euer die or could die of a naturall death In Vlster there is another Lake in which there is an Iland of two diuers qualities one part of it hauing a church consecrated to the seruice of Christianity is very beautifull goodly and pleasant The other very rough ouer growne and vnpleasant is said to be bequeathed to Diuels and euill spirits This part hath in it nine caues or trenches in any of which if a man do chance to sleepe all night he is presently assaulted by the euill spirits and all the night so greeuously tormented and vexed that by the morning hee shall scarce be able to breath and will be almost halfe dead This place is called of the country people The purgatory of S. Patricke There is also a spring or fountaine in Mounster with whose water if any man shall wash himselfe he will presently become hoary or gray-headed I my selfe saw a man who washed the one halfe of his beard with this water and the haire became white the other remaining blacke as it was before On the contrary there is in Vlster a fountaine in which if any man wash his haire he shall neuer be horay or gray-headed In Connagh there is a fountaine of fresh water vpon the toppe of a very high mountaine which ebbeth twise in 24. houres and floweth as oft in this imitating the vnconstant motion of the sea There is a fountaine in the farder and North part of Vlster which by reason of the great coldnesse of it in seuen yeares space turneth sticks and wood cast into it into stone In Connagh there is a fountaine only kind and wholesome for men but for cattell and other such kind of bruite beasts pestilent and dangerous There is a fountaine in Mounster which if any man shall touch by and by the whole country wil be ouerflowed by storms of raine The people of this countrie do weare course blacke mantles or rugges for the sheep of this Iland are blacke and they put them on as rudely and vnhandsomely They vse also little hoods which hang down to their shoulders In riding they vse no saddles boots nor spurres but with a rod sharpe and tapered at one end they pricke forward their horses and make them runne Their bridles are such as do serue both for bitte and reigne so made as their horses only vsed to grasse are neuer hindred from eating They go into the field to warre naked and altogether vnarmed They vse three kind of weapons long speares darts and battell-axes The people is wild and very vnciuill they delight in nothing more then to liue idly and libertie they preferre before great riches I only obserued the people to delight much in musicall instruments and in that to deserue some commendation These briefly we haue gleaned heere and there out of the historie of Gyraldus Cambrensis diligently retaining the tenor of his owne phrase which we haue thought good to translate word for word as they are deliuered by our Authour that succedent ages might see either the credulous simplicity of former times or how time doth alter countries people and maners of men And because we haue spoken before of S. Patricks purgatory it shall not be amisse to adde to those former this discourse of it taken out of the twelfth booke of Caesarius his historie of Things worth the remembring When as S. Patricke saith he conuerted this nation to Christianity and they made a doubt and beleeued not that men should be punished for their sinnes in the world to come hee by earnest praier obtained this place at the hand of God the maner of the place is thus There is a deepe pit or trench enclosed round with a wall there are also certaine Regular Canons No man is so great a sinner to whom they enioine any greater penance then to abide all one whole night in that purgatorie If any man be desirous to enter in first making his confession they administer the sacrament vnto him they anoint him perfume him and instruct him thus Thou shalt see this night say they the assaults of the Deuill and the horrible paines of hell but they shall not hurt thee if thou haue but the name of Iesus alwaies in thy mouth But if thou shalt yeeld to the flattering enticements or terrible threatnings of the Deuill and so shalt cease to call vpon the name of Iesus thou art surely but a dead man Then in the euening putting him into the pit they shut vp the dore and comming againe in the morning if they presentlie find him not they looke no farther for him Many haue died there and many haue gone home againe whose visions haue been written of the foresaied friers and are shewed to such as are desirous to see them IReland saith M. Camden according to maners of the people is diuided into The wild Irish and The English pale but according to the ancient iurisdictions and naturall situation of it it is more fitly diuided into fiue parts and indeed it once conteined fiue kingdomes Mounster in the South Leinster in the East Connagh in the West Vlster in the North and Methe almost in the middest and heart of the land MOVNSTER Memomia the Irish call it Mown sometime diuided into West Mounster which in Ptolemeys time the Gangani Luceni Velabri and Iterni did inhabit and East Mounster possessed then of the Vodiae comprehendeth now these seuen Shires Kerry Limiricke Corke Tiparary Holy crosse Waterford and Desmond Of which Kerry and Tipararie were sometimes county Palatines LEINSTER Lagenia they call it Leighnigls a fertile soile and holesome seat possessed sometime by the Brigantes Coriondi Menapij Cauci and part of the Eblani Now it is diuided into these counties Wexford Caterlogh Kilkenny Dublin Kildare The Kings county The Queenes county Longford Fernes Wicklo METHE Media the Irish call it Mijh in the mid'st almost of the country the other part of the ancient possessions of the Eblani for his great fertility either for corn or grasse fish or flesh pleasant situation healthful aire multitude of people strength of castels and towns commonly called as Bartholomeys English reporteth The chamber of Ireland was lately diuided into East Methe and West Methe CONNAGH Connacia they call it Connaughty where long since were seated the Auteri and Nagnatae now it containeth these shires Clare Letrimme Gallawey Rosecomin Maio Sligo The whole prouince although it be in many places fertile and pleasant yet it is euery where full of dangerous Bogges darke Woods Creeks and Baies conuenient Stations and Harborough for shippes VLSTER Vltonia the Irish call it Cui Gully the Welsh Wltw a large country euery where full of great Lakes thicke and huge woods in some place resonably fruitfull in others leane and hungry but in all places greene and pleasant to the eie and therefore it maintaineth great plenty of cattell Here in Ptolemeys time inhabited the Voluntij Darni Robogdij Vennicny and Erdini at this day it conteineth these shires Louth Down Anwimme Monalion
but two walled cities namely Eemden and Awricke Of which EEMDEN situate at the mouth of the riuer Eems is the common Mart-towne of the whole prouince for concourse of Merchants especially famous which indeed is caused by the commodiousnesse and opportunity of the hauen which doth thrust it selfe so farre vp into the heart of the city at such a great height and depth that it doth easily receiue and entertaine great shippes full laden with sailes stricken into the very middest of the same This city is much beautified with the sumptuous palace of the Prince a gorgeous Church the Yeeld hall and the goodly houses of the priuate citizens AVRICK by reason of the woods and groues which on all sides almost do inclose it is inhabitd for the most part of Gentlemen and Noblemen where they recreate and delight themselues with Hawking and Hunting In the territorie of this city there is as Kempius reporteth a place called Iyl enclosed round with a wall beset with bushes a commodious dwelling for Hares and Deere in which as in a Parke or warrein they maintaine a great number of these kind of beasts which none dare take vnder a great penalty but they are reserued for the Earles disport and pastime when he is disposed to recreate himselfe with hunting In the confines also of this city Awricke is a little hill rising somewhat high commonly they call it Obstalsboom or Vpstalsbom where the seat of Iustice or Court leet for the whole shire is ordinarily held Heere they were wont euery yeare out of all the Zelands to meet in the open and wild fields and there by the most skilfull and approued lawiers such as best knew their customs and lawes to end and determine all controuersies arising between man and man In this precinct also are diuen castles villages and farms Of hamlets and end-waies such is the number that oft times one doth touch another The greatest part of which both for beauty of their houses and streets as also for multitude of inhabitants and strangers do so excell that they may foe honour and greatnesse contend with diuers cities of Germany The people do giue themselues either to traffique as Merchants or to get their liuings by occupations and handy-crafts or by playing the husbandmen and tilling the ground With their neighbours and forreners they speake in the Dutch tongue amongst themselues they vse a peculiar language proper to that nation and not vnderstood of strangers They are comely apparelled yea euen the very country people so that a man would take them to be citizens The women weare a kind of attire and apparell much differing from that of other nations They bind vp all the haire of their had into one locke and that set out with diuers siluer and gilt spangles and buttons they let to hang behind their backe Their head they bind vp in Summer with a caull of red coloured silke behung with siluer spangles but in the Winter they weare an hood of green cloth wherewith they do so couer their whole head that skarsely one may see their eies this kind of attire they call an Hatte Their vpper garment huick of loose gowne which they weare abroad from the head to the foot is pleited with many small pleits and is so stiffe with siluer and gilt wire or plate wouen into it that when it is put off it will stand vpright This sometime is made of red sometime of green cloth In this country of East-Friesland there are also two other counties the one called Esens the other Ieueren bearing the names of their chiefe towns Of the situation of this prouince nature and maners of the people read Vbbo Emmius FRISIA ORIENTALIS RIDERIAE PORTIONIS facies ante inundationem qui postea sinus maris factus est DENMARKE SAxo Grammaticus hath thus described Denmarke DENMARKE saith he parted in the middest by the boisterous sea conteineth a few small parts of the maine continent seuered and disioined one from another by the breaking in of the ocean winding and turning it selfe diuers waies Of these IVTIA Iuitland is in respect of the greatnesse and beginning in the enterance of the kingdome of Denmarke Which as it is in situation first so running out further it is placed in the vtmost borders of Germany From whose company it being parted by the intercourse of the riuer Eydor it runneth with a larger breadth toward the North euen to the banke of the frith of Norwey he calleth it Fretum Noricum In this is the bay of Lemwicke Sinus Lymicus abounding with such store of fish that it alone yeeldeth as much prouision of victuall to the inhabitants as all the whole country beside To this is adioined FRESIA Strand Friesen a prouince much lesser which lying more low then Iuitland in plaine and champion fields receiueth from the sea ouerflowing it great strength and heart and is very settile for come Whose inundation or violent tide whether it do bring to the country people more profit or dammage it is hard to say For in tempestuous weather the Sea breaking in through the creeks wherein the water was wont to be contained such a world of waters oft times doth follow and come into the country that diuers times it runneth ouer not only the fallow fields but drowneth also whole families with their goods and cattell After Iuitland the ile FIONIA Fuinex doth follow vpon the East which a narrow arme of the ocean sea doth seuer from the maine land This iland as vpon the West it looketh toward Iuitland so vpon the East it hath the ile SEELAND Sialandia he calleth it an iland much commended for the great abundance of all maner of necessary things that it yeeldeth which for pleasant situation is thought to excell all the prouinces of this kingdome and is supposed to be in the middest of Denmarke indifferently situate between the one end of the same and the other Vpon the East side of this an arme of the ocean runneth between it and SCONE Scania Scandinauia Basilia and Baltia called by diuers authours a part of Norwey or Swedland This sea yearely affoordeth great gaine to the Fishermen For this whole bay or gulfe of the sea is so full of all sorts of fish that the fishermen oft times do catch such store and therewith they so fraight their boats that they haue no roome to stirre their oares neither do they heere vse any nets or other meanes to take the fish but many times they are taken only with the hand Moreouer HALLAND and BLIEKER Blekingia he nameth it two prouinces issuing forth from the maine land of Scone like two armes from one and the same body of a tree are by many spaces and by-corners adioined and knitte to Gotland and Norwey Thus farre Saxo Grammaticus See also Albert Crantzius Sebastian Munster and the Ecclesiasticall history of M. Adams The kingdome of NORVVAY is subiect to the crowne of Denmarke as also the ile GOTLAND Item if you will giue credit to Marke
for that he was in managing all maner of businesses a most prudent faithfull and fortunate man by Lewis the Fourth the next successour in the Empire much set by and greatly esteemed In his time this whole prouince as it is heere set out in this our Chorographicall Chart was subiect to him and to other Princes and Earles of Hennenberg then liuing But HENRY his sonne dying without issue male the greatest part of this countrey by the marriage of his three daughters KATHARINE SOPHIA and ELIZABETH fell vnto the Marquesses of Misnia Burggraues of Noriberg and Princes of Wurtenburg which two last selling their portions the bishop of Wurtenburg did much enlarge his diocesse IOHN the second sonne of Berthold the first by his wife Adelheida of the house of Hessen had by Elizabeth of the family of Luchtenburg a sonne named HENRY the Fourth who by Mechtilda or Mawd daughter to the Marquesse of Bath WILLIAM the First who by his wife Anna of Brunswicke had WILLIAM the Second which by Katharine Countesse of Hanaw had issue WILLIAM the Fourth begotten of his wife Margaret daughter to the Duke of Brunswicke This William had by his wife Anastasia daughter of Albert Prince Electour of Brandenburg seuen sonnes and six daughters namely WILLIAM and CASPAR which died in their infancy IOHN Abbot of Fulden WOLFGANG and CHRISTOPHER which two died bachelours GEORGE ERNEST and BOPPO the Sixt This Boppo after the death of his first wife Elizabeth daughter to the Marquesse of Brandenburg maried Sophia daughter to the Prince of Luneburg he died vpon the fourth of March in the yeere of our Lord 1574. leauing no issue behind him He was a very godly prudent magnanimous and curtuous Prince That other George Ernest after the death of his wife Elizabeth daughter to the Duke of Brunswicke maried Elizabeth daughter to the Prince of Wurtenburg and at length vpon the seuen and twentieth day of December in the yeare of our Lord God 1583. yeelded to Nature and died in the seuentie and third yeare of his age being the last Prince of that stocke or family The description of this prouince of Hennenberg as heere it is set downe at this day is subiect vnto diuers Princes the greatest part of it belongeth to the Duke of Saxony the rest to the bishop of Wurtenburg and the Landtgraues of Hessen A more large and exact description of this Stocke and Family if any man be desirous to haue may be learned out of the Genealogy or Pedigree of M. Sebastian Glaser sometime Chancellour of this Principality of Hennenberg HASSIA or The LANDTGRAVY of HESSEN THe countrie of HESSEN which sometime was an EARLDOME and now graced with the title of a LANDTGRAVY ' was in old time possessed by the CATTI as almost all writers generally of our time do verily beleeue only Albertus Crantzius to my knowledge is of another mind for he laboureth to make the world beleeue that these Catti were those people which now are called Saxones This prouince hath vpon the East Turingen vpon the South Frankenland vpon the West Westphalen vpon the North the Duke of Brunswicke the bishop of Minden with other princes are neere neighbours It is a countrey very fertile of all maner of things necessary for the maintenance of mans life It beareth no vines but vpon that side only that lieth vpon the Rhein MARPVRG and CASSELL are the chiefe and principall cities of this country Whereof this latter is adorned with the Princes court and concourse of Nobles Gentlemen and other braue gallants following and attendant vpon the same the other is graced with a goodly Vniuersity well frequented with students from all places neere adioining round about In this Landtgrauy there are also diuers other Counties or Earledomes as CATZENELEBOG ZEIGENHEIM NIDA and WALDECK of all which now this Landtgraue writeth himselfe Lord. But listen what Eobanus Hessus that worthy poet in a certaine congratulatory poeme of his written and dedicated vnto Philip the Landgraue of this country vpon occasion of the victory atchieued by him at Wirtemburg wherin he doth by the way thus speake of the nature and situation of this prouince and withall something also of the maners of the people Qualis Hyperboreum prospectans Thraca Booten Gradiui domus ad Rodopen Hemumque niualem Circumfusa iacet gelidis assueta pruinis Gignit in arma viros duratos frigore quique Aut Hebrum Nessumque bibunt aut Strimonis vndas Talis ipsa situ talis regione locorum Et fluuijs siluisque frequens montibus altis Hassia naturae similes creat alma locorum Ceu natos in bella viros quibus omnis in armis Vita placet non vlla iuuat sine Marte nec vllam Esse putant vitam quae non assueuerit armis Quod si tranquillae vertantur ad otia pacis Otia nulla terunt sine magno vana labore Aut duro patrios exercent vomere colles Aequatosque solo campos rimantur aratris Namque planicies segetum foecunda patentes Explicat innumeras plenamesse colonos Ditat ipsa sibi satis est aut ardua syluae Lustra petunt canibusque feras sectantur odoris Venatu genus assuetum genus acre virorum Aut leges iura ferunt aut oppida condunt Fortia non solum bello munimina verùm Quae deceant in pace etiam oblectentque quietos Quid sacros memorem fontes quid amoena vireta Quid valles ipsis certantes frugiferacis Vallibus Aemoniae dulces quid vbique recessus Musarum loca confessu loca digna Dearum O patriae gelidi fontes ô flumina nota O valles ô antra meis notissima Musis c. Thus much in English prose briefly Hessen in situation nature of the soile and temperature of the aire is a country of all the world most like vnto Thrace Which by reason that it is much ouerhanged with many tall and stately woods beset and enclosed betweene the snow-top'd mountaines Hemus Rhodope Pangaeus and Cercina watered and serued with the chill and frozen-streamed riuers Hebrus Nessus and Strimon doth breed an hard kind of people fit for all maner of seruice and toilesome trauell So heere as if they were descended from mighty Mars their chiefe delight is in the wars no other kind of life doth please them halfe so well nay they hold it otherwise no life at all or at least that that man is not worthy to liue that doth not especially delight himselfe in martiall feats and deeds of armes Yet if all be still and warlike Mars do sleep they cannot abide to liue idlely and to spend their time at home For then they either do giue themselues to husbandrie and to follow the plow For heere the large and open champion ground do with great aduantage repay the husbandmans hire and paines or else in hawking and hunting they do through thiâ—ke and thin darkest woods and most bushy forests ouer hedge and ditch highest hils and lowly vales follow
found dead Plinie in his second booke chap. 107. testifieth that once this whole Lake did burne PERVSINI agri exactissima nouissimaue descriptio auctore Egnatio Dante Cum priuilegio Imperatoris Regis cancellariae Brabantiae ad decennium 1584. The territories of the city of SIENA CAesar Orlandius a famous Ciuillian of Siena sent from Rome this Mappe together with a briefe history of the city taken out of a larger worke of his as he confesseth in his priuate letters to me written of the originall of the same to be inserted into this our Theater of the World The city of Siena saith he is so ancient that of his first beginning there is nothing to be found in any approued old writers For that some do report it to haue beene built by the Galli Senones which vnder the conduct of Breanus their generall about 363. yeares after the building of Rome in the space of seuen moneths as Polybius and Plutarch haue recorded wan the city it cannot be proued out of any good authour For Iohn of Salisbury which first broached this opinion who for that he intituled his history by the name of Polycraticon is therefore called Polycrates or of others Polycarpus in the seuenteenth chapter of his sixth booke bringeth no authority for this his assertion And himselfe confesseth in the twenty and fourth chapter of his eighth booke that he was not familiarly known to Pope Adrian the fourth Now it is apparant to all the world that Adrian the fourth sate in the Papall seat but from the yeare of Christ 1154. vnto the yeare 1159. and therefore the testimony of Iohn of Salesbury concerning the building of Siena so many yeares before he was borne is of no validity at all Cornelius Tacitus in his twentieth booke of his Annales calleth this city Colonia Senensis Which words of his can by no meanes be vnderstood of the other Sena which at this day also is in the country Piceno and is vulgarly called Senegallia as some haue fondly imagined For in the time of Tacitus and Plinie that city of Piceno was not euer called Sena but Senogallia or Senogallica or Senogallia as is most manifest out of the words of Plinie and Ptolemey For Plinie reckoneth Coloniam Senensem amongst the mid land Colonies of Hetruria and not many lines after he placeth Senagallia in the sixth region of Italie Ptolemey not only in the Latine copies printed but also in most ancient manuscript Greeke copies placeth Sena amongst the mid-land cities of Hetruria but Sena Gallica for so he termeth it amongst the cities of the Senones neere Ancona and the Temple of Fortune When this city first was made a Bishops sea although as yet it be not certainly knowne yet this is certaine that amongst the 46. Bishops or there about all of them neighbours to the city of Rome which in the first Romane Synod in the time of S. Hilary Pope of Rome and first of the name assembled together in the yeare of Christ 465. Eusebius Episcopus Senensis was one of them Againe in the second Councill of Lateran vnder Pope Martin the first in the yeare of Grace 652. amongst the subscriptions of 125. Bishops these are named Maurus Caesenatis Ecclesiae episcopus Maurus episcopus S. Senatis ecclesiae in the same maner and forme that Clusinus Roxellanus and Fauentinus Bishops do call their Churches Clusinatem Roxellanatem and Fauentinatem In like maner amongst the like number of about 125. Bishops who subscribed vnto the Epistle of Agatho Bishop of Rome which the Legate sent vnto the six generall Councill at Constantinople held in the yeare 573. caried with them this subscription is found Vitalianus episcopus S. ecclesiae Senensis Whereupon it is manifest that no man may cauill and say that Episcopus Senensis is the same that Episcopus Senogalliensis or that for Episcopetus Senatis it should be written and read Episcopus Caesenatis As also for that out of Plinie and Ptolemey before mentioned it is plaine that euen in their daies that Sena of Picenum was not called Sena but Senogallia Moreouer also because in the forenamed Councill of Lateran not only Episcopus Senatis but also Caesenatis and Senogalliensis named by one and the same name subscribed seuerally Lastly Venantius Episcopus Senogalliensis subscribed also to the second and fourth Synods of Rome summoned by Pope Caelius Symmachus about the yeare of Christ 498. Furthermore Pope Pius the 2. borne in Siena in the yeare 1459. which was the yeare of his creation aduanced the Church of Siena from a Bishops sea vnto the dignity of an Archbishopricke and assigned the Bishops of Suano Clusino Crassetano and Massano Suffraganes to the Archbishops of Siena and their Churches subiect to that sea This hath Caesar Orlandius written of the originall and antiquity of Siena his natiue country to be published for no other cause as he protesteth then that the fond opinion of Blondus and others which haue written otherwise of it then the plaine truth is might wholly be rased out if it were possible of the minds of all men Claudius Ptolemeus Senensis in his sixth booke of epistles to Gabriel Caesano hath most elegantly described Monte Argentario MARCA ANCONA IN former times this region was called Picenum now they call it Marca Ancona of the head city of the same Sometime it was called Marca Firmiana of a town in this prouince as Blondus hath giuen out It lieth between the riuers Isaurus now called Foglia and Trento and betweene the Hadriaticke sea and Mount Apennine It is manifest by ancient records that the Piceni Vmbri Senones were long since seated in this tract The country is a fertile soile yeelding in great plenty all maner commodities but especially for fruit trees corne it doth farre excell other places Silius Italicus doth highly commend it especially for oliues The head city as we haue said is Ancona so called of his situation for that being seated vpon the promontory Comerano it lieth out into the gulfe of Venice like an arme or elbow Whereupon the ancient comes of this city which heere oft times are found within the earth are obserued to be stamped with an arme holding a penne in the hand The Hauen of this most ancient city was made by Traian the Emperour as an inscription in Marble doth giue to vnderstand Heere is also Aelia Ricina otherwise since that called Ricinetum and at this day now Recanati is a towne situate vpon the toppe of an hill where we saw the Mart or Faire which there is kept at certaine times of the yeare vnto which they come almost from all quarters of the World Not farre from hence is the Church of S. Maria Lauretana with the hamlet Loreto enclosed with a very strong wall The gorgeousnesse of this church and holinesse of the place is such that so soone as one shall set foot within the dores it will strike him into a great admiration This Church is well furnished with all maner of weapons
is such as it doth almost exceed the capacitie of mans witte no man need to wonder why in former times as well as now the Noblemen so much delighted to dwell heere This we haue taken out of Leander where manie other things may be read of who hath described the whole kingdome this Citie and the Liberties thereof very curiouslie that indeed it is not necessarie to send the Reader vnto any other Authour but Scipio Mazzella which in a seuerall and peculiar Treatise hath with extraordinarie paines and diligence set out in the Italian Tongue a description of this kingdome There is also in Print a little booke written by Alexander Andreas of the warre betweene Philippe King of Spaine and Paul the fourth Pope of Rome out of which the Reader which is not satisfied with this discourse of ours may heere and there picke out something concerning this kingdome worth the noting and not triuiall The booke is set out in the Italian tongue by Hieronymo Ruscello Iohn Baptista Caraffa Pontanus and Pandulfus Collenutius haue written the histories and chronicles of the kingdome of Naples in the which they in diuers places speake much of the situation of this country Gabriel Barry hath very curiously described Calabria his natiue country as Sanfelicius hath done Campania REGNI NEAPOLITANI VERISSIMA SECVNDVM ANTIQVORVM RECENTIORVM TRADITIONEM SCRIPTIO PYRRHO LIGORIO AV Cum priuilegio APVLIA now called PVGLIA or TERRA DI OTRANTO WE haue composed this discourse following of this countrey out of the treatise of Antony Galatey which he wrote of the situation of Iapigya now called Terra di Barri This country saith he in respect of his situation is seated in the most temperate place of the world Of diuers authours it hath beene diuersly called by sundry names Aristotle and Herodotus called it Iapygia others Peucetia others Mesapia others Magna Gracia Great Greece others Apulia others Calabria for that which now is called Calabria was anciently called Brutia The corne hearbs and fruits of this country are of the best The oats of this soile is as good as the barly of other countries and the barly as good as their wheat Melones of a most pleasing taste and Pome-citrons do euery where grow in great plenty Physick herbs of greater force then other where are here in all places very common The aire is very wholesome the soile is neither drie nor squally or moorish But these so great gifts and blessings of God are intermedled with some mischiefe and danger for heere nature doth breed a most venemous and pernicious kind of spider the Greeks do call it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Latines Phalangium and Araneus whose poisonous bite is onely cured by Musicke or Tabret and Pipe Heere is also the venimous serpent which the Greeks call Chersydros the Latines Natrix terrestris the Land snake we call it if I be not deceiued an Adder and heere is a kinde of Locust which hurt and mar all things they light vpon The cities of this country long since more famous were Tarentum now Taranto proudly seated between two seas exceedingly stored with fish in forme somewhat like a long Iland This city in all mens iudgement is inuincible Callipolis now Galipoli Pliny called it Anxa is a city situate in the end of a promontorie or forland shooting farre out into the sea but with such a narrow Isthmos or necke-land that in some places there is scarce so much as a cartway It is very strong and round beset with high cliffes from the maine land there is only one entrance in the which is a very strong Castell Hydruntum of them called Otranto is the chiefe city and which is somewhat more Metropolitan of the whole Peninsula or Demi-ile and that not without cause for whether you respect the antiquity of it the vertue and humanity of the citizens ioined with valour and great magnanimity it hath euer been of them accounted for a very famous and worthy city It hath a very good and capacious hauen but against the raging blasts of the North wind not so safe It was sometime very strong and defencible but now it lieth almost leuell with the ground The fields adioining are very fruitfull full of springs and alwaies green From hence Montes Cerauni certaine hills of Epirus now called Cimera and Canina may easily be descried Heere is the end of the Hadriaticke and Ionian seas as Pliny testifieth Brundusium now called Brindisi a famous city hath as notable a hauen as any in the world els where the inner hauen is enclosed with castles and an huge chaine the outer hauen is heere and there beset with rocks and small Ilands but his mouth is by Alphonsoes meanes so stopped and dette vp that there is no entrance but for little shippes and barges It hath beene in former time a very populous city now it is little inhabited These are the chiefe marine cities He that would know more particularly of the ancient names situation antiquities and priuate stories of the mid-land cities and townes we refer him to the learned discourse of Galatey written of this his natiue country to which if he please to adioine the description of Leander I perswade my selfe the thirstie Reader shall not know what els he may demand CALABRIA GAbriel Barrius Franciscanus hath very curiously described Calabria in fiue bookes which are imprinted at Rome with as little heedfull diligence Out of him we haue culled these particulars following CALABRIA saith he a country of Italie in forme and fashion not much vnlike a tongue lieth between the vpper and neather seas It beginneth at the neather sea the Greeks call it the Tyrrhen sea the Latines the Mediterran or Mid-land sea from the riuer Talao which runneth into the Bay of Policastro at the vpper sea the Ionian sea the Grecians terme it from the riuer Siris otherwise sometime called Senno and coasteth along vntill it come to the streights of Faro di Messano and the city Regio and so being diuided longwise by the mount Apennine heere they call it Aspro monte it endeth in two capes or promontories the one called Leucopetra of them Capo de Leocopetra the other Lacinium vulgarly of them called Cabo delle colonne or Cabo dell ' Alice Not only the plaines and champions but euen the hillie places like vnto Latium or Campania are well serued with water Whatsoeuer is necessary for the maintainance of mans life this country doth yeeld in great abundance it needeth no forraine commodities but is able to liue of it selfe Calabria generally is a good and a fertile soile it is not combred with Fennes Lakes or Bogges but is alwaies green affoording good pastorage for cattell and excellent ground for all sorts of graine The fountaines and brooks are many and those passing cleare and wholesome The sunnie hills and mountaines open to euery coole blast of wind are wonderfull fertile for corne vines and trees of diuers kinds whereof arise great profit to
also two sorts of Priests the one sort go in white with their heads shauen and liue by begging as our Friars do the other goeth in blacke wearing their haire long and dwell by themselues as our Priests vse to do heere in Europe Neither of them may marrie yet they liue very wantonly and licentiously Thus farre out of Scalantus It will not be amisse to these to adde some things out of others Iohn Barry in his Asian Decades giueth out that this king hath vnder him fifteen very great and large countries which they call Gouernments And moreouer he addeth that this King alone doth farre surpasse all the rest of the Princes of Asia round about him and that his yearely renenews do exceed all the riches and wealth of all Europe For handy-craft trades and occupations they do excell all men liuing their works are so finely and cunningly made that one would iudge them to haue been framed by nature and not by art and industrie of man At the city Nimpo which others call Liampo he saith it hath been obserued that some of the Portugals in the space of three moneths haue bought and shipped away 166000. pounds of silke Odoardus Barbosa writeth that the people are very kind and humane and go apparelled much like the Dutchmen whom also they do much resemble in pronunciation and maner of speech Those cleare and transparent vessels or dishes as white as the drift snow which amongst vs are of such great estimation are heere made in this maner They mingle certaine cochle-shels eg-shels other things together which they knead make into a paste This paste they hide in the earth where they let it li for the space of fourescore or an hundred yeares before they stirre it or looke to it again leauing it as a great inheritance or pretious iewell vnto their heires That paste they vse which their grandfathers or great grandfathers haue laied vp for them And they do obserue duely by an ancient custome that he which taketh away the old paste do put new presently in his place Antony Pigafetta calleth this King the most mighty Prince of the whole world He saith that his palace or house where he keepeth his Court is enclosed with 7. wals and that he hath alwaies 10000. souldiers for his gard continually there attendant vpon him and that 70. crowned Kings do homage vnto him and are subiect to his gouernment and command The same authour affirmeth that Muske is from hence transported into diuers parts of the world Andrew Corsalis he likewise saith that the greatest store of Rheubarbe and Pearle that is brought hither to vs in Europe doth come from hence In the Iesuites Epistles lately set forth in print many things well worth the obseruation are heere and there set downe of this country That of Ptolemey these people were called SINAE the situation doth plainly proue neither doth the name yet retained much differ from that For the Spaniards and Portugals do write it Ch na yet they pronounce it Sina Of the situation and nature of this country the behauiours and maners of the people you may read in a worke of Iohn Gonsalis set forth of this argument Of the same also read the letters of the Iesuites afore mentioned and Ferdâ—nando Lopez but especially the sixth booke of Maffeius de rebus Indicis Lastly the nienth chapter of the ninth booke of the first part of the choice Library of Posseuinus The Ile IAPAN OR IAPONIA IOhn Peter Maffey in the twelfth booke of his history of India doth thus write of this iland They are especially three greater ilands with many other smaller round about them disioined one from another by very narrow straits or armes of the sea that are called by the name of IAPAN or Iaponia The first and the greatest is diuided into three and fifty signiories or kingdomes the head and chiefe city of this is Meaco whereof this whole iland taketh his name The second is named Ximen and conteineth nine kingdomes the more famous cities of the kingdome of Bungo are Vosuqui and Funay The third iland is called Xicocum it conteineth not aboue foure kingdomes or signiories it is beautified with the goodly city Tonsa Tosa he calleth it of the same name with the kingdome Thus the regiments or kingdomes of Iapan are in all generally sixty and six beside diuers other iurisdictions which cannot iustly be called kingdomes The length of the whole maine land is as they say almost two hundred leagues the breadth is nothing so much for in some places it is not aboue tenne leagues broad at the most it is not aboue thirty leagues ouer Of the compasse there is nothing certainly written that I know of It runneth out from the South toward the North from the thirty degree of latitude almost to the thirty and eight Vpon the East it is opposite to New-Spaâ—ne remote from it not aboue 150. leagues Vpon the North it hath the Scythians or Tartarians and other such people exceeding rude and barbarous On the West lieth China Sinarum regno in some place neerer in some place further off according to the diuers windings and bendings of the shore for from the city Liampo which is the vttermost bound of China toward the West vnto Gotum Ogoto I thinke which is the first Iland of all Iapan that offereth it selfe to the view of those which saile from thence hitherward is not aboue threescore leagues but from Amacan a mart town in the West where the Portugals for the most part do altogether vse to trade vnto the same Gotum the cutte is 297. leagues ouer On the South neere hand it hath naught but the vast and wide Ocean further off certaine lands and countries not yet descried or knowne out of which the report goeth that certaine sailours came once by chance vnto Iapan and neuer put off from thence any more to returne backe to their natiue soile The country for the most part is full of snow all the yeare long bleake and cold and therefore not very fertile In September they cut downe their rise in some places they reap their wheat in May for this generally is the vsuall food throughout the whole country yet they make no bread of it as we vse heere in Europe but a kind of pudding or pappe which they eat in stead of bread The temperature of the aire is very kind and wholesome their fresh waters are passing good they haue also some bathes or springs of hot waters of soueraigne vertues in Physicke as some do constantly report High and steep mountaines they haue many heere and there but two are especially famous the one of which whose name I know not doth continually burne and cast out flames of fire as Aetna in Sicilia was wont to do and as Hecla in Island now vsually doth at certaine times In the toppe of this mountaine the Diuell enclosed in a white clowd sheweth himselfe to certaine men after that for deuotions sake they haue long
woont to throw foure horses into the sea as a sacrifice to Neptune great commander of the same Dionysius Vticensis and Caelius Apitius doe speake of oleum Liburnicum a kind of oile made heere The same author telleth vs of a cold spring or well in Illyria ouer which if a man shall spread any clothes they will burne and at length be cleane consumed And thus much generally of Illyria now it remaineth that we speake a word or two of Liburnia and Dalmatia the seuerall parts of the same whose beginning and ending as Florus thinketh is at the riuer Titius Cercha or Polischa or at the city Scardona Scardo situate vpon the banke of that riuer as Ptolemey Dioscorides Galen and Pliny do thinke Liburnia is renowmed for those kinde of shippes which heere were first made and vsed and therefore were named Naues Liburnicae they seeme to haue beene like vnto our pinnaces or foists light and swift of saile and therefore were good for pirates and sea-robbers and Vegetius in his booke of warre writeth that they were held to be the best kinde of shippes for seruice and fight vpon the sea and therefore in warre to be preferred before any other kinde of shipping whatsoeuer this also Appian doth confirme who saith that for lightnesse and swiftnesse they did farre surpasse any other And Zosimus writeth that they were as quicke of saile as those gallies that were forced and rowed with fifty oares but in this he is deceiued that he thinketh them to haue beene so named of a certaine city in Italy Apitius telleth vs as we said before of a Liburnian oile vsed as seemeth about some seruices in the kitchin Of the iron mines in Dalmatia see Cassiodore in his third booke Variarum dedicated to Symeon These verses of Statius in his Siluae doe shew that it hath also some veines of golde Quando te dulci Latio remittent Dalmatae montes Vbi Dite viso Pallidus fossor redit erutoque Concolor auro So doth the poet Martiall in the threescore and eighteenth Epigram of his tenth booke vnto Macer in these words Ibis littoreas Macer Salonas Felix auriferae colone terrae yet Strabo plainly testifieth that they vsed no maner of mony or coines either of siluer or golde Moreouer he affirmeth that euery eighth yeere they make a new diuision of their lands There are in Dalmatia as Cicero to Vatinius writeth twenty ancient townes which also haue gotten vnto them more than threescore other townes The rape roote and persnep do grow of their owne accord about Dalmatia without setting sowing or manuring as Athenaeus in his ninth booke Deipnosophiston out of the authoritie of Posidonius affirmeth For so Delachampius translateth the Greeks word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not vsed of any other writer to my knowledge Aristotle in his often cited Admiranda giueth vs to vnderstand that the Taulantij a people of Dalmatia did vse of hony to make a kinde of wine for taking the hony-combes and powring water vpon them they presse and wring out the liquor which they presently seethe in a great kettle and caldron vntill the one halfe of it be consumed then they put it into earthen vessels and so let it stand for a certaine time lastly they tunne it vp into barrels or treene vessels and so they keepe it for a long time vntill it get the true and perfect taste of a strong kinde of wine The same authour in the same place writeth that amongst the Ardiaei a people of Dalmatia in the confines neere to the Autariatae there is a great mountaine and neere to that as great a valley out of which water runneth in great abundance yet not at all times but in the spring time only which in the day time they powre into a vessell and keepe it close within the house at night they set it abroad in the open aire vncouered which being done for six daies together at last it congealeth and becommeth as fine salt as may possibly be seene Pliny in the skirts of Dalmatia placeth a caue which he calleth Senta with a wide deepe mouth into which if one shall cast any thing though neuer so light and in a day neuer so calme presently there riseth a storme like to a whirlewind Hither peraduenture belongeth that fable of the two rocks of which Dionysius Afer speaketh In the same countrey there is a hole called Diana's caue in which if one may beleeue Phlegon Trallianus there are many dead bodies the ribbes of which are more then sixteene eles long a piece Giue him the whetstone Thus farre of this countrie and the people of the same collected out of the most ancient authours that are extant and haue come to our hands Latter writers haue named this Illyria SLAVONIA and the people or inhabitants of the same SLAVONES Slauonians by which name being reclaimed from the barbarous inciuility of other nations and by holy baptisme incorporated into the body of Christs Church in the time of Basilius Emperour of Constantinople and his sonne Leo who succeeded him in that Empire they are described in the eighteenth chapter of that his booke de Bellico apparatu where he thus setteth out their nature and manner of life It is a populous nation able to indure all maner of miseries heat colde raine nakednesse want of meat drinke and other such like necessary things they can easily abide They were woont to be humane courteous to strangers which hospitality they do very diligenly mainetaine and keepe euen to this day for they alwaies vsed to shew themselues gentle and kinde to trauellers and strangers to entertaine them friendly and courteously and to goe with them and conduct them from place to place to defend and keepe them safe and sound from all hurt and danger So that if a traueller were wronged by the negligence of his host they presently made warre vpon him as against a publike enemy For they held it for a great argument of fidelity if the wrong done to a stranger were righted or any kinde of way reuenged Moreouer this also doth shew them to be humaine in that they do not binde their captiues to a perpetuall seruitude but rather they detained and kept them with them as captiues and prescribed them a certaine set time of their seruitude after which being expired paying a certaine fine or peece of mony they might if they pleased returne home to their owne countrie againe or if they thought good stay still amongst them as frinds and freemen Their women are said to be very modest aboue those of other countries for many of them doe take the death of their husbands so heauily that they will die with them and one way or other make an end of their liues with them for they cannot abide to liue as widowes alone after their husbands death and to marry the second time that is counted a foule shame Their ordinary fare is millet they are very temperate and sparing in their diet Other toiles of husbandry they
called S. Iohns-toun is the onely towne in Scotland that is walled about Of the wood Caledon whereof Ptolemey and other ancient writers haue recorded There is scarcely any mention to be found onely about the towne of Sterling there remaineth some shew of the name Thus farre of the kingdome of Scotland now it will not be amisse to speake somewhat of the ilands that lie round about the same and do belong vnto that crowne The HEBRIDES commonly called the West-iles both for bignesse and number do excell the rest Hector Boëthus saith that they be in number 43. But heere he reckoneth vp the I le of Man as one of them which is not subiect to the kingdome of Scotland but is vnder the allegeance of the King of England neither do I thinke that it was euer accounted of the ancients among the Hebrides The first of the Hebrides is Aran otherwise called Boëth then Hellaw and Rothes Not farre from these is Alize where are great plenty of Barnacles which they call Soland-geese The greatest of all and the most famous is Ile a fertile soile for corne and rich for veines of mettall Then Cumber and Mule Neere vnto these is Ione memorable for the tombs of Kings long since buried there Next vnto this is Lewis last of all is Hirth situate in the 43. degree of latitude Thus Boethus calleth them But Iohn Maior the Scot nameth them thus Argila Aranea Awyna Butha or Rothsaya and Leuisora In these ilands are those geese which they call Clakes Gyraldus calleth them Bernacles which Boëthus affirmeth to breed of the sea and of rotten wood and not to grow vpon trees as the common sort beleeue and haue published in their writings For if you shall cast saith he a peece of wood into that sea in continuance of time first wormes do breed within the wood which by little and little become to haue heads feet wings at the last being fledge and growen to their full growth to the bignes of a goose they attempt to flie and do somtimes swim and sometimes vse their wings as other Sea-foule do Beyond the Hebrides are the ORCHADES or the Orkeney iles of which the best is Pomona famous for the Bishops-sea a goodly Church and two strong castles One of these Iohn Maior calleth Zeland which is 50. miles in length In these grow no manner of trees nor any wheat and yet otherwise of all other sorts of graine they are very fertile It breedeth no serpent or venimous beast In Scotland they buy the barrell'd butter the inhabitants hauing abundance of Barley whereof they make a most strong kind of drinke and are very great drinkers yet as Boëthus saith you shall neuer see a drunken-man or madde man one bestraught or a naturall foole amongst them The same authour affirmeth the like of the inhabitants of the iles of Scetland but this is no wonder amongst them that drinke nought but water All the wealth and commodities of these Scetland-men consist in Stockfish and hides of beastes In the Hebrides they vse the Irish tongue in the iles of Orkeney they speake the Gottish language M. Iordanus in his mappe of Denmarke saith that the Orchades are subiect to the kingdome of Denmarke yet we know them to belong to Scotland vnder the title of a Dukedome But se what we haue written of this in the discourse to the mappe of Denmarke Of Scotland and of the ilands adioining thou maist read more at large in Hector Boëthus Iohn Maior and Iohn Lisley Scottish-men which haue written the histories of this their country SCOTIAE TABVLA Miliaria Scotica Cum Priuilegio Of ENGLAND THe South part of the Iland of Britaine is as we haue said before diuided into two parts That part which is toward the East abutting vpon the German Ocean is of the Angles a people of the Saxons which seated themselues there in their language called ANGLIA or England that is the Angles land The West part which is seuered from that other by the riuers Seuern and Dee and doth vse the ancient Brittish tongue is of the same Angles or Englishmen called WALLIA or Wales yet the Brittan or Welshman calleth himselfe Cumro and his country Cumria the English Saissons and their country Lhoëgria neither do they know or at least they will not acknowledge what England or an Englishman doth meane So great difference there is betweene the languages of the seuerall nations of this Iland All this South part England I meane and Wales hath their proper king vnto whom many Dukes Marquesses Earles Barons and great Noblemen are subiect and obedient It is a countrie at all times of the yeare most kind and temperate The Aire is thicke and so it is much subiect to windes clowdes and raine and therefore in regard of thicknesse of the aire it is neither opprest with too much heat or too much cold For it is found true by experience that although it be more Northerly than Brabant Flanders and other forrein countries yet heere the winter is neuer so bitter nor the frost so eger as in those parts It hath euerie where many hilles without wood and water which notwithstanding do bring forth very small and short grasse an excellent feed for sheepe and therefore infinite flockes of sheepe do bespread them which either by reason of the kindnesse of the aire or goodnesse of the soile do yeeld most soft wooll farre finer than those of other countries And for that this country breedeth neither woolues nor any rauenous beast you shall see in diuers places flocks of sheepe vpon the hilles and dales greene pastures commons fallowes and corne fields into which after the crop is off euery man by a certaine ancient custome doth put in his cattell in common to wander heere and there without a shepheard This indeed is that Golden fleece in which especially the riches of the inhabitants doth consist for an huge masse of gold and siluer is by Merchants which thither flocke from all quarters for such like wares yearly brought into the Iland and there doth continually rest for that it is by proclamation forbidden that no man may carry any money out of the Realme It aboundeth also with all sorts of cattell except asses mules camels and elephants There is in no place of the world greater and larger dogges nor better The soile is very fatte and fertile and naturally bringeth foorth beside all sorts of corne and pulse all maner of things onely the firre-tree and as Caesar saith the beech tree although that now it hath in diuerse places plenty of beeches The ay-green Bay tree doth in these Northren countries no where thriue better Such abundance of Rosemary heere doth grow in all places and that so high that they oft times do fence their gardens therewith Wine they haue none for the grapes seldome heere do ripen and is amongst them planted rather for shade and pleasure then for his fruit and profit There is in no country in Christendome more
Saxony for the true and ancient Saxony was comprehended in former times between the riuers Elue and Rhein according to his vttermost length the breadth of it was restrained by the Germane sea and the riuer Eydore and the borders of Hessen and Thuringen Brunswicke was almost in the center and middest of it But now it is not bounded with those or such like naturall bounds such as riuers and mountaines are but it is confined by other Princes signiories and countries Therefore Saxony at this day is diuided into the Vpper and Neather The Vpper or High Saxony is that which this Mappe doth represent and is graced with the title of a Dukedome whose Duke also is one of the Princes Electours which haue their voices in the choosing of the Emperour The chiefe townes of this prouince are VVitteberg and Torga Of Saxony and the antiquities of the same Albert Crantz hath written a whole volume M. Adams also in the first booke of his Ecclesiasticall history hath some things of this country worth the reading Hamelman hath set out the histories of Saxony and VVestfalen They that do desire to know the situation buttes and bounds and famous acts let them read VVitichinde and Sebastian Munster Pet. Albinus Niuemontius very lately and Dauid Chytraeus haue written very learnedly of this prouince Of the Marquesate of BRANDENBVRG LVSATIA Laussnitz and VOITLAND countries which we haue also described in this Chart take these few lines The Marquesate of BRANDENBVRG one of those prouinces which in old time were inhabited of the Wandalls is diuided at this day into the Old and the New by this runneth the riuer Oder by that Elue Albis the Latines call it In the old Marquesate the chiefe city is Brandenburg whereof the whole country tooke his name The New hath the city Franckford vulgarly called Franckford vpon Oder to make a difference between it and that which is situate vpon the riuer Meyn Heere is an Vniuersitie and a great Mart kept twise euery yeare At Berline is the Princes court ordinarily kept Him of the Marquesate they commonly call the Marquesse he also is one of the Prince Electours VOITLAND is a little shire subiect to the Marquesse This Aeneas Syluius calleth Aduocatorum terram and Praetorianam the Sollicitours or Controwlers land framing a word from the Etymologie or true meaning of the Germaine name for Voyt in the Dutch tongue signifieth a Sollicitour or Controwler So called for that sometime the Prince of this country was one of the foure controwlers of the Roman Empire The townes of better note are these as Gasper Bruschius thus reckoneth them vp in Munsters Cosmographie Curia Regnitiana Renitz court commonly called Hoff so named of the riuers which runne by it and there falling into Sala a great city and very populous beautified with the goodly and stately Church of S. Michael a large Monastery of Nunnes and two rich Hospitalls Plauhenium or Plaun a city with a castell Olsnitz which the castell Voytzberg neere adioining Adorff and Weidonium Weyda as I thinke a faire towne with certaine Abbeies about them Milford and VVhite-crowne Geraw Scletz and whatsoeuer is between the Hoff and Cygney standing vpon the riuer Elster Hallestra the Latines call it Neere vnto this is Feichtelberg that famous mountaine bearing plentifully the stately Pine-trees out of which foure riuers do arise runne a very strange worke of Nature vnto foure quarters of the world namely Egre Meyn Nabe and Sala VVolfangus Iobstius hath written a curious description of the Marquesate of Brandenburg LVSATIA Laussnitz is diuided into Ober Laussnitz and Nider Laussnitz the Vpper and the Neather it is also is a part of Saxony as Rithaymer testifieth It lieth between the riuers Elue and Oder and the Bohemian mountaines Sometime it was a part of Meisen Misnia and was adioined to it but the Bohemians who laboured by all meanes to enlarge the bounds of their kingdome and command at length seized it into their hands The people in maners conditions and language do not much differ from the Silesians only they are distinct from them by name and iurisdiction as gouerned by seuerall Princes The name and appellation of Lusatia is somewhat neere in sound to the name of Elysij or Lygij which it is certaine as Ioachinus Cureus writeth sometime dwelt heere about Their chiefe cities are Gorlitz and Sittaw and some others The riuer Neiss runneth through the middest of this country Gasper Peucer hath this other day in Elegiacke verse described the same in a pecular treatise MISNIA Meisen and THVRINGIA Thuringen are described and set out in their seuerall tables which we haue heereafter inserted into this our Theater of the World in their proper places A portraiture and draught of these countries shaddowed and counterfeited out of the Geographicall Chart of Iohn Criginger which was imprinted at Prage in Bohemia in the yeare of Christ 1568. we haue adioined to this our worke SAXONIAE MISNIAE THVRINGIAE NOVA EXACTISSIMAQUE DESCRIPTIO Cum priuilegio The county of MANSFIELD MANSFIELD a part of Old Saxonie is thought to haue beene so called of Mannus the second king of the Germanes For Mansueldt in this country speech seemeth to signifie nothing else but The field of Mannus Which deriuation Ascanien another place not far from hence denominated as some men do verily beleeue of Ascenez the first authour of the Germane name and nation doth seeme strongly to confirme Heere also is Ascher leuben which in their language is as much to say as The house of Aschenez There is also a lake which of Ascenez is called Ascherslebische see This countrie hath vpon the East the riuer Sala the territories of the Archbishopricke of Magdeburg and the Diocesse of Merseburg on the South lieth Turingen on the West the Counties of Swartzburg and Stolberg the Principalities of Sangerhouse Anhalt and Asseburg So that these Earles of Mansfield which are also called The noble Lords of Heldrungen haue these princes their neere neighbours the Archbishop of Magdeburg the bishop of Merseburg the Prince Electour of Saxony the Landgraue of Thuringia the Duke of Saxony the bishop of Halberstade the Prince of Anhald the Lord of Bernburg the Earles of Swartzburg and Stolburg the Lords of Werther and Asseburg When or by whom this prouince was graced with the title of an EARLDOME Andrew Hoppenrode in his booke which he hath written set forth of the Petigrees of the Saxon Princes plainly confesseth that he is altogether ignorant Notwithstanding this same authour and with him Syriacus Spangeberg do auerre it to haue beene very ancient by this that an Earle of this country called Herger did liue in the daies of Great Arthur that renowmed king of the Britans and was one of those which together with the rest of the worthies of this king were first made Knights of the order of the Round Table Now this king Arthur we know liued about 542. yeres after the incarnation of our Sauior Christ But if there be
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
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
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
are Alba Regalis Stulweissenburg famous for the coronation and tombes of their kings Strigonium Gran the Metropolitan or Archbishops sea Quinqueecclesiae Funskirchen the Turkes call it Petscheu a bishopricke Sopronium Taurunum the Germanes call it Griechweissenburg the Hungarians Nandor alba the Italians Belgrado Sabaria Zombatel or Szombath hely the place where S. Martine was borne and Stridon Sdrigna the natiue soile of S. Hierome It hath many goodly riuers and two very famous lakes Balaton and Fertou To this part of Hungary as soone as thou art ouer the riuer Dra is annexed Slauonia sometime a part of the vpper Pannonie lying between the riuers Saw and Dra although indeed it doth extend it selfe farre beyond the Saw as farre as the riuer Huna for so it is at this day called where Croatia beginneth After it followeth Dalmatia coasting along by the Hadriaticke sea partly subiect to the Turke partly to the Venetian The least part of it now is vnder the king of Hungaria the vpland country is possessed of the Bozners and Rascians which anciently were called Moesi superiores The chiefe city of Slauonia is Zagrabia of Croatia Bigihon is now but in former ages Fumium was the chiefe The FARTHER HVNGARY or Hungary beyond Donaw is seuered from Morauia Silesia Polonia and Ruscia by the montes Carpathij called now by the Germanes Schneberg which do begin a little aboue Posonium Presburgh and from thence by many long and tedious windings passe between this country vntill they end at the Euxine sea or Marmaiore at that place where there is the country which now they call Maromarusia There now other mountaines and woods from that place bending toward Seuerinum a city situate vpon Donaw do diuide it from Transsyluania and VValachria transalpina The riuer Tibiscus well stored with diuers sorts of fish arising out of the mountaines of Maromarusia runneth through the middest part of Hungary It hath many goodly townes as Posonium Presburg Tirnauia Dijru c. on the West Colacia Bachia Zegedinum Zeged c. on the South Varadinum Dedrecinum c. beyond the riuer Tibiscus where also are the mines of gold and siluer At Seuerinum is yet to be seen a mention of the bridge long since built by Traiane the Emperour and other townes and things worth the remembrance which in this place the shortnesse of our entended discourse doth force me to omit The Inhabitants do speake the Scythian language a tongue much different from any language spoken by any of their neighbours round about them It giueth place to no country of the World for valiant and stout men store of cattell fertility of soile and rich veines of mettalls but for temperature of the aire wholesome and pleasant situation it may iustly be preferred before any whatsoeuer that I know The earth is plentifully endowed by nature with all maner of things necessary and commodious Gold Siluer Salt Precious-stones Mineralls for colours are heere digged vp in great abundance It yeeldeth great store of corne graine fodder for cattell apples and fruites of diuers sorts They haue many riuers well stored with fresh fish They haue great plenty of Coppar In the most of their riuers there are often found certaine shiuers of the best and finest gold yea euen in their vines such is the nature of this golden soile they do extract great plenty of Gold This we haue gathered out of the little treatise of Steeuen Broderith and the Decades of Hungary written by Antony Bonfinius to whom the studious Reader for further satisfaction may haue recourse Let him also read Herberstein his Commentaries of Moscouy Matthias a Michou of Sarmatia Munster and Cuspinian in oratione Protreptica and in his Austria and especially the abridgement of the histories of Hungary written by Peter Ranzane who amongst other strange wonders which he reckoneth vp of this country affirmeth if you will beleeue him that himselfe hath seen very many golden branches and twigs of vines some as long as ones finger others halfe a foote long George VVernher hath written a little tract of the strange waters of Hungary HVNGARIAE DESCRIPTIO WOLFGANGO LAZIO AVCT Cum Priuilegio Hungariae uoces quomodo legendae sunt C H. litterae in vocibus Hungaricis CZ S littera pro S C H. Z littera pro S simplici in vocibus Hungaricis W litteram in fine pro V Y. An other Mappe of HVNGARY THis second description of Hungary more exact and true as the famous learned man Iohn Sambuke this countrieman borne maketh me beleeue for euery man as Pliny in his Naturall history most truely witnesseth describeth the plot and situation of the country best wherein he himselfe was bred and borne we haue thought good in this place to adioine vnto the former and that beside our purpose when as our promise was of ech countrie to set out but one Mappe But because I thinke neither of them to be of it selfe absolute inough for the worth of this so goodly a country I haue thought it behouefull to the Reader to set out both in this our Theater He that shall compare them one with the other shall find oft times great variety in the situation of places and turnings and windings of the streames and riuers and yet there is no reason why presently any man should condemne the authours of want of skill or diligence in describing it but let him iudge of it as Strabo most truely doth of History for he doth not by and by thinke that history to be reiected when they that haue set it forth do not altogether agree in the descriptions of places when as the truth of the whole history is many times by that disagreement more plainly demonstrated Let therefore the diligent Reader and student of Geography for whose good we do whatsoeuer we possibly can vse one or both at his discretion seeing that we are forced to do what we may not what we would VNGARIAE LOCA PRAECIPVA RECENS EMENDATA ATQVE EDITA PER IOANNEM SAMBVCVM PANNONIVM IMP. MS. HISTORICVM 1579. TRANSSYLVANIA STeuen Broderith in his Treatise printed at Basill together with the Hungarian history of Antony Bonfinius describeth this country thus Transsiluania saith he was sometime a part of Dacia His chiefe city is Alba Iulia Weissenburg so called either of Iulius Caesar or rather of Hiula a certaine prince of the Hunnes It hath many other goodly townes amongst the which are Cibinum Hermanstadt called of the Hungarians Seben situate vpon the riuer Cibin Brassouia Chronstadt Colosium Clausenburg Bistricia Bestereze and many other built and inhabited by a people of high Germany which we call Saxons In this country are the Siculi a fierce and warlike Nation amongst which there is neither clowne nor gentleman all men are in degree equall like as amongst the Switzers Transsiluania is very fertile of all maner of things especially of Gold Siluer and other mettalls as also of Salt digged out of mountaines It breedeth excellent Horses and hath great plenty
of the forenamed Maffeius who handleth them more at large with many other things of these Ilands of Iaponia Of the same there are heere and there many things in the Iesuites Epistles INDIA THat there is not a more goodly and famous country in the world nor larger comprehended vnder one and the same name than INDIA almost all writers iointly with one consent haue affirmed It was so named of the riuer Indus The whole compasse of India by the iudgement of Strabo and Pliny is thus limited vpon the West it hath the riuer Indus on the North the great mountaine Taurus on the East the Eastern sea wherein those famous Ilands the Moluccaes do lie on the South it hath the Indian sea In the middest it is diuided into two large prouinces by the goodly riuer Ganges Of which that which is on the West side of Ganges is called India intra Gangem India on this side Ganges that on the East India extra Gangem India beyond Ganges That in holy Scripture it is called EVILAT or Hauila this latter some writers call SERIA the country of the Seres as Dominicus Niger testifieth M. Paulus Venetus seemeth to diuide it into three prouinces the Greater the Lesser and the Middlemost which he saith they name Abasia This whole country generally not only for multitude of nations of which as Herodotus writeth it is most populous and best stored of any country in the world and for townes and villages almost infinite but for the great abundance of all commodities only brasse and lead excepted if one may giue credit to Pliny is most rich and fortunate It hath very many riuers and those very great and faire These running to and fro and in many places crossing and watering the same do cause it as in a moist soile where the sunne is of force to bring forth all things most plentifully It storeth all the world with Spices Pearles and Pretious stones as hauing greater plenty of these commodities than all the countries of the whole world besides There are neere vnto this country many goodly ilands which heere and there lie scattering in the maine Ocean so that it may iustly be tearmed the World of Ilands But especially IAPAN which M. Paulus Venetus calleth Zipangri situate in this sea is worth the noting which because it is not many yeares since that it was knowen to few or none I thinke it not amisse to say something of it in this place It is a very large and wide iland and hath almost the same eleuation of the Northren pole and position from the South with Italy The Ilanders and people heere inhabiting are much giuen to learning wisedome and religion and are most earnest and diligent searchers out of the truth in naturall causes They vse to pray and say seruice oft which they do in their Churches in the same maner as the Christians do They haue but one King vnto whom they are subiect and do nothing but according to his behests and lawes Yet he also hath one aboue him whom they call Voo to whom the ordering of Ecclesiasticall matters gouernment of the state of the Church is soly committed This peraduenture we may not vnfitly compare to the Pope as their King to the Emperour To their Bishop they commit the saluation and care of their soules They worship only one God protraitured with three heads yet they can shew no reason of this act They baptize their infants by fasting in token of penance they labour to bring downe their bodies They crosse and blesse themselues with the signe of the crosse against the assault of Satan so that in religion certaine ceremonies and maner of liuing they seeme to imitate the Christians yet notwithstanding the order of the Iesuites labour by all meanes possibly they can not refusing any paines and trauell to reduce them wholly to Christianity Heere are also the MOLVCCAE certaine ilands famous for the abundance of spices which they yearly yeeld and send into all quarters of the world In these is bred the Manucodiatta a little bird which we call the bird of Paradise a strange fowle no where els euer seen More neere the coast of India is SVMATRA or rather Samotra for so the King himselfe of that country writeth it in his letters vnto his Maiesty this Iland was knowen to the ancient Geographers and Historians by the name of TAPROBANA There are also diuers other Ilands heereabout of great estimation and fame as Iaua Maior Iaua Minor Borneo Timor c. as thou maist see in the Mappe but we cannot in this place speake of euery thing particularly and to the full Thus farre the religion of Mahomet is professed and from Barbary ouer against Spaine euen vnto this place is the Arabicke language spoken or vnderstood The Moores from Marrocco Ambassadours to our late Queene some fiue yeares since we saw and heard them speake that tongue naturally in which also their commission or letters patents were written From Achem in Samotra and Bantam in Iaua Maior our Merchants this other day brought letters vnto his Highnesse so fairely and curiously written in that character and language as no man will scarcely beleeue but he that hath seen them especially from so barbarous and rude a Nation Of the ancient writers Diodorus Siculus Herodotus Pliny Strabo Quintus Curtius and Arrianus in the life of Alexander haue described the Indies So hath Apuleius also in the first booke of his Floridorum Dion Prusaeus in his 35. oration hath written much of this country but very fabulously There is also extant an Epistle of Alexander the Great written to Aristotle of the situation of India Of the latter writers Ludouicus Vartomannus Maximilianus Transsiluanus Iohannes Barrius in his Decades of Asia and Cosmas Indopleutes whom Petrus Gyllius doth cite haue done the same But see the Iesuites Epistles where thou shalt find many things making much for the discouery of the I le Iapan But if thou desire a full and absolute description of the same I would wish thee to haue recourse vnto the twelfth booke of Maffeius his Indian history Iohn Macer a Ciuillian hath also written bookes of the history of India in which he hath much of the ile Iaua Moreouer Castagnedo a Spaniard hath written in the Spanish tongue a discourse of the Indies Of the ilands which lie scattering heere and there in this ocean read the twentieth booke of the second Tome of Gonsaluo Ouetani written in like maner in the Spanish tongue INDIAE ORIENTALIS INSVLARVMQVE ADIACIENTIVM TYPVS Cum Priuilegio The kingdome of PERSIA OR The Empire of the SOPHIES THe Empire of the Persians as it hath alwaies in former ages been most famous so at this day still it is very renowmed knowen farre and neere and conteineth many large and goodly prouinces For all that whole tract of Asia comprehended between the great riuer Tigris the Persian gulfe the Indian which of old writers was called mare Rubrum the Red sea the riuers
of the grace of God where our Sauiour Christ manifested his infinite power by a sufficient testimony raising Lazarus who had lien three daies by the wals from death to life againe This place is spoken of in Matth. 21. Marc. 11.14 Iohn 11.12 BETHABARA the house of Passing ouer or the Ferry-house For there the waters of Iordan were diuided into two channels and therefore there they yeelded a safe passage to Iosua and all the children of Israel through the middest of this riuer Iosu 3.4 Heere Iohn baptized Christ and many others Matth. 3. Moreouer Saint Iohn speaketh of this place in the first and tenne chapters of his Gospell BETHEL Gen. 12. Thither Abraham remoued his houshold after his departure from Sichem For there is no doubt but that they are two diuers places First it was called Luza that is an Almond tree or place where Almond trees did plentifully grow There Iacob saw the Lord standing vpon a ladder as it is related in the 28. chapter of Genesis Therefore vpon that accident the place was called by a new name Bethel that is the house of God In the same Ieroboam erected the Golden calfe that he might seeme in that to imitate the example of the Patriarkes and holy men before him who worshipped God in that place Heereupon the Prophets changed the goodname Bethel and called it Bethauen that is the house of wickednesse or villany BETHSAIDA the house of fruites or the house of corne prouision or hunting Heere Philip Andrew and Peter the Apostles of Christ were borne Iohn 1. The Euangelists also Matthew and Marke haue made mention of this place Matth. 2. Marc. 6. CANA the Greater the country of Syrophoenissa whose daughter Christ cured being possessed with a Diuell Matth. 15. Marc. 8. of this see more beneath in Sarepta CANA the Lesser a towne of Galiley in which Christ with his presence and miracle of turning water into wine honourably graced matrimony Cana signifieth a reed or cane CANANAEA it is the name of a country so called of Chanaan the sonne of Cham. Chanaan signifieth a Merchant and indeed the posterity of Chanaan dwelling vpon the sea coast did trade as Merchants For Sidon the sonne of Canaan built the city Sidon And in the tenth chapter of Genesis the land of Canaan is so described as it is certaine that it contained all that whole tract of ground which afterward the Israelites did possesse from Iordan euen vnto the sea and so along as farre as Aegypt There as yet was no distinction between the Philistiim and Canaan For Canaan also was ancienter than Philistiim which was not borne of Canaan but of Misraim Yet afterward when the power and iurisdiction of the Nation of the Philistines grew to some heigth and greatnesse they caused the country especially all along the sea coast beneath Tyre Southward to be called after their name PALESTINA And in the 13. chapter of the booke of Iosua there are reckoned vp 5. cities of the Philistines Azotus Accaron Ascalon Geth and Gaza When therefore the Canaanites for that they possessed the places neere Iordan were almost vtterly destroied their name by a little and little began to perish and to fade away And although also the Philistines which greatly enlarged their bounds and territories in that countrie which afterward was giuen to the tribes of Iuda Beniamin Simeon Manasses and Isaschar were driuen from thence and were for the most part consumed yet they retained as I said certaine strong cities vpon the sea coast beneath Tyre and so somewhile they greatly flourish and were lords ouer others within a while after they grew weaker and were commanded of others In the time of Abraham the seat and court of Abimelech was at Gerar who in the 26. chapter of Gen. is named King of the Philistines The city Gerara was situate in that country which afterward the tribe of Iuda did possesse not farre from Hebron and was indeed placed between Hebron and Gaza It is therefore to be conceiued that the name of Cananaea Canaan is somewhat more ancient and comprehending more Nations than the name of the Philistines which neuer possessed all that tract and compasse of ground which afterward the Israelites enioyed But notwithstanding because the Philistines had certaine great cities vpon the sea coast the name of Palaestina was by reason of their traffique more famous and better knowen to the Greeke writers than Canaan or Cananaea Herodotus in Polymnia saith that the Phoenicians and Syrians possessing Palaestina sent 300. saile of ships to Xerxes and afterward he addeth that the whole country euen from the skirtes of Aegypt vnto Phoenicia was called Palestina And therefore also afterward the Greekes as Ptolemey vnder the name of Palaestina haue comprehended Iudaea Samaria and Galiley when as notwithstanding the Philistines did not possesse all that large space and compasse of ground But often times names are giuen to countries of some principall prouince of the same that doth in power and command surpasse the rest The Grammaticall interpretation and reason of the Etymology of the word Philistim is thought to be for that this nation inhabiting along the sea coast where earthquakes are very frequent and so whole townes and cities are couered with sand besprinkled and soiled with dust and dirt For the word in the Hebrew tongue signifieth Sprinklers or besprinklings as when any thing is besprinkled and foiled with dust or it signifieth otherwise Batteries and shakings as when a building is violently shaken and mooued by an externall force whereby it is in danger and ready to fall Like as Ascalon and Azotus hauing their names giuen them of Esh fire CAPERNAVM that is a pleasant and delightfull village Heere Christ first began to publish his Gospel Matth. 4. Luc. 4. and 7. For he was a citizen of that corporation betaking himselfe to that place when as he fled for feare of Herod when he put Iohn Baptist to death Therefore of Christ and his Disciples they demanded there a didrachma for poll mony as of the rest of the citizens and dwellers in this city Of this city mention is made Matth. 8.11.17 Marc. 1.2.5.9 Luc. 4.7 Io. 2.6 DALMANVTHA that is the poore mens habitation Christ with his Disciples came also into this country Matth. 16. Marc. 8. DAMASCVS It is distant from Ierusalem 42. Germane miles Breitenbach writeth that Damascus is 6. daies iourney from Ierusalem The map sheweth the situation of it to be in the mount Antilibanas It is a very ancient city which also at this day is very populous and much frequented by merchants Diuers etymologies and reasons of the imposition of this name diuers men do curiously seeke I do hold this for the likeliest The sacke of blood because the old opinion is that in this place Abel was slaine by his brother Cain Surely it is very probable and generally agreed vpon that our first parents Adam and Eue did first dwell not farre from this place DECAPOLIS the name of a prouince
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
as it is also in the 7. chapter of the Acts of the Apostles againe recorded The same is that Sichem which is mentioned in the 11. and 21. chapters of the booke of Iud. and in the 12. of the 3. booke of King Ieroboam built Sichem in mount Ephraim This same is it which in the 4. chapter of the Gospell by S. Iohn is named Sychar the last syllable being varied whether of purpose or chance God knoweth I cannot tell In the time of S. Hierome it was Neapolis Naples This is it which in the 33. of Gen. was called both Sichem and Salem Now there was another Salem in this country as we haue shewed before SICLAG In this place Dauid dwelt a yeare and 4. months whereupon it came to passe that euer after the kings of Iuda held this towne as their owne inheritance 1. Reg. 27. This city in the absence of Dauid was sacked and fired 1. Reg. 30. SODOMA GOMORRHA ADAMA SEBOIM and SEGOR were the 5. cities situate in the vale of Siddim that is the champion vale or the vale of Salt-pits Gen. 14.10 which by reason of the great fertility and pleasant situation of it was compared to the Paradise or garden of God or like Aegypt the garden of the world Gen. 13.10 In it were many slime pits bitumen the Latines call it Gen. 14.10 In that same place now is Mare salsum the salt sea otherwise called Mare mortuum the dead sea or Lacus asphaltites the lake of slime a kind of liquid matter like pitch that issueth out of the earth and therefore is called Pissaphaltus this they vse in those countries in the laying of stone or bricke in steed of lime or mortar Sodom as seemeth tooke the name of the champion plaine wherein it stood Gomorrha of an handfull or gauell of corne In the Arabicke tongue the theme doth signifie to abide liue or stay in a place Psalm 25.13 Hebr. 7.23 To prolong life to cause to liue long Mahomet in the 45. Azzoara his Alkoran and the interpretours of the Psalmes and New Testament do often vse the word thus And from hence Gomor or Homor for so they sometime expresse the orientall letter ain signifieth vitae prolixitatem the continuance and length of daies of a mans life Azzoara 31.32 and 36. Item Psal 31.11 and 90.9 Lastly Magburah is the same that Thebel is in Hebrew or Oecoumene in Greeke that is so much of the earth as is habitable Psa 33.81 Psa 107.7 and in Auicen very often as also in the Geography of Nazaradin where it is opposed to Chala that is desert forestie wast inhabitable And so I thinke the more probable deriuation is to be fetched from the Arabicke rather than from that of the Hebrew For such is the situation of this place whether you respect the wholesomnesse and kindnesse of the aire or fertility of the soile that before the fall it was so well inhabited as no place better in all this land Adama or Admah red earth the best kind of soile for carcable land Zeboim a pleasant and beautifull country Zeor or Sohar a little prouince THABOR a mountaine in the tribe of Nephtalim neere to Chedes Thabor signifieth purity cleannesse or by the changing of Thau into Teth a letter of like force and instrument of pronunciation a nauell bullion bosse or pommell For it ariseth vp in the middest of the plaine like the nauell vpon the belly For it is 30. furlongs high and the diameter of the flatte of the toppe is almost 20. furlongs ouer TYRVS was a colony drawne forth of Sidon The Hebrew name is Zor which signâ—fieth a rebell or traitour For it is probable that a part of the citizens of Sidon falling to mutiny departed out of the city and to haue sought where they might dwell in some other place to their better liking This great Alexander tooke after he had besiedged it 7 months putting 7000. citizens to the sword hang'd vp other 2000. ZIDON so named oâ— Zidon the sonne of Chanaan as it is left recorded in the 10. chap. of Gen. The word signifieth an hunting or taking of any pray This city being take by Ocho K. of Persia by the treachery of the soldiers was burnt by the straglers baser sort that followed the camp in which fire perished about 40000. men In the 5. chapter of S. Marks Gospell and the 8. of S. Lukes there is mention made of the country of the Gadarenes in that history where Christ casteth the diuels out of the mad man and the diuels rushing into the heard of swine do cary them headlong into the lake This country S. Matthew calleth the country of the Gergesenes which S. Hierome translateth Gerasers It is therefore to be vnderstood that the town Gerasa famoused also by Stephanus stood not vpon the South bank of Iordan where the most fertile and pleasant plaine of Galiley is seated but toward the desert and wast land beyond the riuer vpon the North banke So that the diuers names of one and the same towne are Gerasa Gadara and Gergasa Neither is the cleare lake of Genesareth of which we haue spoken before to be thought to be one and the same with the like of the Gadarens but another situate neere the town Gadara far distant and remote from thence of which Strabo thus speaketh The water also of the lake of Gadara is troubled and muddy of which if any beasts do drinke they will cast their haire their hoofes and their hornes THE PEREGRINATION of SAINT PAVL THere is no man of meane learning but doth know that the knowledge of Geography and skill of Mappes and Chartes is necessary for the vnderstanding of the historicall bookes of holy Scripture and if they will not confesse it yet the thing it selfe doth sufficiently approue it to be so And thereupon certaine learned men in these our daies haue freely bestowed their labour in this businesse for the furtherance of the studious Diuine Amongst the which the great Mathematician Orontius Fineus of Dolphine in France was to my remembrance the first in that his charte which he made for the vnderstanding of the Old and New Testaments Tabula ad vtriusque Testamenti intelligentiam concinnata for such is the title of that his Mappe After him followed Peter Appian in his Peregrination of Saint Paul The same was done by Marke Iordan of Holstein Lastly Christianus Schrot in that his Mappe which he intituled The Peregrination of the Children of God and B. Arias Montanus of Ciuill in Spaine in his Apparatus Biblicus a learned worke adioined to the King of Spains Bible This is that which I in this Mappe attempt to do according as the narrownesse of roome will permit For as this Mappe of mine may not compare with theirs for multitude of places which I do freely confesse so that this of ours shall aswell as theirs make for the vnderstanding of both the Testaments I dare boldly promise For as all these only excepting Montanus haue
fifth Section of the third Climate of his Geographicall garden imprinted in the Arabicke language at Rome in the yeare of our Lord 1592. The place saith he where Lot with his family dwelt the stinking sea and Zegor euen vp as high as Basan and Tiberias was called the Vale for that it was a plaine or bottome between two hils so low that all the other waters of this part of Soria do fall into it and are gathered thither And a little beneath in the same place he addeth All the brookes and springs do meet and stay in the lake of Zegor otherwise called the lake of Sodom and Gomorrha two cities where Lot and his family dwelt which God did cause to sinke and conuerted their place into a stinking lake otherwise named The Dead lake for that there is in it nothing that hath breath or life neither fish nor worme or any such thing as vsually is wont to liue or keepe in standing or running waters the water of this lake is hot and of a filthy stinking sauour yet vpon it are little boates in which they passe from place to place in these quarters and carry their prouision The length of this lake is 60. miles the breadth not aboue 12. miles Moreouer Aben Isaac who in like maner wrote in the Arabicke tongue a treatise of Geography certaine fragments of which I haue by me for which I am beholding as also for many other fauours to Master Edward Wright that learned Mathematician and singular louer of all maner literature thus speaketh of this place The sea Alzengie saith he is a very bad and dangerous sea for there is no liuing creature can liue in it by reason of the vnwholesomnesse and thicknesse of his waters which happeneth by reason that the sunne when it commeth ouer this sea draweth vp vnto it by the force of his heat the thinner and more subtill parts of the water which is in it and so doth leaue the thicke and more grosse parts behind which by that meanes also become very hot and salt so that no man may saile vpon this sea nor any beast or liuing creature liue neere it Item the sea Sauk as Aristotle speaketh of it which also is in these parts and doth reach vp as high as India and the parched Zone so I thinke the word Mantakah that is a girdle or belt which heere he vseth doth signifie that there is not in it any liuing creature at all of any sort whatsoeuer and therefore this sea is called The Dead sea because that whensoeuer any worme or such like falleth into it it mooueth no longer but swimmeth vpon the toppe of the water and when it is dead it putrifieth and then sinketh and falleth to the bottome yet when there falleth into it any stinking and corrupt thing it sinketh immediatly and swimmeth not vpon the water at all Thus farre out of Aben Isaac This sea is of Ptolemey called ASPHALTITES the lake Ashaltites of others Asphaltes of the bitumen which it doth yeeld in great plenty of the Iewes MARE PALAESTINORVM ORIENTALE SOLITVDINIS siue DESERTI the Sea of Palaestina the East Sea the Sea of the desert or wildernesse of the situation and position of it vnto the land of Iewry Item MARE SALIS the Salt-sea of the hot and fitish saltnesse of the same aboue other salt-waters which the Arabian iustifieth to be true Pausanias that ancient and famous historian of the Greekes and Iustine the abridger of the large volume of Trogus Pompeius call it MARE MORTVVM the Dead sea of the effect there is saith Iustine a lake in that country which by reason of his greatnesse and vnmoueablenesse of his waters is called the Dead sea for it is neither mooued with the wind the heauy and lumpish bitumen which swimmeth vpon the toppe of the water all the lake ouer resisting the violence of the greatest blasts neither is it saileable for that all things that are void of life do sinke to the bottome neither doth it sustaine any thing that is not besmered with bitumen to these both my Arabians do subscribe of Galen the Prince of Physitions it is called LACVS SODOMAEVS the Lake of Sodome for him Nubiensis doth stand who neuer nameth it Bahri a sea but Bahira a lake or standing poole yet contrariwise Isaac termeth it Bahri not Bahira and by this name it is generally knowen to all the Europeans Solinus calleth it TRISTEM SINVM the Sad-bay like as the gulfe of Milinde is of some named ASPERVM MARE the rough or boisterous sea like as Isaac my authour calleth this same lake Tzahhib the churlish and dangerous sea Iosephus in the tenth chapter of his first booke of the Antiquities of the Iewes saith that this place where now is the Dead-sea was before named the Vale of bitumen pits Strabo otherwise a most excellent Geographer and curious searcher out of the truth in these discourses falsly confoundeth this lake as I touched before with the Sirbon lake Why the Arabian should call it Zengie and Sawke I know not This we haue heere added partly out of the Geographicall treasury of Ortelius for the ease and benefite of the Reader least the diuersity of names might make him mistake the thing Hauing thus finished the Mappes of HOLY write It now remaineth that we do in like maner begin and go on forward with those of PROPHANE histories A draught and shadow of the ancient GEOGRAPHY THou hast gentle and curtuous Reader in this Mappe a draught a plot or patterne I might call it of the whole world but according to the description ruder Geography of the more ancient authours of those of middle age For this our globe of the earth was not then further knowen a wonderfull strange thing vntill in the daies of our fathers in the yeare 1492. Christofer Columbus a Genoway by the commandement of the king of Castile first discouered that part of the West which vnto this day had lien hid vnknowen After that the South part hitherto not heard of togther with the East part of Asia much spoken of but neuer before this time entered was descried by the Portugals That part which lieth toward the North we haue seen in this our age to haue been first found out by the English merchants and nauigatours a particular view and proofe of which thou maist see at large in that worthy worke of the English Nauigations composed with great industrie diligence and charge by my singular good friend Master Richard Hacluyt By him England still shall liue and the name of braue Englishmen shall neuer die The other countries which as yet do lie obscured within the frozen Zones and vnder both the Poles are left for succeding ages to find out Peraduenture ancient writers that liued many hundred yeares since haue named some country or some one place or other out of this our continent but they haue not written ought of the situation of the same as being indeed altogether vnknowen vnto them In
of colour but also to marke them with diuers kinds of pictures and counterfeits of sundrie sorts of liuing creatures and to go naked least they should hide this their painting I read in Herodian Listen thou shalt heare Solinus speake the same wordes The countrie is partly possessed by a barbarous and wild people which euen from their childhood haue by certaine cutters men skilfull that way diuers images and pictures of liuing creatures drawen and raised vpon their skinne and so imprinted in their flesh that as they grow vnto mans estate these pictures together with the painters staines do wax bigger and bigger neither doth the wild people endure any thing more patiently and willingly than that their limbes by meanes of those deep cuts and slashes may so deepely drinke in these coloures that they may sticke long by them Amongst the Goddesses as I learne by Dion they worshipped Andates for so they call Victoriam victory who had a temple and sacred wood where they vsed to do sacrifice and performe their religious seruice and worship to her Beside her they had another which was called Adraste whether this were the same with Adrastia which some did take to be Nemesis the Goddesse of reuenge which the ancient Grecians Romans did worship I leaue to others to determin Caesar saith that in former times the Druides a kind of superstitious priests dwelt also amongst this people who affirmeth that their discipline and religion was first heere inuented and from hence caried beyond sea into France That they continued vntill the time of Vespasian the Emperour of Rome in Mona or Anglesey it is apparent out of the 14 booke of Cornelius Tacitus his Annals Frō them doubtlesse this nation had their knowledge of the state immortality of the soule after this life for this was the opinion of those Druides as Caesar and others haue written of them But of the Druides we will God willing speake more in our Old France or Gallia as it stood in Caesars time That the Britans did so greatly esteeme and wonderfully extoll the art Magicke and performe it with such strange ceremonies that it is to be thought that the Persians had it from hence I haue Pliny for my patron who mightily perswadeth me The forenamed Bunduica also doth seeme to iustifie the same who as soone as she had ended her oration vnto her army cast an hare out of her lappe by that meanes to gesse what the issue of that iourney would be which after that she was obserued to goe on forward all the company iointly gaue a ioifull shout and acclamation To sacrifice and offer the blood of their captiues vpon their altars and to seeke to know the will and pleasure of their Gods by the entrails of men as the Romans did by the bowels of beasts these people held it for a very lawfull thing Thus farre Tacitus and thus much of Albion now it remaineth that we in like manner say somewhat of Ireland HIBERNIA Or IRELAND VPon the West of Britaine in the vast ocean the Latines call it Oceanus Virginius that is as the Welch call it Norweridh or Farigi as the Irish pronounce the word lieth that goodly iland which all ancient writers generally haue called by one and the same name although euery one hath not written it alike an ordinary and vsuall thing in proper names translated into strange countries For Ptolemy and vulgarly all Geographers which follow him calleth it HIBERNIA Orpheus the most ancient Poet of the Greekes Aristotle the Prince of Philosophers and Claudian IERNA Iuuenall and Mela IVVERNA Diodorus Siculus IRIS Eustathius in his Commentaries vpon Dionysius Afer WERNIA 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and BERNIA the Welch-men or ancient Britans YVERDON the Irish themselues from whence all the rest were fetched ERIN whereof also the Saxons by adding the word Land signifying a countrey or prouince as their manner is haue framed IRELAND by which name it is not only knowen to the English but generally at this day it is so called of all Nations whatsoeuer Thus farre the learned Clarencieux who also thinketh it so to haue beene named by them of their Irish word Hiere which signifieth the West or Western coast or country Like as the Celtae whose language he proueth to be the same with this for the same reason and of the same word named Spaine Iberia which afterward the Greekes in their language interpreted Hesperia In Festus Auienus who wrote a booke intituled Orae maritimae the sea coast it is named INSVLA SACRA The Holy Iland who moreouer addeth that it is inhabited of the Hierni that is of the Irish-men Isacius in his Commentaries vpon Lycophron calleth it WEST BRITAINE Plutarch in his booke which he wrote Of the face in the sphere of the Moone calleth it OGVGIA but why we know not yet read him if you thinke it worth the while you shall heare many an old wiues tale The latter writers as S. Isidore and the reuerend Beda our countriman call it SCOTIA of the Scottes which seated themselues in the West part of this I le about the yeare of our Lord 310. from whence within a very few yeares after being called in by the Picts they came into Brittane and indeed Paulus Orosius Beda and Egeinhardus authors of good credit wrote that it was inhabited of the Scots It is in length from South to North 400. miles in breadth scarse 200. The soile and temperature of the aire as Tacitus affirmeth is not much vnlike that of England It breedeth no snake or serpent nor any venemous creature fowle and birds heere are not very plentifull and as for bees no man euer saw one in the whole country yea if so be that any man shall strew dust grauell or small stones brought from hence amongst the hiues the swarmes will presently forsake their combes as Solinus writeth Yet we know by experience that this is all false for such is the infinit number of bees in this country that they are not only to be found heere in hiues and bee-gardens but also abroad in the fields in hollow trees and holes of the ground The temperature of the aire saith Pomponius Mela is very vnkind and vnfit for the ripening of corne and graine but the soile is so good for grasse not only great and ranke but also sweet and wholesome that their heards and cattell do fill themselues in so short a time that if they be not driuen out of the pasture they will feed while they burst Solinus affirmeth the same but in fewer words Furthermore he calleth it an inhumane and vnciuill country by reason of the rude and harsh manners of the inhabitants And Pomponius Mela termeth the people a disordered and vnmannerly nation lesse acquainted with any sort of vertue then any other people whatsoeuer yet they may in some respect be said to be louers of vertue in regard that they are very religious and deuout Strabo saith that they are more rusticall and vnciuill then the
they turned their faces toward the right-hand when they did their seruice to their gods Of this matter Plinie in the second chapter of his eight and twentieth booke writeth thus In worshipping of the gods wee offer to kisse the right hand and withall we wind and sway about the whole body which the Gauls did hold to be more religious if it were done toward the left hand To these they did offer in their sacrifices men and other things but especially vnto Mars as Caesar testifieth who thus writeth of them To him namely to Mars when they haue fought any battell for the most part they do bequeath those things that they haue wonne in the field those beasts and liuing creatures that they conquere and take they kill and offer them for sacrifice all other things whatsoeuer they bring into one place In diuers cities in certaine holy and consecrated places you may see great heapes of these things and you shall hardly euer find any man so backward in religion or so vngodly that either will hide and conceale such things as he hath gotten in the field or that will dare to take away ought that hath beene once consecrated and laid vp in those sacred and religious places and if so be that any man be either so prophane or hardly that dareth take ought away he is to bee punished by their lawes with most cruell tortures Diodorus Siculus reporteth the very like of them They doe keepe in the chappels and temples of their gods saith he great store of gold which hath from time to time beene offered to them lying scattering heere and therein euery corner and yet no one man for his life such is their great superstition dareth bee so bold as to touch one piece of it But Caesar goeth on forward in the same discourse They saith he which are sicke or much diseased and such as are in any great danger or are to follow the warres for their sacrifices do either kill and offer other men or else doe vow hauing obtained their purpose to sacrifice themselues and in these their ceremonies they doe vse the aduise direction and assistance of the Druides And this they doe for this reason namely for that they doe verily beleeue that for the life of man preserued the immortall gods can no way be satisfied and pleased but with the life and bloud of man And therdfore for that purpose they haue certaine sacrifices appointed to be publickly solemnized and done Others haue certaine images of an huge and mighty bignesse whose limmes and parts of the body being made of osiers wreathen and roddled one within another they fill full of liue men these images being set on fire the men within them are smoothered and at length with them burnt and vtterly consumed to ashes The death and punishment of such as are apprehended for murther or fellony or any other odious crime they thinke to be much more pleasing to the gods than the death and sacrifice of other men but when there do want a sufficient number of such wicked men to furnish this tragedy then honest guiltlesse men must be forced to play a part and to vndergoe that punishment that they neuer deserued Thus farre Caesar The same almost but much different in words Strabo doth write of them Some saith hee in their diuine ceremonies they shoot through with arrowes or else doe hang them vp by the neckes till they be dead and then making an huge colossus or stacke of hay and sticking vpright a long pole in the midst of it they burne altogether sheepe and all kind of beasts and cattell yea and reasonable creatures men and women Item Diodorus Siculus writeth of this matter thus Condemned men which they keepe for the space of fiue yeares together continually bound to a stake at length together with other goods and cattels they sacrifice and burne in an huge bonne-fire Minutius Felix also doth testifie that to their god Mercurie they did vse to sacrifice men Tertullian in Apologetico saith that Maior aetas Mercurio prosecatur The ancienter sort are hewed in pieces and sacrificed to Mercury So that it had beene much better for the Gauls as Plutarch in his booke of Superstition writeth that they had neuer had any maner of knowledge of the gods at all then to haue beleeued that they might no otherwise be pleased and satisfied then with the liues and bloud of mortall men and to thinke that this is the best and only solemne sacrifice and oblation that euer was vsed by any Solinus also plainly affirmeth that this kind of sacrifice and detestable custome was no maner of worship and seruice pleasing to the gods but rather a great iniurie and wrong done to religion much offending them This custome of killing of men was not vsed only when they offered sacrifices to their gods but euen in their diuinations and sorceries For they tooke those men that were appointed for the sacrifice or ceremonies and striking them vpon the backe by the panting of their bodies they did gesse and diuine of the euent of that action intended as Strabo doth witnesse of them When they do deliberate or consult of any great matter they do obserue saith Diodorus a woonderfull and strange kind of custome and ceremonious superstition For going about to kill and sacrifice a man they strike him vpon the midriffe with a sword But without the aduice and presence of one of their Druides they may not offer any maner of sacrifice at all And although that these butcherings and massacres of men were forbidden by Tiberius Caesar as Pliny testifieth yet Eusebius in his fourth booke de Praepar Euang. doth greatly lament that they were still practised in his time who liued as all men know in the daies of Constantine the Great It is recorded by Pliny that these people did vse in their sorceries coniurations and answering to demands in maner of prophesying the hearb verueine And thus much of the three Galliaes in generall Of which thou maist reade many other things in Caesar Liuy Ammianus Strabo Diodorus Polybius and Athenaeus Something also might haue beene said of euery part particularly if so bee that the smalnesse of this sheet had beene capable of so large a discourse as also much might haue beene said of Gallia Narbonensis the fourth part which was a prouince of the Romanes much differing from the other three in nature of soile temperature of the aire and quality of the inhabitants and people which was as Pomponius Mela writeth better manured inhabited and more fertile and therefore was also a farre more pleasant and goodly countrie than any of the rest But of this we haue spoken in another place apart by it sesfe Behold the inscription which we spake of before and promised to acquaint thee withall DIS MANIBVS Q. CAESIVS Q. F. CLAVD ATTILIANVS SACERDOS DEANAE ARDVINNAE FECIT SIBI ET SVIS HAERED IN FR. P. XII IN AGR. P. XV. IIII. ID OCTOB IMP. CAES. FLAVIO DOMITIANO VIII
cannot away withall for they loue to liue more freely and gentlemanlike by no meanes they will be drawen with great labour and trauell to prepare great and sumptuous banquets and dainties and then when they haue done to eat and drinke them vp In warre they arme themselues with two iauelings or darts a peece Some of them also do cary great shields which they call Thyrei for they do vse wooden bowes and shafts whose heads they dip in a very strong poison for whosoeuer he be that is wounded except he presently drinke treacle or some other holsome soueraigne antidote or shall by and by cut off all the place which is wounded that it run no further the whole body will surely rot and perish They doe delight to flie to steepe and craggie places not easily to be assaulted or come vnto and there to abide and dwell Thus far Leo the Emperour Of HISTRIA which also is contained in this Mappe thou hast a large and fine description in the twelft booke of Cassiodore his Variarum directed to the lieutenants and gouernours of this country where in respect of the great fertility and store of fruits that it yeeldeth he nameth it Rauennae Campaniam Campany of Rauenna and the store-house of the Emperiall city ITALY THey which vse to compare the situation of countries to other things do liken Italy to an oken leafe as Pliny Solinus and Rutilius haue done or to an iuy leafe as Eustathius The later writers do more truly liken it to a mans legge One in our time hath described all Europe in the form of a maiden in whose right arme Italy is portraitured and not vnfitly in my opinion if one do exactly consider the nature of the country and famous acts done in the same for euen as the strength of the body doth for the most part shew his force and ability in this member so this prouince in times past declared to the world by this his arme of what power all Europe the whole body is likely to be That Italy hath had diuers inhabitants partly Barbarians and partly Grecians it is manifest out of the ancient records both of Latines and Greekes For at the first it was inhabited by the Aborigines Siculi Pelasgi Arcades Epei Troiani Morgetes Ausones and Oenotri And therefore it was called by diuers and sundry names as AVSONIA OENOTRIA of the people and nations possessing it IANICVLA of Ianus SATVRNIA of Saturne and lastly ITALIA which it still retaineth of Italus their King or as Varro witnesseth of buls or oxen for the ancient Gretians did in those daies call buls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and because that this country did breed and maintaine many goodly buls it was of them called Italia or as others affirme which more regard poeticall fables for that Hercules from Sicilia hither followed a worthy bull which was named Italus Of the Greekes also it was named HESPERIA of Hesperus the sonne of Atlas or which pleaseth others better of Hesperus the euening starre whereof also in old time Spaine was called Hesperia For for the same reason that Italy was sometime of the Grecians called Hesperia was Spaine of the Latines called Hesperia Yet for distinction sake Virgil in the first and seuen bookes of his Aeneiads calleth Italy Hesperiam Magnam Great Hesperia But it was also by others named by other names For I see that of Macrobius Dionysius Halicarnassaeus Marcus Cato Isaac Tzetzes c. it was called APENINA ARGESSA CAMESENA TVRSENIA SALEVMBRONA and TAVRINA Stephanus writeth that it was called CHONIA and BRETTIA A part also of it was called by writers of good note MAGNA GRAECIA Great Greece of the Grecians that sometime dwelt in it They report as Aelianus writeth that there haue dwelt heere so many and sundrie nations more than in any other country of the world by reason especially that all times and seasons of the yeare are very mild and temperate againe for that the goodnesse of the soile is excellent well watered and very fertile of all maner of fruites and yeeldeth great store of pastorage Item because it is crossed with many riuers and hath the sea very commodious lying round about it and the sea coast on all sides open and cut into sundrie baies inlets creekes and hauens seruing very fitly for the entertainment and harborough of goodly tall shippes Lastly the extraordinary kindnesse and humanity of the people inhabiting it hath been a great meanes to draw others to seat themselues heere The Italians were euer as Iulius Firmicus witnesseth very famous for their princely curtesie and gentlemanlike behauiour Aethicus calleth this country Heauenly Italy and The Queen of the World Rutilius Rerum dominam The mistresse of all Nations Dion Prusaeus The most blessed and happie country of all Europe Halicarnassaeus in his first booke saith that for many reasons It is the best country of the whole World Strabo saith That none may sufficiently expresse in wordes the due commendations of this country according to the worth of the same But I thinke it not amisse to set out the praises of this country by this one commendation of Pliny wherewith he concludeth that his famous worke which he wrote of the history of Nature In the whole World saith he the cope of heauen Italy is the most beautifull country and of all things it doth possesse the soueraignty it is another nurce and mother of the World for men women captaines souldiers seruants famous arts and occupations worthy wittes and inuentions commodious situation wholesomenesse and temperature of the aire easie accesse of all nations many safe hauens kind blasts of windes sufficient good water pleasant and healthfull woods goodly hils and mountaines great store of deere and wild beasts and those harmelesse fertility of soile and multitude of people Whatsoeuer is necessarily required for the maintenance of man and beast is heere to be found and no where better Corne Wine Oliues Wooll Linnen Woollen and Bullockes Neither did I euer see better horses or more esteemed at the runnings or horse-races than those bred in our owne country For mettals as Gold Siluer Copper and Iron so long as they pleased to search for them it was inferiour vnto none all which it still retaineth in her wombe Now it yeeldeth all maner of liquors of sundrie force and vertue together with all sorts of graine and pleasant toothsome fruites Thus farre Pliny You may adde to these if you please that which the same authour writeth in the fifth chapter of his third booke Item that of Polybius in his second booke of Varro in the second chapter of his first booke of Husbandrie of Strabo neere the end of his sixth booke and lastly of Virgil in diuers place Si factum certa mundum ratione fatemur Consiliumquè Dei machina tanta fuit If that we shall confesse that heauen by heauenly skill was rais'd And in the same the massie globe by due proportion pais'd as Rutilius in his second booke speaketh of Italy
last epistle describeth in the territories of Consilinum Stylo a city of this tract Marcilianum suburbium which he termeth the natiue soile of Saint Cyprian of which that by the way I may speake one word of this there is nothing spoken which indeed is strange in the liues of the Fathers or Martyrologies of the Saints or in any other authour to my remembrance Nor which is more strange in any of those writers which like as Gabriel Barry and Prosper Parisius haue particularly named and wrote of the seuerall Saints of this country But of the Nature Situation proper Qualities and Antiquities of this prouince I will not speake one word more because the same is most exactly and learnedly done by two learned men both borne heere who therefore knew it well before I began once to set pen to paper to draw this my Mappe I meane Gabriel Barrius in his booke intituled Calabria where he so largely and curiously tricked out Great Greece Brutium and the tract possessed sometime by the Locri that euen that Reader which hardly will be satisfied with such like stories may doubtlesse heere take his fill and Antony Galatey who hath painted out his Iapygia which is in truth the ancient Calabria that his Reader shall not only depart skilfull and cunning in the knowledge of this country bur also much bettered in his vnderstanding and instructed with rules of good learning and Philosophy in him also there is a description of the city Gallipoli Of Tarentum a city of this prouince Iohannes Iuuenis harh set out a seuerall treatise Of Diomedes iles belonging to this country we haue gathered these few lines which follow DIOMEDES ILES Now ISOLE DE TRIMITE PLiny describeth two ilands by this name so many also doth Strabo mention whereof the one he saith is inhabited the other wast and desert Ptolemey reckoneth vp fiue all called DIOMEDES ILANDS and so many there are at this day called by seuerall and distinct names if one shall account rockes and all Whether euery one of these were knowen to the ancients by seuerall names or not I know not Festus Stephanus and others call properly one of these Insula Diomedea Diomedes I le like as amongst the Britannicae insulae the Brittish iles one is properly named Britannia Brittaine One of them Tacitus calleth TRIMERVS or peraduenture Trimetus for otherwise I doe not see from whence that name of Trimite whereby the greatest of them at this day is called and of it the rest should come Pliny calleth another of them TEVTRIA the other for ought I know the ancients left vnnamed as for Electris and Febra which Seruius mentioneth at the eleuenth booke of Virgils Aeneids or Sebria and Aletrides whereof Pomponius Sabinus vpon the same place speaketh I do very willingly confesse that I haue not found them spoken of by any ancient writer They are seated in the Adriaticke sea not farre from the sea-coast of Puglia opposite to Monte de S. Angelo Mons Garganus or Promontorium Garganum Not within kenning or sight of Taranto Tarentum a city of Apulia as very falsly at the same place Seruius hath set downe The name was deriued by the testimony of all writers both Latines and Greekes from Diomedes the king of Aetolia Artinia Nicetas calleth it whom they report after the surprising of Troy in his returne homeward not being enterteined of his owne nation to be driuen hither and to be interred heere and that his temple monument or tombe did remaine in the greatest of them properly called Diomedea S. Maria di Trimite and that the Plane tree was first brought hither for to shaddow Diomedes tombe Pliny in the first chapter of his twelfth booke of the history of Nature hath left recorded Into Trimerus as Tacitus writeth Augustus banished sent his neece Iulia conuict of adulterie where he furthermore addeth that she endured that punishment of exile the space of twenty yeares In Platina in the life of Hadrian the first I read that Paullus Diaconus was once condemned thither by Charles the Great Of Diomedes birds which Iuba calleth Catarractae Aristotle Charadrij of others Erodij a kind of Cormorant or rauenous sea foule proper to these ilands for they are onely to be seene in this one place of all the world if we may beleeue old writers read Ouid in the thirteenth booke of his Metamorphosis where he thus speaketh of them Si volucrum quae sit dubiarum forma requiris Vt non cignorum sic albis proxima cignis The doubtfull formes of birds most strange if that you seeke to know They be no swannes yet white they be as white as any snow Suidas maketh them to be like to storkes Aristotle in his Wonders calleth them vaste and huge birdes with very long and bigge bils Pliny with Solinus do write that they be like the Fulica a kinde of coote of colour white hauing teeth and eies of a fiery sparke Some there are which do thinke them to be Heronshawes Robert Constantine testifieth that the country people of these ilands do now call them Artenae and that they make a noise like the crying of yong children Item that the fatte or grease of them is a soueraigne remedie against diseases arising of cold causes Blondus writeth that he vnderstood by some of the inhabitants of these iles that these fowles still retaining the name of the Diomedean birdes are of the bignesse of a goose But to be very harmelesse creatures yet neither doing them nor the Church any maner of pleasure They which desire to know more of these birdes as also of the Metamorphosis and transmutation of Diomedes consorts into these fowles or of their nature and quality as of their kindnesse toward Grecians honest-men Strabo calleth them and their curstnesse to strangers wicked-men as Strabo hath and of the purifying of the temple and of other poeticall fables deuised of them let them haue recourse to the authours aboue named to which they may ad that list that which Aelianus hath written in the first c. of his 1. booke S. Aug. in the 16 c. of his 18 book De ciuitate Dei Antigonius Antony Liberalis Lycophron and his Scholiast Isacius At this day these ilands are vnder the command of the kingdome of Naples are al generally called by one name Tremitanae ilands de Trimite euery one by a seueral proper name by it selfe as thou maist read in our Geographical treasury They are now all desert void of inhabitants only that except in which sometime was the temple of Diomedes where now is the Monasterie vulgarly called Santa Maria de Trimiti possessed by regular canons which Eugenius the fourth Pope of Rome enlarged and endowed with great reuenews as Blondus recordeth These as Zacharte Lillie reporteth go to Church so diligently heare diuine seruice so deuoutly and relieue those which by storme and tempest are driuen thither so charitably that they are not onely very famous and reuerently esteemed of those that dwell
with manuscript copies of sundrie writers and different argument in diuers languages to wit Historiographers Poets Mathematicians c. These also haue where they might possibly be gotten the liuely portraitures and counterfets of their authours set before them This Library was much augmented by the addition of the Library of Didacus Hurtadus Mendoza who hauing sometime beene Ambassadour for Charles the fifth Emperour of Rome vnto the Venetians receiued from the High country of Greece a ship full of manuscript Greeke copies so that excepting the Vaticane in Rome which is the Popes Library there is not as most men thinke a more stately and better furnished library then this in all Europe I come now to the VNIVERSITY and the KINGS PALLACE both which are vpon the North side In the VNIVERSITY there are three seuerall Schooles or Hals where the three most famous and worthy artes Diuinity Law and Physicke are read by their seuerall and proper Lecturers beside the other liberall Sciences which together with them are there taught and expounded vnto the yonger sort of students To this is adioined a Free Schoole for Grammar scholars with sundry other court yards and hals or dining roomes The PALACE is so situate that from thence you may easily goe vnto the Church the Colledge and monastery It were a long discourse particularly to describe the seuerall lodgings of the King the Ambassadours Comptroulers Chamberlaines Noblemens Pensioners Yeomen of the guard and other Officers belonging to the Court The Kings Gallery openeth toward the North side of the Church vpon whose wall is painted the battell at Higueruela in which King Iohn the Second ouercame the Moores of Granado Which picture doth so liuelily expresse the whole story and euery thing in it as it was done as it is wonderfull It sheweth in what order and how the maine battell was set where the Horsemen the Footmen the Pikemen the Targeters the Archers which then were in great request did stand and how and where they seuerally charged the enemy This piece of worke was made at the commandement of Philip the second king of Spaine by an old patterne drawen in a piece of linnen cloth of an hundred and thirtie foot long found in the old Towre of Segouia which was first drawen at that time that this battell was fought Moreouer vpon the East and South sides of this building there is a most goodly and pleasant Garden which is an hundred foot broad and is set out and beautified with diuerse knots rare hearbs floures and fountaines To this garden is adioined an Orchard planted and set with all maner of trees Within the precincts of this monastery there are more then forty fountaines Such is the wonderfull number of Keies and Lockes about this house which do amount vnto certaine thousands that there is a seueral and proper Officer for to looke to them onely called The master of the Keies The forme of the monastery is foure-square and euery side is two hundred and twenty foure pases long only that side except that is next to the Pallace which of purpose was made shorter then the other three that the compasse or externall forme of the Abbey might represent the fashion of the square of a gridiron for that S. Laurence to whom this house was dedicated was broiled to death vpon a gridiron The Monkes which are in number three hundred and as I haue shewed before of the order of S. Hierome do inhabite not past the third part of this whole building Their yearly reuenews do amount to 35000. Duckets The other part of the reuenewes they doe bestow vpon the king and his family That I may conclude it is furnished with so many Hals Parlours Chambers and other closets and roomes for necessary vses in an house that there is roome inough to entertaine and lodge fowre Kings and their Courts at once to that it may worthily challenge the first place amongst the greatest miracles of the whole world FINIS IRELAND GIraldus Cambrensis a good Writer that liued in the time of Henry the Second wrote aboue 400 yeeres since describeth IRELAND on this maner HIBERNIA saith he post Britanniam insularum maxima vnius contractioris diei nauigatione vltra Britannicas VVallias in occidentali Oceano sita est Intra tamen Vltoniam Scoticas Galwedias duplo ferè angustiore spacio mare coarctatur Vtraque verò vtriusque terrae promontoria hinc distinctius illinc ratione distantiae confusius satis apertè sereno tempore perspici possunt notari Insularum occidentalium haec vltima Hispaniam ab Austro trium dierum naturalium nauigatione collateralem habet Britanniam Maiorem ab Oriente Solum Oceanum ab Occidente Ab Aquilonari verò parte trium dierum velifico cursu borealium insularum maxima Islandia iacet That is IRELAND the greatest iland of the world but Britaine lieth in the maine sea distant Westward from Wales about a dayes saile but betweene Vlster and Gallaway a prouince of Scotland the Sea is not much more than halfe so farre ouer The promontories capes or forlands as you please to call them of both these countries may very easily in a bright sunne-shinie day from hence be seene and descried yet these more plainer those by reason they are farther off more obscurely Of all the ilands of Europe this lieth farthest into the West Vpon the South side it hath Spaine distant from it about three dayes and three nights saile Vpon the East lieth Great Britaine On the West side of it is nothing but the vast Ocean sea Vpon the North three daies iourney off lieth Island which of all the Northren iles is by farre the greatest Againe a little beneath he addeth Hibernia quantò à caetero communi Orbe terrarum semota quasi ALTER ORBIS esse dignoscitur tantò rebus quibusdam solito naturae cursu incognitis quasi peculiaris eiusdem NATVRAE THESAVRVS vbi insignia pretiosiora sui secreta reposuerit esse videtur Looke by how much Ireland is disioyned from the rest of the knowen world and in that respect is commonly holden to be as it were ANOTHER WORLD so for certeine things by the common course of Nature to others vnknowen it seemeth to be a speciall and peculiar Treasurie or STOREHOVSE OF NATVRE where it hath bestowed and layed vp her most excellent and rarest secrets Orosius and Isidore from him reporteth That Ireland is much lesse than England but by reason of the situation and temperature of the aire here it is generally more fertile than England Yea and reuerend Beda our country man he sayth That the aire in Ireland is more healthfull and cleare than it is in England Hiberniam tum aëris salubritate quà m serenitate multum Britanniae praestare Yet Giraldus denieth the latter For sayth he as France for thinnesse and clearnesse of the aire doth far excell England so England for the same doth as far excell Ireland For this is certaine the farther you
go Eastward looke by how much the aire is more subtile pure and thinne so much is it more fierce sharpe and piercing On the contrary the farther you go toward the South and West parts of the world by how much the aire is more thicke cloudy and foggy by so much it is more temperate kinde and healthfull For this countrey lying in the midst indifferently seated betweene frozen Island and parched Spaine and by that meanes getting a meane temperature betweene hot and cold aswell in respect of that temperature and holesomnesse of the aire is a most goodly fertile iland The champion fields do yeeld great store of corne the mountaines do feed many heards of cattell the woods affoord many Deere and other kind of wild beasts the lakes and riuers great variety and plenty of good fish Yet the soile of this iland is better for Pastorage than Arable-ground for Grasse than Corne. Multam fruges in Hibernia saith he plurimam in culmis minorem in granis spem promittunt Abundè satis campi vestiuntur horrea farciuntur sola verò granaria destituuntur Here their corne as long as it is in the grasse for Hibernia I read herba is maruellous good but much better it seemeth to be when it is shot vp and spindled only it faileth when it commeth to the threshing then it is seldome found to be casty In the field it maketh a goodly shew yea ordinarily it is as thicke as may stand vpon the ground their barnes are crammed full and mowed vp to the top only their garners are empty Thus farre Giraldus and because we haue handled the generall description of this iland in another place of this our worke we will conclude this discourse with a briefe description of some few of their cities and principall townes as we haue learned of that worthy gentleman Richard Stanihurst this countreyman bredde and borne DVBLIN situate vpon the riuer Liffe in the countie of Dublin the Metropolitan and chiefe citie not only of Leynster but also of all Ireland for goodly faire buildings multitude of people ciuility for sweet aire and situation doth as farre excell all the other cities of this I le as the lofty cypresse doth the lowest shrubs The Cathedrall church of S. Patricks was first founded by Iohn Cinim Archbishop of Dublin in the yere of our Lord God 1197. That great and goodly strong Castle was built by Henry Loundres Archbishop also of Dublin about the yere of our Lord 1220. This city is very ancient and was in Ptolemeys time as learned men thinke called Ciuitas Eblana The city Eblan The next city in order and dignity is WATERFORD a well gouerned towne and one that hath been alwaies faithfull to England It is very populous and ciuill and for that the hauen here is far better and more safe than that of Dublin much resorted vnto for trade and trafficke by merchants of forren countreys The streets of it are very narrow and darke Here no cutthroat-Iewish vsurer is permitted to vse his diuellish occupation that is as Cato sayd to kill men or to liue by the sweat of other mens browes The third is LIMMERICK which in regard of the goodly riuer Shenyn whereupon it is seated and standeth as also for the commodious situation of the same might iustly challenge the first place For this riuer is the greatest and goodliest of all Ireland whose depth and channell is such that notwithstanding the city standeth at the least threescore miles from the maine sea yet ships of great burden doe come vp euen to the towne walles besides that it is woonderfully stored with great variety of fresh fish King Iohn did like the situation of this city so well that he caused there a goodly castle and faire bridge to be built The last and least is CORCK situate vpon the riuer Leigh This hauen is one of the best in all Ireland and therefore the citizens are very wealthy and great merchants These three latter are all within the prouince of Mounster But if thou desirest a larger discourse of these particulars I wish thee to repaire to the foresayd authour Richard Stanihurst he shall satisfie thee to the full IRLANDIAE ACCVRATA DESCRIPTIO Auctore Baptista Boazio SERENISSIMO INVICTISSIMOQVE IACOBO MAGNAE BRITANNIAE FRANCIAE ET HIBERNIAE REGI IOANNES BAPTISTA VRINTS ANTVERPIANVS D. DEDICAT Ioannes Baptista Vrints Geographicarum tabularum calcographus excud Antuerpiae EXPOSITIO VERBORVM HIBERNICORVM Glyn Nemus Can Promontorium Caric Rupes Knoc Collis Slew Mons. B. vel Bale Vicus Kill Pagus Lough Lacus Enis Insula Mo. Monasterum Mc. Territorium filij Satrapae O Caput familiae ENGLAND OR The I le of GREAT BRITAIN as it stood about the time of the entrance of the Normans described by a Nubiensis the Arabian The second section of the seuenth Climate IN this second part of the seuenth Climate we comprehend a part of the b Ocean sea where c ENGLAND which is a very great iland in forme and fashion not much vnlike to a d Storkes head standeth apart from the rest of the world In this Iland there are many e populous Cities well inhabited steepe Hilles running Waters and goodly Champion grounds f Heere it is alwaies Winter The neerest of maine land vnto it is g Wady-shant in the prouince of Flanders Betweene this Iland and the Continent the passage is about h twelue miles ouer Amongst the cities of this I le which are in the outmost borders of it Westward and in the entrance of the narrowest place thereof is the citie i SIHSETER which is distant from the k sea twelue miles From this citie vnto the citie l GORHAM by the sea shore are threescore miles Item from the citie Sihseter vnto the outmost border of the iland Westward are m three hundred and fourescore miles From it also vnto the hauen n DARTERMOVTH are fourescore miles Then from thence vnto the o LANDS END called Cornwallia are an hundred miles From the citie Sihseter vnto the citie p SALEBVRES within the land Northward are threescore miles Item from the citie Gorham vnto the liberties of the citie q HANTONA which standeth vpon a Creeke that falleth into the sea are fiue and twentie miles off into this creeke there runneth from the East part thereof the riuer of r Wynseter From s WYNSETER vnto Salebures Westward are fortie miles From Hantona vnto the citie t SHORHAM are threescore miles This citie is neere the sea From it along by the sea coast vnto the city u HASTINGES are fifty miles From it following the shore Eastward vnto the citie w DVBRIS are seuenty miles This city is at the head of the x passage whereby they passe from England vnto the maine Continent on the other side ouer against it From the citie Dubris vnto the citie y LVNDRES vpland are forty miles This city standeth vpon a great riuer which falleth into the sea betweene the city Dubris and the city z GIARNMOVTH From which city Giarnmouth vnto the
houres in the yeare was at the same time begunne by Richard Bishop of Sarum in a most goodly plot of ground which vulgarly was called MERIFEILD and in fourty yeares with infinite cost and charges it was by him and others finished and brought to that perfection which it is at now at this day q SOVTH-HANTON we now call it built vpon an arme of the sea betweene two riuers is enclosed with a double ditch and a faire stone wall For the better defence of the Hauen Richard the Second caused a very goodly castle to be built all of free stone It is a passing fine city very populous rich and well frequented of Merchants Clausentum that ancient city mentioned by Antoninus and stood sometimes in that field which at this day is called Saint Maries was often spoiled and sacked by the Danes and at length in the time of Edward the Third was vtterly consumed and burnt downe to the ground by the French-men Of whose ruines this New city was built in a place much more better and commodious r This riuer peraduenture was anciently called WENT and thereof the citie Wentchester happily tooke the name like as the cite Colnchester in Essex was so called of the riuer Colne vpon Which it standeth s WINCHESTER A very auncient citie well knowen to the Romanes and is oft mentioned in old historians Afterward in time so the Saxon Heptarchie the West Saxon Kings ordinarily kept their court heere Straite after the entrance of the Normans and peraduenture somewhat before the Records for the whole land were here bestowed and laied vp It was once or twise much defaced by casualty of fire and oft spoiled and sacked by vnruly souldiers in time of ciuill warres but Edward the Third to salue these damages and hinderances of the citizens and townesmen placed heere THE STAPLE or marte for wooll and cloth At this time it is very populous and well inhabited The wals of this citie are about a mile and an halfe in compasse It hath six faire gates and very large Suburbes adioyning to euery one of them t SHORHAM an ancient Borough and hauen towne in Sussex first called as Master Camden writeth CIMENSHORE of Cimen the brother of Cissa who together with Aella their father landed a greater multitude of their Saxons But in continuance of time a greate part of that towne being eaten vp with the sea and the mouth of the hauen with beech and sand det vp of a goodly towne it is become a small village at this day knowen by the name of OLD SHOREHAM the decay of which gaue occasion of the building and name of another not farre off from it commonly called NEVV SHOREHAM u Heere Athelstane King of the West-Saxons who made a lawe that no man should be so hardy as to dare to coine money out of great townes priuiledged by the King for that purpuse erected a Minte for the coyning of his Siluer and other mettals by which means it became so famous that in the time of the Saxons it deserued the name of a city and was then called by them HASTINGACEASTER In a plaine before this towne that bloody battaill betweene William the bastard Duke of Normandy that cruell tyrant and Harold the vsurper sonne of Earle Goodwin was fought vpon the fourteenth day of October in the yeare of our Lord 1066. It is one of the cinque ports w DOVER before the entrance of the Saxons was called Dubris as Antoninus in his Iournal testifieth who nameth it Portus Dubris The haven Dubris Vpon that side next the sea that was sometime defended with a strong wall whereof some part is to be seene at this daie Victred King of Kent did heere erect a goodly Church which hee dedicated vnto Saint Martines The castle which standeth vpon the toppe of an exceding high cliffe and is thought to be the strongest holde of all England and therefore called by Matthew Paris Clauis repagulum Angliae The key and barre of England was begunne as is probable by the Romans yet not by Iulius Caesar as they would faine make men beleeue Vpon another rocke or cliffe ouer against this on the other side of the towne there was as seemeth a lanterne or watch-tower Pharus they call it opposite and answerable to that which the Romans had built at Bollein beyond the straights in Fraunce which afterward being decaied was repaired by Charles the Great and at this day is called by the French Tour d'order by the English THE OLD MAN OF BVLLEN x This is that famous passage traiectus from the Continent vnto this Iland by which Caesar and the Romans alwaies entred and had accesse hither For vntill the time of Constans and Constantine Emperours of Rome it was thought almost impossible to come hither from Rome with a nauy thorough the maine Ocean And since that long it was in time of Christianity by proclamation forbidden that whatsoeuer hee were borne within the alleageance of England that had a minde to goe beyond the seas for religion or pilgrimage it should not be lawfull for him to take shipping any where else but heere The Frenchmen vulgarly call it Le pas de Calais but the English call it The streights of Douer y London we now call it but of the French and Strangers it is commonly called Londres or Londra Yet Tacitus Ptolemey Antonine and Ammianus Marcellinus doe with one consent write it LONDINVM or LONGIDINVM so named of the Britons as is probable of Llong Ships and Dinas a Citie answerable to those places of Graecia Naupactus Naupactus Naustathino c. denominated of Ships It is doubtlesse a very ancient citie as Ammianus Marcellinus testifieth who twelue hundred yeares since called it Vetustum oppidum An ancient towne Yet Iulius Caesar neuer mentioneth it in all his writings Cornelius Tacitus who liued in the daies of Nero that bloody Emperour was the first if I be not deceiued that euer wrot of it calling it by the name of Oppidum copia negotiatorum commeatu maxime celebre A Towne very famous both for trafficke and great concourse of Marchants as also for victualls and all manner ot prouision whatsoeuer Nay he that made the Panegyricke oration to Constantius the Emperour and Marcellinus who liued after him giue it no better title Yet at this day it is An abridgement or breefe view of the whol iland The Imperiall seate of the Brittish iles Regumque Angliae camera and The chamber of the English Kings and therefore it may now iustly assume that title of AVGVSTA The roiall city which Ammianus so many hundred yeeres since gaue vnto it And being situate vpon the rising of a little hill in a most wholsome and healthfull aire in the middest of the richest countries of the land all a long vpon the North side of the Thames one of the goodliest riuers of Europe it is at this day as famous a Marte for all manner of trade and trafficke as any in the whole world beside The
to wit the Irish of the which the Euboniae the West iles commonly of the Historians called Hebrides are The reuerend Beda and Henry Huntington in that they write it Menauia do seeme to allude to the Welsh name Manaw but this is it which we would haue thee diligently to obserue that none of them do call it Mona By these arguments and testimonies it is manifest that Mona is that iland which the inhabitants as I haue shewed before doe at this day name Mona or Mon acknowledging no other name and is that which of the English is called Anglisea but the other which Polydore Virgil and such as doe loue with him to wallow in the mire rather than to seeke for the cleere streames doe call Mona is of Gildas called Eubonia of Henry Huntington Menauia and of others Mania Here I will conclude this discourse with this one testimonie which may indeed woorthily stand for many to wit this of Syluester Girald a Welsh man borne a man no lesse famous for his learning than for his noble birth For he was descended from that noble house of the Giralds to whom the Kings of England are beholding for that footing which they haue in Ireland Moreouer he was greatly beloued of Henrie the second King of England and was afterward Secretarie to King Iohn his sonne whose name also is very famous and oft mentioned in the Popes Decretals For being but bishop of S. Dauids in Wales he did notwithstanding contend with the Archbishop of Canturburie about the prerogatiue primacy This man I say in that his booke which he intituled Itinerarium Balwini Archiepiscopi Cantuariensis crucem in infideles per Cambriam praedicantis The Iournall or trauels of Baldwin Archbishop of Canturbury when as he preached the Gospell and crosse of Christ against the Infidels thorowout all Wales whose company he neuer forsooke in all that peregrination writeth thus of the I le MONA On the morrow we passed by the castle of Caer-aruon and from thence thorow the valleys and steepe hilles and mountaines we came vnto Bangor where we were most kindly enterteined of the bishop whose name was Gwian who was almost constrained to take vp the crosse of Christ with a great lamentation and shout of all sorts of people both men and women From thence crossing a vety narrow arme of the sea we passed ouer to MONA an iland lying about two miles off from the maine land Here Rothericke the yonger sonne of Owen came very deuoutly with all the people of that I le and of the countreys round about him to meet vs. There they making as it were a theater of the craggie rocks by the preaching of the Archbishop and of Alexander the Archdeacon of that place many were wonne vnto the crosse and to beleeue in Iesus Christ but certeine yong men lustie-bloods of the seruants and followers of Rothericke which sate oueragainst vs would by no meanes be drawen to beare the crosse Of these some within a little while after following certeine theeues or free-booters being slaine outright others hurt and dangerously wounded did of their owne heads lay a worldly crosse one vpon anothers backe Rothericke was married to Prince Reese's daughter who was allied to him in the third degree her by no admonitions he could be made to put away from him hoping that by her meanes he should the better be able to defend himselfe against his brothers children whom he had disherited and put by their lands and possessions notwithstanding it fell out contrary to his expectation for within awhile after they recouered all againe out of his hands This Iland hath three hundred three and fortie villages or farmes yet it is esteemed but at three Cantreds Britaine hath three ilands lying not farre off from it all almost of like quantitie and bignesse VVight vpon the South Mon vpon the West and Man vpon the Northwest The two former are very neere to the continent the armes of the sea by which they are seuered from England being but very narrow and not farre ouer The third which is called Man lieth mid way betweene Vlster a prouince of Ireland and Gallawey of Scotland Mona or Mon of the inhabitants by reason of the great plenty of wheat which it yeeldeth ordinarily euery yeere is called The mother of Wales And a little beneath the same Authour writeth thus of this iland Hugh Earle of Shrewsbury and Arundell with Hugh Earle of Chester entring this iland by force did shut dogs all night in the church of Fefridanke which the next morning were found all starke madde and he himselfe afterward by the inhabitants of the Orkeney iles comming thither as pirats and sea-robbers vnder the leading of Magnus their captaine being shot in the eye which part of his body only was vnarmed and subiect to the enemies weapon fell stone dead from the decke of the shippe into the sea which Magnus beholding cried out in the Danish language Leit loope that is as much to say in English Let him leape Moreouer Henry the Second going into North-Wales with an armie of men ioyned battell with the aduersarie at Caleshull in a narrow straight betweene two woods and withall sent a saile of ships into Mona which spoiled the foresayd Church with other places there wherfore they were almost all slaine taken dangerously wounded or put to flight by the inhabitants of that I le There were in this company two noble men and his vncle which wrote this story with other mo sent hither by the King to wit Henry the sonne of Henry the First and the vncle of Henry the Second begotten of the honourable lady Nesta daughter of Reese Theodore's sonne borne in the confines of South-Wales I meane in the skirts of it next vnto Demetia or West-Wales and the brother of Steuen brother to Henry by the mothers side but not by the fathers a man that first in our dayes breaking the way for others not long after this attempted the entrance and conquest of Ireland whose worthy commendations the prophicall history doth at large set foorth Henry being too venturous and not being seconded in time was killed at the first encounter with a pike But Robert distrusting his owne strength and doubting whether he should be aided or not fled and being sore wounded very hardly recouered the shippes This iland outwardly appeareth as if it were barren rough and ouergrowen like as the countrey of Pebidion neere Menauia doth although indeed it be very fertile of many things in diuers places Thus farre Gyraldus What could euer be spoken or written more plainly and euidently of the name situation fertility and valourous inhabitants of Mona as also of the situation and name of that other iland The same authour in his description of Wales thus speaketh of this Iland In North-Wales betweene Mona and Snowdon hilles is Bangor the bishops sea As of all Wales the South part about Cardigan shire Cereticam regionem he calleth it but especially euery where in West-Wales Demetia
by reason of the champion plaines and commodiousnesse of the marine coasts are farre the more pleasant and better so North-Wales Borealis Venedotia is knowen to haue many countries and places farre more strong and better fortified by nature and situation many more goodly braue men euerie where to haue much better and more fertile ground For like as Snowdon hilles are thought to be able to finde pasture for all the cattell in Wales if they were all driuen thither so it is reported that the I le Mona Anglisea may for a time finde all Wales bread-corne such is the woonderfull store of wheat that it doth yeerely yeeld What man is he that is so blockish and void of vnderstanding that shall read and consider these arguments and allegations that will make any doubt whether Polydore's Anglisea be the true Mona that ancient seat of the Druides so renowmed by the Romane warres and oft mentioned in their histories Moreouer who can doubt whether that other Iland which the Welshmen call Manaw and the English Man which he and some other learned men chusing rather to drinke puddle water from a neere channell than to seeke farther for a cleere streame or pure fountaine haue falsly named Mona or whether we ought not rather with Ptolemey to call it Monaria or Monaida Eubonia with Gildas Menauia with Beda and Henrie Huntington or Mania with Gyraldus Many more arguments and testimonies of learned men I could in this place haue alleaged but lest I should be too tedious and troublesome to the Reader I will at this time with these content my selfe nothing doubting but these to any learned man or any one well acquainted with the Welsh histories shal be thought sufficient to stop the mouth of the scandalous aduersary and to answer all the cauils of the malitious enuiours of the Britons glory Therefore I must entreat thee most learned Ortell for that thy kindnesse and humanity which thou art wont to shew to others to take this in good part and in that thy goodly Theater to set out this our Mona in the ancient colours to the publicke view of the world And I hope before it be long to send you a more absolute description not only of this our Mona but also of all Wales illustrated both with the ancient names vsed by the Romans and Britons and also with the moderne English whereby they are knowen at this day of that nation Moreouer I haue a Geographicall Chart or Map of England described according to the moderne situation and view with the ancient names of riuers townes people and places mentioned by Ptolemey Pliny Antonine and others that those grosse and shamelesse lies of Hector Boothe may by that means the easilier be descried against which Hector Boothe our Leland that famous and learned Antiquary wrote this most worthy Epigramme Hectoris historici tot quot mendacia scripsit Si vis vt numerem Lector amice tibi Me iubeas etiam fluctus numerare marinos Et liquidi stellas connumerare poli Would'st haue me gentle Reader tell I he lies that Hector Boothe did write I may aswell count sand of sea Or starres of heauen in cleerest night I haue also a very exact description of the marine tract or sea coast of Scotland all which when I shall come vp to London which God willing shall be before the end of April next I will send vnto you Whereby the manifest and palpable errours of certeine learned men shall be discouered who in their Geographicall Chart trusting too confidently to certeine vnlearned mens relations and writings haue most falsly and erroneously set downe the names of diuers places cities and riuers to the great preiudice and danger of such as shall giue heed vnto them In the meane time I bid you heartily farewell beseeching you of all loues if there be any thing wherein I may pleasure you not to entreat it but to command it by the law of friendship and league of learned scholars Richard Clough a verie honest man and one that was the cause and procurer of this our loue and acquaintance aswell your friend as mine shall both bring your letters from you to me and mine to you that interest I know we both haue in him Againe farewell most kinde ORTELL from Denbigh in Guynedh or North-Wales this fifth of April in the yeere of our Lord God M.D.LXVIII Thine to his vttermost power HVMFREY LHOYD of Denbigh in Wales LONDON Printed for IOHN NORTON and IOHN BILL 1606.
Nigra and that of Switta whereon standeth the city Brin next in dignity to Olmuntz also Thaysa which glideth along by the city Znaim famous for the death of Sigismund the Emperour and lastly Igla passing by the city Igla rendreth vp his owne and his neighbours substance to the great and renowmed Danubius But the riuer Odera springing not far from Olmuntz retaineth his name to the Ocean sea Some thinke it is called by Ptolemey Viadrus Odera is so named of a word borrowed from fowlers which call their watch-towers for the spying and taking of birds Odri and such towers you haue now in Morauia at the fountaine of Odera Neither must we heere omit the riuer Hana which albeit sometimes scant of water yet doth it so moisten the neighbour-fields being thereby the fertilest in all the region as the husbandmen in regard of their plentifull increase call them the fat of Morauia Here also more than in other places are found the siluer and gold coines of M. Antoninus of Commodus and other Emperours Which is a manifest argument of ancient warres betweene the forces of the Empire and the Marcomans in these parts This one thing is most worthy the admiration that in Morauia there is a kind of Frankincense Myrrhe not distilling out of trees as in other countries but digged from vnder the ground in one place only called Gradisco where till this present is found not only Frankincense called Male frankincense in regard of the resemblance it hath with the priuie parts of man but also in the shape of other members both of man and woman And of late VVenceslaus of the noble family surnamed à Quercu as he was making a foundation for the banke of a fish-poole in his field of Sterenberg he found the intire body of a man consisting all of Myrrhe the which distributing vnto his friends and remembring me among the rest bestowed on me more than halfe an arme which I vsed often for a perfume The inner part of the region is arable an exceeding fertile and fat soile and most apt for corne as the hilles for vines being more fauourable to Bacchus than the hilles of Bohemia wherefore it excelleth for abundance of good wine And it is so generally manured and hath such plentie of husbandmen that vnlesse it be in forests and desert places heere is no pasture at all for the feeding of cattell For the rest both in speech fashions and customes they are like the Bohemians Hitherto Dubrauius In the yeere 895. the people of this region were instructed in the Christian faith by S. Methodius at the procurement of Arnulphus the Emperour Vnder the Emperour Henry the fourth in the yeere 1086. this countrey together with Lusatia and Silesia was annexed to the kingdome of Bohemia Their language is mixt for the greatest part speake Bohemian and the high Dutch is vsed only in cities among persons of best account This Prouince as Dubrauius writeth yeelds plentie of wine but not of the strongest such saith Rithaimerus and I my selfe haue so found it by experience as exempteth not the drinker quite from care Duglossus in his Polonian storie saith that the name of the riuer Odera signifies in the Henetian tongue inundation or robbery Olmuntz the head citie of this region and the seat of a Bishop is described by Stephanus Taurinus in his Stauromachia Concerning Morauia besides Dubrauius reade Aeneas Siluius in his Bohemian story This Map of Morauia first drawen by Fabricius but afterward corrected by diuers gentlemen of the countrey was sent me by Iohn Crato Counseller and principall Physician to the Emperour Maximilian the second a bountifull fauourer of these my studies He gaue me also this catalogue of townes called both by German and Bohemian names The Dutch names The Bohemian names Behemsche Triebaw Trzebowa Czeska Landskron Landskraun Schirmberg Semanin Sciltperg Ssilperck Hanstadt Zabrzch Zwittaw Swittawa Merherische Tribaw Trzebowa Morawska Neustadt Nowy Miesto Deutstbrodt Niemeckybrod Iglau Cziblawa Budwers Budegowice Weissenkirch Hranitza Plos Pzin Drosendorff Drosdowice Freyen Vranow Schtignitz Trztenice Holsterlitz Hosteradice Mislicz Moristaw Ioslwitz Iaroslaiwice Dayex Diakowice Grustpach Hrussowamy Maydpurgk Dewczihrady Auspitz Hustopecz Nuslau Nosyslaw Tischain Itza Schwartz Wasser Strumen Selowitz Zidlochowice Brin Brno Olmutz Holomane Prostnitz Proslegew Wischa Wyskow Austerlitz Slawkow Kremfier Kromerziz Vngerischbrod Vherskybrod Goeding Hodomin Lumpenburg Brzetislaw Altmarck Podiwin Ostra Ostracia MORAVIAE QVAE OLIM MARCOMANNORVM SEDES COROGRAPHIA A. D. PAVLO FABRITIO MEDICO ET MATHEMATICO DESCRIPTA ET A GENEROSIS MORAVIAE BARONIBVS QVIBVSDAM CORRECTA AVSTRIA or AVSTRICH GEORGE RITHAYMER in his Abridgement of the situation of the world describeth Austrich vnder the name of Pannony the higher in these words Pannony the higher saith he toward the East abbutteth vpon the riuer Leyth Ptolemey maketh the riuer Rab his Eastern bound Vpon the West it is bounded with the riuer Onasus and Noricum which is a part of Bayern Some do on that coast limit it with the mountaine Caetius on the North with the riuer Tey and the countrey Morauia for so farre at this day it doth extend it selfe on that side Vpon the South coast it resteth vpon the mountaines of Steyri The soile is good and fertile of all maner of corne and is such as is manured and tilled with small charge In that part which is beyond Donaw and is called Marchfield where long since the Chetuari and and Parmecampi were seated the husbandman falloweth his land with one poore seely jade only Marle without which their land in Bayern is leane and barren what it meaneth the husbandmen of Austrich know not It beareth so good Saffron as no other in the world may compare with it It affoordeth Wine passing holesome and agreeable to the nature of man Althamerus vpon Cornelius Tacitus his Germania writeth that it yeeldeth plentie of Ginger in a mountaine neere the towne Hamburg in the middest of Austrich or Pannony It hath many ancient and famous cities notwithstanding those of greatest note are Styre Vadenhoff Melck Castell anciently called Claudionum Crembs Cetro castle now called Zeisselmaur Saint Hippolytus the two Newberies one surnamed of the Abbey the other of Corne. Petronell a village now but in old time a great citie as his foundation ruines and heaps of stones and rubbish do testifie The new city Pruck vpon the banke of the riuer Leyth and Hamburg out of all the most famous is VVien sometime called Flauiana and Iuliobona renowmed for the Vniuersitie and Schoole than which there is none that hath brought forth more excellent and greater Mathematicians This citie is round beset with Vineyards The houses of the citizens are stately and beautifull so that they may seeme to giue entertainment to Princes and are built with large and open windowes to let the aire in and out and therefore they are neuer pestered and offended with close and bad aire for that euery priuate house hath either his seuerall court-yard or back-side Hither is great concourse of forren nations
from all countreys of Europe Here is great plentie of all maner of prouision necessary for the maintenance of mans life The riuers of Austrich are Donaw sometime the vtmost border of the region but now it runneth thorow the midst of the same Onasus Drawn Erlaph which at Cella or Zelltal famous for the Church of the Virgine Marie ariseth out of a most pleasant lake Draisn Ypsie Melck Marck These doe seuer Morauia from Austrich Camb a notable riuer for sundry sorts of fish Leytte and Swegad in which are Crefishes or Crabs of a most pleasant taste Thus farre Rithaymer Of the originall and reason of the etymologie of the name of this countrey this report Lazius in his Commentaries of VVien doth giue The name of Austria saith he was inuented of late about foure hundred yeeres since of the blast of the South winde called of the Latines Auster which winde in this country bloweth oft or of the similitude of the German name which I thinke to be more likely for the Kings of the Franks called the East border of their Kingdomes Ostenrich like as the West part they termed Westenrich This region long since was first gouerned by Marquesses then by Dukes and lastly by Archdukes to whom it is now subiect as is more at large to be seene in the said Commentaries of Lazius The ancient armes of this countrey were fiue Larkes Ore in a field Azure but Lupold the Marquesse the fift of that name of an accident or euent that befell him was licenced by the Emperour to alter his coat and to beare a field Gules with a fesse argent for that in the siege and assault of Accon he was all ouer embrued with bloud onely his girdle excepted More thou maiest reade of this in Munster and Cuspinian The description of Austrich is to be seene in Bonfinius in the end of his fourth booke fourth Decade of his historie of Hungarie Pius the second in his description of Europe citeth an historie of his written of this countrey which notwithstanding as yet it was neuer our chance to see The same authour hath in his Epistles passing well described Vienna or VVien the chiefe citie of this Prouince AVSTRIAE DESCRIP per WOLFGANGVM LAZIVM The Bishopricke of SALCZBVRG FRANCIS IRENICVS saith that of the fiue Bishopricks of Bayern this is the principall and the Bishops sea termed of Aeneas Syluius the Metropolitan citie whose description we haue here set downe is by Munster thus described Iulius Caesar entending to make warre vpon the Germans caused a very strong castle to be built in the streights of the mountaines whither his souldiers in danger might retire themselues and from whence they might haue succour when need required and therefore it was called Castrum Iuuauiense in the German tongue Helfenberg The riuer vpon which it standeth called Iuuauius is thought by some to haue giuen the name to this castle of which also the citie afterwards built was named Iuuauia This citie hath Fennes Plaines Hilles and Mountaines round about belonging to it The Fennes yeeld pastures the Mountaines hawking and hunting But this citie hauing long since flourished for a few yeres in the time of Attila the King of the Hunnes susteined many inrodes and incursions and was miserably wasted with fire and sword Afterward about the yeere of Christ 520 whenas S. Rupert descended of the bloud royall of the Franks was inuested Bishop of the sea of VVormes and after the death of Childebert was driuen from that his Bishopricke Thedo Duke of Bayern entertained him at Ratispone with great ioy and solemnitie and was baptized of him with his Nobles and Commons Rupert the Bishop going on visitation and trauelling about by Noricum euen vnto Pannony preaching the Gospell conuerted many to the faith of CHRIST and comming vnto the riuer Iuuaue where sometime the citie Iuuawe had stood but now ruined decaied ouergrowen with bushes and without inhabitant and obseruing the place fitting and conuenient for a Bishops sea he obtained the possession thereof from the Duke stocked vp the trees and bushes and finding the foundation of the buildings he erected there a Church which he dedicated vnto the honour of S. Peter Also by the bountifull magnificence of the same Duke he erected a Monasterie of the order of S. Bennet and gouerned the Bishops sea foure and fortie yeeres c. The same authour in that place reckoneth vp also the rest of the Bishops and Archbishops of this sea See Auentinus who thinketh this citie to haue beene of Ptolemey called Poedicum This citie is seated amongst the Alpes Some doe thinke it to haue beene named Saltzburg of Salt which in the countrey neere adioyning not farre from Reichenhall is digged out of the earth in great plenty Yet who doth not see it not to be called of them Saltzburg or Salisburg but Salezburg of Salcz or Salczach the riuer vpon which it is built and situate like as Insperg Instadt of the riuer In Iltzstadt vpon Iltz Regensperg vpon Regen not farre from this place and a thousand such euery where to be obserued The territorie and liberties of this citie is rich of all sorts of mettels as of Golde Siluer Brasse and yron Here is also found Vitrioll Brimstone Alume and Antimonie It hath also some quarries of Marble VViguley Hund hath set forth a catalogue of the Bishops of this citie The Iournall of Antoninus maketh mention of Iuuaue But Gaspar Bruschius thinketh the more ancient name of Iuuaue to haue beene Helfenberg and of that the name Iuuaue to haue beene formed which in signification is the same Pighius writeth that he hath read these verses in the chiefe church of this city Tunc Hadriana vetus quae pòst Iuuauia dicta Praesidialis erat Noricis Episcopo digna Rudiberti sedes qui fidem contulit illis CHRISTI quam retinet Saltzburgum serò vocata Thus verbatim in English Where Hadriana old did stand which since they Iuuaue call'd A garrison towne to Roman State there Robert was enstall'd First Bishop of the sea who them did bring to cheerefull light Of Gospell cleere which yet they hold it now is Salczburg hight SALISBVRGENSIS IVRISDICTIONIS locorumque vicinorum vera descriptio Auctore Marco Secznagel Salisburgense Qui patriae adfert ingenio suae Illustre nomen Laudibus excolens Dignus fauore est praemióque Quem sequens veneretur aetas Cum Marcus ergo fecerit hoc opus Grato tuum te quaeso foue sinu Salczburga ciuem ges tiensque Posteritatis honore cinge BAVARIA BAyern or Bauiere called of the Latines Boiaria or as others like better Bauaria was inhabited in former times by the Narisci Vindelici and Norici The Nariskes which now are called Nardge the riuer Donaw parteth from the other two The Noricks did enter at the riuer In and doe decline toward the East and West euen vnto Hungarie and Italie The Vindelicks were conteined betweene the riuers Lyke Donaw Isara Inne and the Alps which Ptolemey calleth Penninae All this