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
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
THEATRVM ORBIS TERRARVM GEOGRAPHI REGII THE THEATRE OF THE WHOLE WORLD SET FORTH BY THAT Excellent Geographer Abraham Ortelius LONDON Printed by IOHN NORTON Printer to the Kings most excellent Maiestie in Hebrew Greeke and Latine 1606. HONI SOIT QVI MAL Y PENSE The sway by Sea Land great IAMES doth beare His Birth His Bloud These Kingdomes figure here But were his seuerall vertues to be crown'd A World past thine Ortelius must be fownd TO THE MOST HIGH MOST MIGHTY AND MOST HAPPY PRINCE IAMES BY THE GRACE OF GOD KING OF GREAT BRITAINE FRANCE AND IRELAND DEFENDER OF THE FAITH c. IOHN NORTON HIS MAIESTIES MOST HVMBLE AND FAITHFVLL SERVANT CONSECRATETH THESE IMMORTALL LABOVRS OF ABRAHAM OR TELIVS TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH ABRAHAMI ORTELII QVEM VRBS VRBIVM ANTVERPIA EDIDIT REX REGVM PHILIPPVS GEOGRAPHVM HABVIT MONVMENTVM HIC VIDES BREVIS TERRA EVM CAPIT QVI IPSE ORBEM TERRARVM CEPIT STILO ET TABVLIS ILLVSTRAVIT SED MENTE CONTEMPSIT QVA CAELVM ET ALTA SVSPEXIT CONSTANS ADVERSVM SPES AVT METVS AMICITIAE CVITOR CANDORE FIDE OFFICIIS QVIETIS CVLTOR SINE LITE VXORE PROLE VITAM HABVIT QVALE ALIVS VOTVM VT NVNC QVOQVE AETERNA EI QVIES SIT VOTIS FAVE LECTOR OBIIT IIII. KAL IVLII ANNO MD. XCIIX VIXIT ANN. LXXI MENSS II. DIES IIXX COLII EX SORORE NEPOTES B.M. POSS CONTEMNO ET ORNOMENTE MANV Α Χ Ρ Ω THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM ORTELL COSMOGRAPHER TO PHILIP THE SECOND LATE KING OF SPAINE written first in Latine by Francis Sweert of Antwerpe his familiar and louing friend and now translated into English by W. B as great a louer of his learning and vertues THe stocke of the ORTELS flourished not long since and liued in good state and credit at Auspurg in Bayern Augustam vindelicorum the Latines called it From that family came WILLIAM ORTELL who about the yere of our Lord 1460 left his natiue country and seated himselfe in Antwerpe at that time one of the famousest Mart-townes of the world where he did many notable things worthily deseruing great commendation among which that is most memorable that of his owne proper cost and charges he caused a goodly crosse of free stone to be set vp without the Emperours gate in that place where the malefactours are vsually woont to be executed and put to death Beneath this crosse at the base or foot of the same stood Mary and Iohn and beside them a little farther off hung the two theeues the one vpon the right hand and the other vpon the left vpon their seuerall gibbets This William died vpon the seuenth day of Ianuary in the yeere of our Lord God 1511 and was buried in the cloisters of the Franciscane Friers in Antwerpe leauing his sonne LEONARD ORTELL sole Executor and heire not only of his goods and substance but also of his vertues and good qualities For they report that he was a man so deuout and religious that it was an hard matter to finde him from his booke serious meditation on heauenly matters This Leonard maried ANNA HERVVAYERS and by her had issue two daughters and one some named ABRAHAM whose life we heere purpose to describe borne vpon the second day of Aprill in the yeere of our Lord God 1527. Hee was euen in his child-hood of singular towardnesse great capacity and passing quicke conceit and that which is very strange in youth hee was neuer giuen to the reading of any trifles or idle vanities Wherefore his father purposing to make him a scholar began first himselfe to instruct him priuatly at home in his owne house in the Latine and Greeke tongues For the old man was very learned in both these languages But see how these good purposes were soon crossed by the vntimely death of his most louing and kinde father who departing this life in the yeere of Christ 1535 left this his sonne to be further informed and taught abroade by strange schoolemasters whose care and diligence to profit him whatsoeuer their learning were was nothing so great and painfull notwithstanding euen vnder these he made such profit in the Artes and liberall Sciences that he was not much inferiour to the best of his degree and time For as I said before no vaine pleasure or trifles pastimes which commonly are the ouerthrow of many yongue men could euer with-draw him from his setled purpose or alienate his minde from his booke Yet his greatest delight and commendation consisted in the knowledge of the Mathematicall sciences which for the most part he studied and practised without an instructor or teacher atteining only by his owne paines and industrie to the great admiration of others euen to the vnderstanding of the greatest and deepest mysteries of the same In the thirtieth yeare of his age hauing many great matters in his head and loathing to liue idly at home in his owne natiue country he began to entertaine a conceipt of trauelling into diuers and sundry forreine parts and countries of the world To Frankford vpon the Main by reason of the great Marts or Faires there held at two seuerall times euery yere he went very often In the yeere of our Lord 1575 he went with Iohn Viuian of Valence a Marchant but a great louer of learning and Hierome Scoliers of Antwerp to Leige Trier Tungren and Mentz of which iourney and peregrination of theirs there is at this day a booke of his exstant in print wherein he hath learnedly described the particulars obserued by them In the yeere of Christ 1577 with Immanuël Demetrius of Antwerpe hee trauelled beyond the Seas into England and Ireland Italy that nource of great wits that worker of strange woonders that mother of reuerend antiquities and ancient monuments hee visited thrise The third time that he went thither which was in the yeere 1578 he went in company of George Houfnayle of Antwerp who was so excellent a painter that he was greatly esteemed and beloued of the illustrious princes Albert and VVilliam Dukes of Bayern of Ferdinand Duke of Austrich yea and of Rudolphus himselfe at that time Emperour of the Germanes But this his consort to the great greefe of his friends and such as loued his singular qualities left his life at Prage in Bohemia vpon the thirteenth of Ianuary in the yeere of our Lord 1600. This man was woorthy of longer life if the Fates would respect men for their great parts and excellent vertues But so it is that Death like as the sythe in Haruest cutteth downe without distinction aswell the yongue as old There was nothing either in Germanie or in France that was woorth the seeing that this our authour had not seene and viewed with a censorious and iudicious eie At length hauing ouercome so many tedious and toilsome trauels he returned againe to Antwerpe his natiue soile There and then he began to apply himselfe to benefit succedent ages to write of those countries by him viewed and seene to set out in Charts
followes Ruremonde situate where the riuer Roer falles into the Maese It hath in my remembrance beene a Bishopricke Zutphen at the mouth of the riuer Berkel where it dischargeth it selfe into Yssel It beares the title of an Earledome It hath a rich College of Canons and is vnder the iurisdiction of the Bishop of Munster Arnhen stands vpon the banke of Rhijne This is the seat of the high Court of iustice and of the Chancery The Clergie of this towne are subiect to the Bishop of Vtrecht HATTEM a towne well fortified vpon the riuer Yssel ELBVRG on the shore of the Zuyder sea HARDERVVIIK vpon the same shore Heere likewise you haue WAGENING TIEL BOMMEL BRONCHORST DOESBVRG DOTECHEM SHEERENBERG gouerned by a peculiar prince vnder the name of an Earledome LOCHEN GROLL BREDEVORD GELRE which perhaps gaue name to the whole region STRAELEN VENLO a towne vpon the banke of Maese fortified both by arte and nature WACHTENDVNCK of ancient times the city of Hercules in the Dukedome of Iuliers Besides these there are other small townes of note which though now either by furie of warre or iniurie of time they are vnwalled yet they doe enioy the freedomes and priuileges of cities Their names be Keppel Burg Genderen Bateburg Monteford Echt Culeburg and Buren both which haue a peculiar Lord as Bateburg also Vnder Earle Ottho the third this region was mightily inlarged for he compassed with walles and endowed with priuileges the townes of Ruremond Arnhem Harderwijk Bemel Goch and VVagening which till that time had remained villages In the Chronicle of Iohn Reigersbeg written in Dutch I finde this region in the time of Carolus Caluus to haue beene called by the name of Ponthis and that it was by him in the yeere 878. erected to a Signiorie Then in the yeere 1079. this Signiorie of Ponthis was by Henrie the third adorned with the title of an Earledome and called the Earledome of Guelders and the first Earle thereof was Otto à Nassau It went vnder the name of an Earledome till Reinhold the second But whenas this Reinhold not only for his valour and mightinesse grew terrible to his neighbours but renowmed in regard of his iustice his piety and fidelity towards the Roman empire he was at Frankford in a solemne and royal assembly by Lewes the Emperour consecrated Duke in presence of the King of England the French King and the Princes Electours in the yeere of our Lord 1339. Some say that in the time of the Emperour Carolus Caluus towards that place where the towne of Gelre now standeth there was a strange and venimous beast of huge bignesse and monstrous crueltie feared all the countrey ouer which lay for the most part vnder an Oake This monster wasted the fields deuoured cattell great and small and abstained not from men The inhabitants affrighted with the noueltie and vncouthnesse of the matter abandoned their habitations and hid themselues in desert and solitarie places A certaine Lord of Ponth had two sonnes who partly tendring their owne estate and partly also the distresse of their neighbours assailed the beast with singular policie and courage and after a long combat slew him The said Lord therefore not farre from the Maese vpon the banke of Nierson for the perpetuall memorie of his sonnes exploit built a castle which he called Gelre because when the beast was slaine he often yelled with a dreadfull roaring noise Gelre Gelre from whence they say began the name of the Guelders Thus much out of the Chronicle of Henry Aquilius a Guelder borne More concerning this Prouince you may reade in Francis Irenicus but a most large description hereof you shall finde in Guicciardin GELRIAE CLIVIAE FINITIMORVMQVE LOCORVM VERISSIMA DESCRIPTIO Christiano Schrot Auctore The Bishopricke of LIEGE IT is a common and constant opinion that those which we now call Leodienses or Ligeois are a German people named of old Eburones A relique or monument of which ancient name remaineth as yet in the village Ebure a German mile distant from the city of Liege And this very place as I suppose is described by Dion lib. 40. vnder the name Eburonia Howbeit certaine it is that the iurisdiction of Liege stretcheth much farther than that of the Eburones did of olde Of the Eburones mention is made by Strabo Caesar and Florus Dion calles them Eburos and late Writers barbarously terme them Eburonates Themselues in their mother tongue which is a kinde of broken French they call Ligeois but in high Dutch Lutticher and Luyckenaren The deriuation of Eburones Leodienses whoso desires to know I refer him to the antiquities of Goropius Becanus and to a small pamphlet of Hubert Leodius This region taketh vp a great part of ancient Lorraigne for it containes vnder the name of the diocesse of Liege the dukedome of Bouillon the marquesat of Franckmont the countie of Haspengow and Loots and many Baronies In this region besides Maestright halfe wherof is subiect to the Duke of Brabant there are foure and twentie walled cities a thousand seuen hundred Villages with Churches and many Abbeys and Signiories The names of the cities are these following Liege vpon Maese the seat of a Bishop after which all the whole countrey is named Bouillon Franchemont Loots Borchworm Tungeren Huy Hasselt Dinant Masac Stoch Bilsen S. Truden Viset Tuin Varem Bering Herck Bree Pera Hamont Chiney Fosse and Couin as Guicciardin doth both name and number them Moreouer Placentius writeth that part of Maestright was added to this diocesse by the donation of Pori Earle of Louaine The territorie of this citie is called the countie of Maesland in the ancient records of Seruatius abbey built here by King Arnulphus in the yeere 889. Now this countie is vsually called Haspengow It is a region exceeding pleasant and fertile of all things especially on the North part where it ioyneth to Brabant for there it aboundeth with corne and all kinde of fruits and in some places it yeeldeth wine But on the South frontiers towards Lutzenburg and France it is somewhat more barren mountainous and ouerspred with woods here yet being some remainder of Arduenna the greatest forest in all France as Caesar writeth This is the outward hiew of the country but in the entrals and bowels thereof it is enriched with mettals and sundry kinds of marbles as also with sea-coales which they burne in stead of fewell and all these so surpassing good as in a common prouerbe they vsually say that they haue bread better than bread fire hotter than fire and iron harder than iron By their iron than which all the prouinces around vse neither better nor indeed any other they raise a great reuenue Nor with any other more forcible fire do the Smithes and Bearebrewers in all this part of the Low countries heat their furnaces than with these minerall coales of Liege which are of so strange a nature as water increaseth their flame but oile puts it out The smell of this fire or smoke
very fertile either for corne or cattel Beside many flocks of sheep of passing fine wool it is wonderfully stored with Conies Hares Patridges Phesants In the time of William the first William Fitz-osbern was intituled Lord of Wight and after that Henry Beauchamp Earle of Warwick was by King Henry the sixth crowned King of Wight See more of it in Diodorus Siculus and Beda The I le TENET lying hard to the coast of Kent of eight miles length fower miles breadth is a chalkie soile and passing good corne ground Solinus calleth it Thanatos or as some copies haue Athanatos thus he writeth of it The ile Thanatos Tenit washed by the French ocean disioined from England the main continent by a narrow frith is a very rich corne ground fat soile neither is it only good and kind to it selfe but also to other places for as in it no snake or venemous serpents do breed or liue so the earth dust caried from thence to what place of the world soeuer doth naturally kill such vermine Thus far Solinus then but that which he spake of it concerning Serpents we now in our daies know by experience to be false Neere to this is that shallow sandy place so dangerous to sea-men commonly called GOODVVINS SANDS an iland sometime the possession of Earle Goodwin which as our histories report did sinke in the yeere of our Lord 1097. This should seeme to be Toliapis of Ptolemey but that he placeth it neere to Essex or the Trinobantes when as this lieth a great deale more neere the Cantij Within the Thames mouth are yet other two ilands one vpon Kent side which now we call SHEPEY that is the I le of sheep but how it was called of the ancients we certainly know not The other vpon Essex side which Ptolemey in his time called CAVNA CONVENNOS or COVNOS such is the variety of copies is still called Conway It lieth so flat and low that it is sometime all ouerflowen excepting some little knols and hils whither the cattle do ordinarily flie in such like danger It feedeth yerely four thousand sheepe at the least whose flesh is of a most sweet and pleasant taste surpassing those of other places Thus hauing passed so many troublesome and dangerous seas and now being come within kenning of mine owne natiue country I thinke it not amisse to put into harbrough heere for awhile to rest our wearied limmes and purge vs from those brackish humours which in this tedious iourney we drunke in Thus farre then of the ilands described and named in this Mappe Yet there are certaine others mentioned in some authours of good note And Plutarch in the life of Demetrius giueth out that there are many ilands neere to Britain waste and desert whereof some he saith are dedicated to the gods and famous worthies Amongst these there is one in which he saith they report Saturne lulled a sleepe by Briareus is kept as prisoner in chaines he is bound I say with sleep in sted of a chaine and hath many Angels and demy-gods for seruants to wait and attend vpon him Whether this be that which that Auienus calleth Pelagia and affirmeth to be consecrated to Saturne I dare neither constantly affirme nor peremptorily deny Moreouer of these same thou maist read something worth the while as not altogether vnpleasant though doubtlesse meerly fabulous in the same Plutarch in his booke intituled De defectu Oraculorum of the ceasing of oracles as also in Isacius Tzetzes vpon Lycophron Artimedorus in Straboes Geography saith that there is an iland neere Britaine where they offer sacrifice to Ceres and Proserpina in the selfe same manner and with like ceremonies as they do in Samothrace Apollonius in his History of strange and wonderfull things affirmeth out of Cytinus Chius that there is a certaine Brittish ile not Britaine it selfe as M. Camden vnderstandeth him 400. furlongs in compasse where fruits doe grow without stones or kernels for you shall neither find a stone in the oliue nor kirnell in the grape which also happeneth not only to these 2 fruites but also to all other of those kinds But this is more like a feigned tale then a true story Moreouer Dionysius Afer nameth the NESIADES the seat and habitation of the Ammitae amongst the number of the Brittish iles but I would rather iudge these to be ilands vpon the coast of France than Brittish iles and that by the authority of Strabo If any man do desire to know these better let him repaire to the learned Claurencieux Camden my singular good friend who hath in that his Britannia a worthy worke composed by him with infinte paines and trauell so learnedly and diligently described and set downe their ancient forme customes maners places and cities together with those of later times and of these our daies that they rather seeme to be expressed to the eie in their true colours by the pencill of a skilfull painter then by the pen of a painfull student But some man may say this is written in the Latine tongue a language that I vnderstand not Be patient a while Thou shalt heare him speake shortly good English Of mine owne knowledge he is already put to schoole for that purpose into the country to the learned Philemon Holland If thou knowest him not that learned Doctor of Physicke who lately taught the great Philosopher Pliny of Como the renowmed Historian great Liuy of Padua two Italians that neuer could sound a word of ours before to speake English so plainly and well as neuer none better No stranger nay no man euer spake more properly none more eloquently When he beginneth I know it will not be long we ruder clownes will hold our peace But we cannot forget the worthy paines of the learned M. Verstegan who hath giuen vs good cause to remember him with thanks for that his Restitution of decaied intelligence in antiquities concerning the renowmed English Nation lately imprinted and dedicated to his most exellent Maiesty SPAINE HISPANIAE VETERIS DESCRIPTIO Ex conatibus Geographicis Abrah Ortelij Privilegio Imp. Reg. et Belgico ad decennium 1586. SVMMO THEOLOGO DNÌ„O D. BENEDICTO ARIAE MONTANO VIRO LINGVARVM COGNITIONE RERVM PERITIA ET VITAE INTEGRITATE MAGNO ABRAH ORTELIVS AMICITIAE ET OBSERVANTIAE ERGO DD. HISPANIAE LOCA ALIQVOT INCOGNITAE POSITIONIS POPVLI Aebisoci Aequefilici Allotrigae Amenionses Andologenses Arenates Axabricenses Babanouses Banienses Bursaonenses Bursavolenses Caesarobricenses Carausiae Cibilitani Cincenses Colorni Cortonenses Damenanitani Eilota Emanici Equaesi Fortunales Gessorienses Iadoni Idienses Ilumberitani Interanisenses Ispalenses Itani Karenses Leuni Melesses Onenses Oppidoni Oriâ—â—â— Pâ—suri Palatini Pleutauri Rucones Sacilernusi Segienses Solienses Talori Teari Iulienses Tuisi Velienses Vermenses Viaâ—ienuâ—â— Vilienses Volciani VRBES Abobrica Accabicus Adercon Adrobicus Agla Alea Aliconsis Alpasa Andâ—risippo Apetua Apiloâ—urium Arialdunum Asena Astenas Atetona Axatiara Axenium Baecor Baecyla Baetyca Belippo Besaro Biendium Brachyla Branae Brutobria Casaris Salutariensis