situation antiquities famous men and other matters worthy of record of this prouince let him haue recourse to the most learned Iohn Boniface who hath a while since set forth a most exact and absolute historie of it There is also extant a description of the countrie of Treuiso done in verse by Iohn Pinadello but as yet it is not imprinted Thus farre the Author hath discoursed vpon this his Mappe to which I trust I may with his good liking adde this out of Zacharie Lillie his Breuiary of the world TARVISIVM now Treuiso a goodly city belonging to the Signiorie of Venice of which of all ancient writers Plinie did first make mention brought forth Totilas the fift and most famous king of the Gothes from whom it first began his greatnesse and to arise to that dignitie that now it hath obtained that the whole prouince of Venice should be called The Marquesate of Treuiso For Totilas gathering together a great armie conquered all Italie and entering the city of Rome did sacke and fire it Certaine haue affirmed that the citie Treuiso was built by the Troians vpon the faire riuer Sile which falleth into the Adriaticke-sea The city it selfe for walles castle and water is very strong for bridges priuate houses and Churches very beautifull and for diuers merchandise very famous It hath great store of corne wine oile fish and fruites The country hath very many castles and villages but worthy men commended for Religion and wisedome vertuous life and ciuill conuersation do especially commend this city Thus farre out of Lillie PATAVINI TERRITORII COROGRAPHIA IAC CASTALDO AVCT Milliaria TARVISINI AGRI TYPVS Auctore Io. Pinadello Phil. et I. C. Taruisino The Lake of COMO sometime called LACVS LARIVS LACVS LARIVS which now they call Lago di Como of Como the ancient town adioining vnto it tooke his name of the Fenducke a bird which the Greekes call Larus and the Latines Fulica of which it hath great plenty It runneth out from North to South in length fortie miles it is beset round with Mountaines whose toppes are couered with groues of Chesse-nut-trees the sides with vines and oliues the bottoms with woods which affoord great store of Deere for game Vpon the brinke of the Lake are many Castles seated amongst the which on the South side is Como a faire towne built by the Galli Orobij or as some thinke by the Galli Cenomanes Afterward Iulius Caesar placed a colonie there amongst which were fiue hundred Grecian gentlemen as Strabo testifieth whereupon it was called Nouum Comum It is seated in a most pleasant place that one would iudge it a kind of Paradise or place onely sought out for pleasure and delight for vpon the fore-side it hath the goodly Lake on the backe-side the champion plaines well manured and fertile of all sorts of fruite Vnto which you may adde the wholesome and sweet aire Of the brasen statue long since taken out of this citie see Cassiod 2. Variar cap. 35. and 36. This towne brought forth the two Plinies men worthy of eternall fame in whose honour and memory the citizens caused these Inscriptions to be engrauen in marble vpon the front of S. Maries Church which we wrote out in the yeare of CHRIST 1558. in our returne from Italie Vpon the right hand of the dore THE STATE AND CITIZENS OF COMO HAVE GRACED C. PLINIVS SECVNDVS THE MOST VVORTHY FREEMAN OF THEIR CORPORATION A MAN OF A PREGNANT VVIT HONOVRABLE FOR DIGNITIES FOR LEARNING ADMIRABLE WHO IN HIS LIFE TIME OBTAINED THE LOVE AND FRIENDSHIP OF VESPASIAN THE EMPEROVR BORE MANY GREAT OFFICES EXCELLED ALL VVRITERS OF HIS TIME IN ELOQVENCE AND VARIETIE VVITH THIS TITLE AND STATVE Such honour great and worthy fame me Pliny did adorne But much it grac'th mee more what heere is set Vpon the left hand TO C. PLINIVS CAECILIVS SECVNDVS THEIR VVEL-BELOVED CITIZEN VVHO HAVING BEEN CONSVLL AVGVR AND BORNE ALL OFFICES IN THE VVARRES A FAMOVS ORATOVR POET AND HISTORIOGRAPHER MOST ELOQVENTLY VVRITTEN OF THE VVORTHY COMMENDATION OF TRAIAN THE EMPEROVR BESTOVVED MANY BOONES AND BOVNTEOVS FAVOVRS VPON HIS NATIVE COVNTRY GRACING THE SAME VVITH ETERNALL CREDIT THE STATE OF COMO FOR THESE BENEFITS DID HEERE PLACE THIS MONVMENT THE FIRST OF MAY IN THE YEARE 1498. At home in peace abroad in war ech office haue I borne I liued I di'd and still I liue as yet But why may I not to these adioine the words of the same Plinie in his second booke vnto Caninius writing thus Doest thou studie or doest thou angle or iointly doest thou both For the Lake affoordeth store of Fish the woods plenty of Deere the priuatenesse of the place doth giue great occasion of study The same authour in his 4. Epistle vnto Licinus Sura hath a storie of a certaine strange spring not farre off from this Lake Paulus Iouius hath most excellently described this Lake in a seuerall Treatise out of the which we haue drawen this our Mappe befitting our purpose Moreouer Cassiodorus in his eleuenth booke of Varieties vnto Gaudiosus hath most exactly painted out the same Benedictus Iouius and Thomas Porcacchius haue written the histories of Como Read also Leander in his Italia and Dominicus Niger in his Geographie The territories and liberties of the Citie of ROME OF the city of Rome sometime the Empresse of the world and Liberties of the same because this place cannot beare so large a description as his worth doth deserue and for that it is better to say nothing at all of it then to say little I thinke it best onely to reckon vp those famous authours which haue written of it at large and to referre thee to them for further satisfaction Of which the more ancient are Q. Fabius Pictor Sex Rufus and P. Victor Of the later writers Blondus in his Italia Fabius Caluus of Rauenna Bartho Marlianus Andreas Fuluius Georgius Fabricius Lucius Faunus Andreas Palladius Pyrrhus Ligorius and Lucius Maurus And very lately Io. Iacobus Boissartus Iacobus Mazochius hath gathered and set out all his old Epigrammes Fuluius Vrsinus the Noble houses and Vlysses Aldroandus the statues of the same Hubertus Goltzius with no lesse art then diligence and great expences hath expressed in forme of a booke the table of his Fasti most cunningly cut in brasse LAKII LACUS VULGO COMENSIS DESCRIPTIO AVCT PAVIO OVIO TERRITORII ROMANI DESCRIP FORI IVLII VVLGO FRIVLI TYPVS TVSCIA THe bounds of Tuscia which in time past was called Hetruria are on the East the riuer Tyber on the West Macra on the South the Mediterran sea on the North the Apennine mountaines It is a most goodly beautifull and pleasant country The people are very ingenious and of a subtile witte indifferently fitte either for peace or warre for all maner of humane litterature or for trades and merchandise The nation hath alwaies been superstitious and much giuen to deuotion in religion as is apparant out of ancient writers The sea coast toward the Tyrrhen or Mediterran sea
map hath shewed abundantly who in it doth reckon vp beside the 18. naturall bathes which others haue written of 35. other first discouered by himselfe The same author also beside these baths doth make mention of 19. stoues or hot houses fumarolas they call them and 5. medicinall sands soueraigne in Physick for the drying vp of raw humours Of this fire heere in the bowels of the earth Aristotle in his booke of the Miracles of Nature affirmeth that heere are certaine stoues which do burne with fierie kind of force and exceeding feruent heate and yet neuer do burst out into flames But Elysius Pandulphus and Pontanus do report the contrary There is a place in this Iland Ischia about a mile from the city of the same name which of the raging fire that happened heere in the time of Charles II in the yeare 1301. is at this day called Cremate For heere the bowels of the earth cleauing in sunder by the flashing fire that flamed out a great part of it was so consumed that a small village being first burnt down was at the last vtterly swallowed vp And casting vp into the aire huge stones intermedled with smoke fire and dust which falling againe by their own force and violence scattered heere and there vpon the ground made a most fertile and pleasant iland wast and desolate This fire continued the space of two moneths so that many both men and beasts were by it destroied and many shipping themselues their goods forced to flie either to the ilands neere adioining or to the maine continent Yet this iland for many things is very fruitfull for in it there are excellent good wines and those of diuerse kinds as that which they call Greeks wine Latine Sorbinio and Cauda caballi It beareth good corn about S. Nicolas mount In it the Cedar the pomecitron and the Quince tree do grow euery where most plentifully Alume and Brimstone are found deep within the earth it hath had long since some veines of gold as Strabo and Elysius haue written and now hath as Iasolinus affirmeth About the hill commonly called Monte Ligoro there is great store of phesants hares conies and other wild beasts neere the cape of S. Nicolas they take much fish and withall find much Corall Not farre from thence is the hauen Ficus or Fichera where the water boileth so hot that in it flesh or fish are sodden in a short time and yet notwithstanding it is of a pleasant tast and very sauory There is a fountaine which they call Nitroli in which this is admirable that besides his great vertues for the cure of certaine diseases if you shall lay flax in it within three daies at the most it will make it as white as snow Whereupon the authour of this Table saith that this I le for bignesse good aire fertility of soile mines of mettall strong wines doth far surpasse the other 25. ilands which are in the bay of Naples Betweene the foreland called Acus the needle and that other named Cephalino there is a great caue or safe harborough for ships especially for pinnaces those lesser sorts of ships Heere it is like that Aeneas landed of which Ouid speaketh as also Pompey when as he sailed from Sicilia to Puteoli whereof Appian writeth in his 5. booke of Ciuill wars In this same Iland ouer against Cumae there is a lake in which there is continually great plenty of Sea-mews or Fenducks Larus or Fulica these are very gainfull and profitable to the inhabitants The words of Pliny speaking of this iland are worth the noting In the same saith he a whole town did sinke and at another time by an earthquake the firme land became a standing poole stagnum he calleth it although that the ancient printed copies for stagnum haue statinas in which place the learned Scaliger had rather read statiuas meaning standing waters The same Pliny hath left in record that if one heere shall cut down a Cedar tree yet it will shoot forth and bud againe Liuy saith that the Chalcidenses of Euboea did first inhabit this iland yet Strabo saith they were the Eretrienses But these also came from the I le Euboea I am of opinion that Athenaeus in his 9 booke although he nameth it not yet he meaneth this iland which he affirmeth he saw as he sailed from Dicaearchia vnto Naples inhabited by a few men but full of copies There is also neere vnto this Prochyta an iland so named not of Aeneas his nurse but because it was profusa ab Aenaria seuered from Aenaria or as Strabo in his 5. booke affirmeth from Pithecusae Notwithstanding in his I. booke he writeth that it was sundered from Miseno yet both may be true for aswell this as that by inundations and tempestuous storms were rent off from the maine land The poets same that Minas the giant lieth vnder this Iland as Typhon doth vnder Ischia Of which Horace in his 3. booke of Poems writeth to Calliope Andreas Baccius writeth thus of this ile It is a little ile saith he but very pleasant rich of mettals and hot bathes notwithstanding for the continuall fires which the continuall tides of the sea do kindle in it as Strabo writeth it neuer was much inhabited It retaineth still the ancient name for they now call it Procida Of this iland you may read more in Scipio Mazella in his additions vnto the tract of Elysius of the Bathes of Puteoli ISCHIA quae olim AENARIA Ab Aeneae classe hic appulsa sic nominata Nè mireris lector si Septentrionalem plagam non superiorem ut moris est sed contra inferiorem regionem spectare videas Id namque data opera fecimus Quo utilior magis necessaria atque amoenior Insulae pars verusque eius Situs in conspectu Caietae Cumarum Prochytae Baiarum Puteolorum et Neapolis obviam iret Omnia autem haec constant ratione Circini semper indubitata exceptis Mediterraneis locis circumvicinis Insulis Montium aliquot atque crematorum lapidum quantitatibus Quae tum situs tum ornatus perspectivae gratia ponuntur IVLIVS IASOLINVS DESCRIB CANDIA sometime called CRETA CReta which now they call Candia is bigger then Cyprus but lesser then Sicilia or Sardinia vnto which ilands only in the Mediterran sea it is inferiour Yet for worth and fertility it is equall to the best Ancient Historiographers do affirme that once it was famous for one hundred cities and therefore was called Hecatompolis In the time of Pliny it had not aboue forty At this day as P. Bellonius testifieth it hath not aboue three of any account that is Candy a colonie of the Venetians whereof the whole iland is now named Canea and Rhetimo The compasse of the iland is about 520. miles It is euery where full of mountaines and hils and therefore the inhabitants are much giuen to hunting There is in it neuer a riuer that is nauigable nor any venemous or hurtfull beast The excellent
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
thirtie THVLE Schetland Of these Brittish isles beside the ancient writers Tacitus and Caesar reade Henry Huntington Polydore Virgill Iohn Mayor Paulus Iouius Gregory Cenall in the 2. summa of his 3. booke de re Gallica Antony Sabellicus Enne 10. lib. 5. William Paradine Ieffrey of Monmouth Ponticus Verumius and Beda but especially M. William Camden Clarenceux his Britannia whom when thou hast discreetly read I doubt not but thou wilt thinke thou hadst particularly surueyed the whole ile ANGLIAE SCOTIAE ET HIBERNIAE SIVE BRITANNICAR INSVLARVM DESCRIPTIO Britannia oim insularum Occidentis Septentrionis maxima potentiss est cuius potiorem hodie partem Angliam vocamus ab Anglis videlicet Saxonum gente quae sub Valentiniano eam ingressa tenuit Haec veteribus Albion dicebatur ad differentiam quum reliquae oēs eò tractu Britannicae dicebantur Ab Occasu vicinam habet Hiberniam hodie Irlandiam appellatam regibus Angliae subditam Of SCOTLAND SCOTLAND the North part of Brittaine anciently called Albanie and is of the first inhabitants which they call the wilde Scots and dwell more in within the land retaining yet the old language at this day called Albaine was formerly called of the Romanes Britannia minor and secunda as Lhoyd doth gather out of Sextus Rufus This country is diuided into 2. parts by the rough craggy mount Grampius now Grantzbeen whereof Tacitus maketh mention For it begining at the German ocean neere the mouth of the riuer Dee coasting along by Aberden through the middest of the country toward the Irish-sea staieth at the lake Loumond This Mountaine was sometime the bound of the kingdome of the Pictes and Scottes Scotland is fuller of mountaines and more barren then England Yet euery where it hath many commodious ports and hauens For so is this country embraced of the armes of the sea that there is no house in it as Iohn Maior affirmeth which is aboue twentie leagues distant from the salt water In the vallies are Lakes meeres pooles riuers and fountaines well stored with sundrie sorts of fish In the mountaines are champion plaines yeelding great store of pasture for cattell and woods abounding with plenty of Deere By the meanes of which commodities it hath been so maintained that hitherto it might neuer be wholly conquered For in any eminent danger they presentlie flie to the woods and bogges for succour and refuge where they haue of venison and fish sufficient store for prouision of victuall Scotland hath many wonders whereof some we haue heere set downe out of Hector Boëthus In Galloway saith he is a lake called Myrtoun part of whose water in the winter freezeth as other waters do the other part was neuer knowne to haue beene frozen in the greatest frosts that euer were In the country of Carict there are very great and large Oxen whose flesh is verie tender and of a pleasant and delicat tast Besides that the fatte neuer waxeth hard but is alway thinne in the manner of liquid oile The Sea that washeth the coast of this prouince is very rich of oisters herrings congers cockels and other such like fishes In the prouince of Coyl about ten miles from the towne Aër is a Stone hardly twelue foot high of 33. cubites thicke called of the inhabitants The deafe stone For although you shall make neuer so great a noise nay if one shall shoote off a peece of ordinance on the one side it shall hardly be heard on the other side except one bee a good way off from it for then the sound may easily be perceiued In Lennox which Ptolemey calleth Lelgouia Lelannonia as I conceiue out of Ptolemey but I thinke our authour meant Selgouiae which is farre from this place there is a very great lake which they call Loumond aboue twenty foure miles long and eight miles broad It conteineth thirtie Ilands whereof diuers haue villages well inhabited with Churches and Chappels dedicated to the seruice of Almighty God In this three things are especially worth the obseruation For the fishes there most wholesome and good haue no sinnes The water oft times when the winds are most calme and still is so boisterous and rough that it affraieth the best experienced watermen from putting forth to crosse the same For the wind being alaied the boates are taken in their midde-course and are tossed with such danger that except some commodious hauen shall fortune to be neere hand many times they are ouerturned and cast away Lastly there is an iland in it very good pasture for the feeding of cattell which swimmeth and moueth euery way as the winds driue It is credibly reported that there is a stone which groweth in Argadia Argathelia or Argile which if it be couered but a while with straw or flax it will set it on fire At Slanis a castle in Buquhan there is a caue of a strange nature For the water that droppeth into it in continuance of time is turned into a very white stone and if within a certaine number of yeares they should not be taken out it would haue been long since filled vp with them In this prouince there is no ratte euer seene and if so be that any should be brought in thither it will not by any meanes liue there In the countrie of Fife great store of a kind of blacke stone is digged out of the earth we call it sea-coale a most excellent kind of fuell At the mouth of the riuer Forth in the maine sea there is a very high rocke out of whose toppe a spring of fresh water a great miracle of nature doth runne abundantlie About two miles distant from Edenburgh is a spring vpon the toppe of whose water dropps of oile do continually swimme in such sort that if you take none from off it there will be neuer the more and if you take ought from thence there will be neuer the lesse This oile is good against the roughnesse of the skinne Thus farre of the strange thinges of this Realme Scotland in the countrie of Drisdaile hath a mine of Gold in the which also is found that which they commonly call Lazure It hath also mines both of Iron and Lead The inhabitants which possesse the South part on this side the mount Grampius are more ciuill and humane and do speake the English tongue Those which dwell in the North parts are a rough and more hard kind of people they call them The wild-Scottes and do weare mantles and skirts died with Saffron after the Irish fashion and go barelegged They speake the Irish tongue And as the Language of Scotland is of two sorts so are their maners as diuers These Marianus Scotus calleth High-land-men the other I meane the wild-Scottes they call Low-land-men The chiefe city of Scotland is Edenburgh there is the kings seat and the castle of Maidens often mentioned in histories Saint Andrew and Aberdon are two Vniuersities The city Glasow is the Archbishops sea The towne of Perth commonly
ac proprio idiomate vtuntur Haec saxa hoīm iumentorúm camelorúm pecorumque caeterarumque rerū formas referentia Horda populi gregis pascentis armētaque fuit Que stupenda quadam metamorphosi repente in saxa riguit priori forma nulla in parte diminúta Euenit hoc prodigium annis circiter 300. retro elapsis Cum priuilegio TARTARIA OR THE EMPIRE OF THE MIGHTIE CHAM HE that will take vpon him to describe TARTARIA he must needes speake of a great number of nations farre asunder and remote one from another For all that huge tract and portion of the Maine land is now called Tartaria that is between the East sea or as he calleth it Mare Mangicum the sea of Mangi or of Sin a country all the World ouer and vulgarly knowen by the name of China and the South countries Sin or China that part of India which is beyond Ganges the country of the Saci the riuer Iaxartes now they call it Chesel the Caspian sea Mar delle Zabacche Maeotis palus it was called of the ancient writers and Westward vp as high almost as the Moscouites For all these countries well neere the Tartars did possesse and in these places they were seated So that it comprehendeth that country which the old Historiographers called Sarmatia of Asia both the Scythiaes and Seria the country where the Seres dwelt which now I take to be named Cataio The name of this Nation was neuer heard of in Europe before the yeare after Christs incarnation 1212. They are diuided in stead of shires into Hordaes that is as the word amongst them doth signifie into companies or couents But as they do inhabite large and wide countries farre distant and remote one from another so in manners and kind of life they are as farre different They are well limmed men broad and fatte faced scowling countenanced and hollow eied shauen all but their beards which they neuer cut low they are strong and of able bodies and do eat horse flesh and other beasts howsoeuer they come to their deaths only hogges excepted from which they wholly abstaine they can more easily endure hunger and thirst than other men a little sleepe doth serue them moreouer when they ride if they be very hungry and thirsty they vse to pricke the veines of their horses vpon which they ride and by drinking of their bloud to slacke their hunger and thirst And because they roue vp and downe and haue no certaine place of abode they guide their course and iourney by the stars especially by the obseruation of the North pole starre which they in their language call as Sigismund Herberstein testifieth Seles nicol that is the iron clubbe naile or sterne They stay not long in one place taking it to be a signe of ill fortune to dwell long vpon one plotte They obserue no maner of iustice or law The people especially the poorer sort are very rauenous and couetous alwaies gaping after other mens goods They haue no maner of vse either of gold or siluer In this country thou seest TANGVT a prouince from whence all the Rheubarbe that is spent and vsed in all the world is brought vnto vs and other places Heere also is the country CATAIA whose chiefe city is Cambalu which as Nicolaus de Comitibus writeth is eighteen Italian miles about or as M. Paulus Venetus thirty two It is of a square forme in ech of whose corners there are castles built foure miles in compasse where continually the Emperours garrisons are kept But Quinzai a city of the prouince Mangi which is from hence Eastward vpon the Eastern sea is thought to be farre bigger than this For this as the same M. Paulus Venetus affirmeth who dwelt there about the yeare after the birth of Christ 1260. is in compasse an hundred miles The same is also auouched by Odericus of Friuli de foro Iulio who nameth it Cansay It is situate in a lake of fresh water There are in it 1260. bridges whereof many are of such great height that shippes full laden may go vnder them and neuer strike saile Heere the Great Cham hath a standing garrison of 12000. trained souldiers continually resident It is a wonderfull stately and pleasant city whereupon it obtained that name for Quinzai they interpret The city of Heauen The Tartars call their Emperour Cham which signifieth the same that Princeps a Prince hereupon Cambalu is interpreted The seate or city of the Prince Sigismundus of Herberstein writeth that the Tartars do call themselues Besermanni The Tartars together with their manner and course of life are most liuely described by Sigismund of Herberstein and Martine Broniouius as also in the Historicall Glasse or Mirour of histories writen by Vincentius Beluacensis in the 30. 31. and 32. bookes of the same See also the commentaries of Hungary written by Antonio Bonfinio M. Paulus Venetus who it is certaine liued long there amongst them and the Iournall or Trauells of Iosapha Barbarus a Venetian Of their originall read Matthias of Michou Haiton the Armenian Caelius secundus Curio his Saracen history and the letters of Iacobo Nauarcho a Iesuite Of the Tartars there be many things worth the reading in the trauells of two Friars which about the yeare 1247. were sent into these quarters by Pope Gregory the fourth in the thirtieth chapter of Nicephorus his eigteenth booke Laonicus also hath many things in diuers places of his workes of the Tartars vnder the name of the Scythians the like hath Gregoras another Greeke writer Lastly Dauid Chytraeus in his Saxon chronicle hath written much of this nation But no man hath more fully and amply set out the maners and life of the Tartars then William Rubricius a Friar of the order of S. Francis a copy of whose trauells into these parts in the yeare of Christ 1253. I haue by me in written hand TARTARIAE SIVE MAGNI CHAMI REGNI tÿpus Continet haec tabula oēm Tartariam cum reliqua Asiae Orientalioris vsque Oceanū Eoum parte Magno Chamo obediente Cuius imperium Obij fl Kataia lacu Volga fl Mari Caspio Chesel flu Vssonte monte Thebet regione Caromoram fluuio Oceano terminatur Cum Priuilegio CHINA BErnardinus Scalantus hath in the Spanish tongue set out a peculiar description of this country in a seuerall tract out of whom we haue gathered these few lines This huge kingdome of China the inhabitants do call TAME and themselues TANGIS but of the bordering nations it is named CHINA and is that Tein or Sin which Auicenna so many hundred times mentioneth and commendeth for rare simples and plants of soueraigne vse in Physicke and is the same no doubt with SINAE or Sinarum regio a country for rich commodities much talked of amongst all ancient Cosmographers This country on the East bordereth vpon the East sea vulgarly called Mare Cin the sea of China on the South vpon the prouince Cauchinchina on the West it is bounded by Bramas on the North
than 10000. men together with their wiues children nobles princes and kings This MYSIA or as for the most part the Latines write it MOESIA Ptolemey diuideth into the VPPER and NEATHER Superior Inferior this in the Code of Iustinian is called SECVNDA that PRIMA the Second and First The neither is named of Iornandes MINOR SCYTHIA the Lesser Scythia of Zosimus SCYTHIA THRACENSIS Scythia of Thrace of Plutarch in Marius SCYTHICA PONTICA Scythia of Pontus and the inhabitants of the same Celtoscythae of Polyaenus PONTICA MARITIMA Pontus vpon the sea of Ouid and others PONTVS simply without any addition Some there are which do call it FLACCIA of one Flaccus a Romane whom it is certaine out of Ouid was sometime heereabouts lieutenant for the state of the Empire Neither doth this seeme to be altogether false or vnprobable for the name Waiachia or Valachia whereby it is knowē at this day doth import so much By Ouid also in sundrie places it was described vnder these names Sarmaticū solum Geticū littus Cymmeriū littus and Barbaria the Sarmatian soile the Gottish or Cymmerian shore and Barbaria These countries are very fertile of all maner of fruites and commodities so that as Solinus witnesseth the Romanes commonly called it Cereris horreum Ceres barne The poet as Procopius in his 4. booke AEdifici noteth calleth these people Enchemachous such as fight aloofe and farre off Mysos in palustra feroces and Quum Geticis ingens premeretur Mysia plaustris when Mesia great was much oppressed with Gottish waines thus Claudian the poet writeth of them Dant illis animos arcus plenaque pharetrae They much presume vpon their bow and cunning great in archery as Ouid in his first booke de Ponto writeth of them Aelianus sheweth that they were able by their owne strength and power to keepe out the Scythians from entring their country and euery way to defend the same from that furious and violent enemy Strabo saith that they were exceedingly giuen to robbe and steale Vix hâc inuenies totum mihi crede per orbem Quae minus angusta pace fruatur humus Scarse maist thou find in all the world so small a plot of ground Where bloudy wars their hideous noise more oftentimes do sound as the forenamed poet writeth of this country as also this that followeth in another place In quibus est nemo qui non coryton arcum Telaque vipereo lurida felle gerat Amongst these men ther 's none but hath his sturdie bow With poisoned arrowes sharpe and swift to fight against his foe How faire and stout they were thou maist see by this of Florus One of the Captaines saith he stepped out before the army and entreating their silence demandeth who are you It was iointly with one voice answered of all We are Romanes lords of all nations of the world To which answeare they replied againe So you are indeed if you can conquer vs. Posidonius in Strabo affirmeth that they forbeare the eating of flesh for religion and conscience sake and do feed only vpon butter and cheese Of the fabulous story of a kind of horses heere if thou desire to know see Elianus as also Solinus of the strange hearb growing in that part of the country called Pontica In Moesia also is the prouince called DARDANIA which we said was called MYSIA MEDITERRANEA Vpland Moesia for that it is farre remote and distant from the riuer Donaw Of the inhabitants and people of this country the same authour thus speaketh In all their life as I heare by report from others these people do onely bath or wash themselues three times once as soone as they are borne another time when they marry and againe at their death Of the Triballi a people of this country take this of Pliny as he alleadgeth it out of Isigonus They do bewitch and kill with their eies such as they do stedfastly looke vpon any long time together especially if they be angrie which mischiefe of theirs striplings are most subiect vnto and soonest hurt by But that is most notable and worth the obseruation that in ech eie they haue two sights apeece He that desireth to read more of this country especially of the Lower Moesia let him repaire to Ouids 3. booke de Ponto at the 1. 4. and 10. Elegies Of their barbarous manners rites customes and ceremonies thou shalt find much in the 7. Elegie of his 5. booke de Tristibus of the riuer Donaw or Ister which Elianus in the 23. chapter of his 14. booke de Animalibus calleth The king of Riuers Of Apollonius in the fourth booke of his Argonautickes it is named Cornu oceani the horne of the sea for that it runneth through the middest of those countries which heere we haue described it is not amisse in my iudgement to say something of that also That Ister or Donaw of all the riuers of the Romane Empire for greatnesse is next vnto Nilus we do read in the fragments of Salust Gyraldus in his Syntagmata Deorum affirmeth that the kings of Babylon were wont to reserue certaine of the water of Donaw or Ister in ther treasuries amongst their pretious iewels Caesarius Nazianzenus brother in his dialogues saith that this is one of the riuers of Paradise and to be that which the holy Scripture calleth Phison which I will easily grant him to be true when he shall perswade me that by Paradise is meant the whole world or massie globe of this lower element of the earth which I do verily beleeue he thought to be true Seneca in the sixth booke of his naturall Philosophy saith that this Donaw doth part Europe and Asia Notwithstanding all writers generally both Latines and Greekes aswell ancient as those of later times do attribute this to the riuer Done Tanais And what is he I pray you that euer dreamed that Germany which is beyond this riuer should be a country of Asia Shall we correct the copy Or shall we retaine that reading in Horace vpon the credit and perill of Acron his expositour where he saith that Tanais is also called Danubius I leaue it to the censure of the learned This we know for a certainty aswell Tanais as Danubius is of the inhabitants neere about called Done and surely I thinke that both the Greeke Tanais as the Latine Danubius were made of the barbarous Done or Tane which in that language peraduenture for ought I know may signifie a riuer or streame so Nilas as Pomponius Mela seemeth to affirme tooke his name of Nuchul which generally signifieth a riuer as all men meanly skild in Hebrew or Arabicke can testifie with him Isidore also in the ninth chapter of the seuenteenth booke of his Origines seemeth to be of this opinion where he writeth that Rhabarbarum rhew barbe groweth in solo barbarico in a barbarous country beyond the Donaw For we know at this day that it groweth neere the riuer Rha which is beyond the Donaw Eastward In Pliny we
little beneath Memphis in the South is of all ancient Geographers Historians and Poets in respect of the forme and proportion of it called DELTA for it is as you see of forme triangular like vnto Δ the fourth capitall letter of the Greeke alphabet And this also of Ptolemey who was borne here and therefore knew the state of it best diuided into Great Delta Little Delta and Middle Delta or the Third Delta This Delta as Pliny testifieth of all the chiefe parts of the world was somtime accounted the Fourth and reckened vp amongst the ilands and was not esteemed as any portion of the continent Vnder Egypt also the three OSITAE beyond the Libyan mountaines are vulgarly comprehended yea and LIBYA it selfe to if a man may giue credit to Ammianus This countrey is watered with no other riuer than NILVS of all the riuers in the world the most famous and renowmed and therefore called knowen by the greatest variety of names for the ancients haue giuen this riuer many titles Some haue called it AEGYPTVS from whence the whole country tooke the name others OCEANVS the sea in respect of the greatnesse of it AETOS an eagle for the swiftnesse of the streame NIGIR MELAS or Melo SIRIS TRITON CHRYSORRHOAS Gilden-flood of the goodnesse and beauty of his waters and others DYRIS Orus Apollo writeth that the Egyptians in their language called it NOYVM that is as I thinke _____ sweet pleasant delightfull for so the impostor Mahomet vseth this word in the xxxij Azoara of his wicked Alcoran as also the Arabian paraphrast 2. Pet. 2.13 And R. Saadias Hagaon Gen 2.15 calleth Paradise Phardusi'nnaym which the forenamed beast at the 66. Azoara nameth Ginnati'nnaym The pleasant garden Iosephus calleth it GEON or Ginon for that as R. Salomon Yarhi the great Rabbine thinketh it runneth from his fountaine or rather rusheth on with great violence and hideous noise Arias Montanus affirmeth that in the Holy Scripture it is named PHISON because as the forenamed Iew sayth his waters do spread themselues swell and wax so high that they flow ouer the banks and water the whole land And SIHOR that is blacke or troubled for that the waters of the same issuing from a durty fenne with great violence oft breaking ouer into the medowes and marsh grounds by which it coasteth along for many hundred miles together are thicke and muddy The Georgians call it MAHARA that is swift or violent item BAHARI'NNIL the sea of Nilus The Africanes as Marmolius writeth commonly call it NIL that is in my iudgement _____ Nehil or Neil of the theame Nahal which in the Arabian dialect signifieth to be liquid thinne dissolued and apt to runne from whence in the Hebrew tongue is deriued Náhal a streame or swift water course And this opinion of mine Pomponius Mela the worthy Geographer doth seeme to patronage where he writeth that In horum finibus fons est quem Nili esse aliquibus credibile est Nuchul ab incolis dicitur videri potest non alio nomine appellari sed à barbaro ore corruptius c. In the confines of Ethiopia there is a spring which some do verily thinke to be the head of Nilus Nuchyl the inhabitants and countrey people do call it and it may seeme probable that they name it by no other name only the barbarous word is corrupted and otherwise pronounced of forreners c. The Abassines Ethiopians and other nations inhabiting neere vnto it do call it by diuers and sundry other names as thou mayest see more at large in our Geographicall treasury It vnladeth it selfe as most men thinke and all antiquity hath constantly affirmed into the Midland sea by seuen mouthes or very great floudgates Ptolemey in his time made mention of nine but of them two were false gates pseudostomata he termeth them then almost quite stopped vp Pliny speaketh of eleuen of which foure were false gates the other seuen were great and more renowmed Herodotus also mentioneth two false gates but in all he speaketh not of more than seuen with him Eustathius word for word agreeth And that which of these mouthes or falles are of this man held for a trueth in others are held for false and contrariwise The like difference there is about the names and proper appellations of these mouthes euen in the best approoued authours Pliny maketh Heracleoticum to be a diuers and distinct mouth from Canopicum in which notwithstanding it seemeth he is much deceiued yea and Diodorus Siculus doth flatly deny it affirming that Canopicum is otherwise named Herculeum or Heracleoticum All this difference about the names number and nature of these mouthes if I mistake not the matter arose in continuance of time from the change and alteration of places For euery man describeth them according to the situation of the sea coast as it then was in that time wherein he liued which by violence of tide and inundatious drifts of sand and shifting of the same backe againe in processe of time haue sometime one forme somtime another as is very likely and they do very well know which dwell neere to the sea who do neuer wonder to see riuers change their channels and leaue their ancient course to see their mouthes sometime to be quite dette vp with sand and to seeke new issues and channels where neuer none were before or to see them which in former times were not nauigable but full of flats and shelfs afterward to become deepe and able to entertaine ships of good burden Galen sayth that this riuer for goodnesse of water hath but few peeres Arethaeus the Cappadotian sayth that the water is thicke Plutarch in the eighth booke of his Conuiual calleth it turbidam troubled and muddy Statius in his fourth booke Amor. sayth that it is sweet and coole without any vnpleasantnesse in taste and therefore he addeth in the same place that the Egyptians do neuer feare any want or dearth of wine Diodorus Siculus sayth that for sweetnesse it doth surpasse all other riuers in the whole world beside which opinion of his Pescennius Niger an Emperor did long since auouch to be true when he thus answered his garrison souldiers demanding wine of him Haue ye Nilus and yet do ye demand wine A description of this riuer thou maist see in Claudian Of his inundation and ouerflowing euery yere beside others reade Strabo and the Panegyricke oration pronounced before Traian Emperour of Rome Item Achilles Statius and Heliodorus He that listeth and hath more vacant time to these may adde Plutarch in his treatise of mountaines Mountaines of Egypt beside those which Ptolemey mentioneth namely Montes Libyci Troicus Alabastrinus Porphyritis Smaragdus Aiaces Acabes Niger Basanites and Pentadactylus are diuers as Nitria Pherme Sinopius Climax Eos Lacmon Crophi and Mophi They haue many Fennes yet these two only Moeris and Maria are of name AEGYPTVS ANTIQVA Terra suis contenta bonis non indiga mercis Aut Iouis in solo tanta est fiducia Nilo
and according to the testimony of Peter Quirini Christopher Fiorouanti and Nicolas Michele who in this our Ocean suffered that horrible shipwracke which we reade of in the Italian volumes witnesse also Lewis Cadamosta who in his Epistles written about the yeere 1454 affirmes this city of Bruges to be a Mart inferiour to none else in all the North parts of the world Wherefore that the citizens of Bruges receiued the vs◠of the sea-compasse from the Italians and out of Italian translated the names of the winds into their owne language and that from them the other nations before mentioned borrowed this knowledge I see not well how it may be denied Of the nature and admirable vertue of the loadstone you may reade many notable things in Liuius Sanutus his description of Africa printed in Italian at Venice The isles or Salomon which in this table you see described about Noua Guinea were not long since discouered by Oliuer Mendanio after he had conducted his fleet out of the part of Lima in Perú had sailed ouer this huge Ocean as I find recorded in Iosephus Acosta his 1. book 17. chapter De natura nouiorbis MARIS PACIFICI quod vulgò Mar del Zur cum regionibus circumiacentibus insusisue in eodem passim sparsis novissima descriptio SPE ET METV GENIO ET INGENIO NOBILI DN NICOLAO ROCCOXIO PATRICIO ANTVERPIENSI EIVSDEMQVE VRBIS SENATORI Abrahamus Ortelius Regiae M t s geographus lub merito dedicabat 1589. NEVV SPAINE THis Prouince was about the yeere 1518 forcibly subdued to the Spanish gouernment vnder the command and conduct of Fernando Corlez who with the great slaughter of his owne people but farre greater of the inhabitants fighting for their liberty conquered the same It is a region rich of siluer and golde for it hath very many riuers yeelding sands or graines of perfect gold Vpon the coast of this countrey are many commodious fishings for pearle Salt lakes here are diuers the water whereof through the heat of the Sunne is conuerted into excellent salt Here is great abundance of Cassia fistula and a kind of fruit in the Mexican language called Cacao somewhat resembling an Almond which is with them very highly esteemed for hereof they make a kinde of drinke to their owne taste most delicate The seas and riuers belonging to this countrey abound mightily with fish Their riuers also breed Crocodiles whose flesh is food to the inhabitants In these places this creature is for the most part aboue twenty foot long It is a countrey very mountainous and beset here and there with most lofty and cragged rocks So great is the diuersity of languages in these regions that one cannot vnderstand another without an Interpreter The principall Colonies to be seene in this Table which in New Spaine haue been planted by the Spaniards are first Compostella the seat of a Bishop and of one of the Kings counsels Colima by another name called the city of the Purification Guadalajara a towne most famous and head of the Kingdome of New Gallicia Mechoacan a Bishops sea also Sacatula the city of Angels a mother-towne and a Bishoprick Mexico a Kingly city or rather Queene of all the cities in the New world situate vpon the banke of a lake or rather of a fenne yea the very ground-plot of this city is so fenny that you cannot come thither nor depart thence but ouer bridges and cawseys The lake adioyning is salt being six leagues long and fiue broad Fishes it hath none but very small ones which more aptly may be called wormes than fishes of whose putrefaction which is there caused by the heat of Summer the aire is sometimes so infected that it is most vnholesome dwelling there yet is it as much frequented with inhabitants and merchants as any mart-towne in Europe It is a large city for in compasse it containeth about three leagues The other lake adioining to this is fresh water and very plentifull of fish wherein also stand many townes There are likewise a great number vpon the banks of either lake In this city as Ierome Giraua reporteth there was by Pope Paul the third established the seat of an Archbishop in the yeere 1547. This citie was taken by the Spaniards 140 yeeres after the first foundation thereof Montezuma at the same time being King the ninth in number A wonder how in so few yeeres it should grow to such largenesse and magnificence The nature situation and customes of this citie and of the territory adiacent who desires more perfectly to know may reade the relations of Fernando Cortez Extant they are in the volume intituled Nouus orbis and in the volume of Nauigations printed at Venice in Italian but especially John Gonsaluo who in his little booke of China hath a most large description of this region You haue also many notable discourses hereof in the third Volume of M. Hakluyts English voyages HISPANIAE NOVAE SIVAE MAGNAE RECENS ET VERA DESCRIPTIO 1579. Lectori Partium longitudinis huius tabulae inituum non fumitur Ptolemaico more ab infulis Canarijs versus Oriente sed à Toletano Hispaniensis meridiano Occidentem versus Notularum circa Mexico explanatio a. Escalpucoleo b. Tucuba c. Istapalapa d. Ximaloaca e. Teutitlan f. Gucytitlan g. Mexicalcingo h. Culiacan i. Catlavaca k. Nicsquique l. Cinarantepec m. Xiquicpico n. Ocellotepec o. Vcicilapa p. Mimiapa q. Tecaÿuca r. Chalcontengo s. Tapalcapan t. Tisquiquiac u. Xilocingo x. Chiconantla y. Techcistlan z. Caltoca The Prouince of CVLIACAN THis Prouince of CVLIACAN is part of the kingdome of New Galicia It was discouered vnder the gouernment of Charles the fifth in the yeere 1530. In this region is one only colonie of Spaniards called The towne of S. Michael Villages here are very many built by the inhabitants all which before the Spaniards arriuall were at their owne libertie yeelding obedience to no King or Gouernour The region is indifferently furnished with things necessary Out of the mountaines is digged great abundance of siluer The inhabitants are addicted to war and robbery They that dwell vpon the coast employ most of their time in fishing but the vplandish people liue by hunting They goe naked couering only their priuities with a piece of Cotton They haue many languages They lodge for the most part in the open aire They are a most beggerly nation CVBA and HISPANIOLA THis Island of Cuba is so called by the naturall inhabitants but by the Spaniards Fernandina and Joanna and as Peter Martyr reports Alpha and Omega In length it extendeth East and West 300 Spanish leagues containing in bredth fifteene and in some places twenty of the said leagues The land is very mountainous but rich of gold and excellent copper Madder which the Apothecaries because it is very apt to die wooll and leather call Diers-madder is heere found in great abundance It is in all places beautified with thicke woods with riuers and pooles of fresh water albeit there are lakes naturally
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
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
Tiroen Armagh Colrane Donergall Formanagh and Cauen On all sides round about Ireland in the sea as also in the baies riuers lakes and fresh water are heere and there many small ilands whereof some are fertile others wast and barren of which to speake seuerally would require a larger discourse then heere we are allowed Coelestinus Pope of Rome in the yeare of CHRIST 431. sent into Britaine Paladius a Bishop as Prosper Aquitanus writeth to purge it of the Pelagian he esie wherewith it was but lately distained and by this meanes also at the same time caused Christian religion to be planted in Ireland Palladius died in Britaine before he had brought to passe that which he came for whereupon Patricke a Brittaine and of kinne to Martinus Turonensis was by Celestine put in his place who with such wonderfull successe did preach the Gospell in Ireland that he conuerted the greatest part of that I le vnto Christianity that he well deserued the name of The Irish Apostle From hence after that at sundrie times diuers colonies if I may so vse the word of learned and religious men were sent into sundrie parts of Europe and were not only the great patrons and planters of the Gospell there but founders of Monasteries cities and towns as schooles of that profession In those bloudy warres of the barbarous Saxons all scholes of learning in Brittaine were shut vp and all religion almost wholly banished so that whosoeuer was desirous of instruction that way was constrained to seeke for it in Ireland and after these wars ended those which returned brought with them not only the Irish letters which yet the same charecters common to both nations do plainly shew but also liberall arts and sciences which together with Christianity they taught the Saxons To these the Reader may adioine such things as Henry of Huntington Polydore Virgill William Newbery Iohn Maior and others haue written of this in their seuerall histories Daniel Rogers hath set forth a description of this Iland in verse dedicated to Thomas Phediger And M. William Camden in prose hath most exactly described the same in his Britannia But Richard Stanihurst a worthy gentleman this countrie man borne hath this other day put forth a seueral treatise of the history and state of this iland Baptista Boazio hath described it in a mappe apart by it selfe dedicated to the late Queene Elizabeth and my good friend M. Speed with no lesse care and diligence hath done the same in his Imperium Brittannicum or Empire of Great Brittaine lately set forth and dedicated to his Highnesse The Isles of the AZORES SOme are of opinion that these Isles situate in the Atlantick or West Ocean are so named by the Spaniards from a kinde of Hauks which they call Azor. And in the plurall number Açores One writes but fondlie that they are so called from the French word Essorer which signifieth to drie or wither In Latin a man may call them Accipitrarias or the Isles of Hauks and in Greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Our Netherlanders terme them De vlaemsche eilanden that is The flemish Islands because they are thought first to haue beene discouered by certaine Flemish Marchants of Bruges At that time they said they could find nothing vpon them but trees especiallie great store of Cedars and woods and foules of diuers sorts and thither they sent inhabitants to possesse and manure the said Isles Afterward they submitted themselues to the Portugales vnder whose gouernement they yet remaine Lewes Marmolius fol. 38. reports that they were discouered about the yeare 1455. Vndoubtedly auncient writers knew them not yet might they name them perhaps For whether they specified them vnder the name of Cassiterides I cannot be assured The Spanish fleets laden with Indian commodities doe vsually in their returne touch at these Isles before they ariue at Lisbone or Cales One strange thing haue I heard concerning the soile or the heauenly influence or if I may so say the Genius of these Isles For sailing from these parts of the world towards America so soone as you are past the said Isles you are freed from gnats fleas lice and all kinde of noisome vermin which beyond the Açores doe immediately die and come to nothing They are in number nine and thus called by the Portugales The Isle of S. Michael Terçera S. Georges Isle Pico Fayal Flores Cueruo and the Isle of S. Marie all which we will particularly entreat of TERÇERA THis Isle is called Terçera because it is the third in order as you saile from Spaine And from this one the common mariners confusedly call the whole nine by the name of Terçeras It abounds with corne and fruits neither is it destitute of wine The Inhabitants are greatly inriched by their Madder wherewith clothes are died red In this Isle growes plenty of this commodity especially about the places commonly called Los Altares and Falladores Angra the head city is most strongly fortified with an impregnable rocke or bulwarke called Brazil This Isle also from the name of our blessed Sauiour the Spaniards call Isola del buen Iesu PICO THis Isle was so named from a mountaine therein rising sharpe in forme of a round Pyramis or Sugar-loafe For whatsouer is naturally of that shape is by the Portugals called Pico This hill is three miles high within it is hollow and full of darcke caues At the foote of this mountaine Eastward there is a spring of fresh water which sometimes dischargeth fierie streames and stones burning hoat and that with so great force and violence that it sends them packing as it were with a current by steepe and lower places euen to the sea whereas of the multitude of these stones is made a promontory or headland commonly called Misterij It is distant from the said fountaine 12. miles At this present it stretcheth a mile and halfe further into the sea in regard of the continual increase of this heape of stones They are much deceiued which write that this Isle was so named from the bird called Picus Martius in English the woodpecker FAYAL THis Isle is so named of the Beech-tree For the Portugals call the Beech Faya and a place planted with Beeches Fayal That heere are yet in this Isle certaine families of the Flemish race which first inhabited the same namely such as are called Bruyn Vtrecht c. I haue learned from a Portugale of good creditte Linschott also an eye-witnesse in his Iournall published in Dutch writeth that in this very Isle there is a riuer called by the Portugales Ribera des Fiamengos or the riuer of Flemings and saith further that all the Inhabitants of this Isle came originally out of Flanders and that they doe as yet much fauour the Flemish nation Concerning the residue namely Flores so called of abundance of Flowers Cueruo of Crowes Gracioça of pleasantnesse or the Isles of S. George S. Marie and S. Michael so denominated of those saints for it is vsuall with the Spaniards
called by an vsuall prouerbe The Barne or Granarie of Paris It hath no vineyards which defect some thinke is rather to be imputed to the sloth of the inhabitants than to the intemperature either of the soile or of the climate The cities here of principall note are Amiens in Latine Ambianum famous both for antiquitie and the Episcopall sea It is enuironed around with the riuer Somme Wherefore some fondly thinke it to be named Ambianum ab ambitu aquarum because it is compassed with waters It is one of the strongest townes in all France The vulgar suppose it to haue beene built by the souldiers of Alexander the great Vnder the diocesse of Amiens is Abbeuile the name whereof is new as appeareth by the deriuation which in Latine is Abbatis villa that is The Abbats towne for out of an Abbey it increased at length to the greatnesse and forme of a citie It is now the head citie of the county Ponthieu which region is so called à multitudine pontium of the multitude of bridges because it is in diuers places pestered with Marshes and Fennes Picquenie stands in this prouince also built as the common sort imagine by one Pignon a principall souldier of Alexander the great Likewise in Vermandois you haue the towne of S. Quintins which many suppose to haue beene Augusta Veromanduorum being the ancient seat of the Earles of Vermandois and the head of that region Peronne so often spoiled in warres who can be ignorant of Guise also seemes to be a Fort against Lutzenburgh Hence the Guisian familie deriue their name Other cities there be of lesse moment as Corbie Roye Nelle Hen Cattelette Mondidier c. In a little French pamphlet intitled Chemins de France or the wayes of France Picardy is diuided into three parts The Lower The Higher and Picardy properly so called wherein are contained the Regions of Vermandois Retelois Tartenois and Tirasse Picardy properly so called is described in this our Table PICARDIAE Belgicae regionis descriptio Joanne Surhonio auctore Cum Imp. et Reg. priualegio decenn 1579 PROVENCE THat portion of France which ancient Writers called Narbonensem and Bracchatam Caesar and Plinie doe comprehend vnder the name of Prouincia part whereof is conteined within the riuers Rosne and Durance the Alpes the riuer Varo and the Mediterran sea the inhabitants as yet call by the name of PROVENCE Petrarch writes it was sometimes called Regnum Arelatense The middle-age writers call it Prouinciam Viennensem tertiam It bordereth West vpon Languedoc North vpon Daulphine East it is confined by Piemont and South by the Mediterran sea and the Isles Stoechades This euer was and now is accounted the most fertile region of France for Strabo saith it yeelds all sorts of fruits that Italie affoordeth If we may credit Belleforest it beareth sugar about the towne of Yeres Manna is here gathered as the same authour affirmeth The principall cities of this prouince are Massilia commonly Marseille which was the ancient Ionica Colonia of the Phocaean Greeks being as Caesar 5. Ciuil reports compassed by the sea on three sides and on the fourth side hauing a passage to the land Strabo writes that the hauen is in forme of a Theater and that within compasse thereof they haue docks for the building and a storehouse for the furnishing of ships Here was a temple of the Ephesian Diana and another of Apollo Delphicus The citizens were treble-tongued speaking Greeke Latine and French as S. Ierome reporteth out of Varro Of this citie reade more largely in the 43. booke of Trogus Pompeius and in a Panegyricke speech vttered before Constantine the great by Anonymus or one vnnamed The citie Arelatum commonly Arles vpon the riuer of Rhosne which by Ausonius is named Arelas or Gallula Roma as likewise double Arelas because as learned Vinetus obserueth it was heretofore by the said riuer diuided in twaine Now it may well be called single Arelas looking of a farre other shape and all situate vpon that side of the riuer which is towards Italie This Ammianus makes the renowme of many cities And Suetonius saith that heere was a Romane colonie planted by Tiberius the Emperor his father Procopius affirmes that it was heretofore the head citie of the Burgundians Next followes Aquae Sextiae so called saith Strabo because that very Sextius which subdued Salyes built this citie after his owne name and after the name of certaine hot bathes in the same place Now it is corruptly called Aix These bathes Strabo in his time supposeth to haue turned colde and so Robert Caenalis at this present affirmeth that they haue lost their ancient vertue The Parliament of the whole prouince is here resident Of this citie Gabriel Simeonius writeth that he neuer saw either a more pleasant place or a more courteous people Then haue you the citie Cabellio now called Cauaillon Tarascon retaining still the ancient name Carpentoracte commonly Carpentras Vasio now Voiton the same with Forum Vocontiorum as some thinke Taurentum and Telo Martius which some now interpret to be Toulon Forum Iulij now Frejus Olbia which perhaps is Yeres Antipolis Antibe Segusteron Cisteron Vintium Venze Glanatica Glandeues Dinia Digne Tecolata thought to be S. Maximines Grinicensis Grasse All famous for antiquitie Moreouer here is the towne of S. Baume situate vpon a craggie hill in which is a caue where the inhabitants hold opinion that Mary Magdalen did penance and ended her dayes Likewise at the mouth of Rhosne the reader may see on the one side the field called La Craux and on the other side La Camargo This last named they say is miraculously fertile of wheat And Belleforest thinks it to be called Camargo à castris Marij of the campe of Marius here pitched Whereas the other named La Craux is out of measure barren yeelding nought but stones for which cause it is by ancient Writers most aptly called Campus Lapideus or The stonie field The isles adiacent to this prouince are the Stoechades dispersed as Pomponius writeth from the shore of Liguria or Genoa as farre as Marseille Plinie makes them three in number naming ech And Strabo saith there are three of importance and two small ones not worthy to be mentioned About these isles growes most excellent Corrall as Plinie witnesseth which Belleforest reporteth still to continue In commendation of this prouince Petrus Quinqueranus Bishop of Sens hath written a peculiar volume On this side the riuer Durance this Region bordereth vpon that part of the Popes iurisdiction which is commonly called Conte de Venacin in Latine Comitatus Venuxinus and Veneticus wherein stands the Citie and Vniuersitie of Auignon which in times past was the Papall sea namely from Pope Clement the fift in the yeere 1300. till Gregorie the second for the space of 60. yeeres Petrarch then called it The French and Westerne Babylon Besides other notable things in this citie seuen there are seuen times told right worthy the admiration namely seuen Palaces
rich and a place of great trafficke Also toward the North you haue Semur a faire towne built vpon an high ground As like Castillon Flauigni Soloigne Noiers with others the description whereof because this page cannot well containe I referre the Reader to Belleforest a diligent Surueyer of these parts Only one thing I will adde out of the foresaid Sanjulian He against the opinion of all other Writers deriueth this word Burgundie not à burgis that is from the boroughs or incorporate townes built in this region but from one particular place called Burg Ogne In the territorie of Langren about the riuer Tille betweene Luz and Tille-castle he saith there is a plaine which the inhabitants call by no other name but Val d'Ogne where in times past stood a famous borough or city Hence without all question he affirmes that the Burgundians or as they are commonly called Burgognons do borow their name and holds those Writers much deceiued that report them as vagabond people to haue come out of Sarmatia Scandia or the fennes of Maeotis to inhabit this region indeuouring to persuade all men that they were the first and most ancient inhabiters of this countrey The limits of Burgundie were larger in times past as appeareth out of sundrie authours For some there are that bound it South by the Mediterran sea East by the Alpes and the riuer Rhene North by mount Vogesus and West by the riuer of Loire and Seine Then classicke Writers record that it was gouerned by Kings whose royall seat was Arles It was diuided into the Duchie and Countie of Burgundie about the yeere 1034. as the Chronicle of Aemilius testifieth Of the Burgundians Paradine and Nicolas Vignier haue professedly written in Latine and Peter Sanjulian in French Of the ancient Aedui reade Nazarius his Panegyricke pronounced before Constantine the Emperour BVRGVNDIAE INFERIORIS QVAE DVCATVS NOMINE CENSETVR DES 1584. CVM PRIVILEGIO IMPERIALI ET BELGICO AD DECENNIVM GERMANIE GERMANIE the greatest and largest countrey of Europe is distinguished by many names the limits whereof by authours according to euery ones seuerall time are so diuersly described as they seeme applying themselues to the peculiar ages wherein they liued to giue notice of a threefold Germanie namely the ancient that of middle ages and Germanie as it is now taken The ancient is that of Berosus which he circumscribeth by the Rhene the Ocean the riuer Tanais the Euxine sea and the riuer Danubius That of middle ages is the same which Tacitus Ptolemey and Plinie all of one time acknowledged whereof because it is sufficiently knowen out of the authours themselues I hold it needlesse in this place to make any description But Germanie as it is now taken we do confine by the German or Dutch tongue which learned Goropius Becanus in his volume of the antiquities of nations most wittily and learnedly sheweth to be the ancientest language in the world Wherfore all those countries which at this day vse the same language we comprehend vnder the name of Germany And so the greatest length thereof stretcheth from Calais on the West to the riuer Vistula or VVixel Eastward and the largest bredth from the German and Baltick seas to the Alpes The names of the seuerall regions are these Flanders the most Westerly Brabant Zeland Holland Frisland Denmarke Meckleburgh Pomerland Prussia which extendeth beyond the riuer Vistula towards the Baltick sea as likewise the ancient and new Marquesates Saxonie VVestphalia Gelders Cleueland Iuliers the Bishopricke of Colen Hessen Turingen Misnia Lusatia Silesia Morauia Bohemia Franconia the Bishopricke of Mentz Lutzenburg the Bishopricke of Triers the Countie Palatine Elsas VVertenberg Sueuia Bauaria Austria Stiria Carinthia Tirolis and Switzerland next vnto France There be also more names of pettie regions but such as are either of no great moment or comprehended vnder the former And albeit Bohemia speaketh not the German but the Sclauonian tongue yet because it is situate in the midst of Germanie and the King thereof is one of the Prince-electours it is also numbred amongst the German prouinces This countrey of Germanie which for the present is adorned with the title of the Roman Empire is so replenished with beautifull and strong cities castles villages and inhabitants as it is no whit inferiour to Italie France or Spaine for corne wine and riuers abounding with fish it may compare with the most fruitfull regions Here are fountaines of water hot bathes and salt-mines in abundance and for plentie of mettals namely gold siluer lead tinne brasse and iron no countrey shall euer go beyond it Moreouer you shall no where finde more courteous and ciuill behauiour more honest and comly attire more skill and furniture for the warres nor greater store of nobilitie This is the place that whilome as Cornelius Tacitus affirmeth was either darkened with woods or drowned with fennes Such changes can succeeding times affourd as saith the Poet. Of late Writers it hath beene diligently described by Beatus Rhenanus Munster in his Cosmography Franciscus Irenicus Iohannes Auentinus in his Chronicle of Lyonnois Briefly by Bilibaldus Pirkeimerus Iohannes Bohemus Aubames Gerardus Nouiomagus Conradus Peutingerus Conradus Celtes a Poet Iacobus VVimfelingius of Sletstade Aimon in the beginning of his French storie and Henry Pantalion at the entrance of his first booke of Prosopographia Sebastian Brand hath set downe many iourneys distances of places and courses of riuers in this countrey The riuer Rhene is described by Bernard Mollerus in verse and by Magnus Gruberus in prose Iohn Herold hath written two short Treatises of this region one of the Romans most ancient stations in olde Germanie and another of certeine colonies of theirs on the shore of Rhaetia Gaspar Bruschius published a volume of the monasteries of Germanie Of ancient writers Cornelius Tacitus most exactly described it in a peculiar Treatise whereon Andraeas Althamerus Iodocus VVillichius and lately Iustus Lipsius haue written most learned Commentaries Diuers other Writers of Germanie which we haue not as yet seene are reckened vp by Francis Irenicus in the first booke and second chapter of his Exposition of Germanie But here I thinke it not amisse to alledge the testimonie of Laonicus Chalcocondylas a stranger namely of Athens concerning this countrey and the inhabitants Thus therefore he writeth in his second booke This nation is gouerned with better lawes than any other of those regions or peoples that inhabit towards the North or West It hath many noble and flourishing cities which vse their owne lawes most agreeable to equitie It is diuided into sundry principalities and is subiect to Priests and Bishops adhering to the Bishop of Rome The most famous and wel-gouerned cities in the vpper and lower Germanie are Norinberg a rich city Strasburg Hamburg c. The nation is very populous and mighty ruleth farre and wide all the world ouer and in greatnesse is second to the Scythians or Tartars Wherefore if they were at concord and vnder one Prince then might they
any man that shall thinke and obiect that this storie of the Round Table is too fabulous to confirme this our assertion yet this is certaine and cannot be doubted of that in England almost in the middest of the kingdome there is a towne called Mansfield situate betweeene the riuers of Trent and Rotheram not farre from the city of Nottingham This county containeth also foure other counties namely ARNSTEDT WIPRA WETHIN and QVERNFVRT all which in former times had their proper and peculiar Earles but now at this day beside the counte Mansfield they haue not any one In this county also there is the county Palatine of Saxony Moreouer there are beside these certaine other Lordships and Principalities as thou maist see in the Mappe The chiefe and principall cities are MANSFIELD EYSLEBEN WIPRA and LEIMBACH This country is very full of Mettall-mines Heere out of the earth are digged those sleitstones which they call Scheyffersteyn such as scarcely are to be found as Sebastian Munster writeth in any other place of the world beside It hath also certaine stones laden with Copper which being burnt in the fire and then steeped and washed in water do yeeld the mettall and together with it some good store of Siluer But this is a wonderfull strange pranke that Nature heere in sporting maner vsually plaieth which the same authour there speaketh of well worth the obseruation namely of a great Lake in this country well stored with diuers and sundry sorts of fish all which kinds of fish together with the paddockes frogs newts and such other things liuing in this lake are found so curiously expressed shaped out in stones as we haue to our great admiration beheld as it is a very hard matter at the first sight vpon the sudden to discern them from the naturall liuing creatures of that kind and that so liuelily that thou shalt be able presently to distinguish one from another and to call them by their seuerall and proper names Some of these I haue giuen me by Peter Ernest the most renowmed and illustrious Earle of this country and worthy Gouernour of the prouince of Lutzenburg There is a Lake in this country which by reason of the saltnesse of the water they call Gesaltzen into which if the fishermen shall cast in their nets ouer deepe they will presently be sienged schorched euen as if they had beene burnt or drawne through the fire as Seuerinus Gobelinus in his history of Amber reporteth The same authour writeth that neere vnto Eisleben there was not long since a piece of Amber found as bigge as a mans head Syriacus Spangeberg did promise to set out the history of this countrey wherin all the cities castles villages mountaines woods riuers lakes mines c. should seuerally be described together with the Antiquities Records Petigrees and such other historicall matters of the same MANSFELDIAE COMITATVS DESCRIPTIO auctore Tilemanno Stella Sig. The Principality of HENNENBERG THe terrirory and precinct of the Princes of HENNENBERG a part of East France how large and wide it was you may see by this our Chorographicall Mappe the buts and bounds of it are thus Vpon the West and North it hath Thuringen and the great forest which of this countrie is called Durynger Waldt whose head on these parts doth diuide Thuringen from Frankenland on the South it is confined with the riuer of Meyn and the bishoprickes of Bamberg and Wuitzburg Moreouer the East part is enclosed with that great mountaine which the country people do call Die Rhon or Rosn vpon the same side also it hath the Diocesse of Fulden and the prouince of Hessen This country is wonderfully stored with deere wild fowle fish and such other things necessary for the maintenance of mans life It hath also some Mines of mettals especially of iron whereof great store is yearely from hence to the great gaine and commodity of the inhabitants transported into forren countries It is watered heere and there with many and diuers fountaines heads or springs of the riuer Visurgis which in these parts they call Die Werra but moâ—e properly it is of some in other places called Die Wesser which indeed the name of the Abbey Vesser doth seeme to approoue for truth which Francis Irenicus and Wolfgangus Lazius do verily beleeue to haue beene so denominated of Wasser which in the Germane is as much to say as water in the English Of the first beginning and originall of this house or family of Hennenberg by reason of the negligence of the writers and Historians of those times we can determine nothing for certainty beside this that in the time of Attila and Charles the Great some authours do make mention of the Princes of Hennenberg which also were Earles of Frankland and Burggraues of Wurtzeburg So againe in the time of Henry the first Emperour of Germany Gottwald and Otto of this house of Hennenberg serued valiantly in defence of the Empire against the assaults and inrodes of the Vgri Item the Boppones two learned men of this family in the yeares of Christ 941. and 961. were bishops of Wurtzeburg and gouerned that sea with the great applause and praise of all men But the true pedigree of these Princes is deriued from BOPPO who in the yeare of our Lord 1078. following Henry the fourth the Emperours side in the battell fought betweene him and Rudolph the Switzer neere to the city Melrichstadt valiantly fighting was honourablie slaine in the field After him succeeded his sonne GOTTEBALD first founder of the Abbey of Vesser for the Monkes of the order of the brotherhood of the Praemonstratenses After him followed his sonne BERTHOLD then BOPPO the Second next him BOPPO the Third all which succeeded one after another in a right line This Boppo the Third had by his second wife Iutta of Thuringen HERMAN whose sonne BOPPO the Fourth died leauing no issue behind him But by his first wife Elizabeth of the familie of the Princes of Saxony he had HENRY who had issue HENRY the Second HERMAN the Second and BERTHOLD the Second Henry had issue BOPPO the Fift whose sonne BERTHOLD the Third died without issue But after Herman these Princes HENRY the Second HERMAN the Third FREDERICK the First GEORGE the First and lastly FREDERICK the Second lineally descended one from another successiuely gouerned this prouince This Fredericke had issue HERMAN who by his wife Margaret of the family of Brandenburg had two sonnes BERTHOLD the Fourth and ALBERT both which died in the yeare of our Lord God 1549. and left no issue behind them Then of the line of Berthold the Second third sonne of Henry the First succeeded BERTHOLD the Fift who for his singular virtues wisedome experience and excellent gifts other waies was in the yeare after Christs incarnation 1310. by Henry of Lutzelburg the Emperour with the generall consent of the whole company of the Electours installed one of the Princes of the Empire And after that for the same his virtues and
trusted rather to their swords of steele than walles of stone it was notable for the pleasantnesse of the place only commendable now for his antiquitie hauing a most goodly prospect round about aboue are the woods of Beech beneath are the fertile hilles of Vines c. The late Dukes of Wirtemberg for many ages past held their Court in this tower taking from thence their name their stocke and their armes as is to euery man very apparent There are which thinke that the Dukes of Wirtemberg haue had their ofspring from the Tuscans or Rhaetians others from the French Whether of these opinions are more probable I much regard not for in a thing altogether vncertaine I affirme nothing constantly It is certaine that they were strangers whether they came first forth of Italie or from France that as yet is not certainly knowen c. Thus farre Iohn Pede WIRTENBERG DVCATVS Accurata descriptio In qua omnia eius Opida Monasteria pagi nemora flumina et riuuli alicuius nominis diligentissimè exprimuntur Auctore Georgio Gadnero Cum Priuilegio Imp. Regiae M. 1579. The Precinct of SWITZERLAND THey which diuided the Empire of Germany into certeine Bands or Circles Kreis they commonly call them they made Switzerland the fourth in order now in all they record tenne it is certaine as approued histories do mention that at first Switzerland was a Kingdome but afterward reduced vnto a Dukedome Notwithstanding at this day there is none of the Princes of Germanie which is graced with the title of Duke of Switzerland for it is now diuided amongst many Princes One part hath accrued by lot of inheritance vnto the house of Austrich the duke of Wirtemberg enioyeth the greatest part in it there are many free cities and such as do belong vnto the crowne of the Empire many are subiect vnto the Duke of Bauiere There is none of the old writers which doth not make report of this Nation as of the most noble and ancientest of all Germany It is cleere out of Ptolemey Strabo and other authours that heretofore they were seated vpon the riuer Sweue and Albis But now at this day it is the vtmost prouince of all Germany for it abbutteth vpon the Alpes It is bounded by Bayern Frankenland and Alsatia or Elsas on euery side round about In olde time this countrey was called Alemanie of the lake Lemanus vulgarly now called Lac de Losanne or Lac de Geneue the Germans call it Ienfferlee as some thinke The countrey as Iohn Auban in that worthy worke of his De moribus gentium describeth it is partly champian partly hilly The soile is fruitfull of which there is no part which lieth vntilled excepting that which Lakes Mountaines or Woods do possesse In it are many woods and therefore the nation is giuen much to hunting and hawking they haue abundance of corne and great store of cattell The whole prouince by reason of the holsomnesse of the aire is euery where replenished with goodly cities villages castles and bulwarks strongly fortified aswell by nature as arte About the mountaines it yeeldeth iron siluer and other mettals The nation is populous stout audacious and warlike and therefore Plutarch calleth it The most excellent nation of all the Germans Whose renowme is recorded to be such and so to be enlarged that for valour and feats of armes it seemeth to haue deserued the Empire of the whole world which indeed it hath most gloriously for the space of somewhat more than an hundred yeeres enioyed Thus farre out of Iohn Auban where thou mayest at large see the customes and maner of life of this nation Augusta Vindelicorum Augspurg vpon the riuer Lech and Vlm vpon Donaw are the most famous cities of this prouince at this day There are also Campodun Memmingen Werd Nordling and others of which thou mayest reade in Munster Donaw the greatest riuer of all Europe here taketh his beginning and passeth thorow the middest of the countrey This riuer laden with threescore streames which Cuspinian according to the report of Collimitius describeth by name and order emptieth it selfe into Pontus Euxinus the Greeks now call it Maurothalassa the Italians Marmaiore the Turkes as Busbequius affirmeth Cara-denis that is The blacke-sea by six huge mouthes Euery one of which mouthes are so great and the streame so violent as Pliny saith that you shall obserue the sea to be ouer-mastered and driuen backe the space of fortie miles and so farre the water to be perceiued to be sweet Of this countrey and his people and first inhabitants see the ancient Geographers and of the latter writers Iohn Auban of Bohemia Munster and Irenicus who affirmeth that Naucler hath penned certaine books only of this argument and that Berno a certaine Abbat hath written many volumes of this nation In the vpper part of this Map you see a little prouince cōmonly called Kreichgey Dauid Chytraeus hath described it in a seuerall treatise The territorie of BASELL THis Map conteineth that coast in which long since the Rauraci and the Cis Iurani did inhabit as also the Waste of Heluetia The Rauraci in time past according to the opinion of most men were contained betweene the riuers of Rhein Byrsa and Ar and those mountaines which from Iurassus doe reach hither At this day it is for the most part vnder the iurisdiction of Basell In it as yet is there a village vpon the Rein distant a Dutch mile from Basell called Augst sometime the chiefe citie of this nation and was called Augusta Rauracorum but now it is become a base village notwithstanding many apparent signes of decayed buildings which as yet do testifie his antiquitie we haue seene to remaine and be yet extant there The country is rough full of many cragged rocks and euery where shadowed with thicke woods yet is very well inhabited and manured so that euen in the mountaines besides the goodly pastures for cattell of which it is greatly stored it beareth plentifully very good wine and corne Sequani CisIurani did long since reach from the mountaine Iura euen vnto the banke of the riuer Rhein Now this part is called Sungow and the Higher Elsas and is subiect for the most part vnto the Dukes of Austrich Brisgow and Blacke-wood commonly called Swartz-wald possesse the other banke of the Rein. Here the waste or wildernesse of Heluetia is placed by Ptolemey Brisgow is very well replenished with cities and villages and is very rich in corne The common people for the most part liue vpon Vintage The iurisdiction and gouernment of this countrey is diuided betweene the Archdukes of Austrich and the Marquesses of Bath Of this shire thou mayest see many things in Munster Christian Vrstise in a peculiar treatise hath most exactly described the citie of Basell In like maner Aeneas Syluius afterward called Pope Pius II. BASILIENSIS TERRITORII DES CRIPTIO NOVA Auctore Sebastiano Munstero Miliaria Germanica duarū horarū itineris Circulus siue Liga SVEVIAVE Vulgo Schwa
Briomeck with a castle which belongeth vnto the same Bishop Then Schwatz where euery yeere great store of siluer as we sayd before is digged out of the earth Verona c. But that which we haue not thought good to conceale of Munster is well worth the reading There is saith he an hill called Nansberg three miles from Trent extending it selfe twelue miles in length and three in bredth in which there are three hundred and fiftie Parish-Churches two and thirtie Castles besides Salt and many pleasant and sweet smelling fruits In it all things do abundantly grow which are necessary for the maintenance of mans life But of this Countie see more at large in the same authour Ianus Pyrrhus Pincius of Mantua hath learnedly and at large set forth the historie of Trent in twelue books Of GOERCZ KARST CHACZEOLA CARNIOLA HISTRIA and WINDISKMARKE OF Windiskmarke Istria and Goerez we must speake hereafter and therefore in this place we will sursease to say ought of them Of Carnioll Karst and Chaczeoll to say the trueth I know not what to write Something notwithstanding that otherwise than in the other I do not deceiue the expectation of the Reader that shall not be vnpleasant vnto those which doe admire the wonderfull works of the Almightie I will speake in this place There is a place in this Map which the inhabitants call Czyrcknitzersee of a little towne neere vnto it called Czyrcknitz Lazius saith that Strabo calleth it the Mere of Lugey it is situate in the prouince of Carnioll This place so I call it for whether I may more truly terme it a lake a parke or a field I know not as the same Lazius hath euery yeere yeeldeth corne fishing and hunting But here I thinke it best first to set downe his description out of George Wernher a little more at large It is enclosed saith he on euery side with mountaines and is in length about a mile and a halfe but in bredth somewhat lesse In many places it is eighteene cubits deepe and where his depth is least it is equall vnto the full height of a tall man Out of the hilles round about on euery side certeine small brooks do runne ech from his seuerall channell from the East coast three from the South foure Euery one of these the farther they runne the lesse water they containe for the earth so continually soaketh it vp that at last it is wholly consumed by certeine stonie ditches so framed by nature as they do seeme to haue beene made and cut out by the arte and industrie of man Lazius thinketh them to be certeine signes and arguments of the sailing of the Argonautes vnder the earth Heere the waters doe so mightily swell that by no meanes they may be receiued whereupon it commeth to passe that the ditches doe in such maner swell backe againe that neither they only doe not receiue the water but also what they haue receiued they powre backe againe so exceeding swiftly that a nimble horseman by running shall hardly be able to auoid the violence of the streame Therefore which way soeuer the waters shall finde any way out they issue forth and spread themselues so broad that they make a great lake These waters do returne almost as swiftly as they came yet not by those ditches only but the ground euery where almost doth so receiue them as if they were powred thorow a sieue This when the inhabitants do perceiue will come to passe they by and by stopping the greater passages to the vttermost they may they runne thither to fish by great troops which is not only a pleasant passe-time to them but also is very gainfull and profitable For these fishes being salted are carried out in great plentie vnto the neighbour-regions round about Then the lake being dried succeedeth an haruest on that part where the soile is sowen and the same is sowen againe before the next floud It is so fertile of grasse that euery twentie dayes it may be mowen Who is it that which here doth not admire the wonderfull works of sporting nature Rhetiae alpestris decriptio in qua hodie TIROLIS COMITATVS Ex tabula Wolfgangi Lazij quam Joan Maior Viennensis aedidit Cum Gratia et Priuilegio GORITIAE KARSTII CHACZEOLAE CARNIOLAE HISTRIAE ET WINDORVM MARCHAE DESCRIP Haec tabula concinnata est ex corographijs Wolfg. Lazij cuiinsima Histriae pars ex alterius descriptione addita est ITALIE ITalie the chiefe prouince of the world as it hath often changed the name according to the alteration of times and states for it was called Enotria Ausonia Hesperia Saturnia c. so also his bounds and borders are diuersly described by diuers authours notwithstanding in later ages it is thus bounded First by the riuer Varus then by a straight passing by Alpes Coctiae now called Monte Genebrae by Mount Adula or S. Gothardes hill the Alpes of Rhetia or Monte Braulis and hilles adioyning then by the riuer Arsia the vtmost border of Istria thus it is bounded vpon one side the other sides do abut vpon the sea Ptolemey describeth it in the forme of an Isthmos or Peninsula which the sea incloseth on three sides the other is walled by the Alpes The ancient writers doe liken it vnto an Oke-leafe the latter doe set it out not without great resemblance in the proportion and shape of a mans legge from the hippe vnto the sole of the foot Italie hath the mountaine Apennine as it were a ridge or backe passing along from one end of it to the other like as we see in fishes the ridge bone to runne along from the head vnto the taile This mountaine which ariseth out of the Alpes where they decline from the lower or Mediterranean sea when as almost with a straight course nere Ancona it tendeth toward the Higher or Adriatique sea and there seemeth to end yet from thence againe declining from that sea it passeth thorow the middest of Italie toward the Brutij now Calabria inferiore and the Sicilian straights Elian affirmeth that in times past there were in this countrey 1197. cities Guido a Priest of Rauenna out of Iginus which six hunnred yeeres since wrote of the cities of Italie writeth that in his time there were but seuen hundred only Blondus diuideth Italie into 18. prouinces Leander into 19. and their names are these The olde The new LIGVRIA Riuiera de Genua ETRVRIA Toscana VMBRIA Ducato di Spoleto LATIVM Campagna di Roma CAMPANIA FELIX Terra di Lauoro LVCANIA Basilicata BRVTII Calabria inferiore MAGNA GRAECIA Calabria superiore SALENTINI Terra d' Otranto APVLIA PEVCETIA Terra di Barri APVLIA DAVNIA Puglia Piana SAMNITES Abruzzo PICENVM Marca Anconitana FLAMINIA Romagna AEMILIA Lombardia di qua dal Po. GALLIA TRANSPADANA Lombardia di la dal Po. VENETI Marca Treuigiana FORVM IVLII Friuli Patria HISTRIA Istria Plinie according to the opinion of Varro maketh the lake Cutilius in the territorie of Reatino to be the center of
are Aquileya adorned with the title of a Patriarchy This citie Mela nameth The rich In times past it was the seat of the Emperours and therefore it was called Another Rome and was in compasse twelue miles In it there haue beene accounted long since an hundred and twentie thousand citizens The great prosperitie and flourishing estate of this citie especially grew by the great thronging hither of Merchants for that from all quarters almost of the world by reason of the great commodiousnesse of the place easie and safe entrance vnto it aswell by land as by sea merchandise were conueyed to this citie as to a common ware-house That great trade of merchandise ended together with the fortune of the citie the Venetians growing mightie and drawing vnto themselues all meanes of trade and traffique so that now of a most flourishing and populous city it is almost wast and desert Vtina which also is called Vtinum the Italians vulgarly call it Vdene the Dutch Weyden situate in a plaine hath a strong castle built vpon the toppe of an hill raised by the labour and industrie of man conteining at this day fortie furlongs in compasse Tergeste Trieste vpon the sea shore a colonie of the Romans Goritia sometime if I be not deceiued called Noreia Here are many monuments of great antiquitie to this day remaining The citie Austria many thinke it in olde time to haue beene called Forum Iulij situate in the straights of the mountaines is a place strong and fortified by nature Thorow the middest of it doth runne the riuer Natiso vpon the which is a faire stone bridge S. Daniels towne seated vpon a very high and steepe hill Porto Gruaro vpon the South banke of Limine Then Spilimbergo Marano Montfalcone and others of which thou mayest reade in Leander out of whom we haue drawen this briefe description Iohannes Candidus hath written an historie of Aquileia whose copartener in his labour and trauell Leander writeth to haue beene Gregorius Amasaeus Of the monuments and antiquities of Aquileia Sabellicus hath written six bookes which are euery where to be gotten FORI IVLII ACCVRATA DESCRIPTIO Cum Priuilegio Ex Bibliotheca Nobilis et doctissimi Ioannis Sambuci Imperatoriae Mats. Historici 1573. IVLIAE ALPES IAPIDES ET CARNI The liberties of the citie of VERONA THe citie of the Cenomanes situate in Gallia Cisalpina or as now they call it Lombardie is within the iurisdiction of the Venetians a citie most stately built vpon ech banke of the riuer Adese but conioyned by foure faire bridges The same riuer as it doth diuide it into two parts so it doth almost on euery side enclose it round so that it is not only a commodity vnto the citie but also a defence and ornament vnto the same The soile of this tract is excellent good yeelding many things necessary and profitable vnto it Great store of oile and corne yeelding yeerely great gaines vnto the country people by selling and transporting it to forren nations Woll for finenesse excelling the other sorts of Italie The citie is most excellently and pleasantly seated beautified with faire and goodly buildings aswell priuate as publike It hath many famous monuments of antiquitie worth the regarding amongst the which is the Amphitheater which the common sort call Arena The sand of all those which remaine in Italie or in other places of Europe the whollest and least defaced either by iniurie of times or rage of barbarous nations Moreouer a triumphall arche in whose inscription this citie is termed COLONIA AVGVSTA VERONA NOVA GALLIENIANA There are also other monuments which here for breuitie sake we must omit The liberties or ground belonging to this citie is in length from the little towne Baruchello vnto Riua which is on the farther side of Lago de Garda sixtie fiue miles in bredth which beginneth at La torre delle confine vnto Riuoltella fortie miles and conteineth in all 1443378. fields so the common people of Italie call the measure whereby they measure their lands Seardeonius interpreteth it Akers whereof 1223112. are fertile 220266 are barren which notwithstanding dayly by the industry and diligence of the husbandmen are made more fruitfull There is in this tract a very high mountaine the Mappe placeth it betweene Lago de Gardo and the riuer Adese which they call Baldo This hill is very well knowen to Herborists and Apothecaries which flocke hither from all quarters and do gather many kindes of herbs and roots necessary in Physicke and good and holesome for the vse of man There is also here in a certaine vale called Policella a place named Negarina where there is a very hard stone to be seene hauing vpon it teats carued to the iust fashion and proportion of a womans breasts out of the which pappes water doth continually distill and droppe wherewith if a nurse or a woman giuing sucke doe wash her breasts dried vp by sicknesse or any other mischance it presently draweth downe the milke againe There are also other waters of this countrey giuen by the benefit of nature both pleasant and profitable But the studious Reader desirous to know more of this territory let him reade Blondus and Leander he shall be I dare boldly affirme satisfied at the full Torellus Sarayna hath written a whole booke of the antiquities originall gouernment and policy and famous men of the citie of Verona Georgius Iodocus Bergamus hath described Lago de Garda or Benacke lake in verse in fiue books Iulius Caesar Scaliger hath sounded forth the praise of the citie Verona and the lake Benacke in his funerall oration VERONAE VRBIS TERRITORIVM Ã Bernardo Brognolo descriptum 1579. Cum Priuilegio decannali The Duchie of MILLANE LEander in the description of Italie after a long discourse of the gouernment of this Duchie maketh this relation of Millane his chiefe citie The citie Millane saith he is so conueniently seated that besides the great store of fruite which the ground of his territories do yeeld out of Gallia Cisalpina or Lombardie all things aswell for pleasure and delight as for profit and necessarie vse in mans life may be easily transported thither It is so great that it may well compare with the greatest cities of all Europe It hath very longe and large suburbes by which it is greatly augmented some of them so huge that they may contend for bignesse with other great cities of Italie Notwithstanding of late yeares they suffered great wrecke by reason of the mortall warres and continuall troubles betweene Charles the fift and the French and Venetians By which they were by fire and sword almost vtterly ouerthrowne and destroied although now by great diligence and industrie of the citizens they are reedified againe Wide and deepe diches full of water do compasse both the citie and suburbes by which on euery side by boate and barge such great store of prouision is brought vnto it that there is not any thing heere which is not to be bought at a reasonable rate It is very
is for the most part in this our age full of Forrests as also it was in the time of Vopiscus as he witnesseth in the life of Aurelian especially a little beyond the riuer Arno vntill one come beyond Plumbino The inner part of the country is almost as much oppressed with Mountaines In it are these cities more famous than the rest Florence Siena Luca Perugia Pisa Viterbo c. FLORENCE or as they call it Fiorenza is situate vpon ech side of the riuer Arno conioined by foure faire bridges it is a most goodly and beautifull city whereupon commonly they call it Fiorenza la bella Florence the faire as if indeed it might seeme to bee the flower of all Italie For it is adorned with stately buildings aswell Churches and religious houses as of priuate citizens Amongst all other the Church of S. Maria Florida wholly ouerlaid with Marble arched with a roofe of an admirable workemanship neere to which is built a goodly steeple for the bels all of fine marble not farre from which standeth the ancient Temple of Mars of forme round very ingeniously built and of a cunning workemanship now dedicated to S. Iohn Baptist The dores of this Church are of cast brasse a very rare and curious peece of worke especially those which are next to the Church of S. Maria Florida are such that all men of iudgement and experience must absolutely confesse that in all Europe beside the like are no where to be seene But to reckon vp all the worthy buildings of this citie aswell sacred as profane it were too tedious and would require more paper than this our purposed discourse will beare He therefore that desireth to know more of the particulers more at large let him reade Leander SIENA lieth vpon the top of an hill round begirt with high rocks of Tophus-stone gorgeously bedecked with many noble mens houses amongst the which is the great and large Church of our Lady equall to the stateliest and sumptuousest Churches of all Europe whether you respect the worth and price of the Marble whereof it is built or the excellencie of the worke and workemanship of him that made it Besides that there is a most stately house of tree stone built by Pope Pius II. with many other goodly houses Worthy of commendation and record is the large and beautifull market place with Branda the pleasant fountaine alwaies full of most cleare water PERVGIA is seated vpon the mountaine Apennine the greatest part of the countrie arising with goodly pleasant hilles fertile of strong Wines Oiles Figges Apples and other sorts of most excellent fruits Beneath the citie at Asisia as also toward Tuder neere Tiber the pleasant champion fields do spread themselues yeelding plenty of wheat and other kind of graine The city by reason of the nature of the place is very strong adorned with gorgeous buildings both of religious houses and churches as also priuate citizens together with a famous and large fountaine in the middest of the citie It is very populous and the citizens are very ingenious and of couragious stomackes apt indifferently either for any maner litterature or for seruice in the field PISA long since hath beene a famous citie and many waies richly blessed not onely before the flourishing estate of the Roman Empire but euen when it was at the full height as also many yeares after Many famous Marine-conquests which it hath made by which it brought the Ile Sardinia subiect to their command do auouch this to be true Panormo a faire citie of Sicilia they won from the Saracens and of the bootie and spoiles taken in that warre they began to build the great Church which they call DOMNVM as also the beautifull palace of the Bishop It hath an Vniuersitie or Schoole of all maner of Liberall Arts and Sciences whose foundation was laid in the yeare of CHRIST 1309. VITERBO lieth in a pleasant and spacious champion hauing the Cyminian hilles now of this citie called Mont Viterbo vpon his backeside stately for many faire buildings and works of rare Art amongst which is a famous fountaine from whence issueth water in such abundance as is wonderfull LVCA is seated in a plaine not farre from the hilles foot a city of goodly buildings The people are neat wise and ingenious which haue most discreetly retained and kept their libertie of a long time whole in their owne hands although they haue been often assaulted by their neighbours See more at large of this in Leander Myrsilus the Lesbian Marcus Cato in his Origines and their Expositor Ioannes Annius Viterbiensis who also wrote a seuerall treatise of the antiquities of Hetruria William Postell Volaterranus and Laonicus Chalcocondylas a Grecian in his sixth booke and others haue described this prouince Ioannes Campanus hath written most elegantly of the Lake of Perugia THVSCIAE DESCRIPTIO AVCTORE HIERONYMO BELLARMATO Me Ianus tenuit primus formataue ab illo Imposui leges populis nomina Ponto Inferno Supero missos auxiue colonos Imperiumque Italos trans fines foedera natis Dum seruata meis sed me discordia preaeceps Romuleae genti domitam seruire coegit Quae deous antiquae longo post tempore linguae Auxilij male grata mei male grata laborum Abstulit mansit nomen quod Thura dedere Archades aut Lŷdi quod vel mutare Pelasgi Non ausi sacras quibus has concessimus oras Cum priuilegio The Signiory of FLORENCE OF the city of Florence read Blondus who in his view of Italie reporteth thus of it They commonly affirme saith he that this citie was first begonne by Sylla's souldiers vnto whom this part of the countrie was by Sylla assigned and because they first began to seat themselues ad Arna fluenta about the riuer Arno they then intituled it by the name of FLVENTIA And indeed Pliny who of all the old writers first mentioneth this place saith that the Fluentini were seated neere the riuer Arno. These souldiers came hither about the yeare after the building of the city of Rome 667. whereupon it appeareth that Florence was founded about 83. yeares before the birth of Christ This city suffered much wrecke in the time of the warres of the Gothes Yet was it neuer either by Totilas or any other of those ragings Tyrants vtterly rased or spoiled And therefore that which some do write of the repairing of Florence by Charles the Great I can by no meanes allow when as the histories of Charles written by Alcuinus his schoolemaster do only mention his keeping of Easter heere at two seuerall times as he went by this way toward Rome It was preserued from a great hazard of vtter ouerthrow which it was like to haue fallen into by the manhood of one Farinata Vbertino when as they of Pisa Siena and others of Tuscane meeting at a market in a consultation by them held hauing generally determined to rase Florence to the ground said stoutly That while he liued he would neuer suffer
that after his death by the triall of Hoate Iron she would approue to the view of the world how wrongfully he was put to death The day came when as the Emperour sate to heare the causes and complaints of widdowes and Orphanes Together with these came the late Countesse bringing in her hand the Earles head and demandeth what death that Iudge is worthy of that had put a man to death wrongfully The Emperour answered He is worthy to lose his head She saith Thou art the same man who at the false suggestion of thy wife didst vniustly cause my husband to be beheaded The which when as the widdow approued vnto him by the maner of triall by hoat iron the Emperour yeelded himselfe into the hands of the widdow willing to abide his deserued punishment Notwithstanding by the mediation of the Bishop and the Nobility he obtained of the Countesse respite for tenne daies then for eight then for seuen lastly for six After the end of which daies the Emperour hauing examined the matter and being assured of the truth gaue sentence against his wife that she should be burned at a stake and giuing foure castles vnto the widdow redeemed his life These castles are in the Bishopricke of Luna in Hetruria or Tuscane and they are called after the names of the daies of repreeue The tenth The eighth The seuenth and The sixth Thus farre Syffridus which I thought good to set down in this place for to my knowledge no man els hath left any record of these castles neither are they named in this Mappe by our Authour notwithstanding that he hath described the country most curiously FLORENTINI DOMINII FIDELISSIMA ET NOVA DESCRIPTIO Auctore D. Stephano Monacho Montisoliueti The liberties of PERVGIA IOhannes Campanus writing of this country affirmeth that although he had trauailed and viewed many countries yet he neuer saw in all his life a more pleasant country and better manured then the country of Perugia All things seeme wast and wild to those that are farre off but if you shall come more neere nothing may be found more glorious either in respect of the husbandry of the land or wholesomnesse of the aire or fertility of the soile The riuer of Tiber runneth through the middest of this country and kindly watereth the same Not farre from which is the city Perugia situate vpon the Mount Apennine built long since as Trogus Pompeius affirmeth by the Achaians and of the twelue cities of Hetruria it is the chiefe It was called Augusta by the Emperour Augustus as the Capitall letters halfe a yeard square grauen vpon the gate do declare This city in regard of the nature of the place is inuincible richly beautified both with religious and priuate buildings of great state and is very populous This city aboue all the cities of Italie hath been euermore most fortunate and happie hauing retained the same state and gouernment little or nothing altered which it enioied before the building of Rome and that which afterward it had in the time when Rome was ruled by Kings Consuls Emperours and Tyrants at this time it reteineth Yet it hath endured many and diuers greeuous and bitter storms For in the time when Fabius Maximus was Consull as Liuie reporteth 4500. of his citizens were slaine In the daies of the Triumuiri Augustus besiedged it and forced it to great distresse for want of victualls tooke it and rased it to the ground and was wholly defaced with fire except only the Temple of Vulcane as Appian recordeth Afterward it endured the seuen yeares siedge and batterie of the cruell Tyrant Totilas and at length was sacked and spoiled c. Now it is subiect to the Pope of Rome and hath a famous Vniuersitie which was erected about the yeare of CHRIST 1290. as Middendorpius hath written Heere in the time of our grandfathers flourished the most renowmed Ciuilians Bartholus and Baldus In the precincts of this city is Lago di Perugia the lake of Perugia anciently called LACVS TRASVMENVS famous long since for a great ouerthrow heere giuen by Hanniball to the Romanes Appianus calleth it Lacus Plestinus but for what reason I know not It is in compasse as the foresaid Campanus writeth about thirtie miles The water of it is very cleare and pure there are no riuers which runne into it neither hath it any issue forth yet is his water so exceeding sweet that any man would thinke it were fedde from some running fountaine It hath in it three Isles whereof two which are toward the North are close together the one called the Greater the other the Lesser Maiores and Minores This is wast and not in habited only it hath a Church situate vpon the toppe of an hill The other which is neere to the liberties of Cortona conteineth about 200. families The third which is toward the South and is bigger then the other two is very populous and well inhabited The inhabitants almost giue themselues wholly to Fishing they sow little Corne yet they do not neglect to plant vines For wood fuell and fodder they go out into the fields and woods neere adioining Amongst the records of Lewis first Emperour of Rome there is mention of these three Ilands where he nameth them MAIOR MINOR and PVLVENSIS now Polueso where I perceiue that they yet retaine their ancient names No boggs fennes or spuing meeres do impech the shore this is full of Oliue gardens which vpon the hills on euery side do adorne the Lake and are for their wonderfull fertility very beautifull In the plaine which is between the Lake and the Hilles there is such abundance of Hempe and Flax so that in all Hetruria or Tuscane there is not more No country yeldeth better Wines or sweeter Apples The kinds of Fishes in the lake are not many but the abundance is wonderfull in which it farre excelleth all other Lakes of Italie heere also the fishing continueth all the yeare long yea euen in the dead of winter which no other Lake in all Italie affoordeth These fish in the winter are caried into Tuscane Vmbria and Picenta to Rome also they driue much cattell daily to be sold The same Campanus affirmeth that heere they take a pickerell partly coloured spotted with diuers green specks of the which he reporteth strange wonders namely that it doth engender with serpents and from thence it getteth those strange colours The common people saith Iacobus Greumus in the twentieth chapter of his first booke verily beleeueth that lampreies do engender with serpents which Plinie holdeth for a fable notwithstanding that hee often seemeth to be much delighted in writing of fables Athenaeus also writeth out of the report of one Andreas that these Lampreies which are bred of the viper if they bite the wound is deadly which opinion he afterward reclaimeth as false Againe he telleth of a Pike that lying vpon the drie land which when a fox assaied to catch one of his feetstooke fast in his teeth and both were
that the Cabbadges heere cauli capucei they call them do often weigh as Mazella reporteth sometime thirty sometime fortie pound and therefore Martiall said not amisse Nos amiternus ager felicibus educathortis In Amiternoes fertile fields we liue and spend our daies The fields before this citie do yeeld such great plenty of Saffron that thereof yearely they make 40000. ducates Heere is once a yeare kept a great Faire It hath 110. Churches Neere this city as Blondus saith is a stone from vnder the which runneth a streame of oile which they call Oile of peter or Petroleum and is desired and sought for of many but of the Almaines and Hungarians it is more esteemed then of the Italians The same authour recordeth that the country people shewed him a Peare-tree growing vpon an hill not farre from the head of the riuer Pescara or Aterno shooting vp in such a sort that the water falling vpon it diuideth it selfe into three parts which become three great riuers Velino Tronto and Pescara running three diuers waies Amiterno in former times a goodly city famous in histories and the natiue country of Salust the noble historian can hardly be discerned where it stood yet Blondus saith that they do yet shew some pieces of the Theater Temples and Turrets Mazella affirmeth that there yet do remaine the Temple of Saturne the tombe of Drusus daughter and a triumph of the Samnites engrauen in marble a memoriall of their happie victory obtained against the Roman army ad furcas Caudinas Teramo long since called Interamnia for that it is situate between three riuers Fiumicello Trontino and Vitiole is the head city of this prouince whose Bishop is graced with many titles and dignities and the lord of the soile is called by the name of the Duke of Teramo Adria the ancient colonie of the Romanes is now called Atri Some do thinke that the Emperour Hadrian was borne heere and of it tooke his name as also the Hadriaticke sea now called Mare superum the higher sea the Gulfe or Bay of Venice Furconium sometime hath been a famous Bishopricke whose Bishops are often mentioned in the Councels and Synods held 800. yeares since at Rome or other places of Italie At this day only some small mention is to be seen of it for it was destroied by the Lombardes and the Bishops sea was by Pope Alexander the fourth from thence translated vnto Aquila The arms of this country as Scipio Mazella writeth is an Eagle argent crowned standing vpon three mounts ore in a field Azure He that desireth to vnderstand more of this country let him repaire to the forenamed Authours who I doubt not will satisfie him to the full APRVTII VLTERIORIS DESCRIPTIO 1590. NATALIS BONIFACIVS SEBENIICENSIS DESCRIBEB The kingdome of NAPLES THis kingdome generally comprehended between the Adriaticke and Mid-land seas from the riuer Fronto and Fundi a city situate vpon the lake Fundano vnto the Frith Messina the Latines call it Fretum Mamertinum or Messanae the Italians el faro di Messina conteineth nine most rich and goodly countries of Italie namely these A part of Latium Campania felix Lucani Calabria Magna Graecia Salentini Apuli Peucetij Apuli Dauni and Aprutium The gallant city Naples which gaue the name to the whole kingdome seated between the sea shore and the foote of most pleasant mountaines hath a temperate and wholesome aire with most sweet fields about it and therefore in this our age Princes and Noblemen do resort hither asmuch as euer heeretofore for almost all the Nobility of this whole kingdome do spend most of the yeare in this city and all for the most part haue heere most beautifull and stately houses so that the frequent throng of Princes Dukes Marquesses Earles Knights Doctors Barons and Noble-men is heere so great that there are very few cities of the world which in my iudgement in that respect may compare with Naples The city in compasse is very large and wide gorgeously built and seated as I said between the sea and the goodly pleasant hils strongly walled and fortified especially that part which was done of late daies at the commandement of Charles the fifth The buildings either of Churches or priuate citizens houses are most beautifull and stately with diuers Castles and Towers almost inuincible But amongst the rest the house of the Duke of Grauina and the Prince of Salerno do farre excell The streets of the city are very faire and straight There are foure Courts which they call Seats Capuana Nida Montana and S. Georgio where the Princes Dukes Marquesses and other of the Nobility do meet to consult of waighty matters and publike businesses The strong Castels are these Castello nouo which Alphonsus the first raised and entrenched with very great charges and expences so that now it may be accounted one of the most defencible fortification of all Europe Next to this is Castello Capuano which now is emploied for place of meeting for the state in consultation for matters of the kingdome and city Then is Castellum oui a little distance without the city standing vpon a rocke the ancients called it Meagrum compassed round with the sea Beside these is Castellum Santemerense vpon a cliffe looking ouer the walls of the city lately fortified very strongly by Charles the fifth Without the wals vpon the South side of the city there is a Block-house in the sea a worke of wonderfull art and cunning workemanship built for the defence and safegard of the Hauen continually full with shippes almost from all quarters of the world Heere also is an Vniuersitie where all maner of Arts and Liberall Sciences are taught and professed vnto which there is great concourse of students from all places of the kingdome Thus farre Vbertus Folietta in a Treatise of his which he wrote and intituled Brumanum Without the wals of this most stately city there are most pleasant sweet fields yeelding all maner of things necessarie not onely for the maintainance of man and beast but also such as serue for pleasure and delight Especiallie with all maner of Corne and Graine and of rich and strong Wine such plenty that he that hath not seene the great store both of Corne and Wine that one Aker of ground doth yeeld may hardlie be made to beleeue it The Hilles and Mountaines in this place are very fertile and full of most excellent fruits and some of them enclosing the lowly plaines in manner of a Theater do affoord plentie of Deere and game for the Nobilitie Moreouer about Naples are most pleasant and fine Orchards planted with Medicinall plants and such like goodlie fruite trees euerie where resounding with a most sweet noise of brookes and streames running to and fro euery where most fragrant and odoriferous smelles do offer themselues vnto your senses such is the abundance of Myrtill Laurell Gelsemine Rosemarie Rose-trees c. in euerie corner To be short the beauty delightsomnesse and elegancie of all places round about
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
the inhabitants The valleies are pleasant and fruitfull The shady groues and woods do affoord many pleasures and delights The goodly meddowes and pastures are richly decked with herbs and sweet-smelling flowres and euer-running streames And amongst other heere is great plenty of Medicke fodder wherewith they feed and fatte their cattell Heere also grow many excellent physicke hearbs of soueraigne vertues against diuers and sundrie diseases It bringeth forth diuers plants as the Plane tree Vitex or Agnus castus the Turpentine tree the Oliue tree Siliqua Siluestris Arbute or Strawberry tree wild Saffron Madder Liquirise Tubera or Sowbread It hath also some hoate baths continually distilling from their fountaines which do cure aches and many other like maladies In diuers places there are springs of salt water whereof they make a kind of brine or pickle It is well watered with many fine riuers and those stored with sundrie sorts of fresh fish The sea also on ech side yeeldeth great plenty of fish both tunies sword-fishes and lampreies There in many places is found the best Corall both white and redde Heere is most pleasant hunting and hawking for in these quarters diuers and sundrie sorts of wild beasts do lodge and as many birds and fowles do breed and build wild boares harts hindes goates hares foxes lynces otters squerrells martens badgers ferrets porkupines tortuses both of the waters and of the mountaines Of fowles phesants partridges quailes wood-cocks ring-doues crowes c. as also of many kinds of hawks it is euery where full It maintaineth some herds of cattell and flocks of sheep and goats It breedeth excellent horses very swift and of great stomacke Mettals heere were found in old time and now also it aboundeth at this day with diuers kinds of mineralls hauing indeed euery where mines of gold siluer iron salt marble alablaster crystall marchasite red-lead or vermillion copperas alume brimstone c. many kinds of corne wheat siligo beerbarly rie trimino we call it I thinke Turky wheat barly rise and of sesamum infinite store It aboundeth also with all kind of pulse legumina the Latines call them oile wine and hony and those in their kinds the best There are heere euery where orchards thicke set with oranges limons and pome cittron trees Heere also is made great plenty of excellent silke farre better then any kind of silke made in other places of Italie The Cotton tree Gossipium groweth heere plentifully But what shall I speake of the kind temperature of the aire For heere the fields both winter and summer are continuallie green But aboue all things there is nothing that doth argue the same more soundly then that airy dew or heauenly hony which they call Manna that euery where distilleth from aboue and is heere gathered in great abundance So that that which the Israelites in the wildernes did admire and hold for a strange wonder heere kind nature doth affoord of her own accord It is adorned also with many goodly market towns where marts and faires are kept at certaine times of the yeare Heere in some places still is obserued the ancient custome of the Romanes vsed at funerals and buriall of the dead where a chiefe mourner Praefica they called her is hired to go before the rest of the mourners and she to guide their mournefull ditties and to keepe time in their howling lamentations The funerall being done and all ceremonies performed the dead mans friends and kindred bringing their meat and iunkets do banquet altogether at the dead mans house The women of this country naturally for modesty and for that the waters of these places are good and wholesome drinke naught but water It is a shame for any women to drinke wine except she be very old or be in child-bed c. See more in the same authour Cassiodore also in his Variar hath in diuers places many things of this country APVLIAE QVAE OLIM LAPYGIA NOVA COROGRAPHIA CALABRIAE DESCRIP Per Prosperum Parisium Consent Cum Priuilegio decennali SICILIA THere is not one either of the ancient Historians or Cosmographers that hath not made mention of this Iland or curiously described the same especially Strabo Plinie Solimus and others Diodorus Siculus calleth it The soueraigne of all other Ilands Solinus in like maner writeth of it That whatsoeuer this country breedeth either of the nature of the soile or inuention of man it is little inferiour to those things which are esteemed of greatest worth Of the later writers Vadianus hath thus set it out in his true colours SICILIA not only for richnesse of the soile for which cause it was of the ancients dedicated to Ceres and Bacchus and was accounted the Garner of Rome but also for the multitude and antiquity of his townes famous actes victories and quarrels betweene the Romans and Carthagians both contending for the mastery is more famous then any other Iland whatsoeuer In Plinies time there were 72. cities at this day they report it to containe twelue Bishopricks of great iurisdiction and large diocesses The Dukes of Swevland possessed it a long time It was assaulted and taken by the English Lorreiners especially at that time when they made their voiage into the Holy land against the impious Saracens Lastly it fell vnto the Kings of Arragon and so at this day it remaineth vnder the obedience of Spaine Neither is there any other Iland that I know in the whole world that both Greeks and Latines haue indifferently partly in respect of the goodnesse of the soile and situation partly for the great accidents that heere haue happened by their writings made more famous He that would be further satisfied of the particulars let him read Benedictus Bordonius who hath in one booke comprised a discourse of all the Ilands of the World Leander Albertus Dominicus Niger Franciscus Maurolycius Marius Aretius all which haue most learnedly described the same Lastly Thomas Fazellus that countrie-man borne who hath most curiously and liuelily described the true countenance of this his natiue soile where you shall find the particular story of the mount Aetna now called by an Arabicke name Monte Gibello of which also Petrus Bembus hath put forth a seuerall Treatise Tully hath written something of this Iland in his orations against Verres Thucydides in his sixth booke hath very well laid downe the history of the originall and first inhabitants of the same as Diodorus Siculus hath done in like maner in his fifth booke Hubertus Goltzius hath out of ancient coines added great light vnto the histories of this country SARDINIA SEbastian Munster in his Cosmography hath an excellent description of this Iland done by Sigismundus Arquerus Calaritanus a Sicilian The same is described by Leander Albertus Benedictus Bordonius Nicolas Leonicus besides that which you may reade of it in old writers amongst whom Pausanias hath written some things that are not common This Iland the state of the Roman Empire decaying came into the hands of the Saracens from whom it was
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
but especially the Neck-land or Peninsula knowen vnto the old writers by these names Scandia Scandinauia Baltia and Basilia but to them neuer throughly discried which in regard of his greatnesse they haue called Another World and the Shoppe of men and as it were the scabberd from whence so many Nations haue been drawen But of the diuers names of this country read that which we haue written at the mappe of Island as also in our Treasury of Geography in the word BASILIA This Neckeland in this our age conteineth three kingdomes Norwey Swedland and Gotland with a part of the kingdome of Denmarke and many other prouinces as Bothny Finmarke Finland Lappland c. whose seuerall descriptions we will heere set downe out of Iames Ziegler NORVEGIA Norway if you would interpret it is as much to say as the Northren tract or Northren way This was sometime a most flourishing kingdome and comprehended Denmarke and Friesland with the circumiacent Ilands vntill such time as the kingdome was gouerned by an hereditary succession of kings Afterward the line failing in the time of vacancie by the consent of the Nobility it was decreed that the kings should be chosen by election At this day it is vnder the iurisdiction of the kings of Denmarke who do not only take the lawfull reuenews iustly due to the crowne but imposing intolerable exactions and by scraping and raking all commodities into their hands they conuey all the wealth of this country into Denmarke Neither is this aggreeuance alone but with all the disaduantage and condition of the place doth much hurt the subiects for all the hauens roads shipping are at the command of the king of Denmarke so that neither they may without his leaue vse the sea or transport their merchandise into forren countries This kingdome either for the temperature of the aire goodnesse of the soile or benefit of the sea is not of meane estimation and account This doth transport into other parts of Europe a fish which is a kind of codde slitte and spread vpon a post and so dried and hardened with the frost and cold and thereupon the Germanes call it Stockfish The best time of the yeare to catch them is in Ianuary when as the weather is coldest to drie them those which are taken when the weather is more mild they shrinke or rotte away and are not fit to be transported any whither All the sea coast of Norway is very calme and temperate the sea freeseth not the snow continueth not long SVECIA Sweden or Swedland is a kingdome rich of siluer copper lead iron corne and cattell Wonderfull plenty of fish is heere taken both in riuers lakes and creekes aswell as in the maine ocean Heere are many Deere and wild beasts Stockholme is the kings seat and chiefe mart towne a city fortified both by nature by art and industrie of the ingenious Architect It standeth in a fenne like Venice and thereof it took the name for that being situate in the waters it is built vpon piles which they call Stockes GOTHIA Gotland that is the Good land is subiect to the king of Sweden In it is the port and mart towne Calmar a great city Heere is a goodly Castle which for ingenious Architecture or Fortification as also for large compasse and content is not much inferiour to that of Millane in Italie Neere Tinguallen are mines of excellent iron Thus farre Ziegler Of DENMARKE and the BRITISH ILES we will speake nothing in this place seeing that we entreated of them at their proper and seuerall mappes In this chart there is described also ISLAND an Iland as famous as any other for strange miracles and secret works of nature Item GROENLAND another Iland knowen to very few Heere also is FRIESLAND a third iland altogether vnknowen to ancient writers neither is it once named of the latter Geographers or Hydrographers only Nicolao Zeno a Venetian who in the yeare of Christ 1380. tossed with many continuall bitter stormes in this sea at last rent and weather-beaten arriued in this I le This authour affirmeth that this iland is subiect to the king of Norway and to be greater then Ireland and that the chiefe towne is of the same name with the I le it selfe lastly that the country people do for the most part liue by fishing For in the hauen of this towne they catch such abundance of all sorts of fish that from thence they lade whole shippes and transport them into other ilands neere adioining The sea next to this iland vpon the West full of shelues and rocks as he writeth is of the inhabitants called Mare Icarium Icarus sea and an iland in it he saith is named ICARIA Of GROENLAND he writeth that the winter heere is 9. moneths long and all that time it neuer raineth nor the snow which falleth in the beginning of winter euer dissolueth vntill the latter end of the same But that is most wonderfull which he telleth of the Monastery of the order of Frier Predicants dedicated to the honour of S. Thomas in this Iland namely that there is not farre from it a mountaine which like vnto Aetna in Sicilia doth at certaine seasons burne and cast out huge flakes of fire and that there is in the same place a fountaine of hot or skalding waters wherewith not only all the chambers of this monastery are warmed in the maner of Stones and hot-houses but also all kind of meat and bread is sodden and dressed and with no other fire All the monastery is built of a kind of hollow light stone which the flames of that burning mountaine do cast forth For these burning stones being by nature somewhat fat and oily are solid and firme but being quenched with this water they become drie full of holes and light and the water wherewith they were quenched is turned into a clammy kind of stuffe like bitumen wherewith these stones are laied in steed of mortar when they are to vse them in building and thus they make a sure worke against the iniury of all weathers Their orchyeards also and gardens watered with this water are alwaies green and do flourish almost all the yeare long with all maner of flowres kinds of corne and fruits This Priory standeth vpon the sea shore and hath a reasonable capacious and large hauen into which the forenamed fountaine emptying his waters doth make it so warme that it neuer freeseth in the hardest and egerest froast that euer was knowen Whereupon heere is such abundance of fish which do flocke hither from more colde places that not only these Monkes but also the neighbours round about are furnished from hence with prouision of victuall These thinges amongst many others Zenus hath written of these Ilands who being made by Zichimnus king of certaine Ilands heere about high Admirall of his nauy discouered all these Northren coasts The ile FRIESLAND now againe in these our daies was descried by the Englishmen and was by them called by a new name WEST
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
Tib. 9. In the German war he sent ouer 40000. voluntaries into Gallia Again in the 8. booke of Caes Com. The Belgae whose valour was great Strabo in the 4. booke of his Geography saith The Belgae weare cassockes or cloakes their haire long and side breeches about their loines In steed of coates or ierkins they vse a kind of sleeued garmert slit hanging down to their twist or as low as their buttockes Their wooll is very course and rough yet is it cut off close to the skinne of that they weaue their course thick cassocks which they call laenas rugges or mantles Their weapons accordingly are long swords hanging down along by their right side a long target lances answerable and a iauelin meris or materis as some read a kind of short pike with a barbed head some vse bowes and slinges others haue a staffe like a dart which they do not cast with a loop or thong as our Irish do but with the hand only yea and that further than one can well shoot an arrow this they especially vse in hunting and fowling They do all for the most part euen to this day vse to lie vpon the ground they dine and suppe sitting in their beds Their meat generally is made of milke and all kind of flesh especially porke both fresh and powdered Their hogs do lie abroad in the fields night and day these for bignesse strength and swiftnesse of foot do surpasse those of other countries and if a man be not vsed to them they are as dangerous to meet withall as with a rauening woolfe They build their houses with boords planks and hardles couered ouer with a very great roofe They haue so many and great herds of cattle and hogs that they do not only serue Rome with those fornamed cassocks or rugs powdered beefe and bacon but also many other places of Italy The most of their cities and commonwealths are gouerned by the Nobility and gentry informer times the common people vsed yearely to choose one Prince and one Generall captaine for the wars They are for the most part subiect to the behests of the Romans They haue a kind of custome in their councels proper and peculiar to themselues for if any man do interrupt or trouble another by loud speaking or by making any tumult the sergeant commeth to him with a naked knife in his hand and threatneth him if he hold not his peace this he doth the second and third time if then he will not be quiet he cutteth off so much of his cassocke that the rest may be good for nothing This is a common thing to them with many other barbarous nations that the seruices or offices of men and women are ordered clean contrary to the customes maners which heere we vse Item in another place The Gauls the neerer they are to the North and to the Sea so much the more hardy and valiant they are They do especially commend the Belgae who are diuided into 15. nations in Caesar find 31. mentioned so that the Belgae alone susteined the assault of the Germans Cimbers and Teutones What an infinite number of men they were able to make may hâ—ere hence be gathered that long since there were mustered of the Belgae only of able men fit for the war 300000. this number Caesar in the beginning of the 2. booke of the wars of France encreaseth by 27000. more Item some there are which diuide the Gauls into 3 nations namely the Aquitani Belgae and Celtae Item The Belgae do possesse the places neere the Sea euen as low as the mouth of the Rhein Dio. Sic. in his 6. booke A nation for the most part situat in those places toward the North it is a cold country so that in winter time in steed of water it is all couered ouer with deep snow The ice also in this country is so great and thicke that their riuers are frozen so hard that they may go ouer them and that not only some few in a company together but euen whole armies with horses carts and cariage Plutarch in the life of Caesar But after that news came that the Belgae the most mighty and warlike nation of the Gauls which possessed the third part of all Gallia had gathered together many thousands of armed men purposing to make head he goeth against them with all possible speed c. Appianus in his history of France Caesar speeding himselfe against the Belgae at the foord and passage ouer a certain riuer slew so many of them that the heaps of dead bodies serued for a bridge Ammian in the 15 booke of his history Of all the Gauls the ancients did account the Belgae to be most valiant stout for that they were remote from those that liued more courtlike and tenderly neither were they corrupted and made effeminate with forren delicates and foolish toies but had long been exercised in wars quarels against those Germans which dwelt beyond the Rhein Dion in his 55 booke The Bataui are excellent horsemen Again in his 39 booke The Morini and Menapij dwell not in towns and cities but in cottages and mountaines enclosed about with very thicke woods He meaneth Arduenna Arden that huge forest which then was more vast than now it is Florus in his 3. booke The next was a far more cruell battell for then they fought for their libertie Pliny in the 22. c. of his 26. booke In the prouince of Belgica they cut a kind of white stone with a saw as they do wood yea and more easily to make slaits and tiles for couerings for their houses not only flat and plain but also hollow and crooked to serue both for roofe-tiles gutter-tiles yea and when they list for those kind of couerings which they call pauonacea like the peacocks taile these also are such as may be cut or sawed Again in the 36. c. of his 16 book The Belgae do stamp the tuft or beard of this kind of reed and laying it between the meeting of the ioints and plankes of their ships do calke them as sure as with pitch and rozen Item in the 22 c. of his 10. booke he writeth that from the country of the Morini geese did come on thâ—â—â— feet as far as Rome In 1. c. of his 12. booke he saith that The plane tree was come now as far as the Morini into a tributary soile that these nations might pay custome euen for the shade In the 25 c. of the 15. book In Belgia and vpon the banks of the Rhein the Portugal cherries are most esteemed In the 14. c. of the same booke where he speaketh of diuers kind of apples which for that they haue no kernels are called of the Belgae spadonia poma spayd apples In the 5 c. of his 19 booke Gelduba is the castle called that is built vpon the Rhein where grow the best skirwyrts or white parsneps In the 8 c. of his 17 booke Of all forren nations that I know the Vbij whose
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
Octauianus Augustus Emperour of Rome as Pliny testifieth diuided this country into eleuen shires Constantine the Great as Rubeus in his second booke of the history of Rauenna saith into seuenteen Or into eighteen as I read in the one and twentieth chapter of the second booke of Diaconus his history of Lombardy Aelianus writeth that it was beautified in his time with 1197. cities This is that same countrie which when word was brought of the rising of the Gauls at what time as L. Aemilius Paulus and Caius Attilius Regulus were Consuls of it selfe without any forren aid yea and without the help of those which dwelt beyond the Po mustered 80000. horsemen and 700000. footmen Polybius saith that in the time of Hanniball the trained-men of this countrie were 700000. fotmen and 70000. horsemen Pliny maketh these Ilands to belong to Italy Sicilia Sardinia Corsica Oglasa Monte di Christo or Ianuti Planar a Vrgon Gorgona Capraria Aegilium Gilio Dianium Moenaria Melora Columbaria Venaria Chia or Elba Planasia Planosa Astura Stora Palmaria Palmarola Sinonia Pontiae Pandataria Palmaia Prochyta Prosida Aenaria Ischia Megaris Ouo Caprea Capri or Campanella Leucothea Licoso Cuniculariae Sanguenares or two ilands one called Bizze the other Speragia Herculis insula Asinaria Enosis S. Pierro Ficaria Serpentaria Belerides Tauro and Vacca Callodes Hera lutra Leucatia Pontia Ponzo Iscia Ithacesia Praca Braces and Turrecula and Vlyssis spelunca To these I adde the Aeoliae Merleiae Parthenope Palmosa or Betente Diomedeae de Trimite Calypson and D oscoron together with the Electrides which I find recited and named in Pomponius Mela and Antoninus ITALIAE VETERIS SPECIMEN EX NVMMO AEREO IMP. CAES. VESPASIANI AVG. EX NVMMO AEREO IMP. CAES. ANTONINI PII AVG. Cum Privilegio Imp. Reg. et Cancellariae Brabantiae decennali evulgabat Abrahamus Ortelius ITALY of the GAVLS THis part of Italy in times past was called Gallia For the old writers did extend the borders of Gallia from the ocean sea eastward euen to the riuer Rubicon Runcone or Rugoso Therefore the Alpes running through the middest of it diuideth it into two parts this they call TRANSALPINA and Gallia vlterior Gallia beyond the Alpes or the further Gallia this which we haue heere set out in this mappe CISALPINA Subalpina and Citerior Gallia on this side the Alpes vnder the Alpes or the hither Gallia Ausonius nameth it Gallia the Old so doth Solinus where he writeth that the Vmbri are an ancient issue and branch sprong from the old Gauls Liuy in his 45. booke nameth it Gallia without any addition And for that all this part in processe of time was comprehended vnder the name of Italy therefore of Appian in his Annibalica it is called by a fit name to distinguish it from that other part ITALIA GALLICA The booke of records of the Prouinces nameth it ITALIA MEDITERRANEA Midland Italy In this part was also conteined that prouince which was called GALLIA TOGATA Moreouer this was named ARIMINIVM as you may read in the 28. booke of Liuies Decades except the place be corrupt Silius Italicus in his 9. booke calleth the people of this place Celtes dwelling vpon the riuer Eridanus or Po. In this circuite of ground which Tacitus nameth the most flourishing side of Italy are the Eighth Ninth Tenth and Eleuenth shires of Italy according to the diuision of Augustus This selfe same tract is of the riuer Padus Po which watereth it and diuideth it in the middest diuided into two parts namely GALLIA TRANSPADANA and CISPADANA Gallia beyond the Po and Gallia on this side the Po. This later Cispadana alone in Ptolemey doth conteine that which otherwise was called Togata Vnder this diuision were the Ligures comprehended who as we haue obserued in ancient writers long since dwelt vp as high as the riuer Po. If there be any credit to be giuen to the Origines a booke which commonly goeth vnder the name of Cato this same prouince was also called AEMILIA FELSINA AVRELIA and BIANORA Polybius saith that the forme of this whole tract of Gallia is triangular or three cornered whose toppe or vertex as the Geometricians call it is made by the meeting of the Alpes and Apenninus that mountaine that runneth through the middest of Italy from one end to the other The base or ground line is the Hadriaticke sea Golfo di Venetia Moreouer he addeth that in it are the greatest champion plaines and most fertile fields of all Europe It is euery where full of woods good pastorage for the feeding of cattell and well watered with many pleasant brookes and riuers and hath had in it twelue great and goodly cities so built and seated that they had all things necessary either for the enriching of themselues conueniently or maintenance and prouision for to liue gallantly as Plutarch doth witnesse in the life of Camillus The same also Pliny doth affirme who in like maner saith that it is three cornered and as in Delta a prouince of Egypt the riuer Nilus so heere Po doth emptie it selfe and falleth into the ocean sea Which riuer Po as Strabo saith doth water this plaine maketh it fertile and also distinguisheth it by many most fruitfull hils into diuers and sundrie parts This is that riuer which antiquity called Eridanus famous for the poeticall or fabulous story of Phaëton Virgil calleth it The king of Riuers Claudian giueth it the title of Oloriferus the swanne-bearing streame Pliny nameth it Auriferum the golden streame and moreouer saith that for clearenesse it is not inferiour to any riuer whatsoeuer It issueth out of the bosome of Vesulus Veso the highest hill of all the Alpes where first arising out of many small fountaines it draweth to head then hiding it selfe or running vnderneath the ground for many furlongs together at last riseth againe not farre from Forum-Vibij or Vibi Forum From thence many huge lakes emptying tnemselues into it accompanied with thirty other riuers it vnladeth it selfe by manie mouthes into the Hadriaticke bay or Gulfe of Venice into which it falleth so swiftly and with such violence that forcing backe the billowes and tide it keepeth his own channell in the sea and as Pomponius speaketh maketh the waters fresh and potable amid the brackish surges of the same Pliny writeth that in the Ligurian language it was named Bodincus that is as Scepsius there doth interpret it Bottomlesse In these quarters amongst others the Gauls did sometimes dwell who first of all mortall men made war vpon the Romanes tooke the city of Rome sacked and burnt it the Capitoll onely being preserued vntouched This is that part of Italy which as Pliny writeth to his familiar friend Iunius Mauricus retaineth euen to this day much of that ancient frugality and good husbandrie of our ancestours In the fifth booke of Straboes Geographie and in the second booke of Polybius history you haue an excellent and large description of this country Of Venice a shire of this prouince read Cassiodore in the
mention of the Latinienses a nation of this prouince but extinct something before his time as he there addeth These were called Prisci as Halicarnasseus and Festus doe testifie Of the nature of this countrey Strabo in the fifth booke of his Geography writeth thus All Latium sayth he generally is a very good soile and fertile of all maner of things except only some certeine places neere the sea coast which are morish and very vnhealthfull as namely the fields about Ardea and whatsoeuer is betweene Lauinium and Antium euen as farre as Pometia with some places about Setia and others neere Tarracina and Circeium beside all those fields that are stony and mountainous although euen these grounds are not altogether idle and vnfruitfull all of them hauing either some good pastures and large woods or doe yeeld great abundance of fenny and mountainous commodities Caecubum a place in this fenne doth yeeld a kinde of vine which groweth vp in height like a tree whose wine is counted to be the best of all Italy Heare also what Theophrastus writeth of this prouince in the fift booke of his history of Plants at the ninth chapter of the same booke Latinus ager the countrey of Latium sayth he hath great plenty of water The champion plaines haue great store of laurell and myrtle trees item they yeeld a wonderfull kinde of beech scissima he calleth it or oxea as others terme it of that maruellous length that one tree may serue for a whole keele for such kinde of ships as they commonly vse in Etruria The hilly and mountainous places doe beare the pine and firre trees Pliny doth highly commend the wines of Latium Latiniensia vina The same authour affirmeth that their chiefe meat was far that is a kinde of bearded or redde wheat and withall testifieth that it is certaine that the Romans for a long time together liued with puls by which they vnderstand all maner of corne beside wheat and barley not with bread How populous this countrey was how many cities and people it conteined the same authour doth teach vs where he writeth that in Old Latium only three and fiftie nations are vtterly decayed and extinct without any mention at all remaining of their names Item that Pomptina palus the fen Pontina now called Aufente palude a part also of this countrey had in former times in it three and twentie cities Of all the cities of Latium in olde time Alba longa was the chiefe and metropolitan but afterward Rome which grew to that greatnesse and power that it was not only the head of this prouince but also euen of the whole world beside Whos 's other name because it is held an vnlawfull thing to speake that which is concealed and enrowled in ceremonious mysteries I will not vtter lest with Valerius Soranus I be worthily punished for the same Yet the syrnames epithets and commendable titles where with it was graced and set out by the best writers of all nations if I shall here reckon vp I hope there is no man that is an indifferent Iudge that will blame me It is called and intituled a citie AEQVAEVA POLO As ancient as the heauens of Claudian AETERNA Immortall of Ammianus Tibullus Ausonius and marble inscriptions ALTA Stately by Virgil ALTRIX IMPERII The Nurse of the empire by Corippus ALTRIX ORBIS The Nurse of the world of Rutilius ANTIQVA The ancient by Prudentius and Corippus ARX OMNIVM GENTIVM The fortresse or bulwarke of all nations by Nazarius ARX TERRARVM The bulwarke of all lands by Symmachus AVGVSTA The imperiall by Corippus AVREA The golden by Ausonius and Prudentius BEATA NOBILIBVS POPVLIS Most happy for honourable people of Cassiodorus BELLATRIX The warlike by Ouid Claudian and Sidonius CAPVT GENTIVM The head of all nations by Martianus CAPVT IMMENSI ORBIS The head of the huge globe of the whole world by Ouid CAPVT MVNDI The head of the world by Cassiodorus and Sidonius CAPVT ORBIS The head of the earthly globe by Pliny Ouid Trogus Gratius Fortunatus Aethicus and Prudentius CAPVT RERVM The head of all things by Liuy Ouid Ausonius and Tacitus CAELESTIS The heauenly by Athenaeus CELEBERRIMA The most famous by Statius CELSA The lofty by Prudentius CLARISSIMA The most bright by Stephanus DARDANIA Of Dardanus by Ouid and Silius Italicus DEA The goddesse in coines DEA GENTIVM The goddesse of all nations and DEA TERRARVM The goddesse of all lands by Martiall DESIDERABILIS That all men wish to see by Eustathius and Dionysius Afer DEVM LOCVS The seat and place of gods by Ouid DICNITATVM CVRIA The court of dignities and honour by Sidonius DITISSIMA The most rich by Prudentius DOMINA The mistresse by Ouid Arnobius Horace and Nemesianus DOMINA GENTIVM The lady mistresse of all nations by Eumenius DOMINA RERVM The mistresse of all things by Appianus Eunapius and Ausonius DOMINA TERRARVM The lady mistresse of all lands by Ammianus DOMINA TERRAE MARISQVE The lady mistresse of sea and land by Halicarnasseus DOMINA TOTIVS MVNDI The lady mistresse of all the whole world of Aethicus DOMINA VNIVERSORVM The lady of all things by Halicarnasseus DOMINANS The swey-bearing city by Silius Italicus DOMVS AVREA The golden palace by Ausonius DOMVS DIVVM The palace of the gods by Ausonius DOMVS MAGNA REGVM The goodly palace of kings by Eustathius and Dionysius Afer DOMVS QVIRINI Quirinus palace by Ausonius ELOQVENTIAE FOECVNDA MATER A fruitfull mother of eloquence by Castiodore EXCELSA The lofty by Lucane FELIX The blessed by Propertius Cassiodor and a certeine ancient marble inscription FEROX The fierce by Horace FVTVRA by Rutilius GENETRIX HOMINVM ET DEORVM The mother of men and gods by Rutilius GENITRIX REGVM The mother of kines by Priscian GYMNASIVM LITERARVM A schoole of good learning and liberall sciences by Sidonius IMMENSA The exceeding great city by Statius IMPERII LAR by Ammianus IMPERII LATIALE CAPVT by Statius IMPERII DEVMQVE LOCVS The natiue countrey of emperours and of gods by Ouid INCLYTA The renowmed by Virgil Ennius and Ausonius INVICTA The inuincible in some old coines LAETA The fortunate by Ouid LATII PARENS The mother of Latium by Ausonius LEGVM DOMICILIVM The mansion place of all good lawes and iustice by Sidonius LEGVM PATRIA The natiue soile where all good lawes are bred and borne by Iustinian in his Code LIBERTATIS PARENS The mother of liberty LATIVM Ex Conatibus Geographicis Abrah Ortelij Antverp MONS CIRCAEVS AD VIVVM DELINEATVS AB ANGELO BREVENTANO VIRO NOBILI ET HISTORICO ILLVSTRI MARCO VELSERO PATRICIO AVGVSTANO ABRAHAMVS ORTELIVS DEDICABAT L.M. Cum privilegio decennali Imp. Reg. et Brabantiae 1595. by Corippus LVX ORBIS TERRARVM The light of the whole earth by Tully MAGNA The great by Virgil Horace Calpurnius Siculus Nonn Marcelunus On d and Claudian MARTIA The martiall by Ouid and Ausonius MARTIGENA Begotten by Mars the god of battell by Silius Italicus MARTIS
read that euery one of his mouthes whereby it emptieth it selfe into the sea are so wide and great that it is affirmed to ouercome the sea for forty miles in length together and that so farre the waters may be perceiued to be sweet amid the brackish surges of the salt sea Polybius in his fourth booke to these adioineth that by the violent and swift fall of the waters of this riuer into Pontus Mar maiore there are certaine knols hils or shelfs which the sea-men call Stethe that is breast bones made of the gathering together of such things as the riuer bringeth downe with it and are more than a day saile off from land vpon which oft times the seamen falling by negligence are in great danger of shipwracke Strabo also maketh mention of the same They which desire to know more of this riuer his name nature quality fountaine mouthes and streames which do runne into it let him read the commentaries of William Stuckius written vpon Arrianus Periplus of the Euxine sea for there he hath most plentifully and learnedly descr bed all these things Of the Thracians Moesians Getes Dakes and other countries nations and people of this mappe read the seuenth booke of Straboes Geography and the Epitome of the same PONTVS EVXINVS now called MAR MAIORE THe sea which heere we purpose to describe famoused of ancient writers by meanes of the Argonantes and fabulous story of the golden fleece was called as we find recorded by diuers and sundrie names first it was called PONTVS by the figure Synecdoche then PONTVS AXENVS that is inhospitale the harbourlesse sea but afterward it was named PONTVS EVXINVS hospitale mare the good harborough as Pliny Ouid and others do witnesse Strabo Tacitus Plutarch Ptolemey and Iornandes do call it PONTICVM mare the Ponticke sea without any addition at all Lucretius nameth it PONTI mare the sea of Pontus of the country Pontus abuttant vpon it For the same reason it is of Valerius Flaccus Ouid and Martianus named SARMATICVM and SCYTHICVM mare the Sarmatian and Scythian sea of Claudian AMAZONIVM of Herodotus and Orosius CIMMERIVM of Festus Auienus TAVRICVM of the Sarmatians Scythians Amazones Cimmerians and Tauri certaine Nations dwelling vpon the coast of this sea Of the prouince Colchis neighbour vnto it vpon the East Strabo nameth it COLCHICVM mare of the mountaine Caucasus which heere beginneth Apollonius intituleth it CAVCASEVM of the riuer Phasis which vnloadeth it selfe into this sea or towne of that name situate vpon that riuer Aristides calleth it PHASIANVM mare Procopius saith that it was sometime named Tanais vnfitly and falsly as I thinke Almost all ancient writers haue likened this sea or more truly this bay or gulfe vnto a Scythian bow when it is bent so that the string doth represent the South part of it namely from the streights of Constantinople vnto the further end of it Eastward toward the riuer Phasis for excepting only the promontory Carambis Cabo Pisello all the rest of this shore hath such small capes and creekes that it is not much vnlike to a right line The other side or North part doth resemble an horne that hath two crooked ends the vpper end more round the lower more straight which proportion this our mappe doth very precisely expresse This sea also hath two promontories one in the South then called Promontorium Carambis now Cabo Pisello the other in the North Ptolemey nameth it Criou metopon Arietis frons the rammes head Paulus Diaconus calleth it Acroma and now it is knowen by the name Famar These two capes are opposite one against the other and are distant one from another about 2500. furlongs as Ammianus and Eustathius do testifie which although they do make 312. Italian miles yet they are distant only 170. miles as Pliny saith or as Strabo reporteth so much as a ship will saile in three daies notwithstanding to those which do saile either from the East to West or from West to East they seeme to be so neere one to the other that one would thinke that there were the end of the sea and that Pontus Euxinus were two seas but when you shall come in the middest between these two capes then the other part appeareth as it were a second or another sea The compasse of it round about by the shore Strabo maketh to be 25000. furlongs Polybius but 22000. and yet from this Ammianus taketh 2000. and that by the authority of Eratosthenes Hecataeus and Ptolemey as there he affirmeth Herodotus an eie-witnesse of the same writeth that he measured the length of it and found it to be 11100. furlongs and likewise he found the breadth of it where it was furthest ouer to be 320. furlongs This measure Strabo and Pliny in the twelfth chapter of his fourth booke do more distinctly partly out of their owne and partly out of other mens opinions set downe Strabo writeth that about 40. riuers do vnloade themselues into it Yet this our mappe doth shew many more Antiquity doth hold that this sea of all our seas was by farre the greatest heere hence I suppose that the Italians haue giuen it that name of Mar maiore the Great sea and that heere as there at Caliz without the straits of Gibraltar was the end of the World and that it was innauigable both for the huge greatnesse of it as also by reason of the barbarous nations which daily did annoy the shore and vse all maner of cruelty and inhumanity toward strangers and aliens From hence arose those epithites and adiuncts giuen by the ancient poets to this sea of Pontus vast and rough Virgil and Catullus call it Ouid infinite and terrible Lucane a deuouring and dangerous sea Silius raging Statius an vncertaine and swelling sea Valerius Flaccus perilous Manilius horrible spitefull and furious Seneca mad and churlish Festus Auienus raucisonum making a hoarse ill fauoured noise Thus farre of the Names Forme and bignesse of this sea of the Situation and Nature of the same although Herodotus Pomponius Strabo Pliny Ouid and Macrobius that I may say nothing of others haue spoken much yet in mine opinion no man hath done it more exactly and diligently than Ammianus in his 22. booke whom he that listeth may adioine to this our discourse and if he be not satisfied with these he may to them adde a whole booke written by Arrianus of this sea together with the large commentaries of Struckius vpon the same As for vs we will content our selues in this place with a few peculiar obseruations of this sea gleaned heere and there out of the ancient monuments of learned writers of former ages It is sweet or at leastwise more sweet than other seas moreouer the waters of it are more light than others and do neuer ebbe and flow but alwaies keep one and the same stint of running one way as Lucrece Macrobius Pliny and Ouid do witnesse Which I take to be the cause that sometime it hath all been frozen
PONTVS EVXINVS Aequor Iasonio pulsatum remige primum Ex conatibus geographicis Abrahami Ortelij Cum Priuilegio Imp. Reg. et Belgico Ad decennium 1590. THRACE VNder the name of THRACIA many and diuerse countries with sundry people are comprehended for except the Indies it is the greatest country of the world as Herodotus doth testifie for Pliny doth confine it by the riuer Ister Pontus Propontis the Aegean sea and the riuer Strymon Yea and Strabo in the first booke of his Geography according to the opinion of Homer extendeth it as farre that way as the riuer Peneus which riuer Ptolemey attributeth to Macedonia Marcellinus maketh the Scordisci to be a people of this country Appianus to these conioineth the Illyrians So also doth Mela vpon the West who moreouer vpon the South to it doth assigne the mount Athos Many of the ancient writers likewise doe make the peninsula or demy-iland Pallene a portion belonging to this country Yea if one may credit Eratosthenes the hill Olympus doth part Macedonia from Thrace And the Epitome of Strabo in his seuenth booke maketh yet a farre other description of the bounds of this region For in Strabo himselfe the description of Thracia is wholly missing This Epitome I say seuereth Thrace from Macedony by the mouth of the riuer Nessus Yea and indeed in succedent ages the compasse of this country was not much lesse for Ammianus Procopius Sextus Rufus and the booke of Records Notitiarum do diuide it into these sixe shires or prouinces Moesia the Second or Lower Scythia Europa peculiarly calling this part by the generall name of that quarter of the world wherein the whole did stand Rhodopa Haemimontus and Thracia properly and specially so called Heere hence it is that in Trebellius and Orosius there is mention made of the THRACIA'S in the plurall number Yet this our Mappe is not so farre extended toward the North. For we haue indeed followed the description of Ptolemey in butting and bounding it who seuereth it from other Northren countries by the mount Haemus And this true THRACIA we do thinke to haue beene so named of the inchanting Nymph Thraca as Eustathius out of Athenaeus teacheth vs hauing been in former times called PERCA And had beene also sometime as many do verily thinke knowne by the names of ARIA ODRYSA CRESTONIA and SCYTONIA Iosephus a most graue authour affirmeth that it was of the Iewes called THYRAS The abouenamed Ptolemey in it nameth these foureteene shires Dantheletica Sardica Vsdicefica Selletica Moedica Drosica Coeletica Sapaica Corpialica Coenica Bessica Bennica Samaica and Vrbana Plinie diuideth it into fifty or two and fifty as I remember Dalechampius hath Regiments Strategiae shirewickes I thinke they call them in some places of England Hundreds or Wapentakes I would call them This Thracia properly so called Ammianus likeneth vnto the halfe Moone or to a Theater whose higher part is enclosed with high and steep mountaines which do diuide this same country from Dacia The lower part openeth toward the Aegean sea Of the nature and quality of this country Virgil speaketh on this manner Terra procul vastis colitur Mauortia campis A martiall country li'th farre off vast champions it conteinth Plutarch teacheth vs that it hath in it many huge fennes and bogges and that it is diuided or crossed this way and that way by diuerse deep and dangerous riuers Pliny saith that the soile of Thracia is very fertile for all manner of corne and commendeth the wheat of the same for waight and heauinesse Item for goodnesse he affirmeth that this kinde of wheat possesseth the third place Athenaeus testifieth that it beareth some vines especially about Biblina which otherwise is called Oesyma Item Pliny highly commendeth Vinum Maroneum the wine of Marogna or Marolia as Lewnclawe calleth it Homer also affirmeth that the Achiui were wont by shippe to transport wines from Thace into Grecce Xenophon writeth that in the mount Pangeus there is a gold-mine and Strabo affirmeth the like to be about Philippi Heere also is the Thracian stone which is kindled by the water and quenched with oile as Pliny witnesseth But because no man of all the ancient writers hath better described this countrie than Pomponius Mela let vs heere him speake It is saith he a countrie that cannot much bragge either of the goodnesse of their soile or wholesomenesse of their aire nay indeed except it be in some place neere the sea coast it is barren cold and verie vnkinde to all things generally that are set sowne or laid into the same It seldome beareth any apple-trees or other fruit-trees yet vines do heere and there grow in diuers places but the grapes neuer ripen kindly or come to any perfection except in some places where the vine-dressers do by the leaues keepe the cold from them It is a countrey much more kinde to men yet they are none of the properest for they are very clownish vnhandsome and rough hewed fellowes but otherwise for number and hardinesse for they are many and those very vnciuill this nation farre surpasseth others neere adioining This latter also is auerred by Pausanias who affirmeth it to containe such wonderfull multitudes of men that if you shall except France Gallia it may for ought that I know in all likely-hood for multitude of men be preferred before any countrie in the world Item Herodotus saith that next after the Indies it is the greatest countrey of the whole earth Liuy calleth it a desperate and most fierce Nation and Solinus he saith that they are a verie stout and hardy people Sextus Rufus maketh them the most cruell and furious people that euer he saw or heard of which Florus well expresseth by this example when he writeth that certaine of them being taken by the Romanes and giued as the manner of captiises is did bite the fetters and manacles with their teeth and so themselues to haue sufficiently punished their owne barbarous cruelty and that there are of their parents euen from their cradle trained vp to this wild inhumane kinde of life Sidonius doth teach vs in these words Excipit hic natos glacies matris ab aluo Artus infantum molles nix cimbrica durat Pectore vixaliter quisquam sed ab vbere tractus Plus potat per vulnus equum sic lacte relicto Virtutem gens tota bibit Creuere parumper Mox pugnam ludunt iaculis hos suggerit illis Nutrix plaga iocos pueri venatibus apti Lustra feris vacuant rapto ditata iuuentus Iura colit gladij consummatámque senectam Non ferro finire pudet Tali ordine vitae Ciues Martis agunt So soone as infant heere is borne The thing they say is sure To frost and snow their tender limmes They presently inure Scarce one of many thousands heere Doth sucke the Nurces teate Warme blood of warlike horses heere For most part 's infants meat This diet mak'th them bold and hard And as they come to growth They
this iland sometime had and the mappe will shew that I out of Latine and Greeke writers haue gathered the names of many more The student of Geography if he please may haue a larger description of this iland in the 5 booke of Diodorus Siculus Seneca also in his Consolation to Albinus and likewise againe in his verses describeth the same The ILANDS of the IONIAN SEA THe Ilands of the Ionian sea of better note are these Corcyra Cephalenia Zacynthus Ithaca Leucadia and Echinades of which seuerally take these few lines CORCYRA now called Corfu the natiue soile of Alcinous as Dionysius saith was called CERCYRA as also long since by diuers other names as PHAEACIA SCHERIA DREPANVM CERAVNIA ARGOS MACRIS and as some thinke CASSIOPE as thou maist see more particularly in our Geographicall Treasury This iland grew to such great strength and power as Eustathius writeth that it subdued many other ilands and cities and brought them vnder their command Item that it was so strong in shipping that it alone in the Persian warre did set out and furnish threescore shippes Yet afterward it was brought to that desolation that of it became this prouerbe Cercyra est libera caca vbi volueris Corfu is emptie now you may vntrusse where you list There is another Corcyra different from this in the Hadriaticke sea named otherwise Melaena CEPHALENIA otherwise called MELAENA SAMOS and TAPHOS as also DVLICHIVM as some men haue written by the testimony of Strabo Eustathius and Tzetzes haue written that it was sometime inhabited of foure sundrie nations namely of the Pronij Samij Palenses and the Cranij to these Liuy addeth the Nesiotae In this iland if one may trust Aelianus the Goates drinke not for the space of six moneths together Looke in the discourse of Zacynthus following In Antigonus we read that a certaine riuer runneth through the middest of it vpon the one side of which there are great store of grasse-hoppers and on the other side not one ZACYNTHVS now Zante and as Erythraeus saith somtime Hierusalem HYRIA it was in old time called and CASSIOPA the poet nameth it Nemorosa woody These ilanders Athenaeus saith are no good souldiers the reason he yeeldeth to be for that they be very wealthy and haue such plenty of all things that they giue themselues to nought else but to their ease and pleasure The Phalangium a kind of spider is heere more dangerous and hurtfull to mankind than in any place of the world beside as AElianus saith So long as the Etesiae East windes which rise ordinarily in the dogge daies blow the Goates stand yawning and gaping with their noses vp into the North and are so satisfied therewith that they looke after no water nor euer care for drinke as Antigonus hath left recorded That in this iland there is a caue commonly called Coeranium Plutarch in his booke of the comparisons of beasts doth affirme It hath a fountaine very full of fish out of which great store of pitch is taken if we may giue credit to Ctesias Item heere F. Desiderius Lignamineus Patauinus writeth that he found this Epitaph of Cicero M. TVLLI CICERO HAVE God be with thee good Cicero which he saith was in the yeare 1544. Adamus Tefellenius Louaniensis in his Iournall a manuscript copy of which M. Hadrian Marselar lent me to read ouer writeth that he in this iland in the yeare of Christ 1550. handled the bones of Cicero and read vpon his tombe this epitaph Ille oratorum princeps gloria linguae Romanae iacet hac cum coniuge Tullius vrna Tullius ille inquam de se qui scripserat olim O fortunatam natam me consule Romam The learned Tully who for fined tongue in Rome had neuer peere With louing wife in clay full low lie both enterred heere That Tully great I meane who of himselfe sometime thus proudlie said Now Rome thou blessed art indeed since I thy scepter swaied ITHACA which was also in old time called NERITIA of Neritus a mountaine if I be not deceiued is now vulgarly of the Italians called Valle di Compare and as Porcaccius saith Teachi of the Turkes as the learned Lewnclawe writeth Phiachi Moreouer in the 10. booke of Straboes Geography I find that there is heere a city called Ithaca which Plutarch in his Greeke Questions nameth Alalcome but Stephanus Alcomenae Athenaeus writeth that it hath many hauens but withall is very mountainous rough and craggie so that it will not easily without great and infinite labour and toile yeeld any small or meane profit vnto the husbandmen as Plutarch telleth vs. In Porphyry out of the writings of Artimedorus I read that this iland from Panormus an hauen of Cephalina lieth Eastward and conteineth in compasse 85. furlongs It is very narrow but high In it is as the same authour with Homer doth witnesse a caue of the Nymphs We read in Antigonius that it breedeth no Hares at all Except it had been the natiue soile and country where Vlysses was borne there had no mention at all of it remained in any recordes of ancient writers LEVCAS or LEVCADIA now S. Maura although Pliny maketh it but a peninsula or demy-ile yet Mela calleth it flatly an iland That it was made an iland and was seuered from the maine continent yet afterward by force and violence of windes ioined to the same againe Strabo doth teach vs. In a very high foreland or promontory of this I le AElianus describeth the temple of Apollo Aelius from whence yearely they were wont to tumble some one or other downe into the sea headlong thereby to appease the wrath and fury of their Gods as Strabo hath left recorded ECHINADES Echidnae Seneca in his Troas and Euripides in Iphegenia in Aulide call them but Stephanus Echinae so named of the great multitude of the Echini Vrchines or Hedge-hogges which do greatly infect this iland Apollodorus calleth them STROPHADES now they are knowen by the name of the Cozzulari they are as Ouid in the 8. booke of his Metamorphosis writeth in number 5. these were also part of the continent as Pausanias in his Arcadia testifieth their forme and fashion is often altered and changed by the ebbing and flowing if I may so speake of the mudde of the riuer Achelous Aspri or Pachicolamo at whose mouth they stand as Strabo would faine perswade vs. Neere these are the Taphiae and Acutae otherwise called Thoae Plutarch in his treatise of the ceassing of oracles telleth a story or fable rather worth the reading of the death of Pan which tell out about these ilands AFRICA PROPRIA AFRICA properly so called AS that part of Asia which is inclosed with Mar Maiore Archipelago Midland sea and the riuer Euphrates is of the Geographers properly called Asia so this part of Africa aboue all other prouinces of the same hath alwayes hitherto beene knowen by the name of AFRICA PROPRIA This also is worth the obseruation that in all ancient stories when Asia or
much the more neerely vnto him Pausanias saith that in Motya a city of Sicilia there was the statue or counterfet of this our Vlysses but by Nero the Emperour it was from thence transported to Rome in Italy And thus much of this braue Captaine Qui mores hominum multorum vidit vrbes who as the Poet writeth of him saw many mens maners and knew many cities Of whom also thus speaketh Ouid Si minùs errasset notus minùs esset Vlysses If great Vlysses had not strai'd he had beene more obscure But of him I will speake no more lest peraduenture with the Grammarians I bee hit in the teeth with that of Diogenes who said that while they did search diligently to know all the crosses and euils that befell Vlysses did forget their owne And moreouer that worthy admonition of wise Seneca where he saith Quid proderit inquirere vbi Vlysses errauerit quà m ne nos semper erremus What shall it auaile vs to seeke where and which way Vlysses wandred more then to restraine vs that we do not in like maner alwaies wander as he did And now it is high time to take penne from paper As for those coines which we haue spoken of before I wish thee to repaire to Goltzius and others which haue at large and peculiarly handled that argument A description of the RED SEA now vulgarly called The INDIAN SEA MARE ERYTHRAEVM or as the Latines call it MARE RVBRVM The Red Sea which heere we offer to thy view in this Mappe for as much as we can gather out of ancient writers stretcheth it selfe from the West as Liuy writeth along by the coast of Africa or Aethiopia euen vnto India in East yea and beyond that I know not how farre as Arrianus testifieth whereupon Ptolemey Pliny and Melado call it MARE INDICVM The Indian Sea But Herodotus calleth it MARE PERSICVM The Persian Sea Which Pliny doth seeme to iustifie to be true where he saith That the Persians do dwell along by the coast of the Red Sea between the coast of Africa and the iland Taprobana Strabo that worthy Geographer he calleth it MARE MAGNVM The Great sea who moreouer doth affirme it to be a part of the Atlanticke sea and that truly A part of this sea to wit where it toucheth the coast of that Aethiopia which lieth beneath Aegypt Pliny of the countrie Azania which at this day some do thinke to bee called Xoa nameth it MARE AZANIVM Where it ioineth with the Bay of Arabia it is of Ptolemey named HIPPADIS PELAGVS now called of some Archiplago di Maldiuar Item of the same Ptolemey it is otherwise called BARBARICVS SINVS The Barbarian bay I meane in that place where it beateth vpon Aethiopia and the iland Menuthesia now of the seamen generally called The iland of Saint Laurence but of that country people Madagascar and of Theuet Albagra There are two Baies or Gulfes as the Italians and Spaniards terme them of this sea much talked of in all ancient histories to wit SINVS PERSICVS The Persian Bay and SINVS ARABICVS The Arabian Bay which some not well read in old writers do for the most part call Mare Rubrum The Red Sea Very improperly being indeed but a part of that sea properly called the Red sea which we haue hitherto spoken of But why it was of the Greekes named Erythraeum and of the Latines Rubrum Red it is a great question amongst the learned not yet decided Some there are which do deeme it to haue beene called The Red Sea of the colour of the water but this of all late writers trauellers seamen and other eie-witnesses of good credit which haue in this our age euery day do saile through this Sea haue diligently viewed the same is improued and found to be altogether false Moreouer Qu. Curtius amongst the ancients doth plainly testifie that it differeth no whit in colour from other seas Some there are as Pliny writeth which do thinke that by reason of the reuerberation of the Sunne beames it seemeth to cast vp such a like colour to the sight of the beholders Others doe thinke that this is caused by reason of the colour of the sand or earth in the bottom of the same others do affirm it to be the very nature of the water Some do write that it was so named of king Erythrus Perseus sonne whose tombe as Quintus Curtius writeth did in his time remaine in a certaine iland of this sea not farre distant from the maine land Strabo calleth this iland Tyrina Pliny and Pomponius Mela Ogyris Arrianus Oaracta or else of a certaine Persian named Erythras as the forenamed Strabo giueth out Who as Pliny with him testifieth in a small barke or barge first sailed through this sea and discouered the same Which story also is at large handled by Agatarchides Yet our authour calleth him Hippalus who first found out the course to saile through the middest of this sea Pliny by that name calleth the wind by which they make their iourneis through this sea So called as is very probable of the inuentour Which wind the same authour in the thirteenth chapter of his 6. booke maketh the same that Fauonius is vnto the Latines Mela Agatarchides do call it a tempestuous stormy rough and deepe sea Pliny Philostratus Elianus Athenaeus do giue it the title of Margaritiferum the pearle-bearing sea And the same Pliny maketh it Arboriferum a tree-bearing sea For he writeth in the fiue and twentieth chapter of his thirteenth booke that it is full of groues and tall woods the toppes of whose high trees he affirmeth are seene much aboue the waters and therfore at high tide they vse to fasten their shippes vnto the toppes and at the ebbe vnto the roots of the same Item the same authour in the two and twentieth chapter of the sixth booke of his Naturall historie writeth that about Colaicum which also is called Colchi or as Solinus affirmeth about Tapobrana an iland not farre hence the sea is of a very greenish colour and so full of trees that their toppe boughes are barked and brushed with the rudders or sterne of those ships that saile this way Moreouer that trees do grow in this sea Megasthenes out of Antigonus de Mirabilibus doth affirme which Plutarch in his Naturall questions and againe in his booke de facie Lunae doth auouch to be true where he doth particularly nominate some of them to wit Oliue-trees Bay-trees and Plocamus which otherwise they call Isidis Capillus This also Strabo in the sixth booke of his Geography iustifieth to be true so doth the forenamed Pliny who teacheth vs that it is a plant much like to corall without leaues Agatarchides saith that it resembleth much the blacke rush Athenaeus out of Philonides the Physician writeth that the vine was first brought from the Redde-sea and planted in Greece In the eigth chapter of the fourth booke of Theophrastus his history of plants you may reade of diuerse
pleasant Tempe in Thessalia Tempe quae syluae cingunt super impendentes The Tempe which the ouer-hanging groues do round inclose as Catullus the poet in his Argonautickes hath left recorded It is as Pliny saith about three lands breadths ouer sesqui iugerum AElianus calleth it Plethrum The length which they do define to be from the mouth of the riuer Gannum euen vnto the bay now vulgarly called Golfo di Salonichi then Sinus Thermaeus is as Liuy testifieth fiue miles or as AElianus saith which is all one forty furlongs These mountaines Liuy writeth are so high steepe and craggy on all sides that a man may scarce looke downe from off the toppe of them without a dazling of the eies and giddinesse of the braine The noise also and depth of the riuer Peneus which runneth through the middest of the valley is very terrible Pliny saith that the stately toppes of these mountaines on euery side do rise by little and little vp higher into the aire than a man may well discern Within these hils the goodly riuer Peneus doth runne which for his crystall waters rowling ouer the smooth pebbles the goodly meddowes and grasse alwaies fresh and green vpon the bankes the ouerhanging groues and trees continually resounding with the melodious harmony of sweet singing birds is so pleasant and delightsome as any in the world beside But because all these authours haue spoken of it as it were by the way and not of set purpose I thinke it not amisse to set downe in this place the description of it done by AElianus as you may read in the first chapter of his third booke De varia historia where it is most curiously and absolutely set out in his true and liuelie colours These therefore are his wordes There is a place between Olympus and Ossa the two loftiest mountaines of all Thessaly disioined one from another by the diuine prouidence of eternall God by a faire plaine or leuell running between them the length of this plaine or valley is fortie furlongs It is from one side to the other in some places two or three lands breadths ouer in some places it is somewhat broader Through the middest of this valley runneth the riuer Peneus into which also other riuers falling and mingling their waters with his do much encrease the streame of Peneus This place is most pleasant and delightsome by reason of his great varietie of all sorts of alluring and inticeing pleasures neuer made by any art or industry of man but by nature it selfe shewing all her skill in the beautifying of this valleie at such time as it was first made There is in this place great store of iuie alwaie green and flourishing alwaie budding and putting forth his pleasant slowres euer clinging and winding in maner like the goodlie vine about the tallest trees and clambring vp by little and little vntill it come euen to the verie toppe In the same places grow the aie-green yeugh-tree which lifting vp it selfe aloft vpon the rockes shaddoweth the caues holes and cliffes which beneath lie lurking in the vale All other things whatsoeuer do flourish blossome and beare flowers are there to be seene this is a most gallant and glorious shew for the eies to behold In the plaine when the sunne is at his height in summer you shall haue manie goodlie shaddowie groues and diuers places of shelter into which trauellers desirous for to refresh their wearied limmes from the violence of the heat and their noisome sweat do betake themselues as into the most pleasant and delightsomest innes and harboroughs that are in the world Moreouer of ouerflowing wels and pleasant springs of most coole and fresh waters running heere and there in sundrie places of this valleie there are verie manie and diuers which if we shall beleeue the report of our fathers haue been verie wholesome and soueraigne to sundrie sorts of diseased persons that haue washed themselues in the same Againe diuers birds heere and there dispersed in these groues and woods do make the guests great mirth at their banquets with their sweet singing and pleasant tunes especially those which haue the lowdest and sweetest voices do so please and hold the eares of the heares that those which passe by this waie are so rauished and delighted with this their musicke that they instantly forget all their trauels and businesse On ech banke of the riuer such are the delights pleasures and recreations for the wearied trauellers as before we haue mentioned Yet the riuer Peneus going on leasurely and smoothly like an oile runneth quietly through the middest of the Tempe About this riuer by reason of the trees which grow vpon the bankes and their farre-spreading boughs is a most goodly shade so that such as row in boates vp and downe vpon this streame for almost a whole day together may saile in the pleasant shade free from the violence and schorching heat of the sunne The people which dwell vpon this riuer do oft times meet in companies sometimes in one place and sometimes in another Hauing done diuine seruice and ceremonies in due forme and maner they banquet and make merrie Therefore those which do these seruices and performe these ceremonies being very many it is no maruell though such as come hither to walke for recreation those which trauell by this way or saile vp or downe this riuer vpon what occasion soeuer do continually smell a most sweet and fragrant sauour In this maner this place was consecrated with great honour religious seruices These things and many other hath Aelianus written of these Tempe TEMPE Delineatum et auditum auctore Ab. Ortelio cum privilegio decennali 1590. Est nemus Aemoniae praerupta quod undique claudit Silva vocant TEMPE per quae Penëus ab imo Effusus Pindo spumosis volvitur undis Ovid. i. Metamorph. Of these also Procopius although he nameth them not by name hath written in his fourth booke De Aedif. Iustiniani Imperatoris There is a braue description of these places in Catullus his Argonauticks But I thinke it good here to set downe out of diuers writers certaine seuerall things of these Tempe as they are here and there dispersed in their works Maximus Tyrius in his xxxix oration hath left recorded that diuine honour in olde time was done to the riuer Peneus for his maruellous goodly beautie and farre-surpassing cleere waters Pliny writeth that this riuer doeth admit into his channell the streame of the brooke Eurotas but so as it swimmeth aloft like oile and hauing caried it so for a certaine space casteth it off againe as refusing to quaint and intermeddle his siluer streame with his filthy stincking troubled waters The same authour sayth that here groweth great plentie of Laurell Polypody Dolichus a kinde of beane Wilde-time and Water-lilly but this hath a blacke flower if we may beleeue Apuleius Pausanias in his Phocica writeth that the temple of Apollo at Delphos was built of Laurell boughes which grew in this
place Mela and the Poets do speake of Ossa the mountaine memorable for the fabulous storie of the Giants who also doe report that the Lapithae a people of Thessaly did sometime dwell here In the same mountaine I reade in Polyaenus his fourth booke that Alexander King of Indica for so I do rather yeeld to haue it read than India as hitherto the interpretours haue set foorth seeing that Indica is a countrey hard by Pontus as Stephanus directly auerreth by hewing downe the craggie cliffes of this mountaine did make certaine small staires which sequent ages called Alexanders ladder Nere these Tempe there is a water described by Seneca and Pliny which is so ilfauoured and filthy that it will make any man affrayd to looke into it and which they say will eat and consume both brasse and yron Vitruuius also in the third chapter of his eighth booke saith That in Tessaly there is a well or spring of running water whereof no cattell will drinke nor any maner of beast will once come neere hard by this fountain is a tree which beareth a purple flower Thus far Vitruuius Of the mount Olympus which Homer in the second booke of his Odysses calleth The seat of the Gods Solinus out of the sixt booke of Varro De lingua Latina citeth That it riseth vp so exceeding high into the aire that the people neere adioyning do call his lofty top Heauen Lucane saith that it is higher than the clouds For it is tenne furlongs high as Plutarch in Aemilius by the authority of Xenagoras who measured it hath left recorded No bird nor fowle doth flie higher than the toppe of this hill as Apuleius in his booke intituled De Deo Socratis doth affirme In the very toppe of it there is an Altar built and consecrated to Iupiter where if any of the entrals of beasts sacrificed be left they are neither blowen about by the blustring blasts of the roughest windes nor dissolued by the dampish aire or washing stormie raines but the next yeere after that time twelue-moneth looke how they were left so they shall finde them and at all times and seasons of the yeere whatsoeuer is there once consecrated and offered to that God is preserued from all putrefaction and corruption of the aire Letters also written and drawen in the ashes doe so remaine vntill the next solemnity of the like rites and ceremonies the yeere following Thus farre Solinus Polyhistor Et nubibus intactum Macedo miratur Olympum The Macedonian braue admir'th Olympus top to see So high and stately far aboue the highest clouds to be as Claudian the poet hath spoken of it in his poeme of the warres of the Goths Of this mountaine Varro in his sixth booke De lingua Latina noteth that the Muses were named Olympiades And thus far generally of these Tempe which from the beginning had not this forme and goodly countenance as all ancient writers doe constantly with one consent affirme but the riuer Peneus being inclosed with mountaines and entertaining many riuers into it did all ouerflow the valley making it to stand full of water like a fenne or pond and afterward when the mountaines Olympus and Ossa which sometime did touch one another were disioyned and rent asunder which happened by reason of an earthquake as Strabo Seneca and Athenaeus haue written others as Herodotus Claudian and Philostratus do ascribe it to Neptune others as Diodorus and Lucane to Hercules and so by that meanes Peneus found an issue and way to vnload it selfe into the maine ocean whereby it came to passe that the valley was emptied and cleane dried vp By Stephanus in his booke of Cities I finde that this tract and plot of ground was first called LYTAE before it was disburdened of those waters Eurypides in his tragedy intituled Troades calleth it Semnan choran the sacred and honourable countrey Amongst the poets there is euery where much speech of this most goodly coast to wit in Virgill Ouid Horace Catullus Claudian Statius Lucan Flaccus and Seneca where you may obserue these epithites attributed and spoken of it some calling it Tempe Thessala Peneia Heliconia Phthiotica others Tempe Frigida Tenebrosa Nemorosa Opaca Gratissima Lucentia Oloria and Teumessia The paradise of Thessaly Peneus Helicon Phthiotis the colde shadowy woody coole kinde swanny and Teumessiam paradise although this latter with the singular learned man Hermolaus Barbarus I doe thinke not to belong properly to this place but rather vnto another most delightfull place in Boeotia where we learne out of Pausanias Strabo Stephanus and Hesychius that the mountaine Teumessus is seated For Lutatius the Grammarian I hold to be deceiued who calleth the place The city Trumessia Neither is this altogether an vnaccustomed thing or vnusuall amongst writers especially poets to vse this word Tempe and to speake it figuratiuely of other places famous for their many delightfull pleasures as you may see by Heloria Tempe a place in Sicilia and another in Tiburtina villa Latij a place in Villa Hadriani if you will giue credit to Spartianus in the life of the Emperour Hadrian againe there was a College in Athens knowen by this name So Dionysius and Priscianus do name Daphne the suburbs of Antioch Tempe Plutarch in Flaminius describeth a place neere the riuer Apsus Spirnasse or Vreo in Macedonia for pleasantnesse much resembling the Tempe Of these and such like places I cannot but I must needs adde these words of the Emperour Iulian vnto Libanius the sophister and so to end my speech of this most goodly valley Then saith he Batnae a city of Mesopotamia did entertaine me a place such as only Daphne the suburbs of Antioch in Syria excepted in all my life I neuer saw the like Daphne which now is compared to Batnae when as before excepting the temple and image I would not doubt not only to compare it but also farre to preferre it before Ossa Pelion Olympus and the Thessalian vallies c. he meaneth Tempe These Batnae are situate if any man be desirous to know in Osroëna a prouince of Mesopotamia as Zozimus and Stephanus doe thinke or in Anthemusia as Ammianus affirmeth in the way betweene Antioch of Syria and Carrae Thus farre of these Tempe But because I see that Daphne the suburbs of Antioch in Syria is of some writers conteined vnder this name and that it is as pleasant a place as the Tempe I will addresse my selfe to describe and tricke this out also but in the next page following not in this DAPHNE OR The pleasant Suburbs of Antiochia in Syria DAPHNE Ex utriusque lingua scriptoribus adumbriabat Ab. Ortelius Cum priuilegio decennali Aethicus or more truly Iulius Orator accounteth this Daphne yet falsly and vntruely he calleth it Daphe not Daphne amongst the most goodly and famous townes of the East sea Metaphrastes also in the life of S. Artemius maketh it a citie Claudian the Christian Poet calleth it Apollineum nemus Apollo's groue Dionysius Sacra Tempe The
thee to M. Camdens Britannia where this argument is handled at large and most learnedly Only in defence of Gaulfridus lest any man should thinke that I haue all this while spoken against his person I conclude with this sayng of a learned man of our time Cardanus ait sayth he illius aetatis scriptores tantopere mendacio fabulis fuisse delectatos vt in contentionem venerint quis plura confingeret Cardane sayth That the Historians and Writers of those times betweene foure hundred and fiue hundred yeeres since were so much delighted with fables and lies that they stroue who should lie fastest and win the whetstone It was you see the fault of the time and age wherein he liued not of the man The learned Oratour Tully in the second booke of his Offices as I remember thus describeth the vertues of a true Historiographer Ne quid falsi scribere audeat Ne quid veri non audeat Ne quam in scribendo suspitionem gratiae Ne quam simultatis ostendat A good Historian may not dare to write any thing that is false He may not be afrayd to write any thing that is true He must not shew any partiality or fauour in writing He ought to be void of all affection and malice Learned Antiquaries follow this good counsell of the graue Philosopher Sell vs no more drosse for pure mettall Refine what you reade and write Euery tale is not true that is tolde Some authours want iudgement others honesty Let no man be beleeued for his antiquity For you know what Menander sayd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Grayhaires are not alwayes a signe of wisdome and deepe vnderstanding olde men do sometime dote and will lie as well as others One sayth Nesc to quo casu illud euenit vt falsa potius quà m vera animum nostrum captant I cannot tell sayth he how it commeth to passe but surely true it is that we are more easily caried away with lies and fables than with truth And how hard a matter it is to remoue one from a setled opinion though neuer so false and absurd any man meanly experienced doth very well know f Yet Caesar saith that Britanniae Loca sunt temperatiora qùam in Gallia remissioribus frigoribus The temperature of the aire in England is better then in France the cold is nothing so bitter That is as the authour of the Panegyricke oration made to Constantius the Emperour doth interpret it In ea nec rigor est nimius hyemis nec ardor aestatis In it neither the cold of winter nor the heat of summer is very excessiue And Minutius Felix hee writeth that Britannia sole deficitur sed circumfluentis maris tepore recreatur In England the Sunne shineth not very hotte but that defect is repaied by a certaine steame or hot vapour which ascendeth vp out of the sea that inuironeth this iland on all sides round g What place this should be I dare not for truth constantly affirme Perhaps he meaneth Vitsam or as we call it Whitsan a little towne in the country of Bolloine some fiue or six miles from Calais situate vpon the sea coast built at the mouth of a small riuer which peraduenture he calleth Shant For in the Arabicke tongue Wadi-shant importeth so much h This is false and by himselfe contradicted for in another place if I be not deceiued he maketh it twenty fiue miles ouer wherefore I doubt not but for a mile the authour did put a parasange which conteineth three English miles And this is somewhat neere the mark i I take it that he meaneth Cercester in Glocestershire which vulgarly they now call Ciceter It is an ancient city called of Ptolemey Corinium of Antonine Durocornouium of the Saxons Cyrenceaster taking the denomination from the riuer Corinus or Churne vpon which it is situate The tract of the decaied wals of it which are two miles about doe testifie that it was sometime a very great citie Many antiquities and auncient monuments doe plainly shew that in the time of the Romans it was a place of good rekoning Now it is nothing so populous and well inhabited k From the Seuerne I vnderstand it which at euery floude enterteineth the salt water a great way vp into the countrey l Warham is a sea towne in Dorsetshire strongly fortified by nature vpon the South and North with two riuers Ware and Trent this now they call Piddle and with the maine sea vpon the East only vpon the Wew it lieth open to the assailaunt Yet it was in times past defended with a faire wall and a strong Castle It was very populous well inhabited and graced with the Kings mint for the refining and coining of his mony vntill the time of Henry the Second since whose daies by reason of ciuill warres casualty by fire and stopping of the hauen it is much decaied and hath lost much of that former beauty m This distance is much too great whether he meaneth the lands end in Cornwall or the farther part of Wales Westward which I rather incline to But obserue this once for all that there is no great heed to be taken to those his accounts of miles and distances n Dartmouth an hauen towne in Deuonshire situate vpon a little hill running out into the sea at the mouth of the riuer Dart or Dert as some write it The hauen is defended with two strong Castels or Block-houses It is very populous well frequented with Merchants and hath many goodly tall shippes belonging to it King Iohn granted them certaine priuiledges and euery yeere to chuse a Maior for their supreme magistrrate and gouernour in ciuill causes vnder the King o Thus our seamen cal it at this day The Arabian termeth it _____ Tarfi'lgarbi mina'lgiezira The Westerne bound of the iland Master Camden in his Scotland that I may note this by the way affirmeth that Taurus in Welch doth signifie the end or limbe of any thing Heere in Arabicke thou seest it signifieth the same And in English wee call if I be not deceiued the brimmes of an hatte The tarfe p SALISBVRY or rather SARISBVRY a sweet and pleasant city within the County of Wilt situate in a plaine at the meeting of the riuers Auone and Nadder It is not that ancient city Sorbiodunum mentioned by Antoninus in his Iournall but built of the ruines of it as seemeth very probable For this old towne being often distressed for want of water and at length spoiled and rased to the ground by Swein the Dane in the yeare of our Lord 1003. although it reuiued againe a little after about the time of William the First was forsaken and abandoned by the citizens who laid the foundation of this new citie about 400. yeares since at what time Richard the First was King of England That most stately Cathedrall Church which they report hath as many doores as there be months in the yeare as many windowes as the yeare hath daies and as many pillars as there are
the coast of Norway or borders of Scotland as we shall by and by shew more plainly m So it is written apparently But obserue heere That of the Arabicke letters diuerse in forme and shape of body are the very same and are onely distinguished one from another by pricks or points placed either ouer their heads or vnderneath them Heereupon it is that that Arabicke word which heere I call _____ Zanbaga supposing only one letter to be misplaced which might be the fault of the printer may indifferently be either _____ Norbaga or Norwega as the Danes call it or _____ Neriga or Nerigon whereof Pliny speaketh which is all one in effect For Pomponius Mela saith that Thule Bergarum thus the learned Clarencieux readeth not Belgarum litori apposita est that is Thule is vpon the coast of Norway oueragainst the citie Bergen And it is out of all question saith the same authour that by Nerigon Pliny did vnderstand that same country which at this day we call Norway n That our authour did meane Island if there were no other argument this one were alone sufficient to prooue it For I doe not remember that any one of the ancient writers euer tooke vpon him to define Thule according to his length and breadth only Ptolemey and those other authours haue pointed at it as we haue shewed before and haue told vs whereabout it lieth in the Sea by the longitude and latitude of it as also by the situation of it from Scotland The Orkeney iles and Bergen in Norway Whereas he saith that the length of Rosland is 400 miles it is I say apparant that he meant Island For Ortelius in his Island thus writeth of it Patet haec insula in longitudiue centum milliarium Germanicorum vt vulgus scriptorum habet The length of this Iland as the common sort of writers doe testifie is one hundred Germane miles Now that a common or ordinary Dutch mile doth containe foure English or Italian miles it is a thing so commonly knowen that it needeth no proofe But hauing handled Gentle Reader the particulars for the most part before in their seuerall places least I be too tedious in a thing not greatly needfull I cease to trouble thee any longer GALIZIA a kingdome of Spaine THe kingdome of GALIZIA is bounded vpon the West and North with the Ocean sea vpon the East with the Asturias and the kingdome of Leon vpon the South with the riuer Min̄o and the Kingdome of Portingall It was sometime as Ferdinand Oiea the authour of this Mappe writeth much greater then now it is at this daie and was then held to be one of the largest kingdomes of all Spaine For it extended it selfe Eastward vp as farre as the mountaines of Biscaya and the head of the great riuer Duero Durius Pliny calleth it and so from thence it ranne all along by the banke of this riuer euen till where it falleth into the maine sea as our said authour prooueth by the testimony of Marius Aretius in his description of Spaine of Annius Viterbius and Floriano de Campo in the 40. chapter of his fourth booke and likewise in the third chapter of his fourth booke It is very vneuen and mounteinous or euery where full of dry barrein hils and dales and therfore much of it by reason it wanteth water is waste and not inhabited Their Villages and townes especially the greater and better sort of them are situate vpon the Sea or vpon some great riuer not farre from thence except Santiago Lugo and Mondon̄edo with one or two more Yet which is very strange heere are bred such woonderfull store of horses that that fable which reporteth that hereabouts in Spaine the mares conceiue with foale by vertue of the winde may seeme to be something probable Yea and this our authour Fernandez Oiea saith that it hath great store of cattell and of all manner of Deere aswell for necessary prouision and mainteinance of the house as for game and disporte for the nobility and gentry of the land But of Fish heere taken not only in the Sea but also in the fresh riuers there is such variety and woonderfull store that it is from hence conueighed to most places throughout all Spaine It hath many hot bathes and other springs and waters of rare and soueraigne vertues It yeeldeth great plenty of wine and that so good especially that which is made about Orense and Riuadauia that it is transported from hence farre and neere into all countries Christian It offordeth much good fruite of all sorts but especially of Limons and Orenges Silke and Flax are verie great and gainefull commodities vnto the inhabitants Heere were sometime as Pliny testifieth very rich Mines of gold And Niger writeth that amongst the Artabri who inhabited not farre from Cape finister the riuers and brooks did bring downe after any great store of raine Earth mingled with Siluer Tynne and Gold-ore yea and that the soile heere was so fertile of Gold Copper and Lead that ofttimes the husbandmen with their ploughes did turne vp great cloddes of good gold Yet we know now saith Maginus that the Mines of this country at this day are of no great account It hath also some quarreis of fine marble Pedro de Medina reckoneth vp threescore Cities and townes of note in Galizia of which these following are the most famous and renowmed and therefore the more worthy the speaking of in this place COMPOSTELLA a goodly city situate betweene the two riuers Sar and Sarela is now commonly called and knowen by the name of SANTIAGO Saint Ieameses for that the body of the glorious Apostle Saint Iames elder brother to Iohn the Euangelist who first preached the gospel heere and planted Christianity amongst the Spaniards lieth heere interred and in honour of this blessed Apostle by the consent generally of all Prince Nobles and Prelates it was long since adorned with the title and dignity of Metropolitan This by-word is common amongst the Spaniards That there be three Apostolicall Churches in the world most renowmed and famous Saint Peters in Rome Saint Ieamses in Spaine and Saint Iohns in Ephesus They commonly hold that the first Church that euer was built in Spaine was that of our Lady in Saragosa the second was this of Saint Iames. Heere also is a goodly Vniuersity and schoole of good learning where all the Liberall Sciences are professed and taught and many students are brought vp and maintained vntill they come to be of age and abilitie for publike seruice either in the Church or Commonwealth The GROINE is a very goodly towne situate in an isthmos or demy-ile betweene two baies or creeks of the sea whereof the one is held to be one of the best hauens of the world And therefore heere for the most parte of the Kings ships in time of peace doe lie at anchor LVGO one of the principall cities of all Galizia standeth vpon the Min̄o not farre from Castro de Rey where this riuer ariseth It
the warres and seruice in the field only those excepted that are sent thither by the Earle of Darbie to whom this ile doth by right of inheritance from his ancestours belong They do speake the Scotish language or the Irish as you please to call it for they be both one The one is as farre from Ireland as the other These things being taught and conceiued let vs now heare what the Romans haue written of Mona The first authour that euer made mention of it as I remember was Caesar next after him Pliny and Dion Cassius But they doe but name it only and withall affirme it to be situate in the maine sea betweene England and Ireland Thus much we both confesse Cornelius Tacitus a very learned man and one that by meanes of Iulius Agricola his father in law very well knew the state of Britaine then of the situation and distance of Mona from the Continent teacheth vs many things making much to this our purpose Therefore let vs listen awhile to that which he speaketh in the foureteenth booke of his Annals But then was Paulinus Suetonius Lieutenant of Britaine one that for his great experience and knowledge of militarie matters popular fame and estimation amongst the meaner sort of men which for the most part suffereth no man of rare virtues and qualities to liue without a compere did alwayes contend with Corbulo labouring by all meanes possiblie to match that his honourable seruice in conquering Armenia by ouercomming and quieting those Rebels which in these parts did stand out against the Romans Therefore he maketh great preparation and prouideth all things necessarie for the assault and taking of the iland Mona a place not only by nature but also by reason of the multitude of people which do there inhabit very strong and defencible and is indeed the sanctuarie and place of common refuge for all such as runne away from their Capteines or Commanders He caused boats to be made with flat bottomes because the sea there neere the shore is verie shallow and euerie where full of flats and shelfs Thus they conueyed ouer the footmen the horsmen followed them partly wading thorow the foords and shallow places and partly swimming where the waters were more deepe Vpon the shore to empeach our landing a very great armie verie well appointed and armed for all assaies stood close thronging together intermedled with women running to and fro betweene the ranks with torches in their hands in mourning gownes and their haire about their eares of all the world like to the Furies or madde women The Druides also on euerie side with hands lifted vp to heauen powring out many bitter curses and deadlie imprecation with the strangenesse of that sight strooke the souldiers into such a dampe that they stood stone still not once moouing their bodies as if they had willingly offered their throats to the enemie yet at length by the exhortation and encouragement of the Generall and one animating and heartening on another that they might not seeme to be afrayd of a companie of seelie women and other frantike people they aduance forward the standerd display their banners and such as offered to resist they beat to the ground and force them to runne into their owne fires This being done he placed garrisons in their townes and villages and caused their woods to be cut downe and vtterlie destroyed which by reason of their cruell ceremonies and superstitious sacrifices there offered were by them esteemed holy For they accounted it lawfull to embrue their altars wth the blood of their captiues and to seeke to know the secret counsell of the eternall God and euents to come by the entrailes and bowels of men Thou hearest gentle Reader how the footmen followed the horsmen in the foords and shallowes and where the water was more deepe they swomme ouer with the horses The same Authour also setting forth in the life of Iulius Agricola the same Agricola's voyage into this iland writeth on this maner MONAM insulam cuius possessionem reuocatum Paulinum c. Thus translated by the learned Sir Henrie Sauile for I know not whether Great Tacitus scorneth any other interpretor or no He deliberated to conquer the iland Mona from the possession whereof as before I haue rehearsed Paullinus was reuoked by the generall rebellion of Britanie But as in a purpose not purposed before ships being wanting the policie and resolutenesse of the Captaine deuised a passage commanding the most choise of the Aides to whom all the shallowes were knowen and who after the vse of their countrey were able in swimming to gouerne themselues with armour and horses laying aside their cariage to put ouer at once and suddenly to inuade them VVhich thing so amased the enemie attending for ships and such prouision by sea that surely beleeuing nothing could be hard or inuincible to men which came so minded to warre they humbly intreated for peace and yeelded the Iland Thus Agricola at his first entrance into his prouince which time others consume in vaine ostentation and ambitious seeking of ceremonies entring withall into labours and dangers became famous indeed and of great reputation Here thou seest againe how the souldiers gat into Mona by swimming without the helpe of any ships or boats Neither did this our authour heare this from the report of any obscure fellow of little knowledge and lesse vnderstanding in these matters but euen from the mouth of Agricola himselfe his wiues father a man very famous and one that was the Generall and chiefe commander in this voyage But marke I pray you how Polydore Virgil answereth all this For thus he writeth in the first booke of his Historie of England This sometime he speaketh of Mona was seuered from Britaine by a very narrow arme of the sea so that so oft as the sea did ebbe which heere at all times maketh very high tides it was so neere to the Continent that men might go thither without boats And againe a little beneath he writeth thus of it See sayth he what continuance of time can bring to passe That iland is now fiue and twentie miles from any part of England which sometime was scarse one mile from it What will not malice and a crosse humour alwaies opposing it selfe against other mens opinions although neuer so much turning to his owne disgrace and discredit yea euen in the best wits force a man to do This Italian dreameth of a strange inundation and ouerflowing of the sea whereof neuer any Historian Latine English Irish or Scotish euer spake I dare auouch one word and that which is most strange of all the countrey people neuer haue heard as seemeth from their ancestours of any such kinde of drowning He complaineth also of the straightnesse of that other iland and of the scarsitie of Corne and Wood. Where also I could wish that the Authour had had a little more discretion and honestie For this iland I meane his Anglisea which indeed is the true Mona
salt The woods breed vp Hogges and Kine in great plentie the riuers sometimes yeeld graines of gold It containes six colonies or townes of Spaniards the principall whereof called Sant Jago is the seat of a Bishop But Hauana is the chiefe mart and hauen towne of all the Isle Two wonderfull things Gonsaluo de Ouiedo describes in this Isle one a valley extended betweene two mountaines some three Spanish miles in length the Ancients would haue named it as in Gallia Narbonensi now called Prouence The stony field which bringeth forth round stones in so great abundance that a man may lade whole shippes with them being by nature framed so exactly round that no Turner can amend them The other is a mountaine not farre from the sea whereout issueth a kind of Bitumen or Pitch in so great a quantity that it runnes into the sea and there floats farre and wide according as it is carried by the waues or windes This Pitch they say is very commodious for the calcking and braying of ships HISPANIOLA lies to the East of Cuba This Isle by the first inhabitants was called Quisquaeia afterwards Haiti and Cipanga likewise But the Spaniards name it Hispaniola and of the principall city San Domingo The compasse hereof is 350 leagues It is an Isle rich in Sugar and it hath many Gold-mines It is very strange that is reported concerning a little flie very common in this Island called by the inhabitants Cucujo and as big almost as one of the ioynts of a mans finger hauing foure wings two very thin and the other two greater and harder wherewith the thin ones are couered This shineth in the night as glowe-wormes doe with vs. The force of this light is not only in his eyes sparckling like fire but also in his sides so that by lifting vp his wings he shines more flying than when he lies still By the naturall curtesie of this little creature all their chambers they say are so lightsome euen in the darkest nights that a man may reade and write very plainly without the helpe of any other light This light of theirs is augmented by their number so that many will giue a greater light than a few Whoso des res a larger description of these Islands let him reade the history of the New world written by Jerome Benzo Peter Martyr his Decads of Islands lately discouered and other writers of America CVLIACANAE AMERICAE REGIONIS DESCRIPTIO Sciat lector Auctorem Anonÿmum qui hanc Culiacanam regionem et has insulas perlustrauit et descripsit regionum longitudines non ut Ptolemaeus alijque solent à Fortunatis insulis versus Orientem sumsisse sed a Tole to Hispanie vmbilico Occidentem ex eclÿpsibus ab ipsomet obseruaris deprae hendisse HISPANIOLAE CVBAE ALIARVMQVE INSVLARVM CIRCVMIACIENTIVM DELINEATIO PERV THe Spaniards diuide the South part of America into fiue regions namely The golden Castilia Popaian Perú Chili and Brasil Perú in times past before the Spaniards comming thither was much larger vnder the gouernment of the Ingas than at this present as Giraua and others write Now they confine it with Quito on the North and with Puerto de Plata on the South It was thus named from a riuer hauen named Perú At this present they diuide it according to the situation thereof into three parts into Sierras Andes and Plaines The plaine countrey they call that which lieth next the sea Sierras are the mountaines and Andes a region beyond the mountaines toward the East The head-city of this countrey of Perú is Lima otherwise called La ciadad de les Reges where the Kings seat and the Chancerie of the whole Kingdome remaines Also it is the sea of an Archbishop who vnder his iurisdiction hath these Bishopricks following Quito Cusco Guamanga Arequipa Paz Plata Trugillo Guanuco Chacapoia Puerto viejo Guajaquil Popajan Charchi S. Michael and S. Francis That this is the richest of golde of all the countreys in the world besides many other these few arguments do euidently demonstrate Francis Xeres writeth that in Cusco there were houses whose pauement walles roofes were couered quite ouer with plates of golde Giraua reports that the inhabitants of the prouince Ancerna go to warres all armed in gold from head to foot their habergions their brest-plates their leg thigh harnesse consist wholly of gold The same authour affirmes that out of certeine gold-mines neere Quito is digged more gold than earth Those that haue written the storie of King Atabalipa do agree in this that he offered so much golde to the Spaniards for his ransome as the roome wherein he was prisoner would containe It was two and twenty foot long and seuenteene foot broad this he offered to fill so high as he could reach vpon the wall with his longest finger or if they thought better marke also the infinite quantitie of siluer in this region he offered to fill it twise with siluer euen to the very roofe It is also recorded that the Spaniards at their first entrance vpon this countrey shod their horses with gold and siluer shoes PERVVIAE AVRIFERAE REGIONIS TYPVS Didaro Mendezio auctore LA FLORIDA Auctore Hieron Chiaues Cum Priuilegio GVASTECAN Reg. FLORIDA THis is part of North America It is called by the name of Florida in regard of the feast of Easter which the Spaniards call Pascha Florida because vpon that very day in the yeere of our Lord 1512 it was as I reade in Giraua vnder the conduct of Iohn Ponce of Leon first of all coasted and discouered Theuet like himselfe writes that it was so called because it was all greene and flourishing By the inhabitants it was named Iaquasa The French haue more than once attempted to plant a colony here but hitherto they were neuer able in regard of the Spaniards ill will who oft expelled them from thence It is inhabited by a sauage forlorne and beastly people They liue vpon spiders ants lizards serpents and other venimous and creeping things The region is very fruitfull and rich of gold Concerning this country Iames Cole my nephew from the mouth of an eie-witnesse as he saith writes vnto me as followeth The inhabitants are of a brownish colour but the Kings wiues are blacke by a kind of arte The King hath power to giue or rather to sell wiues to such as are desirous to marrie A married woman being taken in adultery she is for her incontinency from morning till night bound with her backe to a tree her armes and legs stretched abroad and sometimes she is beaten with rods Their women within three houres after they are deliuered of childe carry forth their infants and wash them in the riuer They haue no hatchets nor spades but of stone In stead of ploughes they haue certaine woodden pickaxes wherewith they open the ground and sowe a kinde of graine commonly called Turkish or Ginny-wheat whereof they haue yeerely two or three crops They haue also Pheasants c. They sowe in