis Zurinia Ex Plinio opidum Aboriense Abuticense Acharitanum Auinense Melzitanum Salaphitanum Theudense Tigense Tiphicense Tiricense Tuburbis Tuburnicense Tunidrumense Vigense Ex Libro Notitiar limes Balensis Balaritanus Bazensis Bubensis Columnatensis Madensis Mamucensis Sarcitani Tintiberitani Varensis His recentiora veteris geographiae tabulis non inferimus Iustinian the Emperour of Rome builded here and repaired Procopius in his sixth booke of the buildings of this Emperour relateth at large Of him also if we may giue credit to Balsamon it was called IVSTINIANA The builders of this city which layd the first foundations of it were the Phoenicians Xorus and Carchedon or as some other report Elissa or Dido King Agenors daughter fifty yeeres before the ouerthrow of Troy or three score and twelue yeeres before the building of the city of Rome as Appianus affirmeth Siluis Italicus sayth that Teucer was the first that began the foundation of this city It was built as Iosephus in his disputation against Appion writeth in the hundred and fiue and fifty yeere after the death of Solomon the glorious king of Israel The valour and great strength of this city as it was alwayes eminent and famous in forren warres abroad so hath beene often shaken and ouermastered many sundry times at home At length hauing stood in flourishing estate as most authours affirme seuen hundred and seuen and thirty yeeres it was by the Romans as an enuious enemy of their state and empire assaulted battered taken sacked vtterly spoiled and at last consumed to dust and ashes And thus it continued for the space of one hundred and one yeeres when by the commandement and prescript of the Senate it was againe
reedified who sending thither certeine people to inhabit and dwell there made it a Romane colony and this was the first colony of the Romans that euer was transported foorth of Italy It was of Cayus Gracchus called IVNONIA as it is recorded by Appian Solinus and Dion who also addeth that it was afterward by Augustus Caesar againe the second time made a Colony because that when Lepidus had wasted a great part of it and left it destitute and without inhabitants he in maner seemed to haue dissolued the right and priuiledge of the Colony Therefore this city began againe to flourish and vnder the Romane Emperours to be renowmed vnder the name of The second Carthage So that that city which lately was renowmed for seats of armes and martiall prowes was now as Martianus writeth as honourable for worldly felicity and all maner of earthly blessings It tasted also of the beneuolence and bounteous magnificence of the Emperour Hadrian and thereupon it was of him called HADRIANOPOLIS that is Hadrians city as Spartianus hath left recorded Item the Romane Emperour Antoninus Pius did much grace it with many sumptuous and stately buildings as you may reade in Pausanias Lampridius writeth that in respect of the fauourable kindnesse of the Emperour Commodus toward this city it was in like maner of him named ALEXANDRIA COMMODIANA TOGATA But as the state of all things vnder the cope of heauen is vnconstant and variable the same city vnder Gordianus the Emperour was as Herodian testifieth by one Capellianus Lieutenant of Mauritania taken the second time and spoiled about six hundred and foure score yeeres after it first had submitted it selfe to the command and iurisdiction of the Romans In the reigne of Honorius the Emperour it was by treachery the third time taken sacked and vtterly defaced by Genserichus king of the Wandals in the foure hundred and thirty yeere after the incarnation of CHRIST our Sauiour The like it suffered of certeine mutinous souldiers vnder one Salomon a lieutenant of the Maurusij or Barbary as Procopius hath recorded From these it was woon by Belisarius in the yeere of CHRIST fiue hundred thirty eight in the time of Iustinian the Romane Emperour who caused it to be repaired and fortified with a strong wall and deepe ditch who moreouer beautified it with many goodly publike buildings of most curious architecture as Cloisters Galleries the Theodorian Bathes the gorgeous Church of our Lady the chiefe Saint and others which are reckoned vp by the same Procopius After this it continued vnder the Romans vntill the time of Heraclius the Emperour when as it was conquered and surprised by the Persians about the yeere of CHRIST six hundred and sixteene It was taken sacked and spoiled by the Egyptians three score and six yeeres after that as Procopius and others do constantly witnesse Neither was this the last misery of this city for it being spoiled rased almost to the ground layed waste and left dispeopled and void of inhabitants by the Mahumetanes so continued vnto the dayes of one Elmahdi a Bishop who as Iohannes Leo Africanus reporteth gaue it vnto certeine people of that countrey which were in number so few that they did not replenish aboue the twentieth part of it The same authour an eye witnesse of that which he wrote affirmeth that of all this greatnesse and glory beside certeine ruines of the walles and a part of the Conduit there remaineth at thus day not any whit or mention at all This now in these our dayes is the fate and forme of this most goodly city This is that city which as Herodian testifieth in time past for wealth multitude of people and greatnesse of circuit did only yeeld it selfe inferiour to Rome and with Alexandria of Egypt long contended for the second place Item this is it which long since was of that power that it commanded all the sea coast of Africa from Arae Philenorum all along as far as to the Straights of Gibraltar ouer which they passing by ship conquered all Spaine euen vp as high as the Pyreny mountaines So that Appian a graue writer doth deeme the Empire and command of this city of equall value to the power of the far-commanding Greeks or wealth riches of the braue Persian which were an easie matter for one to iustify out of Strabo and Pliny two authours of good credit For this man affirmeth that this city commanded in Africa alone three hundred cities and it selfe conteined seuenty thousand men dayly inhabitants within the walles of the same Item Scipio hauing conquered this city transported from thence vnto Rome foure hundred and seuenty thousand pound weight of siluer Of this city which as long as it stood out and was master of it selfe as Trogus witnesseth was esteemed as a goddesse and in Africa as Saluianus writeth was accounted as another Rome there remaineth now no more but the bare name onely Of the nation of the Africans from whence they came into this country and what they were Procopius in the eleuenth booke of his History of the Wandals hath written somewhat worth the obseruation Of Heauen-walke Via coelestis which we in a word touched before I thinke it not amisse here in this place to speake somewhat more at large In Victor Vticensis these words following are read in all copies that euer I saw Nam hodiè si qua supersunt subinde desolantur sicut in Carthagineo Theatro aedem Memoriae viam quam Caelestis vocitabant funditus deleuerunt For viam I make no question but the authour did write etiam that it might be referred to aedem or templum as Iulius Capitolinus in Pertinax doth call it that is a chapell temple or church Furthermore of this Caelestis dea Heauenly goddesse as Capitolinus in Macrinus and Trebellius Pollio in Celsus tyrannus do call her a goddesse peculiar to Africa there are here and there diuers things to be obserued in diuers authours Aelianus writeth that the Egyptians doe call Venus Vrania that is Heauenly Venus caelestis which is all one is expressed in an ancient piece of coine which I haue of Iulia Soëmia's S. Augustine in his booke De ciuitate Dei doth speake of the Heauenly Virgine Virgo caelestis meaning doubtlesse the Heauenly goddesse but by that epithite I suppose he had a purpose to distinguish her from that other I meane that wanton which Iulius Firmicus calleth Venerem virginem Herodian nameth her Vrania and addeth moreouer that of the Phoenicians she is called Astroarche Alilat Herodotus sayth she was named and affirmeth that it is the Moone S. Hierome in his treatise against Symmachus writeth that the Persians call her Mithra idque pro diuersitate nominis non pro numinis varietate all these different names signifying as S. Ambrose sayth one and the same goddesse Apuleius in the sixth booke of his Golden Asse witnesseth that all the nations of the East countreys do generally call her Zigia There is a notable record of this
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
was a waggon consecrated and sanctified couered ouer with a cloth and adored as a saint But peraduenture we haue beene too tedious in this argument As we haue out of old and ancient histories laid downe two diuers and sundry formes of this god Ammon so out of the same it is very probable that hee had two diuers temples For Diodorus in his seuenteenth booke in the description of this temple doth say that it was built by Danaus the Egyptian And the same authour againe in his first booke saith that Ofiris also erected a temple for Iupiter Ammon in Thebes a city in Egypt which was all of beaten gold cleane contrary to that which we haue described before as appeareth out of these verses of Lucane in his 9. booke Non illic libyeae posuerunt ditia gentes Templa nec Eois splendent donariagemmis In Egypt it was not in Libya as is manifest out of the second booke of Herodotus Where you shall find this description of it Iupiter being not willing that Hercules who came to visit him should see him yet at length by importunity being ouercome vsed this deuice to deceiue him He tooke a ram flead him and cut off his head this fell with the head wool and all he put vpon him and thus sheweth himselfe to Hercules Wherupon the Egyptians haue decreed to make the image of Iupiter and to picture him with a rammes head For him euery yeare vpon a certaine day they kill a ramme in like manner as before is shewed and the skinne they put ouer the image of the said c. And because the temple of this god Ammon was in the city Thebes which thereupon is of good writers called Diospolis that is Ioues towne I was of opinion that the Holy scripture did also in some place or other speake of it And indeed in the thirtieth chapter of Ezechiel the septuagints for the Hebrew No haue Dâ—â—spolu and againe in the third chapter of Naum for No Amon they haue 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is very probable therefore that Amon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hamon which in the Hebrew tongue signifieth a multitude was the proper name of this place THE VOYAGE OR Nauigation of AENEAS especially gathered out of the renowmed Poet VIRGILL with some other matters perteining to that historie collected out of others TRoy being surprized sacked and burnt Aeneas betooke himselfe for a refuge to the mount IDA a hill in the prouince of Troas in Asia Minor a place verie well wooded and serued with water from thence forsaking his natiue soile he went to ANTANDRVS a towne in Mysia abutting vpon the Aegean sea taking with him as Xenophon sayth all his kindred both by fathers side and mothers side with a nauy of twenty saile putteth forth to sea and at length landeth in THRACE or as Dionysius Halicarnasseus writeth at PALLENE a promontory and city of the same name in Macedony neere vnto which he built the citie Aenos Oeno or Inos they still call it Lycophron sayth that he came to CISSVS Cis a hill of Almopia a shire of the kingdome of Macedony Liuy writeth that he stayed about OLYMPVS But our authour reporteth that from Thrace he came to DELOS Sdiles an iland in the Aegean sea of the number of those which the ancient Geographers called Cyclades Here he maried Lauinia the daughter of Anius a Priest belonging to the temple of Apollo as you may see in a Treatise written of the originall of the Romane nation but let them beleeue him that list for Halicarnasseus condemneth him for a very lying and fabulous authour And from Delos he setting saile saluted NAXOS Nicsia PAROS Pario DIONYSA OLEARVS Quiniminio and other ilands of the Aegean sea and the third day after arriued at CRETA Candy where he built the cities RHOETEVM and PERGAMEA From hence putting off to sea againe and as Dionysius Halicarnasseus writeth saluting CYTHERA Cerigo an iland in the Midland sea where he built a Temple dedicated to the honour and seruice of the goddesse Venus then CYNETHIVM a foreland or promontory of Peloponnesus and there layed the foundation as Pausanias and Halicarnasseus haue left recorded of the cities APHRODISIADES and OETIA and the fourth day after landed at the STROPHADES Striuali two ilands in the Ionian sea From these he passed to ZACYNTHVS Zante where he dedicated as Halicarnasseus writeth a chapell to Venus then passing by DVLICHIVM SAMOS NERITVS and ITHACA came to LEVCATE Thence to ACTIVM neere the Temple of Apollo and so leauing CORCYRA Corfu coasting along by CHAONIA a prouince of Epyrus in Greece and AMBRACIA as the same authour affirmeth he came at length to BVTHROTVM Golfo de Butronto From hence on foot ouer land he went and visited DODONA a citie of Epyrus and the CERAVNIAN mountaines and vpon the third day came to Anchises Hauen ANCHISAE PORTVS where his ships meeting him he crossed ouer the Hadriaticke sea into ITALY his consorts landed on this side the forland IAPYGIVM Cabo de S. Maria himselfe with some few others as the same Halicarnasseus witnesseth at the forland or promontorie ATHENAEVM Rossia or Cabo de Campanella so named of the Temple of Minerua called of the Greekes Athene which stood in this place From thence he passed by sea to TARENTVM Taranto LACINIVM Cabo delle Colonne CAVLON Castro veto or vetore and SCYLACEVM Squilacci Afterward sailing by SCYLLA Scyllo and CHARYDIS Galofaco by the CYCLOPES giants or a certaine kinde of people neere mount Ethna in Sicilia of an extraordinary stature and strength feined by the Poets to haue but one eie and that in the middest of their fore-heads the mouth of the riuer PANTAGIAS Porcari by the bay of MEGARA a sea towne sometime called Hybla by THAPSVS a neckland or peninsula now knowen by the name of Manghisi by the forland PLEMMYRIVM Cabo Massa Vliuien by ORTYGIA by the riuer ELORVS Abyso or Atellari by the forland or promontory PACHYNVS Cabo Passaro by the citie CAMARINA by the CAMPI GELOI by the riuers GELA Cherza or Salsi by AGRAGAS Draco by the citie SELINVS Salemo or Terra de Pulici then by the promontorie LILYBAEVM Cabo Boëi or Cabo Coco and so at length to the forland DREPANVM Trapani From hence leauing the strait course he fetcheth a compasse about by those dangerous rocks which our authour calleth SAXA or ARAE directing his course toward CARTHAGE in Africa where hauing stayed a while with Queene Dido who enterteined him and his most kindly and in the best maner at length hoiseth saile and returneth backe into SICILIA againe heere landing his men at the riuer CRIMISVS as Halicarnasseus writeth after diuers games iusts or triumphs he ordeined that those dayes yeerely for euer after should be solemnly kept as holy in honour of Anchises his father and moreouer also he built the citie ACESTA or Egesta and ELIMA Alymite or Palymite if we may beleeue Halicarnasseus Item he founded the TEMPLE of Venus Idalia vpon the top of
mount Eryx monte S. Iuliano Yet Pausanias in his Arcadia maketh another maner of relation of Anchises and of his buriall Heere putting to sea againe he commeth to the SIRENVM SCOPVLI certaine dangerous rockes vpon the coast of Italy in the bay of Cumae and first casting anchor at PALINVRVS Paliuro or Cabo Palemudo at LEVCASIA Licoso as Halicarnasseus sayth or INARIME Ischia and PROCHYTA Profida as Ouid affirmeth and then againe at CVMAE where putting to land he goeth to Sibylla's caue ANTRVM SIBYLLAE and to AVERNVS lake Lago di Tripergola thence to the airie mount MISENVS Miseno to CAIETA King Lamus citie at this day called Gaietta and lastly to the riuer TIBRIS where with seuen of his twentie ships remaining he entreth landeth his men and goods and so endeth his seuen yeeres long and dangerous voyage which we haue thus described as you see partly out of Virgill Ouid and Lycophron famous poets and partly out of Liuy Halicarnasseus Pausanias and Xenophon as worthy renowmed historians But heere I cannot omit that which I haue read in Pausanias his Phocica namely that certaine of Aeneas his consorts seuered and driuen from his company and the rest of the nauy by storme and tempest did seat themselues in the ile SARDINIA Item it is worth the obseruation that Halicarnasseus and Liuy do iointly testifie That Aeneas did not stay at Tibris but at LAVRENTVM S. Laurentij and landed not with aboue sixe hundred men as Solinus reporteth which indeed seemeth somewhat more probable and like to be true for that both by ancient histories and moderne experience we finde that Tibris the riuer which runneth by Rome is not capable of a fleet or nauy of any bignesse Therefore it is to be thought that the Poet fained this of his owne head or els spake it in loue and commendations of this riuer Neither was it a voyage of seuen yeeres but of two at the most as Halicarnasseus doth plainly affirme Solinus out of Cassius Hemina auoucheth the same There are some as Strabo in the thirteenth booke of his Geography witnesseth which do thinke all this voyage to be a fained tale and fiction of the Poets and that Aeneas stayed still in Troy and succeeded in the kingdome after his father as likewise his childrens children did after him for many generations Of this opinion Homer doth seeme to be Xenophon in his booke of hunting telleth this tale another way where he writeth That Aeneas manfully defending his father and carefully preseruing the gods of his father and mother gat himselfe a great reputation and credit amongst all sorts of men for that his piety and religion insomuch that euen the very enemies themselues granted to him only aboue all other which they had taken captiue in the surprizing of Troy that in the sacking of the same no man should spoile or lay hand of ought that was his Moreouer that that his voyage vnto Carthage is not mentioned by any approoued historian but fained by the poet Macrobius doth plainly teach Item Appian a writer of good credit doth much discredit that story of his meeting and communication with Queene Dido who writeth that CARTHAGE was built by the same Dido fiue hundred yeeres before the destruction of Troy Againe the graue historiographer Trogus in his eighteenth booke doth make a relation of the life and death of this Dido or Eliza farre different from this But the poet as it seemeth had a purpose to disgrace this citie and to strike a deepe impression of the fatall hatred which it alwayes bare towards the Romans like as long before Homer vnder the person of Helen had shewed how much the Greeks in heart did malice the Troians Whereupon not vnfitly I thinke this Epigram of Ausonius which he wrote vpon the counterfet or picture of Queene Dido may heere to those former be adioined Illa ego sum Dido vultu quam conspicis hospes Assimulata modis pulchraque mirificis Talis eram fed non Maro quam mihi finxit erat mens Vita nec incestis laeta cupidinibus Namque nec Aeneas vidit me Troius vnquam Nec Libyam aduenit classibus Iliacis Sed furias fugiens atque arma procacis Iarbae Seruaui fateor morte pudicitiam Pectore transfixo castos quod pertulit enses Non furor aut laeso crudus amore dolor Sic cecidisse iuuat vixi sine vulnere famae Vlta virum positis moenibus oppetij Inuida cur in me stimulasti Musa Maronem Fingeret vt nostrae damna pudicitiae Vos magis historicis lectores credite deme Quà m qui furta Deum concubitusque canunt Falsidici vates temerant qui carmine verum Humanisque Deos assimilant vitijs Which Priscian or whosoeuer els he were that was the authour of that ancient translation of Dionysius Afer doth to the same sense but in farre fewer words vtter in those two verses Atque pudicitiam non perdit carmine falso Quae regnans felix Dido per secula viuit This fained tale first forg'd in faithlesse poets braine It neuer may I trow the honest fame distaine Wherein thou Dido long didst liue amongst thine owne And still of wiser sort thorowout the world is knowne AENEAE TROIANI NAVIGATIO Ad Virgilij sex priores Aeneidos Ex conatibus Geographicis Abrahami Ortelij Antverp DOCTRINA ET HVMANITATE CELEBRI DNO BALTHASARO ROBIANO R. P.ANT THESAVRARIO VIRO ANIMI CORPORISQ DOTIBVS ORNATISS Ab. Ortelius veteris amicitiae memor dedicabat Sum pius Aeneas raptos qui ex hoste Penates Classe veho mecum fama super aethera notus Bis denis Phrygium conscendi nauibus aequor Vix septem conuulsae undis Euróque supersunt Europa atque Asia pulsus Aeneid i. The PEREGRINATION of VLYSSES THe manifold wandring voiages of Vlysses Errores Ausonius in diuers places calleth them were from all antiquity so famous and renowmed amongst all men that The Peregrination of Vlysses grew into a by-word and to be spoken prouerbially of any hard and difficult trauell that any man did vndergoe as Apuleius in the second booke of his Golden Asse doth testifie Therefore for the benefite of the Readers and Students of that history and at the earnest request of sundrie learned men my friends I haue thought good out of ancient Historians to describe the twenty voyages of this famous Captaine who as Tzetzes writeth with twelue shippes set forward from TROY or as the Greekes call it Ilium a city of Troia or Troas a prouince of Asia Minor continually wandring vp and downe vntill at last he came to ITHACA an iland in the Ionian sea where hee was borne now called as Sophianus and others do testifie Valle di Compare or Teachi as Porcacchius affirmeth but of the Turkes Phiachi as Leunclaw witnesseth Therefore after the tenne yeares siege taking and sacking of Troy by the Greekes Vlysses or Odysseus as they call him hauing a purpose to returne home to his owne country shipped himselfe and his company put foorth to sea and
sound For Mercury had giuen him the hearb Moly so the Gods do call it a sure antidote and preseruatiue against all maner of inchantments and witchcraft And sailing along by the SIRENVM INSVLAE the Mirmaides ilands he built the temple of Minerua Fanum Mineruae in CAMPANIA in Italy as Strabo writeth In this tract also videlicet in LVCANIA as the same authour recordeth he built the chapell of Draco Sacellum Draconis one of his companions in that his voiage From thence he sailed along by the shore and at length landed at TENESSA a city of the Bruttij Isacius vpon Lycophronfalsly writeth that he landed in England mistaking Britannos for Bruttios or ignorantly confounding 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Pausanias hath left recorded Item Suidas out of Pausanias affirmeth the same but withall he addeth that heere one of the sailers did rauish a virgin and for that vild act was by the townesmen stoned to death Neere to this towne the chapell of Politas Fanum Politae one of Vlysses consorts by Strabo is described to haue stood From hence it is likely out of Pliny that he came to the iles ITHACEIAE or as otherwise they are called Vlysses specula that is Vlysses beacon or lanterne From hence setting forward and warily auoiding the dangerous Scylla and Charybdes although not altogether without the losse of some of his company he came againe into TRINACRIA or the Iland of the Sunne Insula Solis twise as Horace saith or as Ausonius writeth often losing his way and failing of his course where while he himselfe was asleep some of his company killed certaine sheep of Sol the gouernour of that place out of his flocke which as Appianus Alexandrinus in the fifth booke of his Ciuill warres writeth did feed neere Artemisium a towne in Sicilia which Barrius at this day thinketh to be called Agatha for which their villanie and foule act committed by them they were all cast away and sunke Vlysses himselfe alone getting vp vpon the mast of the ship escaped and was carried into the ile OGYGIA where hee dwelt seuen yeares as Homer writeth or six yeare as Ouid testifieth or tenne yeares as Seruius would make vs beleeue with the Nymph Calypso by whom he gate his sonne Auson After all this building a ship with his owne hands he shippeth himselfe and setteth saile all alone for meere naturall loue of his country preferring it before immortality which the goddesse had promised if so be he would stay with her committing himselfe to the sea out alas he feeleth againe the second time the waight of Neptunes wrath for that as we haue shewed before he had put out the eies of his sonne Polyphemus For the eighteenth or as Ouid writeth the eightith day after his first setting out when as he came so neere Ithaca that he might easily descry the smoke of the chimneies mark the crosse lucke tempestuous winds and raging stormes do on euery side arise so that his ship was ouerturned and himselfe throwen into the sea but as God would haue it rising againe instantly he caught hold of the ship The Nymph Leucothea Nausicaa others call her seeing him thus toiled and wandring in the middest of the sea tooke compassion vpon him and presently relieued him she aduiseth him to let go the ship to put off his apparell and to commit himselfe naked to the sea only and withall she giueth him her fillet or haire-lace wherewith her head was bound vp which he tying about his middle swom vntill he came vnto the country of the PHAEACES Cedrenus falsly hath Phoenices where he arriued neere vnto the riuer Callirhoë The foresaid Cedrenus writeth that he was carried from hence into Creta to Idomeneus and by him conuieghed thence into Corcyra vnto Alcinous But let vs proceed With this fillet of Leucothea he being tied vnto the ship and hanging at it except heere Philostratus which is ordinary with him doe tell a tale with his owne strength vsing his hande in steed of oares he swomme through the middest of the sea Yet that the shippe came thus farre and further it seemeth out of Pliny to be not altogether improbable because he writeth that about Phalacrum a promontory or foreland of Phaeacia or Corcyra this ship was turned into a rocke which rocke Martianus saith is in fashion and proportion like a ship although falsly hee in that place calleth this foreland Phalarium for Phalacrum But if any man shall say that he doth requite one tale with another I will not greatly gainsay him From Phaeacia by Alcinous king of that country who had most honourably intertained him he was at length conueighed to Ithaca his natiue country whose smoake he had many times and often desired before this to see Where killing the woers which were in number if one may beleeue Athenaeus an hundred and eight or as Dictys Cretensis saith but thirty onely he embraceth and kindly saluteth his louing wife Penelope And this is the end of all these wandring peregrinations in which as Ouid saith Iactatus dubio per duo lustra mari Tenne yeares he wandred vp and downe in seas vnknowen Signifying that the rest of the yeares were spent in trauels and troubles endured vpon the land Of which the same authour also thus speaketh Ille breui spatio multis errauit in annis Inter Dulichias Iliacasque domos In trauell many yeares he spent his iourney was not farre Betweene the iland Zante and Troy that famous towne of warre Isacius vpon Lycophron testifieth that Vlysses by the counsell of Minerua went to TRAMPYA a city of the Eurytanes a people of Epyrus or Aetolia there to offer sacrifice vnto the Gods and withall this our authour there addeth that these people are the very same that Homer in the eleuenth booke of his Odysses speaketh of in these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is vntill hee came amongst those men that ne'r heard tell of Ocean sea Againe the same authour moreouer affirmeth that in this city Vlysses was worshipped as a god and that hee had an oracle there Not farre from hence amongst these people also Stephanus placeth the city BVNIMA first founded by Vlysses That he was reuerenced as a god I do find by a certaine speech of Seneca that he vseth of him vnto Serenus and therefore it is no maruell that he should giue foorth answers and oracles And that I may omit nothing of his labours Dares Phrygius amongst diuers other of his dangerous attempts writeth that hee put in to harborough at MONVCHA Cassiodorus in the twelfth booke of his Variar writeth that the towne SCYLLACIVM was also built by him That he erected a chappell vpon the toppe of mount BOREVS in Peloponnesus to Neptune and Minerua Sospita I do find in Pausanias his Arcadica Apollodorus as Strabo citeth writeth that Vlysses in this his voiage came to the I le CANNVS but which this should be I know not For of this name there are diuers as thou
shalt find in our Thesaurus And peraduenture it is not vnlikely to be true that Vlysses was tossed to and fro to diuers and sundry places which Eratosthenes as Strabo alledgeth saith he will then find out when it shal be his chance to meet with the cobler which sewed the bottell wherein he carried the windes which Aeolus gaue him And thus much generally of the wandring voiage of this Captaine which happened to him as he passed inter Dulichias Iliacasque domos Betweene the iland Zante and famous Troy as Ouid reporteth Sed perlege Odysseam omnia nosse volens But read o're learned Homers workes He telleth this tale at large as Ausonius in his Epitaphs counselleth Yet of this our Vlysses I cannot with silence passe ouer that of Plutarch in his Morals namely for that he had killed those Suters it was by Neoptolemus decreed against him that hee must leaue his country and be seene no more in Ithaca Dulichium and Zacynthus So that in this his banishment he went againe into Italy But where he left his life it is vncertaine Isacius vpon Lycophron an authour oft cited by vs affirmeth out of Theopompus that hee died in GORTYNIA a city of Tyrrhenia in Italy Yet Dictys Cretensis toward the latter end of his sixth booke whom also thou maiest read if thou thinkest good saith that he died in ITHACA All men for the most part generally report that he was slaine vnawares by his sonne Telegonus holding still in his hand a cuppe as Athenaeus telleth the tale with an iron dart headed by his mother Circe with a puffens quill pastinaca marina they call it but for another purpose as Oppianus in the second booke of his Halieutica writeth namely to kill his enemy not his father Hyginus in the 127. fable recordeth that assoone as he was dead hee was carried into the ile Aeaeato Circe and was there by her interred Some there are as Isacius testifieth that do report that Circe by her sorceries restored him againe to his former life More peraduenture might haue beene said of this our Vlysses if Cratinus Comicus whom Athenaeus reporteth to haue written De Vlyssibus were now extant and to be gotten Notwithstanding after this larger discourse of the wandring voyage of this famous Captaine I thinke it not amisse to speake a word or two of Vlysses himselfe because I verily perswade my selfe that it cannot but bee a matter that the Reader will very well like of In a certaine siluer coine or piece of money of Caius Mamilius Limetanus who as the report goeth thus testifieth Liuy was lineally descended from Vlysses and the goddesse Circe was stamped vpon one side the head of Mercury and therefore it had as is very probable on the other side the signet or counterfet of Vlysses which may be easily prooued out of those particulars and testimonies that doe heereafter follow Plutarch in the life of Cato the Elder doth giue out that Vlysses had a purpose to haue gone backe againe to the caue of Polyphemus for no other cause but to demand his Cappe and Girdle which there he had left behind him forgotten Therfore it is here hence apparant that he did vsually weare a Cap and a Girdle Yet we reade in Pliny that Nicomachus the painter did first paint Vlysses with a cappe vpon his head And to be painted wearing a Cappe was a cognisance and badge of nobility as Soranus in the life of Hippocrates doth plainly affirme item Dion Prusaeus in his foureteenth oration seemeth to intimate as much Again by an ancient custome of the old Romanes they were woont by putting on a Cappe vpon a mans head to make those that were slaues free Whereupon they vsed this phrase of speech Ad pileum vocare To call a man to the Cappe for Ad libertatem vocare To make one a freeman That this Cappe af Vlysses was in fashion round it is manifest out of these words of Saint Hierome Rotundum pileolum quale in Vlysseo conspicimus A round Cappe such a like one as we do see vpon the counterfet of Vlysses I may also adde this one thing although somewhat farre fetched That they were called Pileati as Iornandes testifieth which amongst the Goths were accounted of greater birth and nobility or of deeper reach and experience then the common sort of men were of because they went with their heads couered with a kinde of bonnet or cappe Moreouer he carried in his hand a staffe wherewith he staid himselfe where the waies were slippery and defended himselfe from such as in his trauell did assault or molest him as Homer testifieth of him in the fourteenth booke of his Odysses He had also a dog as the same authour affirmeth which after twenty yeares absence at his returne home knew his master Now the name of this dogge as we read in the same authour was Argus Which also Plutarch in his booke of the tranquillity of the mind doth auouch to be true And withall addeth this moreouer that he wept for his dogge when he died Pausanias in his Phocicis describeth this our Vlysses with a corslet or coat-armor vpon his backe Homer in the fifteenth booke of his Odysses saith that he was bald or very thinne haired Which is to be vnderstood of his latter daies when he grew in yeares For Suidas out of the aforesayd authour sheweth that his haire was blacke and curled Beside that he saith that he was somewhat hog-backed or stoup-shouldred That he bare in his shield or scutcheon a Dolphin and why thou maist read in Plutarch in his book of the Comparison of liuing creatures But some man may aske me why Mercury wearing a broad brimmed hatte with his verge or mace in his hand was stamped vpon the backeside of Vlysses coine If it be lawfull for me to gesse and interpose mine opinion I answer For the especiall and singular loue and fauour of this God aboue the rest shewed at sundrie times toward this braue Captaine For when in that his peregination all the Gods well neere were set and opposed against him only Mercury was found to fauour him and to sticke close vnto him For he only gaue him an antidote or preseruatiue against the sorceries and inchantments of the mischieuous witch Circe And indeed we read that this God of all others was wont especially to be honoured in any maner of magicall seruices whatsoeuer as we may see in the fourth booke of Papirius his Thebaidos Item of this God he obtained leaue to depart and that he might bee no longer detained by the nymph Calypso c. And peraduenture there may be also another cause assigned namely for that Vlysses whom Homer and other authours do highly commend for a most eloquent oratour and one that could speake most wisely and to the purpose in any kind of matter did take this god Mercury whom the Gentiles did make the president of orators and eloquence for his guardian and protector thinking thereby to bind him so
thee to M. Camdens Britannia where this argument is handled at large and most learnedly Only in defence of Gaulfridus lest any man should thinke that I haue all this while spoken against his person I conclude with this sayng of a learned man of our time Cardanus ait sayth he illius aetatis scriptores tantopere mendacio fabulis fuisse delectatos vt in contentionem venerint quis plura confingeret Cardane sayth That the Historians and Writers of those times betweene foure hundred and fiue hundred yeeres since were so much delighted with fables and lies that they stroue who should lie fastest and win the whetstone It was you see the fault of the time and age wherein he liued not of the man The learned Oratour Tully in the second booke of his Offices as I remember thus describeth the vertues of a true Historiographer Ne quid falsi scribere audeat Ne quid veri non audeat Ne quam in scribendo suspitionem gratiae Ne quam simultatis ostendat A good Historian may not dare to write any thing that is false He may not be afrayd to write any thing that is true He must not shew any partiality or fauour in writing He ought to be void of all affection and malice Learned Antiquaries follow this good counsell of the graue Philosopher Sell vs no more drosse for pure mettall Refine what you reade and write Euery tale is not true that is tolde Some authours want iudgement others honesty Let no man be beleeued for his antiquity For you know what Menander sayd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Grayhaires are not alwayes a signe of wisdome and deepe vnderstanding olde men do sometime dote and will lie as well as others One sayth Nesc to quo casu illud euenit vt falsa potius quà m vera animum nostrum captant I cannot tell sayth he how it commeth to passe but surely true it is that we are more easily caried away with lies and fables than with truth And how hard a matter it is to remoue one from a setled opinion though neuer so false and absurd any man meanly experienced doth very well know f Yet Caesar saith that Britanniae Loca sunt temperatiora qùam in Gallia remissioribus frigoribus The temperature of the aire in England is better then in France the cold is nothing so bitter That is as the authour of the Panegyricke oration made to Constantius the Emperour doth interpret it In ea nec rigor est nimius hyemis nec ardor aestatis In it neither the cold of winter nor the heat of summer is very excessiue And Minutius Felix hee writeth that Britannia sole deficitur sed circumfluentis maris tepore recreatur In England the Sunne shineth not very hotte but that defect is repaied by a certaine steame or hot vapour which ascendeth vp out of the sea that inuironeth this iland on all sides round g What place this should be I dare not for truth constantly affirme Perhaps he meaneth Vitsam or as we call it Whitsan a little towne in the country of Bolloine some fiue or six miles from Calais situate vpon the sea coast built at the mouth of a small riuer which peraduenture he calleth Shant For in the Arabicke tongue Wadi-shant importeth so much h This is false and by himselfe contradicted for in another place if I be not deceiued he maketh it twenty fiue miles ouer wherefore I doubt not but for a mile the authour did put a parasange which conteineth three English miles And this is somewhat neere the mark i I take it that he meaneth Cercester in Glocestershire which vulgarly they now call Ciceter It is an ancient city called of Ptolemey Corinium of Antonine Durocornouium of the Saxons Cyrenceaster taking the denomination from the riuer Corinus or Churne vpon which it is situate The tract of the decaied wals of it which are two miles about doe testifie that it was sometime a very great citie Many antiquities and auncient monuments doe plainly shew that in the time of the Romans it was a place of good rekoning Now it is nothing so populous and well inhabited k From the Seuerne I vnderstand it which at euery floude enterteineth the salt water a great way vp into the countrey l Warham is a sea towne in Dorsetshire strongly fortified by nature vpon the South and North with two riuers Ware and Trent this now they call Piddle and with the maine sea vpon the East only vpon the Wew it lieth open to the assailaunt Yet it was in times past defended with a faire wall and a strong Castle It was very populous well inhabited and graced with the Kings mint for the refining and coining of his mony vntill the time of Henry the Second since whose daies by reason of ciuill warres casualty by fire and stopping of the hauen it is much decaied and hath lost much of that former beauty m This distance is much too great whether he meaneth the lands end in Cornwall or the farther part of Wales Westward which I rather incline to But obserue this once for all that there is no great heed to be taken to those his accounts of miles and distances n Dartmouth an hauen towne in Deuonshire situate vpon a little hill running out into the sea at the mouth of the riuer Dart or Dert as some write it The hauen is defended with two strong Castels or Block-houses It is very populous well frequented with Merchants and hath many goodly tall shippes belonging to it King Iohn granted them certaine priuiledges and euery yeere to chuse a Maior for their supreme magistrrate and gouernour in ciuill causes vnder the King o Thus our seamen cal it at this day The Arabian termeth it _____ Tarfi'lgarbi mina'lgiezira The Westerne bound of the iland Master Camden in his Scotland that I may note this by the way affirmeth that Taurus in Welch doth signifie the end or limbe of any thing Heere in Arabicke thou seest it signifieth the same And in English wee call if I be not deceiued the brimmes of an hatte The tarfe p SALISBVRY or rather SARISBVRY a sweet and pleasant city within the County of Wilt situate in a plaine at the meeting of the riuers Auone and Nadder It is not that ancient city Sorbiodunum mentioned by Antoninus in his Iournall but built of the ruines of it as seemeth very probable For this old towne being often distressed for want of water and at length spoiled and rased to the ground by Swein the Dane in the yeare of our Lord 1003. although it reuiued againe a little after about the time of William the First was forsaken and abandoned by the citizens who laid the foundation of this new citie about 400. yeares since at what time Richard the First was King of England That most stately Cathedrall Church which they report hath as many doores as there be months in the yeare as many windowes as the yeare hath daies and as many pillars as there are
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