Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
A19774
|
A suruey of the great dukes state of Tuscany In the yeare of our Lord 1596.
|
Dallington, Robert, 1561-1637.
|
1605
(1605)
|
STC 6201; ESTC S109213
|
56,057
|
78
|
A SVRVEY OF THE GREAT DVKES STATE of Tuscany In the yeare of our Lord 1596. AT LONDON Printed for Edward Blount 1605. To my worshipfull good friend Maister Robert Dalington Sir BEing well assured that this your worke out of your owne protection would in the end present it selfe to the generall view and likely enough some one that loues you not so much nor knowes you at all might haue the passing of it I haue put my selfe in the way of your reproofe and am become a theese of this nature to steale no more from you then I will againe giue to you If I could perswade you there were a fault in modesty you would bid me publish the vertue which you tye vp in too straight bonds My fault is I haue done that which would haue beene done and the offer is so full of loue that it lookes for a punishment accordingly Edw Blount The Analysis of this discourse In Tuscanie I obserue the Countrey here the Seite here the Cosmographie Here of the Clime the Degree the Planet that rules the disposition of the ayre c. Chorographie Here of the length bredth circuite how scituate confined limited what Riuers Ports c. Parts these either Indiulduall here of each Citty in particulare how many how peopled built c. Generall these either Mountaines here of the coÌ„modities as Marble Nutts Oliues c. Valleis here of their Herbage fruite grain haruest soile c. Gouerment here of the Gouernor this either Prince here of his name family descent issue parentage armes stile title Court order riches forces entrate expences Law here the Minister here of theÌ„ of the Crowne and of the body Politique Ministration eyther ciuil or criminall Gouerned here of the peoples nature wiâ—â— aptnes diet apparell language iealousie THE SVRVEY OF THE great Dukes State of Tuscany TVscany anciently called Hetruria lieth vnder the Regiment of Sol in the fift Climate betweene the Degrees fortie one and fortie foure a Countrey almost equally distant from the Equinoctiall and North-pole and therefore by consequent of an ayre temperate were it not that the Montaines cause some little excesse of both the passible qualities heate and colde Of this in winter by reason they bee mantled with snowe whereby the winde vireth with a more piercing sharpnes of that in sommer by the repercussiue force of the Sun-beames from the sides of those Hilles at the foote whereof are most their Cittie 's seated Not hauing any valleys so large but that the scituation of the Towne therein makes it communicate in the passion of both these extreames For as writers well affirme that the hills Appennines are one fourth part of Italy so is it also determined that they their Spurres are three fourth parts of Tuscany It is in length if you measure along the Sea-coast two thousand fiue hundred furlonges which make three hundred and twelue myles but if you measure by the Diameter according to Ptolomey assigning it three Degrees and forty seauen miles to a Degree then it is some hundred fortie and odde miles if according as the ordinarie Roade lies which is neither somuch about as by the coast nor so direct as by the Diameter it is one hundred and seauenty miles And thus doth Leander Alberti the latest and exactest Surueyour of Italie reconcile the authorities of Strabe Plyny and Ptolomey But allowing sixtie miles to a Degree it is in length one hundred and nintie miles which is now the receaued opinion It is in bredth one hundred where least and in Circuite sixe hundred and twenty or as faccio vberei saith seauen hundred Il giro suo per quel che si ragiona E ' misuratu settecentu miglia E Roma qui l'honor che l'incorona It is limitted West with the Riuer Magra and Mountaines of Lyguria East with Tyber North with the Mountaines Appennines and South with the Sea It confineth South with the Terra di Roma South-east with the Dutchy of Spoletu East with the State of Vrbine Northeast with Romagna North with the state of Bologna Northwest with Lyguria West and South-west with the Sea These are the limits set downe by Polybius Plyny Pomponius Mela Solynus Ptolomey and all other ancient writers neither are we to enlarge this countrey so farre as they that affirme the Tuscans possessed all betweene the Adriatick and Mediterranean Seas from Nola in the kingdome of Naples to the Mountaines Rhesy which is now the Grisons Countrey and they say are come of the old Tuscans True it is that these Tuscans were a mightie and powerfull people such as oftentimes forced the Romaines to create a Dictator which but in great extremities they might not do to defend themselues from them vntill the foure hundred and seauenth yeare after the foundation of Rome when they were vtterly ouerthrowne at the Lake of Vadiâ—one as Lyuie in his ninth booke affirmeth Nor did the Romaines bring home onely glory triumph and spoiles from the conquered Tuscans which argued the greatnesse of this nation but they brought with them also which argueth their antiquity the habite of their youth called Pratexta the roabe of their elder age called Toga the twelue Bundles of Roddes and Axes carried before the Consuls called fasces the seate of their Praetors and other Iudges carried vpon wheeles called Sedes curulis the Robe of the chiefe Magistrate triumphall ornaments and many other such ensignes of auncient greatnesse and Maiestie all which were brought thence to Rome by Tarquinius Priscus whereof Syluius Italicus in his 8 booke reporteth confirmed by Dionisius Alicarnosseus From this Nation likewise whom the Greekes called Tirrheni of Firsos their poore kinde of Cottage and the Romaines first called Hetrusci of their religious worshipping the Gods did the Romaines also bring many of those rites and ceremonies which they afterward vsed in their religion As Delphos is called by Ptolomey Vmbelicus Mundi the Nauile of the world so may we say of Tuscani that it is Vmbelicus Italia howbeit in a Geometricall proportion that is in the middest of the forces of Italy hauing on th' one side the state Ecclesiasticke the kingdome of Naples and Dutchy of Frbyne and on the other counter-peasable to these the States of Venice Myllan and Genoa the Dukedomes of Ferrara Mantoâ—a and Parma and this State in the middest of the ballance on which side socuer it inclineth ouerweighing the other This is that which Guiccardine saith in the very entrance of his Historie that the wisdome of Lorenzo Medici and the scituation of the state of Florence Mantennero le cose â— Italia bilanciate vpheld th' affaires of Italy in equall Ballance On which ground also Lodouico Zforza Duke of Millan layeth his foundation for the reason he vseth in the third booke of the said historie who very iealous of the Venetians greatnesse hauing now vndertaken the protection of Pisa and fearfull withall of the Frenches returne into Italy he laboureth the Pope