the taste I am besides of opinion that they be deceiued who thinke that bees gather not of Oliue trees For we see it ordinary that there be more casts and swarmes of Bees where Oliues grow in greater abundance These pretty creatures hurt no fruit whatsoeuer They will not settle vpon a floure that is faded and much lesse of any dead carkasse They vse not to go from their hiue about their busines aboue 60 paces if it chance that within the precinct of these limits they finde not floures sufficient out goe their spies whom they send forth to discouer forage farther off If in this expedition before they come home againe they be ouertaken by the night they couch vpon their backes for feare lest their wings should be ouercharged with the euening dew and so they watch all night vntill the morning CHAP. IX ¶ Those that haue taken a speciall pleasure in Bees SVch is the industrie of this creature that no man need to wonder at those two persons who delighted so much in them that the one namely Aristomachus of Soli for threescore yeares lacking but twaine did nothing else but keep bees and Philiscus the Thasian emploied the whole time of his life in Forrests and Desarts to follow these little animals whereupon hee was surnamed Agrius And both these vpon their knowledge and experience wrote of Bees CHAP. X. ¶ The order that they keepe in their worke THe manner of their businesse is this All the day time they haue a standing watch ward at their gates much like to the corps de guard in a campe In the night they rest vntill the morning by which time one of them a waketh and raiseth all the rest with two or three big hums or buzzes that it giues to warn them as it were with sound of trumpet At which signall giuen the whole troupe prepares to flie forth if it be a faire and calme day toward for they doe both foresee and also foreshew when it will bee either windie or rainie and then will they keepe within their strength and fort Now when the weather is temperate which they foreknow well enough and that the whole armie is on foot and marched abroad some gather together the vertue of the floures within their feet and legges others fil their gorge with water and charge the downe of their whole body with drops of such liquor The yonger sort of them go forth to worke and carry such stuffe as is beforenamed whiles the elder labor build within the hiue Such as carry the floures abouesaid stuffe the inner parts of their legs behind and those Nature for that purpose hath made rough with the help of their forefeet those again are charged full by the means of their muffle Thus being full laden with their prouision they return home to the hiue drawne euen together round as it were in a heap with their burden by which time there be three or foure ready to receiue them and those ease and discharge them of their lode For this you must thinke that they haue their seuerall offices within Some are busie in building others in plaistering and ouercasting to make all smooth and fine some be at hand to serue the workemen with stuffe that they need others are occupied in getting ready meat and victuals out of that prouision which is brought in for they feed not by themselues but take their repast together because they should both labour and eat alike and at the same houre As touching the maner of their building they begin first aboue to make arch-work embowed in their combs and draw the frame of their work downward where they make two little allies for euery arch or vault the one to enter in by the other to go forth at The combs that are fastened together in the vpper part yea and on the sides are vnited a little and hang all together They touch not the hiue at all nor ioin to it Sometime they are built round otherwhiles winding bias according to the proportion of the hiue A man shll find in one hiue hony combs somtime of two sorts namely when two swarms of bees accord together and yet each one haue their rites and fashions by themselues For feare lest their combs of wax should be ready to fal they vphold them with partition wals arched hollow from the bottom vpward to the end that they might haue passage euery way to repaire them The formost ranks of their combes in the forefront commonly are built void and with nothing in them because they should giue no occasion for a theefe to enter vpon their labours Those in the backe part of the hiue are euer fullest of hony and therefore when men would take out any combes they turne vp the hiues behind Bees that are emploied in carrying of hony chuse alwaies to haue the wind with them if they can If haply there do arise a tempest or a storm whiles they be abroad they catch vp some little stony greet to ballance and poise themselues against the wind Some say that they take it and lay it vpon their shoulders And withall they flie low by the ground vnder the wind when it is against them and keep along the bushes to breake the force thereof A wonder it is to see and obserue the manner of their worke They mark and note the slow-backs they chastise them anon yea and afterwards punish them with death No lesse wonderful also it is to consider how neat and clean they be All filth and trumperie they remoue out of the way no foule thing no ordure lieth in the hiue to hinder their businesse As for the doung and excrements of such as are working within they be laid all on a heap in some by-corner because they should not goe far from their worke and in foule weather when otherwise they haue nought to do they turn it forth Toward euening their noise beginneth to slacke and grow lesse and lesse vntill such time as one of them flieth about with the same loud humming wherewith she waked them in the morning and thereby giueth a signal as it were and commandement for to go to rest much after the order in a camp And then of a sudden they are all husht and silent CHAP. XI ¶ Of the drone Bees THe houses and habitations that Bees build first are for the Commons which being finished they set in hand with a pallace for their king If they foresee that it will be a good season and that they are like to gather store of prouision they make pauilions also for the Drones And albeit they be of themselues bigger than the very bees yet take they vp the least lodgings Now these drones be without any sting at all as one would say vnperfect bees the last fruit of such old ones as are weary and able to do no more good the very later brood increase and to say a truth no better than slaues to the right bees indeed And
hastened his vntimely death for hauing liued not much aboue the middle age of man desirous he was to know the reason Why the hill Nesuvius burned as it did and approched so neare that with the strong vapours and smoake issuing from thence his breath was suddenly stopped and himselfe found dead in the place a man worthie to haue liued for euer What remaineth now but onely to recommend vnto my countrimen this worke of his which for mine owne part I wish to bee immortall were it not for one scruple to bee cleared which at the first troubled my selfe a little and might peraduenture otherwise offend some readers In attributing so much vnto Nature Plinie seemeth to derogat from the Almightie God to him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and therefore dangerous faith one to bee divulged Farre be it from mee that I should publish any thing to corrupt mens manners and much lesse to preiudice Christian religion After conference therefore with sundrie diuines about this point whom for their authoritie I reuerence whose learning I honor and embrace and in whom for iudgement synceritie of religion I rest confirmed I was in my first purpose and resolved to finish that which I had begun namely not to defraud the world of so rich a gem for one small blemish appearing therein And that it may appeare how I did not abound in mine owne sence but had regard as well to satisfie the conscience of others as mine owne I haue thought good to annex immediately hereunto in manner of a Corollarie the opinion of one graue and learned preacher concerning this doubt as it was deliuered vnto mee in writing which for that it is grounded vpon sufficient reasons and according with the iudgement of the rest the lesse I respect the rash projects of some fantasticall spirits nothing doubting but the same will settle the minds of the weake and free my labours from the taint of irreligion THE FIRST BOOKE OF THE HISTORIE OF NATVRE WRITTEN BY C. PLINIVS SECVNDVS The Preface or Episte Dedicatorie to Prince Vespasian his friend C. Plinius Secundus sendeth greeting THese bookes containing the Historie of Nature which a few daies since I brought to light a new worke in Latine and namely among the Romanes your Citizens and Countrymen I purpose by this Epistle of mine to present and consecrate vnto you most sweet and gentle Prince for this title accordeth fittest vnto you seeing that the name of Most mighty sorteth well with the age of the Emperor your father which haply might seeme boldnesse and presumption in me but that I know how at other times you were wont to haue some good opinion of my toies and fooleries Where by the way you must giue me leaue to mollifie a little the verses which I borrow of my countryman Catullus See also how I light vpon a word vsed among souldiers which you are acquainted with since time we serued both together in the camp For he as you wot full well changing the former sillables of his verses one for another made himselfe somewhat more harsh than he would seeme to be vnto the fine eares of his familiar friends the Veranioli Fabulli And withall I would be thought by this my malapert writing vnto you to satisfie one point which as you complained in your answer of late to another rude audacious letter of mine I had not performed to wit That all the world might see as it were vpon record how the Empire is managed by you and your father equally and notwithstanding this imperial majestie wherunto you are called yet is your affability and maner of conuersing with your old friends fellow-like the same that alwaies heretofore it had been For albeit you haue triumphed with him for your noble victories bin Censor in your time and Consull six times executed the sacred authoritie of the Tribunes Patrones and protectors of the Commons of Rome together with him albeit I say you haue otherwise shewed your noble heart in honouring and gracing both the court of the Emperor your father and also the whole state of Knights and Gentlemen of Rome whiles you were captaine of the guard and grand-master of his house and roiall pallace in which places all you carried your selfe respectiuely to the good of the Commonweale yet to all your friends and especially to my selfe you haue borne the same countenance as in times past within the campe when wee serued vnder the same colours and lodged together in one pauilion So as in all this greatnesse and high estate whereunto you are mounted there is no other change and alteration seene in your person but this That your power is now answerable to your will able you are to doe and performe that good which you euer meant and still intend And howsoeuer this great maiestie resplendent in you on euery side in regard of those high dignities aboue rehearsed may induce the whole world besides to reuerence your person in all obeisance yet I for my part am armed onely with a kinde of audacitie and confidence to shew my dutie and devoire vnto you after a more familiar manner than others and therfore this my aduenturous rashnes whatsoeuer you must impute vnto your own courtesie and if I chaunce to fault therein thanke your selfe therefore and seeke pardon at your own hands Well bashfulnesse I haue laid aside and put on a bold face and all to no purpose For why although your gentlenesse and humanitie be one way attrectiue and induceth me to draw neare vnto your presence yet another way you appeare in great maiestie the sublimitie I say of your mind your deepe reach high conceit and rare perfections set me as far back no lictors huishers marching before you so much that I dare not approach In the first place was there euer any man whose words passed from him more powerfull who more truly might be said to flash forth as lightning the force of eloquence What Tribune was there known at any time to persuade moue the people with good language more effectually How admirable was your vtterance in those publicke Orations wherin you thundred out the praise-worthy acts of the Emperor your father that all the grand-place rung therwith what a singular testimonie shewed you of rare kindnesse affection to your brother in setting out his praises to the full As for your skill in Poetrie how excellent how accomplished is it Oh the bounty of your mind Oh the fertility of your pregnant spirit that you should find means to imitate yea and to match your brother in that kind But who is able boldly to giâ—…e an estimate of these gifts to their worth How may a man enter into the due consideration therof without feare of exquisit censure and exact iudgement of your wit especially being prouoked and challenged thereunto as you are For to say a truth the case of them who publish a worke in generall tearmes is farre
gather as it were a compleat hody of arts and sciences which the Greeks call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that are either altogether vnknowne or become doubtfull through the ouermuch curiositie of fine wits again other matters are deciphered in such long discourses that they are tedious to the readers insomuch as they loath and abhor them A difficult enterprise it is therfore to make old stuffe new to giue authoritie credit to nouelties to polish and smooth that which is worne and out of vse to set a glosse and lustre vpon that which is dim and darke to grace countenance things disdained to procure beleefe to matters doubtful in one word to reduce nature to all and al to their own nature And verily to giue the attempt only and shew a desire to effect such a desseigne as this although the same be not brought about and compassed were a braue and magnificent enterprise Certes of this spirit am I that those learned men and great students who making no stay but breaking through al difficulties haue preferred the profit of posteritie before the tickling and pleasure of itching eares in these daies which I may protest that I haue aimed at not in this worke only but also in other of my bookes alreadie and I professe that I wonder much at T. Livius otherwise a most renowned famous writer who in a preface to one of his books of the Roman history which hee cōpiled from the foundation of Rome thus protested That hee had gotten glorie ynough by his former writing and might sit still now take his ease but that his mind was so restlesse and so ill could abide repose that contrariwise it was fed and nourished with trauel nothing else But surely me thinks in finishing those Chronicles he should in dutie haue respected the glory of that people which had conquered the World and aduanced the honour of the Romane name rather than displaied his owne praise and commendation Ywis his demerit had beene the greater to haue continued his story as he did for loue of the subiect matter and not for his priuat pleasure to haue I say performed that peece of worke more to gratifie the state of Rome than to content his owne minde and affection As touching my selfe forasmuch as Domitius Piso saith That bookes ought to be treasuries store houses indeed and not bare and simple writings I may be bold to say and averre That in 36 bookes I haue comprised 20000 things all worthie of regard consideration which I haue recollected out of 2000 volumes or therabout that I haue diligently read and yet very few of them there be that men learned otherwise and studious dare meddle withall for the deepe matter and hidden secrets therein contained and those written by 100 seuerall elect and approued authors besides a world of other matters which either were vnknowne to our forefathers and former writers or else afterward inuented by their posteritie And yet I nothing doubt that many things there be which either surpasse our knowledge or else our memorie hath ouerslipt for men we are and men emploied in many affaires Moreouer considered it would be that these studies wee follow at vacant times and stolne houres that is to say by night season onely to the end that you may know how wee to accomplish this haue neglected no time which was due vnto your seruice The daies we wholly employ and spend in attendance about your person we sleepe onely to satisfie nature euen as much as our health requireth and no more contenting our selves with this reward That whiles wee study and muse as Varro saith vpon these things in our closet we gaine so many houres to our life for surely we liue then only when we watch and be awake Considering now those occasions those lets and hinderances aboue-named I had no reason to presume or promise much but in that you haue emboldened me to dedicate my bookes vnto you your selfe performeth whatsoeuer in me is wanting not that I trust vpon the goodnesse and worth of the worke so much as that by this means it will be better esteemed and shew more vendible for many things there be that seeme right deare and be holden for pretious only because they are consecrate to some sacred temples As for vs verily we haue written of you all your father Vespasian your selfe and your brother Domitian in a large volume which wee compiled touching the historie of our times beginning there where Aufidius Bassus ended Now if you demand and aske me Where that historie is I answer that finished it was long since and by this time is iustified and approued true by your deeds otherwise I was determined to leaue it vnto my heire and giue order that it should be published after my death lest in my life time I might haue bin thought to haue curried fauour of those whose acts I seemed to pen with flatterie beyond all truth And therfore in this action I do both them a great fauour who haply were minded before me to put forth the like Chronicle and the posteritie also which shall come after who I make reckning and know will enter into the lists with vs like as we haue done with our predecessors A sufficient argument of this my good mind frank hart that way you shal haue by this That in the front of these books now in hand I haue set down the very names of those writers whose help I haue vsed in the compiling of thē for I haue euer bin of this opinion That it is the part of an honest minded man one that is ful of grace modesty to confesse frank ly by whom he hath profited gottē any good not as many of those vnthankful persons haue done whom I haue alledged for my authors For to tell you a plain truth know thus much from me that in conferring thē together about this worke of mine I haue met with some of our moderne writers who word for word haue exemplified copied out whole books of old authors and neuer vouchsafed so much as the naming of them but haue taken their labors trauels to themselues And this they haue not done in that courage and spirit to imitate yea to match them as Virgil did Homer much lesse haue they shewed that simplicitie and apert proceeding of Cicero who in his bookes of Policie and Common-weale professeth himselfe to hold with Plato in his Consolatorie Epistle written to his daughter confesseth and saith plainely thus I follow Crantor and Panaetius likewise in his Treatise concerning Offices Which worthy monuments of his as you know well deserue not onely to be seene handled and read daily but also to be learned by heart euery word Certes I hold it for a point of a base and seruile mind and wherein there is no goodnesse at al to chuse rather to be surprised and taken in theft than to bring home borrowed good or to repay a due debt
the heauen the fire of discord is kindled and groweth hot Neither may she abide by it and stand to the fight but being continually carried away she rolleth vp and down and as about the earth shee spreadeth and pitcheth her tents as it were with an vnmeasurable globe of the heauen so euer and anon of the clouds she frameth another skie And this is that region where the winds raigne And therefore their kingdome principally is there to be seene where they execute their forces and are the cause well neere of all other troubles in the aire For thunderbolts and flashing lightenings most men attribute to their violence Nay more than that therefore it is supposed that otherwhiles it raineth stones because they were taken vp first by the winde so as we may conclude that they cause many like impressions in the aire Wherefore many matters besides are to be treated of together CHAP. XXXIX ¶ Of ordinary and set seasons IT is manifest that of times and seasons as also of other things some causes be certaine others casuall and by chance or such as yet the reason thereof is vnknowne For who need to doubt that Summers and Winters and those alternatiue seasons which we obserue by yearely course are occasioned by the motion of the Planets As therefore the Sunnes nature is vnderstood by tempering and ordering the yeare so the rest of the starres and planets also haue euery one their proper and peculiar power and the same effectuall to shew and performe their owne nature Some are fruitfull to bring forth moisture that is turned into liquid raine others to yeeld an humour either congealed into frosts or gathered and thickened into snow or else frozen and hardened into haile some afford winds others warmth some hot and scorching vapours some dewes and others cold Neither yet ought these starres to be esteemed so little as they shew in sight seeing that none of them is lesse than the Moone as may appeare by the reason of their exceeding height Well then euery one in their own motion exercise their seuerall natures which appeareth manifestly by Saturne especially who setteth open the gates for raine and shoures to passe And not onely the seuen wandering starres be of this power but many of them also that are fixed in the firmament so often as they be either driuen by the excesse and approch of those planets or pricked and prouoked by the casting and influence of their beams like as we find it happeneth in the seuen stars called Suculae which the Grecians of raine name Hyades because they euer bring foule weather Howbeit some of their owne nature and at certaine set times do cause raine as the rising of the Kids As for Arcturus he neuer lightly appeareth without some tempestuous and stormie haile CHAP. XL. ¶ The power of the Dog-starre WHo knoweth not that when the Dogge-starre ariseth the heate of the Sunne is fiery and burning the effects of which starre are felt exceeding much vpon the earth The seas at his rising do rage and take on the wines in sellars are troubled pooles also and standing waters doe stirre and moue A wilde beast there is in Aegypt called Orix which the Aegyptians say doth stand full against the Dog-starre when it riseth looking wistly vpon it and testifieth after a sort by sneezing a kind of worship As for dogs no man doubteth verily but all the time of the canicular daies they are most ready to run mad CHAP. XLI ¶ That the stars haue their seuerall influences in sundry parts of the signes and at diuers times MOreouer the parts of certaine signes haue their peculiar force as appeareth in the Equinoctiall of Autumne and in mid-winter at what time we perceiue that the Sun maketh tempests And this is proued not onely by raines and stormes but by many experiments in mens bodies and accidents to plants in the countrey For some men are stricken by the Planet and blasted others are troubled and diseased at certaine times ordinarily in their belly sinewes head and minde The Oliue tree the Aspe or white Poplar and Willowes turne or wryth their leaues about at Mid-summer when the Sun entreth Cancer And contrariwise in very Mid-winter when he entreth Capricorne the herbe Penyroiall floureth fresh euen as it hangs within house drie and ready to wither At which time all parchments such like bladders or skinnes are so pent and stretched with spirit and wind that they burst withall A man might maruell hereat who marketh not by daily experience that one herbe called Heliotropium regardeth and looketh toward the Sun euer as he goeth turning with him at all houres notwithstanding he be shadowed vnder a cloud Now certaine it is that the bodies of Oysters Muskles Cocles and all shell fishes grow by the power of the Moone and thereby againe diminish yea and some haue found out by diligent search into Natures secrets that the fibres or filaments in the liuers of rats and mice answer in number to the daies of the Moones age also that the least creature of all others the Pismire feeleth the power of this Planet and alwaies in the change of the Moone ceaseth from worke Certes the more shame it is for man to be ignorant and vnskilfull especially seeing that he must confesse that some labouring beasts haue certaine diseases in their eyes which with the Moone do grow and decay Howbeit the excessiue greatnesse of the heauen and exceeding height thereof diuided as it is into 72 signes maketh for him and serueth for his excuse Now these signes are the resemblances of things or liuing creatures into which the skilfull Astronomers haue with good respect digested the firmament For example sake in the taile of Taurus there be seuen which they named in old time Vergiliae in the forehead other seuen called Suculae and Boötes who followeth after the wain or great Beare Septentriones CHAP. XLII ¶ The causes of raine showers winds and cloudes I Cannot denie but without these causes there arise raines and windes for that certaine it is how there is sent forth from the earth a mist sometimes moist otherwhiles smokie by reason of hot vapours and exhalations Also that clouds are ingendered by vapours which are gone vp on high or else of the aire gathered into a waterie liquour that they be thicke grosse and of a bodily consistence wee guesse and collect by no doubtful argument considering that they ouer-shadow the Sun which otherwise may be seene through the water as they know well that diue to any depth whatsoeuer CHAP. XLIII ¶ Of Thunder and Lightening DEnie I would not therefore but that the fierie impressions from stars aboue may fall vpon these clouds such as we oftentimes see to shoot in cleare and faire weather by the forceble stroke whereof good reason it is that the aire should be mightily shaken seeing that arrowes and darts when they are discharged sing and keepe a noise as they flie But when they incounter a cloud there arises
were changed and in another the paces in iournying were either more or lesse also considering the seas in so long continuance of time haue incroched here vpon the land and the banks again gotten thereof the sea and beare farther in also for that the reaches of the riuers haue either turned crooked or gone streight direct ouer and besides for that some haue begun to take their measure from this place others from that and gon diuers waies it is by these means come to passe that no twain accord together in one song as touching their measure Geographic CHAP. II. ¶ The length and breadth of Boetica THe length of Boetica at this day from the bound of the town Castulo vnto Gades is 475 miles and from Murgi the maritine coast or lands end more by 22 miles The bredth from the edge or border of Carteia is 224 miles And verily who would beleeue that Agrippa a man so diligent and in this worke principally so curious did erre when he purposed to set out a map of the whole world openly to be seene of the whole city and namely when Augustus Caesar of happie memorie ioined with him For he it was that finished the Porch or gallerie begun by Agrippa's sister according to his will appointment and direction which contained the said pourtraict CHAP. III. ¶ The hither or higher Spaine THe old forme of the hither Spaine is somwhat changed like as of many other prouinces considering that Pompey the great in his triumphant trophies which he erected in Pyrenaeus restifieth That 846 townes between the Alps and the marches of the farther or lower Spain were subdued by him and brought to obedience Now is the whole prouince diuided into 7 counties the Carthaginian the Tarraconian Caesar Augustani Cluniensis Asturia Lucensis Bracarum There are besides Islands setting aside which without once naming them and excepting the cities that are annexed to others the bare prouince containeth 294 townes In which there be 12 colonies townes of Roman citizens thirteen of old Latines seuenteen of allies within the league one tributarie 136. The first in the very frontiers thereof be the Bastulians behind them in such order as shall be said namely those Inlanders that inhabit within-forth the Mentesanes Oretanes and the Carpetanes vpon the riuer Tagus Neere to them the Vaccaeans Vectones Celtiberians and Arrebaci The townes next to the marches Vrci and Barea laid to Boetica the countrey Mauritania then Deitania after that Contestania and new Carthage a colonie From the promontorie whereof called Saturnes cape the cut ouer the sea to Caesaria a citie in Mauritania is of 187 miles In the residue of that coast is the riuer Tader the free colonie Illici of which a firth or arme of the sea tooke the name Illicitanus To it owe seruice and are annexed the Icositanes Soon after Lucentum a towne of the Latines Dranium a tributarie the riuer Sucro which was sometime the frontier towne of Contestania The region Edetania which retireth inward to the Celtiberians hauing a goodly pleasant poole bordering along the front of it Valentia a colonie lying three miles from the sea The riuer Turium and iust as far from the sea Saguntum a towne of Roman citizens renowned for their fidelitie The riuer Idubeda and the region of the Ilergaones The riuer Hebre yeelding such riches of trassicke and commerce by reason that it is nauigable which beginneth in the Cantabrians countrey not far from the towne Inliobrica and holdeth on his course 430 miles and for 260 of them euen from the towne Varia carrieth vessels of merchandise in regard of which riuer the Greekes named all Spaine Iberia the region Cossetania the riuer Subi the colonic Tarraco built by the Scipioes like as Carthage by the Africans The countrey of the Illergetes the towne Subur the riuer Rubricatum and from thence the Lacetanes and Indigetes After them in this order following within-forth at the foot of Pyrenaeus the Ausetanes Itanes Lacetanes and along Pyrenaeus the Cerretanes and then the Vascones In the edge or marches thereof the colony Barcino surnamed Fauentia Towns of Roman citizens Baetulo Illuro the riuer Larnum Blandae the riuer Alba Emporiae two there be of these to wit of the old inhabitants and of the Greeks who were the off-spring descended from the Phocaeans The riuer Tichus From whence to Pyrenaea Venus on the other side of the promontorie are fortie miles Now besides the forenamed shall be related the principall places of marke as they lie in euery countie At Tarracon there plead in court foure and fortie States The most famous and of greatest name among them be of Roman citizens the Dertusanes and Bisgargitanes of Latines the Ausetanes and Cerretanes surnamed Iulianes they also who are named Augustanes the Sedetanes Gerundenses Gessarians Tearians the same that Iulienses Of Tributaries the Aquicaldenses Onenses and Baetulonenses Caesar Augusta a free colony on which the riuer Iberus floweth where the towne before was called Salduba these are of the region Sedetania and receiueth 52 States and among these of Roman citizens the Bellitanes and Celsenses and out of the Colonie the Calaguritanes surnamed also Nascici The Ilerdians of the Surdaons Nation neere vnto whom runneth the riuer Sicoris The Oscians of the region Vescetania and the Turiasonenses Of old Latins the Cascantenses Erganicenses Gracchuritans Leonicenses Ossigetdenses Of confederats within the league the Tarragenses Tributaries besides the Arcobricenses Andologenses Arocelitans Bursaonenses Calaguritans surnamed Fibularenses Complutenses Carenses Cincenses Gortonenses Dammanitanes Larrenses Iturisenses Ispalenses Ilumbeâ—…tanes Lacetanes Vibienses Pompelonenses and Segienses There resort to Carthage for law 62 seuerall States besides the Islanders Out of the colonie Accitana the Gemellenses also Libisosona surnamed Foroaugustana which two are indued with the franchises of Italy out of the colonie Salariensis the Oppidans of old Latium Castulonenses whom Caesar calleth Vaenales The Setabitanes who are also Augustanes and the Valerrienses But of the Tributaries of greatest name be the Babanenses the Bascianes the Consaburenses Dianenses Egelestanes Ilorcitani Laminitani Mentesami the same that Oritani and Mentelani who otherwise are Bastuli Oretanes who also are called Germani the chiefe of the Celtiberians the Segobrigenses and the Toletanes of Carpetania dwelling vpon the riuer Tagus Next to them the Viacienses and Virgilienses To the assises or law-court Cluniensis The Varduli bring 14 nations of which I list to name none but the Albanenses but the Turmodigi foure among whom are the Segisamonenses Sagisameiulienses To the same assises the Carietes the Vennenses do go out of fiue cities of which the Velienses are Thither repaire the Pelendones with 4 states of the Celtiberians of whom the Numantins were famous like as in the 18 cities of the Vaccaeans the Intercatienses Pallantini Lacobricenses Caucenses for in the foure states of the Cantabrici only Iuliobrica is named in the 10 states of the Autrigones Tritium Vironesca To the Areuaci the riuer
And yet are mares sufficient to beare euery yeere vntill they came to fortie It is reported that an horse hath liued 75 yeeres Mares only of all other females are deliuered of their foles standing on their feet but loue them more than any other doe their young These foles verily by report haue growing on their forehead when they be newly come into the world a little blacke thing of the bignesse of a fig called Hippomanes it is thought to haue an effectuall vertue to procure and win loue The dam hath not so soon foled but she bites it off and eats it her selfe and if it chance that any bodie preuents her of it and catcheth it from her she will neuer let the fole sucke her The verie smell and sent thereof if it be stollen away will driue them into a fit of rage and madnesse If peraduenture a young fole lose the damme the other mares of the common heard that are milch nurses giue their teates to this poore orphane and reare it vp in common They say that for 3 daies after they be newly foled the yong colts canot lay their mouth to the ground and touch it Moreouer the hotter stomacked that a horse is the deeper he thrusteth his nose into the water as he drinkes The Scythians chuse rather to vse their mares in war-seruice than their stone-horses the reason is this that their staling is no hinderance to their pace in running their carriere as it doth the horse who must needs then stand still In Portugall along the riuer Tagus about Lisbon certaine it is that when the west-wind blowes the mares set vp their tailes and turne them full against it and so conceiue that genitall aire in steed of naturall seed in such sort as they become great withall and quicken in their time bring forth foles as swift as the wind but they liue not aboue three yeres Out of the same Spain from the parts called Gallicia and Asturia certaine ambling iennets or nags are bred which wee call Thieldones and others of lesse stature proportion euery way named Asturcones These horses haue a pleasant pace by themselues differing from others For albeit they be put to their full pace a man shall se them set one soot before another so deftly and roundly in order by turnes that it would do one good to see it and hereupon horse-breakers masters haue an art by cords to bring a horse to the like amble A horse is subiect to the same diseases in maner that a man is besides to the running of the bladder like as all other beasts that labour either in draught or carriage CHAP. XLIII ¶ Of Asses VArro writes that Q. Axius a Roman Senator bought an Asse which bought him 400000 Sesterces a price in my conceit aboue the worth of any beast whatsoeuer yet doubtlesse he was able to do wondrous good seruice in carrying burdens plowing of ground and principally in getting of mules The chapmen that vse to buy these Asses haue a speciall regard to the place from whence they come and where they be bred for in Achaia or Greece those of Arcadia be in greatest request and in Italy those of Reate This creature of all things can worst away with cold which is the cause that none of them are bred in Pontus Neither do they ingender as other such like beasts in the Spring Aequinoctiall i. about mid-March but in mid-Iune about the time of the Sun-stead when daies be at the longest He Asses the more you spare them in their worke the worse they are for it The females are at the least 30 months or two yeares and halfe old before they bring any yong but 3 yeares is the ordinarie and due time indeed They go as long as mares and iust so many moneths and after the same maner do they fole But after they be couered they must be forced to run presently with beating laying on them or else they will let go their seed again so slippery is their wombe and so vnapt to keep that which once it hath conceiued They are seldome seene to bring forth two at once The she Asse when she is about to fole seeketh some secret blinde corner to hide her selfe that she might not be seen of any man She breeds all her life time which commonly is vntill shee be 30 yeares old They loue their yong foles exceeding well but as ill or rather worse can they abide any water To their little ones they will go through fire but if there be the least brooke or rill between they are so afraid of it that they dare not once dip their feet therein And verily drinke they will not but of their accustomed fountaines within the pastures where they vse to go but they will be sure to chuse their way and go dry-foot to their drinke and not wet their hoofe neither will they go ouer any bridges where the planks are not so close drawn together and ioynted but that they may see the water through vnder their feet or the railes of each side so open that the riuer is seen A strange nature they haue by themselues Thirsty they are but be they neuer so dry if you change their watering place as in trauelling vpon the way they must be forced to drinke with cudgels or else vnloden of their burdens Wheresoeuer they be stabled they loue to lie at large and haue roome enough For in their sleep they dream haue a thousand phansies appearing to them insomuch as they fling about them with their heeles euery way now if they were not at libertie and had not void space enough but should beat against some hard thing in their way they would soone be lame and halt withall They be very gainfull and profitable to their masters yeelding more commoditie than the reuenues of good farme It is well knowne that in Celtiberia a she Asse ordinarily with very breeding may be worth vnto them 400000 Sesterces For the foling and bringing forth of the mules the chief thing to be regarded in the she Asse is the haire about the eares and eie lids For howsoeuer the whole body besides be of one and the same colour yet shall the mules foled haue as many colours as were there all ouer the skin Mecoenas was the first that at feasts made a daintie dish of yong Asse foles and preferred their flesh in his time before the venison of wild Asses But he being dead they were not thought so good meat nor accepted at all If an Asse be seene to die looke soon after that the whole race and kind of them will follow to the very last CHAP. XLIV ¶ Of Mules BEtween the he Asse and a Mare is a Mule ingendred and foled in the 12 moneth a beast of exceeding strength to beare out all labor and trauell For breeding of such Mules Mares are chosen that are not vnder foure yeres old nor aboue ten Men say that they will driue away one another in
fleece yeelds so profitable an vse for euen as men are beholden to the boeufe for their principall food and nourishment which they labour for so they must acknowledge that they haue their cloathing and couerture for their bodies from the poore sheep The ram and ewe both are fit for generation from two yeres of age vpward vntill they come to nine and some also vntill they be ten yeares old The lambes they yeane first are but little ones They go all generally to rut about the setting of Arcturus viz. vpon the third day before the Ides of May and their heat lasteth vnto the full of the Aegle starre namely the tenth day before the Calends of August They be with yong 150 daies if any take the Ram after that time the fruit they beare comes to no good but proues weake And such lambes as fall after that season they called in old time Cordos i. later lambs Many men do preferre these winter lambes before those that come in spring the reason is because it is much better they should be strong before the heat of summer and the long daies than against the cold of winter and the shortest daies and they think that this creature only taketh good by being yeaned in the midst of winter It is kinde and and naturall for Rams to make no account of young Hogrels but to loath them for they had rather follow after old ewes Himselfe also is better when he is old and more lusty to leape the Ewes To make him more milde and gentle they vse to bore his horne about the root neere vnto his eares If his right cullion orstone be tied vp hee getteth ewe lambes but if the left be taken vp he getteth ramme lambes If ewes be alone by themselues without the flocke when it thundreth they cast their lambes The only remedie is to gather them together that by company and fellow ship they may haue help They say that if the North winds blow when they take the ram they will bring forth males but if the South winds be vp females Moreouer great regard there is had in this kind to the mouthes of the rams for look what colour the veines be vnder their tongue of the same will the fleece be of the lambes that is to say of sundrie colours in case the veines were diuers coloured Also the change of water and drinkes maketh them to alter their hew In summe two principall kinds there be of sheep that is to say the one reared within house and the other abroad in the field the first is the tenderer but the other more pleasant meat and delicat in tast for those within-house feed vpon briers and brambles The clothes and couerings made of the Arabick wooll are chiefe of all CHAP. XLVIII ¶ Diuers kinds of wooll and clothes THe best wooll of all other is that of Apulia then that which in Italy is named the Greek sheepes wooll but in other countries is named Italian In the third ranke the Milesian sheepe and their wooll carrie the prize The wooll of Apulia is of a short staple and specially in request for cloaks and mantles and nothing else About Tarentum and Canusium the richest of this kind are found as also at Laodicea in Asia As for whiâ—…nesse there is none better than that which groweth along the Po namely about Piemount and Lombardie and yet neuer to this day a pound of it hath exceeded the price of an hundred sesterces In all places they vse not to sheare sheepe for the manner of plucking their fells continueth still in some countries Sundry sorts of colours there be in wooll and so many that we are not able to giue seuerall names so much as to those that we call Natiue i. growing vpon the sheeps backe For black fleeces Spaine is chiefe Pollentia for white and gâ—…ey the tract of Piemont neere to the Alpes Asia for red hath no fellow and such kind of wools are called Erythraeae In Boetia likewise that is to say in the kingdome of Granade and Andalusia the same colour is to be found Neere to Canusia the sheepe be deepe yellow or tawnie and about Tarentum they are of a browne and duskish colour Generally all kind of wools newly shorne or plucked vnwasht and greasy still be good and medicinable About Istria and Liburnia the sheeps fleece resembleth haire rather than wooll nothing at all good for to make frized clothes with a high nap but serueth only for the Artizan or workman in Portugall whose artificial weauing in net or scutcheon work with squares commends this wooll The like wooll is common about Pissenae in the prouince Narbonensis i. Languedoc in Fraunce and such is found in Aegypt the cloth made thereof after it is worne bare is then died and serueth new againe and will weare still and last a mans life The course rough wooll with the round great haire hath been of ancient time highly commended and accounted of in tapestrie worke for euen Homer himselfe witnesseth that they of the old world vsed the same much and tooke great delight therein But this tapestry is set out with colours in Fraunce after one sort and among the Parthians after another Moreouer wooll of it selfe driuen together into a felt without spinning or weauing serueth to make garments with and if vinegre be vsed in the working of it such felts are of good proof to bear off the edge and point of the sword yea and more than that they wil check the force of the fire And the last clensing and refuse thereof when it is taken out of the coppers and leads of those that haue the fulling and dressing thereof serues for flock-worke and to stuffe mattresses an inuention as I suppose which came first out of France for surely these flocks and quilted mattresses are at this day distinguished and knowne one from another by French names But I am not able easily to set downe at what time first this work manship began for certaine it is that in old time men made them pallets and beds of straw or else lay vpon bare mats like as now adays souldiers in the camp make shift with hairy rugges As for our mantles frized deep both without and within they were inuented came to vse first no longer since than in my fathers daies as also these hairy counterpoints and carpets For the studded cassocks that Senatours and noble men of Rome do weare begin but now for to be wouen after the manner of deep frieze rugges Wooll that is blacke will take no other hew nor be dyed into any colour As touching the manner how to die other wools we wil speake in conuenient place namely when we shall treat of the purples and sea shell fishes and of certain hearbs good for that purpose M. Varro writeth That within the temple of Sangus there continued vnto the time that he wrote his booke the wooll that ladie Tanaquil otherwise named Cata Caecilia spun together with her distaffe and spindle
with their bils against the bark they know by the sound thereof that there be worms within for them to feed vpon These birds alone of all others feed and nourish their yong ones in crannies and chinks of trees And if it chance that a shepheard or some such do pin or wedge vp their holes it is thought commonly that they will vnstop the same again by meanes of a certaine herbe which no sooner they touch the stopple with but it will out Trebius writeth that let a man driue a spike or great naile or else a wedge or pinne of wood as hard as euer he will into that tree wherein this bird hath a nest incontinently as shee percheth and setleth vpon the tree it will presently fly out with such a force that the tree will giue a crack again therewith Throughout all Latium these birds beare the name for effectual signification of good or bad fortune by reason of that king or prince i. Picus who gaue them that name And one presage of theirs aboue the rest I canot passe ouer It fortuned that one of them light vpon the head of L. Tubero L. chiefe Iustice of the city of Rome as hee was sitting vpon the judgement seat in the open face of the Court ministring justice and there rested so gently that it suffered him to take it with his hand The Sooth sayer being asked his aduice in this case answered by booke That if the bird were let go it would portend the ruine and ouerthrow of the whole state and empire but if it were killed it de nounced the death of the sayd Pretor or L. chiefe Iustice then in place But the Pretor Tubero immediatly vpon this answer plucked the bird in pieces It was not long after but the presage of this bird took effect indeed and was fulfilled in his person Moreouer there be of this kind many that feed on mast acorns nuts apples and such like fruits but they be such as liue in maner vpon flesh onely And yet I must except the Kite for that propertie in him is noted to be in all Augurie an vnlucky signe and presage of some heauy and deadly misfortune CHAP. XIX ¶ Of Birds that haue hooked talons and round long clawes like fingers WHat fowles soeuer haue crooked clawes sort not together in flocks but prey each one apart for it self and lightly all such fly aloft vnlesse it be the night birds aforesaid and the greater sort especially They are all of them great winged little bodied and heauy in their gate vpon the ground Seldom or neuer they sit and perch vpon a rock for why their nails bowing and hooking inward will not giue them leaue It remains now that we speak of the second kind or ranke of birds which also is diuided into two sorts towit Oscines that sing and Alites that fly only for the singing of the one and the bignes of the other makes the difference and distinction between them These therefore that be greater bodied we wil by order treat first of CHAP. XX. ¶ Of Peacocks and who was the first that killed them for the table THe Peacock far surpasses all the rest of this kind as well for beauty as also for the wit and vnderstanding that he hath but principally for the pride and glory he takes in himself For perceiuing at any time that he is praised and wel liked he spreadeth his taile round shewing and setting out his colours to the most which shine againe like precious stones and namely when he turnes them against the Sun as his manner is for so he giueth them a more radiant and glittering lustre And for the same purpose also with his taile representing fish shels he giues a certain shadow to the rest of his feathers which seeme the brighter when they be a little shadowed and withall he sets all those eyes of his feathers together in a ranke and gathereth them round knowing full well that hee is the more looked on for them and therein he taketh no small ioy and pleasure On the other side when he hath lost this taile which vsually he moulteth euery yere when trees shed their leaues vntil such time as trees blossom new and his taile be grown again he hath no delight to come abroad but as if he were ashamed or mourned seeketh corners to hide himselfe in The Peacocke ordinarily liueth 25 yeares At 3 yeres of age he begins to put forth that varietie of colours in his feathers Authors who haue written of him say that he is not only a proud and vainglorious creature but also as malicious and spightfull as the Goose is bashfull and modest for so haue some of them obserued these properties and qualities in these birds But I for my part like not to make such similitudes The first that killed Peacocks to be serued vp as a dish at the table was Hortensius that great Orator in that solemne feast which he made when he was consecrated high priest and M. Aufidius Lurco deuised first to feed them fat by which inuention of his he might dispend by yerely reuenue 60000 Sesterces And this was about the time of the last Pirats war CHAP. XXI ¶ Of Cocks how they be cut and made Capons also of a dunghill Cocke that spake NExt to Peacocks these birds about our houses which are our sentinels by night whom Nature hath created to breake men of their sleepe to awaken and call them vp to their work haue also a sence and vnderstanding of glory they loue I say to be praised and are proud in their kind Moreouer they are Astronomers and know the course of the stars they diuide the day by their crowing from 3 houres to 3 houres when the Sun goeth to rest they go to roost and like sentinels they keepe the reliefe of the fourth watch in the camp they cal men vp to their carefull labour and trauell they will not suffer the Sun to rise and steale vpon vs but they giue vs warning of it by their crowing they tell vs that the day is comming and they foretell their crowing likewise by clapping their sides with their wings They are Commanders and rulers of their own kind be they Hens or other Cocks and in what house soeuer they be they will be masters and kings ouer them This soueraignty is gootten by plain fight one with another as if they knew that naturally they had spurs as weapons giuen them about their heeles to try the quarrell and many times the combat is so sharp and hot that they kill one another ere they giue ouer But if one of them happen to be conqueror presently vpon victorie he croweth and himselfe soundeth the triumph He that is beaten makes no words nor croweth at all but hideth his head in silence and yet neuerthelesse it goeth against his stomack to yeeld the gantlet and giue the bucklers Hardly can he brook to be vnder another and not only these cocks of game but the very common sort
moneth of May. A second kind of hony there is which we call Summer hony and is named also Horaeum of that principall season wherin it is made namely in the very midst of dog-dog-daies when the star Sirius is in his full strength and that commonly is 30 daies after the Sun-stead And I assure you Nature hath shewed her admirable and excellent power to men ward in this behalfe in case their fraud and deceit would suffer her works in their entire and proper nature without corruption and sophistication which marreth all and maketh nothing but confusion For vpon the rising and apparition of any star and especially of those that be more excellent than the rest or after that a rainbow is seen aboue the earth and no showers of rain presently follow but a drizling-dew warmed with the raies and beams of the Sun ye shall haue that which falleth not to be bare hony but a very medicinable thing euen a celestiall gift singular good for eies and vlcers yea and comfortable to the principall noble parts within the body And if this happen to be at the rising of the dog-star and it chance withall that vpon the same day as oftentimes it falleth out Venus Iupiter or Mercury bee Orientall then shall yee haue so heauenly a sweet liquor that no one thing in the World may bee comparable to it for the curing of all our maladies and euen to reduce and recouer vs backe from death vnto life like vnto that coelestiall and diuine Nectar which immortalizeth the gods aboue CHAP. XV. ¶ The markes of good hony MOre plenty of hony is gathered in the full of the Moone than at any other time and if therewith the weather be faire the same wil be more vncteous and fattie In all kinds the best hony is that which runneth of it selfe as new Wine and Oile and called it is Acedon as a man would say gotten without care trauell All Summer hony is red as being made in the driest season of the yere The hony which commeth of Time is held to be the best and most profitable in colour like gold in taste right pleasant euident to be knowne by the little leaues therein and the same is likewise fattie That which is made of Rosemary or within the aire and vapour of the sea is thick and such verily as is thus candied and will not run like life-hony is nothing commendable As for Time honey it will not thicken and if a man touch it rope it wil and draw small slimie threds after it which is a principall signe of the weight and heauinesse thereof If hony be short in the handling and soon breake and that the drops part one from the other it is thought to be a token of the worst and coursest of all Another triall there is besides of good hony namely if it be fragrant and odoriferous to smell vnto sweet in taste biting withall or quick at the tongues end glutinous and cleare As touching the driuing of hiues for summer hony Thasius Dionysius is of opinion that the tenth part therof should be left for the bees namely if they were ful if not then according to the proportion but if they were but light and very thin he would not haue them to be touched at all The Athenians goe by this rule and do obserue duly the Caprificial day which is kept wholly vnto Vulcan for then they euer begin to driue their hiues for this kind of honie CHAP. XVI ¶ Of a third kinde of Honie and how a man should know good Bees THere is a third sort of wild hony which the Greeks cal Ericaeum i. Heath or Ling hony and is of least reckoning It is gathered after the first rain in Autumne when the heath and lings only bloom in the woods wherupon it seems as if it were sandy This kind of hony is ingendred for the most part after the rising of Arcturus much about the Ides of September Some there be that continue in gathering Summer hony to the rising of Arcturus betweene which and the Autumne Equinoctial are 14 daies from thence vnto the setting of Virgiliae namely for the space of 48 daies the said heath is most in his blooming time This shrub the Athenians call Tetralix the Euboeans name it Sisara they repute it to be a floure most pleasant to bees haply because at that time there is no plenty of other floures This gathering of hony is about the end of vintage the occultation of the Vergiliae commonly ends by the Ides of Nouember In driuing of the hiues for this hony by good reason two third parts therof would be reserued for the bees especially those corners of the combs which haue in them the prouision called Erithace From the mids of winter to the rising of Arcturus for 60 daies bees are nourished only with sleep without any other food But from that time vnto the spring equinoctial and namely where the weather is more warm they are awake Howbeit they lie stil in their hiue then fal to their victuals which they had laid vp in store against that time but in Italy theâ—… do the like indeed after the rising of the star Virgiliae howbeit till then they do nothing but sleep And there verily men vse when they take the hony forth of the hiues to weigh the combs and so by weight dispense set out how much they will leaue them for their food hauing this opinion that they are bound to deale in justice equity euen with the very bees insomuch as it is commonly said if they be defrauded of their due in this society part-taking and find falshood in fellowship they wil die for griefe so both the old stock will be lost and the hope also of a new increase In the first place therfore this is a rule that such folk only be set about this businesse to driue the hiues who are neat clean A theefe a woman whiles she is in her montâ—…ly sicknes they abhor In the taking out of hony the best means to driue away the bees is to smoke them out of the hiue lest that you anger them or that they deuoure the honie themselues with more greedines Moreouer when they grow to be idle perfuming smoking of them thus now and then maketh them more fresh to go about their worke For when they lie still and doe nothing they make their combes looke dead and blackish Again if they be ouermuch smoked they will be the worse for it and surely the very hony soon catcheth the hurt hereof for so tender and weake will it be that with the least dew that is you shal haue it to turn and wax soure And therefore in all kinds of hony they obserue and keepe that which is called Acapnon i. without smoke The hony gathered of both sorts of Thyme called thereupon Bithymum is not white howbeit very good it is for eies and to clense vlcers Now as
pray you how artificially she hides the snares in that net of hers made into squares to catch the poore flies A man would not thinke who sees the long yarne in her web wrought serce-wise smoothed and polished so cunningly and the verie manner of the woofe so glewish and clammie as it is of it selfe that all were to any purpose and serued for that which she intends See withall how slacke and hollow the net is made to abide the wind for feare of breaking and thereby so much the better also to fold and enwrap whatsoeuer coms within her reach What a craft is this of hers to leaue the vpper part thereof in the front vndone as if she were wearie for so a man may guesse when he can hardly see the reason and as it is in hunters net and toile that so soone as those nets be stumbled vpon they should cast the flies head long into the lap and concauitie of the net To come now vnto her nest and hole Is there any Architecture comparable to the vault and arched frame And for to keep out the cold how is it wrought with a longer and deeper nap than the rest What subtiltie is this of hers to retire into a corner so far from the mids making semblance as though she meant nothing lesse than that she doth and as if she went about some other businesse Nay how close lies she that it is impossible for one to see whether any bodie be within or no! What should I speak of the strength that this web hath to resist the puffes and blasts of winds of the roughnesse to hold and not breake notwithstanding a deale of dust doth weigh and beare it downe Many a time ye shall see a broad web reaching from one tree to another and this is when she learns to weaue begins to practise and trie her skill Shee stretches a thread and warps in length from the top of the tree downe to the very ground and vp again she whirles most nimbly by the same thread so as at one time she spins and winds vp her yarne Now if it chance that any thing light into her net how watchfull how quick sighted how readie is she to run Be it neuer so little snared euen in the very skirt and vtmost edge therof she alwaies skuds into the mids for so by shaking the whole net she intangles the flie or whatsoeuer it be so much the more Looke what is slit or rent therein she presently doth mend and repaire and that so euen and small that a man cannot see where the hole was derned and drawne vp again These Spiders hunt also after the yong Lizards first they enfold and wrap the head within their web then they catch hold and tweake both their lips together and so bite and pinch them A worthy sight and spectacle to behold fit for a king euen from the stately Amphitheatres when such a combat chances Moreouer there be many presages and prognostications depend vpon these Spiders for against any inundations and ouerflowings of riuers they weaue and make their cobwebs higher than they were wont In faire and cleare weather they neither spin nor weaue vpon thicke and cloudie daies they be hard at worke and therefore many cobwebs be a signe of raine Some thinke it is the female that spins and weaues and the male which hunts and gets in the prouision for the familie thus ordering the matter equally in earning their liuing as man and wife together in one house Spiders engender together with their buttocks little worms they do lay like egs For considering that the generation of all Insects besides in a manner can be declared and shewed no otherwise I must not deferre the relation therof it being so admirable as it is Well then these egs they lay in their webs but scattering here and there because they vse to skip and leap when they thrust them forth The Phalangius only sits vpon the eggs within the very hole and those in great number which begin not so soon to peep but they eat the mother yea and oftentimes the father likewise for he helps her also to cooue And these kind of Spiders bring commonly 300 at a time wheras all the rest haue fewer They sit ordinarily thirtie daies As for yong Spiders they come to their full growth and perfection in foure weekes CHAP. XXV ¶ Of Scorpions SEmblably the land Scorpions do lay certaine little worms or grubs in maner of eggs and when they haue so done perish likewise for their labour as the Spiders Their stings be as venomous and dangerous as those of serpents and albeit there ensue not thereupon so present death yet they put folke to more paine a great deale insomuch as they languish and lie drawing on three daies before they die If a maiden be stung with one of them she is sure to die of it other women also for the most part catch their death thereby and hardly escape Yea and men also find their poison to be mortall deadly if they be stung in a morning by them when they creep newly out of their holes fasting before they haue discharged their poison by pric king one thing or other first Their sting lies in their tails and readie they are with it alwaies to strike There is not a minute of an houre but they practise and trie how they can thrust it forth so malicious they be because they would not lose and misse the first opportunity presented vnto them They strike both sidelong or byas and also crooked and bending vpward with their taile The poison that comes from them is white as Apollodorus saith who also hath set downe 9 sorts of them and distinguished them by their colours which me thinks was but superfluous and more than needed considering that a man cannot know by his discourse which of them he would haue to be least hurtfull and noisome He affirmeth that some haue double stings and that the males are more curst and cruell than the females for he auouches that they do engender together and that the males may be knowne by this That they are long and slender Moreouer that they be al of them venomous about mid-day when they be enchafed and set into an heat by the scalding and scorching sun also when they be drie and thirstie they cannot drinke their full and quench their drought This is well known that those which haue seuen joints in their tailes be more fell than the rest for it is ordinarie in them to haue but six In Affrick this pestilent creature vses to flie also namely when the Southerne winds blow which carrie them aloft in the aire and beare them vp as they stretch forth their armes like oares The same Apollodoruâ—… before-named auouches plainely that some of them haue very wings indeed The people called Psylli who making a gainfull trade and merchandise of it to bring in hither vnto vs the poisons of other countries and by that meanes haue
purpose they make much of Iaies Dawes and Choughes whom they doe honour highly because they flie opposite against the Locusts and so destroy them Moreouer in Syria they are forced to leuie a warlike power of men against them and make riddance by that meanes See in how many parts of the world this hurtfull and noisome vermine is dispersed and spread and yet in Parthia they are taken for very good meat The voice that they haue such as it seemes to come from the hinder part of their head for about that place where the joincture is of the shoulders to the nape of the neck they are thought to haue certain teeth which by grating and grinding one against the other doe yeeld a kind of crashing noise and namely about the time of both the Aequinoctials like as the Grashoppers at mid summers Sunstead Locusts engender after the manner of all other Insects which do engender to wit the female carries the male and she lying vnderneath bends vp the very end of her taile against the other and thus they continue a good while ere they part asunder To conclude the males of all this kind be lesse than the females CHAP. XXX ¶ Of the ordinarie Pismires of our countrey in Italie MOst part of Insects do breed a grub or little worme For euen the very Ant in the Spring time doth bring forth such wormes like egges These silie creatures labor and trauell in common as the Bees do this only is the difference that Bees do make their owne meat wheras these store vp only their food and prouision As touching their strength if a man would compare the burdens that they carie with their own bodies he wil find and confesse that there is not a creature againe in the world for that proportion stronger And how doe they carrie them euen with their very mouthes Howbeit if they meet with any greater load than they can bite betweene their chawes then they set their shoulders to it and with their hinder legs also make meanes to driue it forward They haue among them a certaine forme of Common-wealth they remember they are not without care and fore-cast Looke what seedes or graines they do lay vp for prouision sure they will be to gnaw it first for feare they should sprout and take root againe and so grow out of the earth If a corne or seed be too big for their carriage they diuide it into peeces that they may go with it more easily into their house If their seeds within chance to take wet they lay them abroad and so drie them They giue not ouer worke by night when the Moone is at the full but when she is in the change they rest and play them When they are at worke how painfull are they how busie how industrious And for as much as they make their purueiance in diuers places and bring from al parts without knowledge one of the other they keepe among them certaine market daies for a mutuall enteruiew and conference together And verily it is a world to see how then they will assemble what running what greeting what entercourse and communication there is between them whiles they are inquisiâ—…iue as they meet one with onother What newes abroad euen like merchants at a Burse Their â—…aifare is so ordinarie and continual that we may see the very hard flint and pebble stones worn â—…ith their passage too and fro we may see I say a very path-way made where they vse to goe about their worke whereby let no man doubt of what force and power continuall vse is of any thing whatsoeuer be it neuer fo little Of all liuing creatures they only and men doe enterre and burie their dead among them To conclude thoroughout all Sicilie a man shall not see a flying Ant. CHAP. XXXI ¶ Of Indian Pismires IN the temple of Hercules at Erythrae there were to be seen the horns of a certain Indian Ant which were there set vp and fastned for a wonder to posteritie In the countrey of the Northerne Indians named Dardae the Ants do cast vp gold aboue ground from out of the holes and mines within the earth these are in colour like to cats and as big as the wolues of Aegypt This gold before said which they worke vp in the winter time the Indians do steale from them in the extreme heate of Summer waiting their opportunitie when the Pismires lie close within their caues vnder the ground from the parching Sun Yet not without great danger for if they happen to wind them and catch their sent out they go and follow after them in great hast and with such fury they fly vpon them that oftentimes they teare them in pieces let them make way as fast as they can vpon their most swift camels yet they are not able to saue them So fleet of pace so fierce of courage are they to recouer gold that they loue so well CHAP. XXXII ¶ The diuers generation of some Insects MAny Insects there be that breed after another sort than the former aboue specified and principally of dew which settles vpon the radish leafe in the beginning of the Spring For being made thicke and hardned with the heate of the Sun it growes to the bignes of the grain of Millet From it ariseth a little grub and three daies after it becomes a kind of canker-worme and so in processe and tract of time it groweth bigger without mouing at all and gathereth an hard husk or case about her only if a man touch the webby panicles wherein the said worme lieth inwrapped it will seem to stir This is called Chrysalis and after some time when the kex or husk is broken he proueth a faire flying butter-fly CHAP. XXXIII ¶ Of Insects that breed in wood and of wood SEmblably there be some Insects ingendred of raine drops standing vpon the earth and others also of wood for not only the ordinarie wood-wormes breed in timber but also câ—…tain Brees and horse-flies come of it yea and other such like creatures whensoeuer the wood happen to be dotted with ouer-much moisture Like as within one of our bodies there haue bin found broad wormes of 30 foot in length yea and sometimes longer Also there haue bin seen in dead carions many worms and the very flesh of liuing men is apt to breed such vermin and so is the haire of the head to harbor lice of which silthy loathsome creatures both Sylla the Dictator and also Alcman one of the most renowned Greeke Poets perished Moreouer birds are much infested and troubled therewith And as for Feasants they will dy thereof vnlesse they bestrew themselues with dust Of such beasts as carry haire it is verily thought that the Asse alone and sheep are free from this kind of vermin Some kind of cloath likewise is apt to ingender lice and especially those which are made of wooll that sheepe bare which were worried of wolues Ouer and besides I find in some writers That there
vnto him than if hee had preserued but a simple common souldier so hee were a Romane Citizen for the makers of these ordinances aimed chiefely at the life of a Citizen whosoeuer hee was without regard of any other circumstance Item Hee that was once crowned with this garland was endued also with these priuiledges That hee might weare it alwaies after whensoeuer it pleased him That so often as hee came in place of publicke playes or games men should accustomably rise vp vnto him yea and the verie Senatours themselues doe him honour in that sort That hee should haue his place allowed him to sit next vnto those of Senatours degree That both himselfe and also his father and grandsire by the fathers side should euer after bee exempt from all ciuile charges and inioy full immunitie Thus much concerning the lawes and priuiledges attending vpon the Ciuicke garland Siccius Dentatus as wee haue specified before receiued foureteene of these chaplets for his good seruice Manlius Capitolinus six and hee verily had one of them for rescuing Seruilius beeing Generall of the Armie As for Scipio Africanus hee refused this honour when it was offered and presented vnto him for sauing the life of his owne father at the iourney and battaile of Trebia O the excellent orders and customes of those times worthie of immortalitie and euerlasting memorie O the wisdome of men in those daies who assigned no other reward for so braue exploits and singular workes but honour onely And whereas all other militarie coronets they enriched and adorned with gold they would not set the life of a citizen at any price A plaine and euident profession of our ancestors and predecessors That it is an vnlawfull and shameful thing to seem for to saue a mans life in hope of any gaine and profit thereby CHAP. V. ¶ Of Mast thirteene kinds MAny nations there be euen at this day and such as inioy peace and know not what warre meaneth whose wealth and riches lyeth principally in Mast yea and elswhere in time of dearth and for want of other graine folke vse to dry their mast grind it into meale temper it with water and thereof make dough for bread Moreouer euen at this day throughout Spaine the manner is to serue vp acornes and mast to the table for a second seruice and sweeter it is being rosted vnder the cinders and ashes than otherwise Ouer and besides prouided it is by an expresse act and law of the twelue tables in Rome that a man may gather the mast that falleth from his owne trees into another mans ground Diuers and sundry sorts there be of Mast and their difference consisteth in the forme and fashion of the fruit in the site and scituation of the place in the sex and in the taste for the mast of the Beech tree is of one figure and making the Acorne which is the mast of the Oke another and the mast of the Holme or Ilex differeth from them both yea in euery one of these kinds they do vary one from another Also some are of trees growing wild others more milde and gentle louing places well tilled and ordered by husbandry Some like the hilly countries others the champaine and the plains Semblably there is mast comming from the male trees there is againe that groweth on the female In like maner the rellish tast maketh a difference and diuersity in mast The sweetest of all is the Beech mast for Cornelius Alexander reporteth That the inhabitants of Chios when they were streightly beleaguered indured the siege a long time by the benefit substance only of that mast We are not able distinctly to specifie name by name the sundry sorts of mast and the trees which beare the same considering that in euery countrey they alter their names for we see the Robur and the Oke to grow commonly euerie where but the Esculus is not so rife in all countries A fourth sort there is of the same kind that is not known ordinarily in most places of Italy We will therefore distinguish them according to their nature and properties yea and when need shall require by their Greeke names also CHAP. VI. ¶ Of the Beech mast and other Masts of Charcole and the feeding of Hogs THe Beech mast is like to the kernell of a Chestnut inclosed within a three cornered skin The leafe of the tree is thin and very light resembling that of the Poplar it turneth yellow passing soone In the middle whereof for the most part and in the vpper side it bringeth forth a little green berrie pointed sharpe at the toppe The mast of Beech Rats and Mice are much delighted in mark therfore when there is store of that mast ye shal haue as great increase of that vermin It will feed also Reremice or Dormice fat and the Ousels or Blackbirds take a great liking thereto and wil flie vnto it Lightly all trees are most fruitful one yere than another and beare most euery second yeare but aboue all Beeches keepe this course As touching Mast which properly is so called it groweth vpon the Robur the common Oke the Esculus Cerrus Ilex and Cork tree All kinds of mast are contained more or lesse within a rough cup which lieth close to the vtmost skin thereof claspeth it about The leaues of all these mast trees except the mast-Holme Ilex be heauy fleshie large waued or indented along the sides neither be they yellow when they fall as the Beech leaues are longer also or shorter according to the diuers trees whereupon they grow Of the Ilex or mast-Holme tree there be two sorts Those in Italy differ not much in leaâ—…e from the Oliue Some Greeks call them Smilaces but in other prouinces Aquifoliae The mast of Ilex both the one and the other is shorter and slenderer than of the rest Homer calleth it Acylon by which name he distinguisheth it from other mast The male Holmes men say beare no fruit The best mast and the biggest is the Acorn growing vpon the common Oke next to it is that of the Esculus as for that of the Robur it is but small The Cerrus carieth a mast vnpleasant to the eie and rough to be handled for clad it is with a cup beset with sharpe prickes like to the Chestnut shell Among the ver Acornes some haue a sweeter tast than others the female Oke beareth those that be more soft and tender the male tough thick and massie and the best simply are those that come of the broad leafed Oke for so it is called by reason of the large leaues Moreouer there is another difference in mast and acornes for some be bigger than others againe there are that haue thin and fine skins inclosing the kernel and ye shal find others for them as thick skinned likewise many of them are couered with a rough and rustie tunicle and as many againe do shew immediatly their bare white skin and naked fleshy substance Furthermore that mast is accounted good
there is not a tree not so much as the very Vine that sheddeth leaues CHAP. XXII ¶ The nature of such leaues as fall from trees and what leaues they be that change colour ALl trees without the range of those before rehearsed for to reckon them vp by name particularly were a long and tedious piece of work do lose their leaues in winter And verily this hath bin found and obserued by experience that no leaues doe fade and wither but such as be thinne broad and soft As for such as fall not from the tree they be commonly thick skinned hard and narrow and therefore it is a false principle and position held by some That no trees shed their leaues which haue in them a fatty sap or oleous humiditie for who could euer perceiue any such thing in the Mast-holme a drier tree there is not and yet it holdeth alwaies green Timaeus the great Astrologer and Mathematician is of opinion that the Sun being in the signe Scorpio he causeth leaues to fall by a certain venomous and poysoned infection of the aire proceeding from the influence of that maligne constellation But if that were true we may wel and iustly maruell why the same cause should not be effectuall likewise in all other trees Moreouer we see that most trees do let fall their leaues in Autumne some are longer ere they shed continuing green vntill winter be come Neither is the timely or slow fall of the leafe long of the early or late budding for wee see some that burgen and shoot out their spring with the first and yet with the last shed their leaues and become naked as namely the Almond trees Ashes and Elders And contrariwise the Mulberry tree putteth forth leaues with the latest and is one of them that soonest sheddeth them again But the cause hereof lies much in the nature of the soile for the trees that grow vpon a leane dry and hungry ground do sooner cast leafe than others also old trees become bare before yonger and many of them also lose their leaues before their fruit be fully ripe for in the Fig tree that commeth and beaâ—…th late in the winter Pyrry and Pomegranate a man shall see in the later end of the yere fruit only and no leaues vpon the tree Now as touching those trees that continue euer greene you must not think that they keep still the same leaues for as new come the old wither fal away which hapneth commonly in mid-Iune about the Summer Sunne-stead For the most part the leaues in euery kind of tree do hold one and the same colour and continue vniform saue those of the Poplar Ivy and Croton which wee said was called also Cici iâ—… est Ricinus or Palma Christi CHAP. XXIII ¶ Three sorts of Poplar and what leaues they be that change their shape and figure OF Poplars there be found three sundry kinds to wit the white the blacke and that which is named Lybica or the Poplar of Guynee this hath least leaues and those of all other blackest but mow commendable they are for the fungous meazles as it were that come forth thereof As for the white Poplar leafe the leaues when they be yong are as round as if they were drawn with a paire of compasses like vnto those of Citron before named but as they grow elder they run out into certain angles or corners Contrariwise the Ivy leaues at the first be cornered and afterwards become round All Poplar leaues are full of downe as for the white Poplar which is fuller of leaues than the rest the said downe flieth away in the aire like to mossie chats or Thistle-downe The leaues of Pomegranats and Almond trees stand much vpon the red colour But very strange it is and wonderfull which hapneth to the Elme Tillet or Linden the Oliue tree Aspe and Sallow or Willow for their leaues after Midsummer turn about vpside downe in such sort as there is not a more certaine argument that the Sun is entred Cancer and returneth from the South point or Summer Tropicke than to see those leaues so turned CHAP. XXIIII ¶ What leaues they be that vse to turne euery yeare Of Palme or Date tree leaues how they are to be ordered and vsed Also certain wonderfull obseruations about leaues THere is a certain general and vniuersal diuersitie difference obserued in the very leaf for commonly the vpper side which is from the ground is of greene grasse colour more smooth also polished The outside or nether part of the leaf hath in it certain strings sinues or veins brawns and ioynts bearing out like as in the back part of a mans hand but the inside cuts or lines in maner of the palme of ones hand The leaues of the oliue are on the vpper part whiter and lesse smooth and likewise of the Ivy. But the leaues of all trees for most part euery day do turn and open to the Sunne as desirous to haue the inner side warmed therewith The outward or nether side toward the ground of all leaues hath a certaine hoary downe more or lesse here in Italy but in other countries so much there is of it that it serueth the turn for wooll and cotton In the East parts of the world they make good cordage and strong ropes of date tree leaues as we haue said before and the same are better serue longer within than without With vs these Date leaues are pulled from the tree in the Spring whiles they are whole and entire for the better be they which are not clouen or diuided Being thus plucked they are laid a drying within house foure daies together After that they be spred abroad and displaied open to the Sun and left without dores to take all weathers both day and night and to be bleached vntil they be dry and white which done they be sliued and slit for cord-cord-work But to come again to other leaues the broadest are vpon the Fig-tree the Vine and the Plane the narrowest vpon the Myrtle Pomegranat and oliue as for those of the Pine and cedar they be hairy the Holly leaues and all the kindes of Holme be set with sharpe prickes As for the Iuniper in stead of leafe it hath a very pointed thorne The Cypresse and Tamariske carrie fleshie leaues those of the Alder be most thick of all other The Reed and the Willow haue long leaues the Date tree hath them double The leaues of the Peare tree are round but those of the Apple tree are pointed of the Ivie cornered of the Plane tree diuided into certaine incisions of the Pitch tree and the Fir cut in after the maner of comb-teeth of the wild hard Oke waued and indented round about the edges of the brier and bramble sharpe like thornes all the skin ouer Of some they be stinging and biting as of Nettles of others ready to pricke like pins or needles as of the Pine the Pitch tree the Larch the Firre the Cedar and all the
people were holden to call the Commons away from their market affaires Also the manner in those daies was to take their sleepe and repose in good straw and litter Yea and when speech was of glory and renowne men would call it by no other term but Adorea of Ador a kind of fine red wheat Where by the way I haue in great admiration the antique words of those times and it doth me good to think how significant they were For thus we read in the sacred Pontificall Commentaries of the high priests For the Augurie or solemne sacrifice called Canarium let there be certain daies appointed to wit before the corn shew eare out of the hose yea and before that it come into it But to return againe to the praise of Husbandry When the world was thus addicted and giuen to Agriculture Italy was not only well prouided and sufficiently furnished of corne without any help from out prouinces but also all kind of grain and victuals were in those daies so exceeding cheap as it is incredible for Manius Martius a Plebeian Edile of Rome was the first man that serued the people wheat at one Asse the Modius and after him Minutius Augurinus the eleuenth Tribune of the commons euen he who indited that mutinous and seditious citizen Sp. Melius brought down the price of wheat for 3 market daies to an Asse the Modius The people therefore of Rome in regard of this good deed of his erected a statue for him without the gate Trigemina and that with such affection and deuotion that euery man contributed somewhat thereto by way of beneuolence Trebius also in the time of his Aedileship caused wheat to be sold vnto the people at the same rate to wit one Asse a Modius For which cause there were 2 statues also in memorial of him set vp both in the Capitoll and also in Palatium and himselfe when he was departed this life had this honor done vnto him by the people at his exequies as to be carried on their shoulders to his funerall fire It is reported moreouer That in the very same yeare wherein the great goddesse Cybele called also the mother of the gods was brought to Rome there was a more plentifull haruest that Summer and corn was at a lower price than had bin known in ten yeares before Likewise M. Varro hath left in writing That when L. Metellus made shew of so many Elephants in his triumph at Rome a Modius of good red wheat was worth no more than one Asse also a gallon of wine cost no more And as for drie figges thirty pound weight carried no higher price and a man might haue bought a pound of Oile oliue and 12 pound of flesh at the very same reckoning And yet all this plenty and cheapnesse proceeded not from the great domaines and large possessions of those priuate persons that incroched vpon their neighbors and hemmed them within narrow compasse For by the law published by Stolo Licinius prouided it was that no Roman citizen should hold in priuat aboue fiue hundred acres The rigor of which law or statute was extended and practised vpon the Law-maker himselfe and by vertue thereof he was condemned who for to possesse aboue that proportion and to defraud the meaning of the said Act purchased more lands in the name of his Son Loe what might be the proportion and measure of possessions allowed euen then when as the State and Common-wealth of Rome was in the prime and began to flourish And as for the Oration verily of Manius Curius after such triumphs of his and when he had subdued and brought vnder the obeisance of the Roman Empire and laid to their dominion so many forrein nations what it was euery man knoweth wherin he deliuered this speech That he was not to be counted a good man but a dangerous citizen who could not content himselfe with a close of seuen acres of ground And to say a truth after that the kings were banished out of Rome and their regiment abolished this was the very proportion of land assigned to a Roman Commoner If this be so What might be the cause of so great plenty abundance aforesaid in those daies Certes this nothing els great LL and generals of the field as it should seem tilled themselues their ground with their own hands the Earth again for her part taking no small pleasure as it were to be eared and broken vp with ploughes Laureat and ploughmen Triumphant strained her selfe to yeeld increase to the vttermost Like it is also that these braue men and worthy personages were as curious in sowing a ground with corne as in ordinance of a battell in array as diligent I say in disposing and ordering of their lands as in pitching of a field and commonly euery thing that commeth vnder good hands the more neat and cleane that the vsage thereof is and the greater paines that is taken about it the better it thriueth and prospereth afterwards What shall we say more was not C. Attilius Serranus when the honorable dignity of Consulship was presented vnto him with commission to conduct the Roman army found sowing his own field and planting trees whereupon he took that syrname Serranus As for Quintius Cincinnatus a purseuant or messenger of the Senat brought vnto him the letters patents of his Dictatorship at what time as he was in proper person ploughing a piece of ground of his owne containing foure acres and no more which are now called Prata Quintiana i. Quintius his medowes lying within the Vaticane and as it is reported not onely bare-headed was hee and open breasted but also all naked and full of dust The foresaid officer or sergeant taking him in this maner Do on your cloths sir quoth he and couer your body that I may deliuer vnto you the charge that I haue from the Senate and people of Rome Where note by the way that such Pursevants and Sergeants in those daies were named Viatores for that eftsoones they were sent to fetch both Senatours and Generall captaines out of the fields where they were at worke but now see how the times be changed They that doe this businesse in the field what are they but bond-slaues fettered condemned malefactors manacled and in one word noted persons and such as are branded and marked in their visage with an hot yron Howbeit the Earth whom wee call our Mother and whom wee would seem to worship is not so deafe and sencelesse but she knoweth well enough how shee is by them depriued of that honour which was done in old time vnto her insomuch as wee may well weet that against her will shee yeeldeth fruit as shee doth howsoeuer wee would haue it thought by these glorious titles giuen vnto her that she is nothing displeased therewith namely to be labored and wrought by such vile and base hirelings But we forsooth do maruell that the labor of these contemptible bond slaues and abiect villains doth not render the
and sharpned that their steles helues or handles be fitted and set to their heads that shaken tubs barrels and such like vessels be new cowped bound with hoops and calfretted that their staues â—…e well scraped and cleansed or else new set into them And thus much of this Winter Quarter as farre as to the comming of the Westerne winde Favonius Now as touching the entrance of the new Spring which is from the rising of the said winde to the Equinox in March Caesar sets downe for it the time which for three daies together is variable and inconstant weather to wit seuenteen daies before the calends of March which is the thirteenth of Februarie Also 8 daies before the said Calends which is the 22 of Februarie vpon the sight of the first Swallow and the morrow after vpon which day the star Arcturus riseth Vespertine i. appeareth in the â—…ning In like manner Caesar hath obserued that the said wind hath begun to blow three daies before the Nones of March to wit the fift of March just with the rising or apparition of the Crab-star Cancer Howbeit most writers of Astrologie do assigne the first entry of the Spring and the comming of this wind to the 8 day before the Ides of March which is the eight of that moneth when as the star Vinâ—…emiator id est the Grape-gatherer beginneth to appeare at what time also the Northerly starre called the Fish ariseth vpon the morrow whereof to wit the ninth day the great starre Orion sheweth himselfe in his likenesse In the region Atâ—…ica where Athens standeth it is obserued that the star Milvus i the Kite or Glede appeareth then in that climat Caesar moreouer noted that the star Scorpio rises vpon the Ides of March those fatall Ides I say that were so vnfortunate vnto himselfe also that vpon the 15 Calends of Aprill which is the 18 of March the foresaid Milvus i the Kitestar appeareth to them in Italie and three daies after the Horse-star is hidden toward the morning This is the freshest the most busie or stirring interual or time between that husbandmen haue and yet therin they be oftenest deceiued for commonly called they are not to their work the very same day that the wind Fauonius should by course blow but when it begins to be aloft which is a point to be considered and obserued with right great regard for if a man would take heede and marke well this is that moneth wherein God giueth vs that sure and infallible sign which neuer faileth Now from what quarter or coast this wind doth blow and which way it commeth albeit I haue shewed alreadie in the second booke of this storie yet will I speake thereof more distinctly and exactly anon mean while from that day whensoeuer it hapneth on which that wind beginneth to blow come it sooner as namely when it is a timely and forward spring or come it later if it be a long winter for it is not alwaies the sixth day just before the Ides of February from that time I say must the rustical paisants settle to their work then are they to goe about a world of toilesome labour then must they plie their businesse and make speed to dispatch those things first that may not be defer'd put off then or neuer would their summer three month corne be sowne their vines be pruned in manner abouesaid their Oliue trees dressed and trimmed accordinglâ—… Apple-tree stocks and such like fruits are then to to be set and graffed then is the time to be digging and deluing in vineyards to remoue some yong plants out of their seminaries and digest them in order as they must grow and to supply their plots with new seed and impes Canes and Reeds Willows and Osiers Broom also would then some be set and others cut downe Elmes Poplars and Plane trees ought then to be planted as hath been said before then is the meetest season to cleanse the corne fields to sarcle and rid the winter corn from weeds and especially the bearded red wheat Far in doing wherof this must be the certain rule to direct the husbandmen namely when the root of the said Far begins to haue foure strings or threads to it As for Beans they must not be medled withall in that order before they haue put out three leaues and then verily they must be lightly gone ouer and cleansed rather with a light hooke than otherwise When Beanes be bloumed for 15 daies together they ought not to be touched As touching Barley it would not be sarcled or raked but in a drie ground and when the weather holds vp Order the matter so that by the Aequinox in March all your pruning and binding of Vines be done and finished If it be a vineyard foure men are enough to cut and tie an acre of vines and if they grow to trees one good workeman will be able to ouercome fifteen trees in one day This is the very time moreouer of gardening and dressing rose-plots or rosiers whereof I mean to treat apart and seuerally in the booke next following of drawing vinets also knots and fine storie works in gardens this is the only season to make trenches and ditches the ground also would now be broken vp for a fallow against the next yeare according to the mind and counsell of Virgil especially to the end that the Sunne might throughly parch and concoct the clots and thereby make it more mellow for the Seednes Howbeit I doe like better of their opinion as the more thristie and profitable of the two who aduise to plough no ground in the mids of the Spring but that which is of a mean temperature for if it be rich and fat presently the weeds will ouergrow and take vp the seams and furrowes againe say it be poore and leane the hot weather comming so soon vpon the fallow will dry it too fast spend all the moisture and kill the heart therof which should maintain the seed When thou hast found out in this maner the North-east wind Aquilo be sure that the wind which bloweth ful against it from the point where the Sun setteth in midwinter when daies be shortest is the Southwest called in Latin Africus and in Greek Lybs Obserue this wind wel for if a beast after she be couered turn about directly into this wind she will for certaine conceiue a female And thus much of the Line in the Quadrant next to the North point on the East side The third line from the North point which we drew first through the latitude of the shadow before said and which we called Decumana pointeth out the Equinoctial Sun-rising in March and September directeth thee also to the East wind vnder it called in Latine Subsolanus and in Greek Apeliotes Where the climat is healthful and temperat let vineyards be planted and arranged into this wind let ferm-houses also in the country be so built as the dores and windowes open into it This wind
to learne How all things whatsoeuer that flourish most louely and be gayest in shew soonest fade and are gon suddenly But to come again to the varietie of floures aforesaid together with their diuers mixtures verily there is no painter with all his skil able sufficiently with his pensil to represent one liuely garland of floures indeed whether they be plaited and intermedled in maner of nosegaies one with another or set in ranks and rewes one by another whether they be knit and twisted cord-wise and in chain-work of one sort of floures either to wind and wreath about a chaplet bias or in fashion of a circle or whether they be sorted round into a globe or ball running one through another to exhibit one goodly sight and entire vniformity of a crosse garland CHAP. II. ¶ Of Garlands Coronets Chaplets and Nosegaies made of floures Who deuised first the sorting and setting of sundry floures The first inuention of the Coronet or Guirland and the name of it in Latine Corollae and whereupon it was so called THe Coronets or Garlands vsed in antient time were twisted very small and thereupon they were called Strophia i. Wreaths from whence came also womens gorgets stomachers to be named Strophiola As for the word Corona a Coronet or Garland long it was first ere it came to be vulgar and commonly taken vp as a term chalenged either by priests and sacrificers in their diuine seruice or victorious captaines in their glorious triumphs But those Garlands and nosegaies being made of floures were called in Latine Serta or Seruiae à serendo i. of sorting and setling together The maner of which plaiting and broiding of herbes and floures the antient Greekes took no pleasure in for at the beginning they vsed to crowne with branches only of trees those braue men who had woon the prise in their sacred games and solemne Tournies or exercises of actiuitie But afterwards they began to beautifie and enrich their chaplets of triumph with sundry floures entermingled together And to say a truth the Sicyonians passed in this feat of sorting together one with another floures of sweet sauor and pleasant color in making of posies and garlands Howbeit the example of Pausias the cunning painter and Glycera the artificial maker of such Chaplets set them first a worke This Painter was wonderfully enamoured vpon the said Glycera and courted her by all the meanes hee could deuise among the rest he would seem to counterfeit and represent liuely with his pensil in colours what floures soeuer she wrought and set with her fingers into garlands and shee againe striued avie to change and alter her handiwork euery day for to driue him to a non-plus at the length or at leastwise to put him to his shifts insomuch as it was a very pleasant and worthie sight to behold of one side the works of Nature in the womans hand and on the other side the artificiall cunning of the foresaid painter And verily there are at this day to be seene diuers painted tables of his workmanship and namely one picture aboue the rest entituled Stephanoplocos wherein hee painted his sweet-heart Glycera twisting and braiding Coronets and Chaplets as her manner was And this fell out to be after the hundreth Olympias was come and gon by iust account Now when these Garlands of floures were taken vp and receiued commonly in all places for a certain time there came soon after into request those Chaplets which are named Egyptian and after them winter Coronets to wit when the earth affourdeth no floures to make them and those consisted of horn shauings died into sundry colours And so in processe of time by little and little crept into Rome also the name of Corollae as one would say petty Garlands for that these Winter Chaplets at first were so prety and small and not long after them the costly Coronets and attires Corollaria namely when they are made of thinne leaues and plates and Latin either guilded or siluered ouer or else set out with golden and siluered spangles and so presented CHAP. III. ¶ Who was the first that exhibited in publicke shew a Guirlandor Chaplet of gold and siluer-foile How highly Coronets were esteemed in old time Of the honour done to Scipio Of plaited Coronets And one notable Act of Queene Cleopatra CRassus the rich was the first man who at the solemn Games and Plaies which he set out in Rome gaue away in a braue shew Chaplets of gold and siluer resembling liuely floures and leaues of hearbes Afterwards such Coronets were adorned with ribband also and those were added as pendants thereto for more honour and state a deuise respectiue to those Tuscane Guirlands and Coronets which might haue no such ribbands or lace hanging vnto them but of gold And in truth those labels a long time were plaine and without any other setting forth saue only the bare gold vntill P. Claudius Pulcher came in place who exhibited in his publicke shewes the said labels wrought chased and engrauen yea and hee garnished the said plates of gold with glittering and twinckling spangles besides Howbeit were these Coronets neuer so rich and precious yet those Chaplets woon and gotten at the solemn Games for some worthy feats of actiuity performed caried alwaies the greater credit authority For to gaine this prise the Grand-siegniors and great men of the citie thought it no scorne to enter themselues in proper person into the publick place of Exercise to trie mastries yea and thither they sent euery man his seruant and slaue Hereupon grew these Ordinances specified among the laws of the twelue tables in these words Whosoeuer winneth Guirland either himselfe in person or by his monie goods and chattels is to be honoured in regard ef his vertue And certes who maketh doubt but what Prise or coronet either slaues or horses haue obtained the same by vertue of this law should be reputed as gotten by the money and goods of the master or owner of the said horses or slaues But what honor might this be which is thus atchieued by such a chaplet mary that which is right great namely that without all fraud and contradiction not only the party himselfe who woon it should be crowned therewith after his death both whiles his body lay vnder bourd within house and also all the way that it was caried forth to the place of sepulture or funerall fire but euen his parents likewise both father and mother if they were then liuing certes such Guirlands otherwise though they were not woon at games or prize but only made for pleasure pastime might not come abroad ordinarily nor be commonly worn for the law was very strict and seuere in this case we read that L. Fulvius Argentarius in the time of the second Punicke war vpon an information or speech giuen out That in the open day time he only looked forth of a gallerie which he had in the publicke Forum or common place at Rome
vntil in the end al their Physicke proued nothing but words and bibble babbles for beleeue me his schollers and disciples thought it more for their ease and pleasure to sit close in the schooles and heare their doctours out of the chaire discourse of the points of Physicke than to go a simpling into the desarts and forrests to seeke and gather herbs at all seasons of the yere some at one time and some at another CHAP. III. ¶ Of the new practise in Physicke of Asclepiades the Physitian and what course he tooke to alter and abolish the old Physicke for to bring in the new WHat cunning means soeuer these new Physitians could deuise to ouerthrow the antient manner of working by simples yet it maintained still the remnants of the former credit built surely vpon the vndoubted grounds of long experience and so it continued till the daies of Pompey the Great at what time Asclepiades a great Oratour and professor of Rhetoricke went in hand to peruert and reiect the same for seeing that he gained not by the said Art sufficiently was not like to arise by pleading causes at the bar to that wealth which he desired as he was a man otherwise of a prompt wit and quick spirit he resolued to giue ouer the law and suddenly applied himselfe to a new course of Physick This man hauing no skill at all and as little practice considering he neither was well studied in the Theoricke part of this science nor furnished with knowledge of remedies which required continuall inspection vse of simples wrought so with his smooth and flowing tongue and by his daily premeditat orations gained so much that he withdrew mens mindes from the opinion they had of former practise and ouerthrew all In which discourses of his reducing all Physick to the first and primitiue causes he made it a meere coniecturall Art bearing men in hand that there were but fiue principall remedies which serued indifferently for all diseases to wit in Diet Abstinence in meat Forbearing wine otherwhiles Rubbing of the body Walking and the Exercise of gestations In sum so far he preuailed with his eloquent speech that euery man was willing to giue eare applause to his words for being ready enough to beleeue those things for true which were most easie and seeing withall that whatsoeuer he commended to them was in each mans power to perform he had the general voice of them so as by this new doctrine of his he drew al the world into a singular admiration of him as of a man sent descended from heauen aboue to cure their griefs and maladies Moreouer a wonderfull dexterity and artificiall grace he had to follow mens humors and content their appetites in promising and allowing the sick to drink wine in giuing them eftsoons cold water when he saw his time and all to gratifie his patients Now for that Herophylus before him had the honor of being the first Physitian who searched into the causes of maladies and because Cleophantus had the name among the Antients for bringing wine into request and setting out the vertues thereof this man for his part also desirous to grow into credit reputation by some new inuention of his own brought vp first the allowing of cold water beforesaid to sick persons as M. Varro doth report took pleasure to be called the Cold-water Physitian He had besides other pretty deuises to flatter please his patients one while causing them to haue hanging litters or beds like cradles by the mouing rocking whereof too and fro he might either bring them asleep or ease the pains of their sicknes otherwhiles ordaining the vse of bains a thing that he knew folk were most desirous of besides many other fine conceits very plausible in hearing and agreeable to mans nature And to the end that no man might think this so great alteration and change in the practise of Physick to haue bin a blind course and a matter of smal consequence one thing aboue the rest that woon himfelfe a great fame and gaue no lesse credit and authority to his profession was this that meeting vpon a time by chance with one he knew not carried forth as a dead corse in a biere for to be burned he caused the body to be carried home from the funerall fire and restored the man to health again Certes this one thing wee that are Romanes may be well ashamed of and take in great indignation That such an old fellow as he comming out of Greece the vainest nation vnder the sun beginning as he did of nothing should only for to inrich himself lead the whole world in a string and on a sudden set down rules and orders for the health of mankind notwithstanding many that came after him repealed as it were and annulled those lawes of his And verily many helps had Asclepiades which much fauored his opinion and new Physick namely the manner of curing diseases in those daies which was exceeding rude troublesome painfull such adoe there was in lapping and couering the sicke with a deale of cloaths and causing them to sweat by all meanes possible such a worke they made sometime in chafing and frying their bodies against a good fire but euery foot in bringing them abroad into the hot Sunne which hardly could be found within a shadie and close citie as Rome was In lieu whereof not onely there but throughout all Italy which now commanded the whole World and might haue what it list hee followed mens humours in approouing the artificiall baines and vaulted stouves and hot houses which then were newly come vp and vsed excessiuely in euery place by his approbation Moreouer he found means to alter the painefull curing of some maladies and namely of the Squinancie in the healing whereof other Physitians before him went to worke with a certain instrument which they thrust down into the throat He condemned also worthily that dog-physick which was in those daies so ordinarâ—… that if one ailed neuer so little by and by he must cast and vomit He blamed also the vse of purgatiue potions as contrary and offensiue to the stomack wherein he had great reason and truth on his side for to speake truely such drinks are by most Physitians forbidden considering our chiefe care and drift is in all the course of our physick to vse those means which be comfortable and wholsom for the stomack CHAP. IIII. ¶ The foolish superstition of Art-Magicke which here is derided Of the tettar called Lichen remedies proper for it and the diseases of the throat ABoue all other things the superstitious vanities of Magitians made much to the establishing of Asclepiades his new Physicke for they in the heigth of their vanity attributed so strange and incredible operations to some simples that it was enough to discredit the vertues of them all First they vaunted much of Aethyopus an hearbe which by their saying if it were but cast into any great riuer
it be of all four-footed beasts there is not a better remedy than to seeth a goat all whole in the very skin and a land toad together Also it is said that a fox will not touch any cockes hens or such like pullen that haue eaten before the dried liuer of a Reinard nor those hens which a cock hauing a collar about his necke of a Fox skin hath troden The like effects are reported of a weazils gall as also that kine and oxen both in the Isle Cyprus when they are troubled with the belly ach cure themselues with eating the excrements of a man that the cleyes of kine and oxens feet will not weare to the quick nor be surbated if their horns before were anointed with tar That wolues wil not come into any lordship or territory if one of them be taken and when the legs are broken be let bloud with a knife by little and little so as the same may be shed about the limits or bounds of the said field as he is drawne along and then the body be buried in the very place where they began first to dragge him Others take the plough-share from the plough wherewith the first furrow was made that yeare in the field and put it in the fire burning vpon the common hearth of the house and there let it lie vntill it be quite consumed and look how long this is in doing so long shal the wolfe do no harm to any liuing creature within that territorie or lordship Thus much by way of digression now it is time to return to the discourse of those liuing creatures which be raunged in their seuerall kinds and such as are neither tame nor sauage THE TVVENTY NINTH BOOK OF THE HISTORIE OF NATVRE WRITTEN BY C. PLINIVS SECVNDVS CHAP. I. ¶ The Originall of Physicke When Physitians began to visit the sicke in their houses When came vp first The manner of curing diseases by outward application of Ointments and by frications Of Chrysippus and Erasistratus Of the Empirick practise of Physicke Of Herophilus and other famous Physitians How many times the order of Physick hath bin changed Who was the first professâ—…d Physitian in Rome and when he began to practise What opinion or conceit the antient Romanes had of Physitians Finally the imperfections and defaults in this art of Physicke THe admirable nature of a number of medicines as wel those which I haue already shewed as those which remain as yet to be handled forceth me to write yet more of Physicke and to sound to the very depth and bottome albeit I know full well that there is not a Latine writer who hath trauelled hitherto in this argument and am not ignorant how ticklish and dangerous a point it is at first to set abroch any new matters especially such whereby a man is sure to reape but small thanks and in deliuerie whereof is to make account of a world of difficulties But forasmuch as it is very like that those who are well acquainted with this study will muse how it is come about that the remedies drawn from simples so easie to be found and so accommodat to maladies are cast behind and grown out of vse in the practise of physick it cannot be but withall they must maruell much and think it a great indignity that no science and profession in the world hath had lesse solidity in it and bin more vnconstant yea and how it daily changeth still notwithstanding there is not any other more profitable and gainfull than it But to enter into the discourse thereof First and formost the inuention of this Art hath been fathered vpon the gods such I mean as are canonized gods in heauen yea and euen at this day we haue recourse stil vnto diuine Oracles for many medicines Moreouer the fabulous tales deuised by Poets haue giuen a greater name and reputation thereto in regard of the offence committed by Aesculapius in raising prince Hippolytus again to life for which bold part of his Iupiter being highly displeased smote him dead with lightning And yet for al this Antiquity hath not staid there but made relation of others who were reuiued by the means of the said Aesculapius or his art which during the Trojan war whereof the fame and bruit is more certain grew into much request and estimation and yet in those daies there was no other part of Physicke professed and practised but Chirurgery and that in the cure of wounds only But in the age insuing and for many a yeare after wonderful it is in what obscurity this noble science lay dead and as it were buried in darknesse and obliuion euen vntill the famous Peloponesiacke war for then arose Hippocrates who reuiued and set on foot againe the antient practise of Aesculapius so long forelet and being borne in Coos a renowned and wealthie Island altogether deuote and consecrated to Aesculapius he made an extract of al the receits which were found written in the temple of the said god for the maner was in that Island that whosoeuer were cured and deliuered of any disease registred there vpon record the experiments of medicines whereby they had remedie to the end that afterward they might haue help again by the same in like cases therupon as our countreyman Varro is persuaded after that the said temple was burned hee professed that course of Physick which is called Clinice Wherby Physitians found such sweetnes that afterwards there was no measure nor end of fees insomuch as Prodicus a disciple of Hippocrates and borne in Silymbria erecting that kind of practise in Physicke which is called Iatraliptice opened by that meanes the way to inrich euen those who vnder Physitians were employed in rubbing and annointing mens bodies yea and brought gaine to other base and seruile ministers atending vpon their cures After them came Chrysippus in place who through his much babble and pratling wherewith he was well furnished altered the Theoricke and speculatiue Physicke of Hippocrates and Prodicus with all their principles whom succeeded Erasistratus Aristotles sisters son and he chaunged also many of Chrysippus his rules and receits notwithstanding he was a scholler of his and brought vp vnder him This Erasistratus for curing king Antiochus receiued of his sonne Ptolomaeus king after him one hundred talents which to beginne withall I note by the way that you may see how euen in those daies Physitians were well rewarded for their pains and skill But in processe of time one Acro a citizen of Agrigentum in Sicilie much commended by the authority of Empedocles the famous naturall Philosopher began in that Island to institute another faction and sect of Physitians who grounding altogether their worke and operation vpon experience called themselues Empiriques Thus there beeing diuers schooles of Physick the professors in euery one of them entred into contention and variance some siding this way and others taking the contrary vntill at length Herophilus
it they haue a good guesse and aim that directeth them to gold whether it lie deep or shallow And by this conjecture otherwhiles their hap is so good as to find that which they desire aloft euen ebbe vnder the vpmost coat of the earth but I must needs say a rare felicity is this yet of late daies during the Empire of Nero there was found in Dalmatia a vaine of gold ore within one spades griffe in the first turfe of the ground which yeelded euery day the weight of fifty pound This manner of earth if it be found also vnder a vaine of gold they call Alutatio Moreouer this is to be noted That ordinarily the dry and barren mountains in Spaine which beare and bring forth nothing else are forced as it were by Nature to furnish the world with this treasure and doe yeeld mines of gold As for that gold ore which is digged forth of pits some call it in Latine Canalitium others Canaliense And verily this is found sticking to the grit and vtmost crust of hard rocks of marble not after the manner of drops or sparkes glittering in orient Saphire or The Thebaick marble and in many other pretious stones which are marked here and there with specks of gold but this ore or mettall doth clasp and embrace whole pieces of marble such like found in rocks And commonly these canales as I may so say of gold ore follow the veins of such marble and stone in the quarry diuiding and spreading as they do here and there wherupon the gold tooke the foresaid name of Canalitium they wander also along the sides of the pits as they are digged so that the earth had need to be borne vp and supported with posts and pillars for the getting of it lest by hollow vndermining it fall vpon the pioners This mine or vein of gold ore when it is once digged vp and landed aboue ground the manner is to bray and stamp to wash burn and melt yea and otherwhiles to grind into pouder As for that which as they pun thus and beat in mortars is knocked from it they call Apilascus but the mettall which sweateth out and commeth forth by the violent heate of the furnace where the foresayd ore is melted they name Argentum i. Siluer The grosse substance cast vp from the pot or vessel and swimming aloft whether it be the drosse comming of gold thus tried or any other mettal is named Scoria Howbeit this drosse that gold doth yeeld from it in the trying is set ouer the fire again to take a new melting is stamped in maner aforesaid As for the pans or vessels wherin gold is thus tried and refined they be made of a certain earth named Tasconium and the same is white like vnto a kinde of potters clay For surely there is no other earth or matter whatsoeuer will abide either the heate of the fire vnderneath plied continually with the bellows or the matter with in it when it is melted And thus much of the two first waies of finding out gold The third manner of searching for this mettal is so painfull and toilesome that it surpasseth the wonderfull works of the Geants in old time For necessary it is in this enterprise busines to vndermine a great way by candlelight to make hollow vaults vnder the mountains In which labor the pioners work by turns successiuely after the maner of the reliefe in a set watch keeping euery man his houres in iust measure and in many a moneths space they neuer see the Sun or day light This kind of work and mines thus made they call Arrugiae wherin it falleth out many times that the earth aboue head chinketh and all at once without giuing any warning setleth and falleth so as the poore pioners are ouerwhelmed buried quick insomuch as considering these perils it seemes that those who diue vnder the water into the bottom of the Leuant seas for to get pearls hasard themselues nothing so much as these pioners a strange thing that by our rashnesse and folly wee should make the earth so much more hurtfull to vs than the water Wel then to preuent as much as possibly may be these mischiefes and dangerous accidents they vnderprop the hils and leaue pillars and arches as they go set thick one by another to support the same And yet say they worke safe enough and be not in jeopardy of their liues by the fall of the earth yet there be other difficulties that impeach their work for otherwhiles they meet with rocks of flint and rags as wel in vndermining forward as in sinking pits downe-right which they are driuen to pierce and cleaue through with fire and vineger But for that the vapor and smoke that ariseth from thence by the means may stifle and choke them within those narrow pits and mines they are forced to giue ouer such fire-work and betake themselues to great mattocks and pickaxes yea and to other engines of iron weighing 150 pounds apiece wherewith they hew such rocks in pieces and so sinke deeper or make way before them The earth and stones which with so much ado they haue thus loosed they are fain to cary from vnder their feet in scuttles and baskets vpon their shoulders which passe from hand to hand euermore to the next fellow Thus they moile in the dark both day and night in these infernal dungeons and none of them see the light of the day but those that are last and next vnto the pits mouth or entry of the caue If the flint or rock that they work into seem to run in a long grain it will cleaue in length and come away by the sides in broad flakes and therefore the pioners with ease make way trenching and cutting round about it Howbeit be the rock as ragged as it will they count not that their hardest work for there is a certaine earth resembling a kinde of tough clay which they call white Lome and the same intermingled with gritty sand so hard baked together that there is no dealing with it it so scorneth and checketh all their ordinary tooles and labour about it that it seemeth impenetrable What doe the poore labourers then They set vpon it lustily with iron wedges they lay on lode vncessantly with mighty beetles and verily they thinke that there is nothing in the world harder than this labour vnlesse it bee this vnsatiable hunger after gold which surpasseth all the hardnesse and difficulty that is Wel when the work is brought to an end within the ground that they haue vndermined hollowed the ground as far as they think good down they go with their arch-work abouesaid which they builded as they went they begin first at those props which are farthest off cutting the heads of the stancheons still as they return backward to the entrance of the work Which don the sentinel only which of purpose keeps good watch without vpon the top of the same
vpon siluer and is therefore called Argentosum This kind of gold may be known thus namely if it will look bright and cleare vpon the putting of Santerna to it whereas contrariwise if it hold much vpon brasse and such gold is named Aerosum it will haue no lustre at all but looke dim and duskish vpon the laying of Borax vpon it and besides will hardly be sodred But to soder such gold there is a proper glue or soder made with an addition of gold and the seuenth part of siluer to the rest abouenamed and all the same stamped and vnited together And since I am entred into the feat of sodring it were very meet and conuenient to annex vnto this present discourse all things els concerning it that we may vnder one view behold the admirable works of Nature in this kind The soder of gold then is Borax which I haue shewed already Iron is sodred with the stiffe potters cley Argilla Brasse ore or Chalamine called Cadmia serues to vnite and knit pieces of brasse together in masse Alume is good to hold plates of brasse one to another Rosin doth soder lead and besides is the proper cement of marble but black lead will joine well by the means of the white and one piece of tin with another with the helpe of oile In like manner tin will hold sure with a soder of brasse file-dust and siluer with tin Both brasse or copper also yron ore melt best with an yron made of Pine-wood as also with the Papyr reed in Aegypt but contrariwise gold soonest melts with a fire of chaffe and huls Quickelime will catch an heat and burne if water be cast vpon it and so doth the Thracian stone but the same oile doth quench Fire is most of all extinguished and put out with vinegre with bird lime and the white of an egg No kind of right earth will burn light or flame Finally charcole which hath beene once one fire then quenched and afterwards set a burning againe is of more force and giueth a greater heat than that which commeth new from the earth CHAP. VI. ¶ Of Siluer Quick-siluer naturall Stibium or Alabastrum The drosse or refuse of siluer and litharge of siluer IT followeth by good order to write in the next place of siluer mines from whence proceedeth the second rage that hath set men a madding where first and formost this is to be noted that there is but one means to find siluer and that is in pits sunke of purpose for it neither is there any shew at all of siluer to giue light thereof and to put vs in hope of finding no sparkes shining like as there be in gold mines which direct vs to it The earth that engendreth the veine of siluer is in one place reddish in another of a dead ash color But this is a generall rule that it is not possible to melt and trie our siluer ore but either with lead or the veine and ore of lead This minerall or mettall they call Galena found for the most part neer to the veins and mines of siluer Now by the means of fire when these are melted together part of the siluer ore setleth downeward and turneth to be lead the pure siluer floteth aloft like as oile vpon water In al our prouinces yea and parts of the world to speake of there be mines of siluer to be found howbeit the fairest be in Spaine and yeeld the finest and most beautifull siluer and the same also like as gold is engendred in a barraine soile otherwise and fruitlesse and euen with in mountains look also where one vein is discouered there is another alwaies found not farre off which is a rule obserued not in mines of siluer only but also in all others of what mettals soeuer and hereupon it seemeth that the Greekes doe call them Metalla And verily strange it is and wonderfull that the mines of siluer in Spaine which were so long agoe begun by Anniball should continue still as they do and retaine the names of those Carthaginians who first found discouered and brought them to light of which one named then Bebelo so called at this day yeelded vnto Anniball daily 300 pound weight which mine euen at that time had gone vnder the ground and hollowed the mountain a good mile and a halfe and all that way the Aquitans at this day standing iu water lade the same vp labouring night and day by the candle or lampe-light euery man in his turne and during the burning of a certaine measure of oile in such wise as they diuert the water from thence and make a good big riuer thereof to passe and run another way A veine of siluer which lieth but ebb within the ground and is there discouered the miners call Crudaria as it were a raw vein In old time those that digged for siluer if they met once with allum were wont to giue ouer their worke and seeke no farther but of late daies it happened that vnder alume there was found a veine of white brasse or laton which fed mens hopes still and cause them now to sink lower and neuer rest so far as they can dig And yet there is a damp or vapor breathing out of siluer mines hurtfull to all liuing creatures and to dogs especially Moreouer this point is well to be marked that gold and siluer both the softer that they be and tender the better they are esteemed and siluer being white as it is most men maruell how it commeth to passe that if one rule paper or any thing therewith it will draw black lines sully as it doth Furthermore within these veines and mines aboue said there is a certaine stone found which yeelds from it an humor continually the same continues alwaies liquid men cal it Quick-siluer howbeit being the bane and poison of all things whatsoeuer it might be called Death-siluer well enough so penetrant is this liquor that there is no vessel in the world but it wil eat and breake through it piercing and passing on stil consuming and wasting as it goes it supports any thing that is cast into it and wil not suffer it to settle downward but swim aloft vnlesse it be gold only that is the only thing which it loueth to draw vnto it and embrace very proper it is therefore to affine gold for if gold and it be put together into earthen pots and after often shaking be poured out of one into another it mightily purifies the gold casts forth al the filthy excrements thereof and when it hath rid away all the impurities and grosse refuse it selfe ought then to be separated from the gold for which purpose poured forth the one the other ought to be vpon certaine skinnes of leather well tewed and dressed vntill they be soft through which the quick-siluer may passe and then shall you see it stand in drops vpon the other side like sweat sent out by the pores of
writers feasted the whole army of that mighty monarch and those were 788000 men promising ouer and aboue fiue moneths pay for them all and corne for so long to serue the whole campe if of fiue sons that he had of his owne the king would spare him but one to beare him company in his old age and not prest him for to serue in the wars Certes a man that heareth thus much of this Pythius might compare him with that rich Croesus king of Lydia But what folly and madnesse in the diuels name is this to hunger and thirst so much in this life after that which either is common to base slaues and may fall vnto them or els wherof kings themselues can find no end And thus much of gathering good and heaping riches together To come now to the scattering thereof I finde in the Chronicles That in the yeare wherein Sp. Posthumius and Qu. Martius were Consuls they began at Rome to make largesses and to fling money abroad to the common people And at that time such plenty of coine there was stirring at Rome that the City bestowed by a generall contribution vpon Lu. Scipio as much as bare out his charges in exhibiting the solemne games and plaies vnto the people As for that purse which was made for the funerals of Agrippa Menenius wherin euery man put his sextant i. the sixt part of an As I take it to haue been no Largesse but a beneuolence to testifie how the people honoured Agrippa and a supply of meere necessitie considering how poore the man died CHAP. XI ¶ Of the superfluitie and frugality both of men in times past touching plate and siluer vessels Of beds and tables of siluer Also when there were deuised chargers and platters of Siluer to be made of huge capacity beyond all measure THe world is giuen to so much inconstancy as touching siluer plate that a wonder it is to see the nature of men how variable they be in the fashion and making of such vessel for no workmanship wil please them long One while we must haue our plate out of Furnius his shop another while we will be furnished from Clodius and againe in a new fit none wil content vs but of Gratius his making for our cupboords of plate tables forsooth must beare the name of such and such Goldsmiths shops Moreouer when the toy takes vs in the head al our delight is in chased and embossed plate or els so carued engrauen and deep cut in as it is rough againe in the hand wrought in imagery or floure-work as if the painter had drawne them And now adaies we are growne to this passe that our dishes are set vpon the table borne vp with feet and supporters to sustaine the viands and meat therein but in any wise their sides must be pared very neere for herein I may tell you lieth a great matter and the more that the sides and edges hath lost by the file the richer is the plate esteemed to be As touching the vessell seruing in the kitchen did Calvus the noble Oratour complaine in his time that it was of siluer Why wee in these dayes doe more than so for wee haue deuised that our coaches should bee all siluer and these curiously wrought and engrauen And within the remembrance of man euen in this age Poppaea the Empresse wife to Nero the Emperour was knowne to cause her Ferrers ordinarily to shooe her coach-horses and other palfreis for her saddle such especially as shee set store by and counted more daintie than the rest with cleane gold To what excesse and prodigalitie is the world now grown to Scipio Africanius the second of that name when hee dyed left no more vnto his Heire in Siluer Plate and Coine than two and thirtie pound weight and yet this worthie Knight when hee rode in triumph for the conquest of the Carthaginians shewed in that solemne pompe and brought into the chamber of Rome as much treasure as amounted to foure thousand foure hundred and seuenty pounds weight of siluer a thousand times old This was all the treasure in siluer that the whole state of Carthage was able to make in those daies Carthage I say that great and proud city which pretended a title to the Empire of the world and maintained the same against Rome and yet see in this age there is as much laid out in our cupboords of plate and furniture of our tables The same Africanus afterwards vpon the winning and finall ruine of Numantia gaue among his souldiers in a triumph 17000 pound weight of siluer O braue souldiers and worthy so noble a captain who stood contented with such a reward A brother of this Scipio syrnamed Allobrogius was the first knowne to haue in plate one thousand pound weight but Liuius Drusus whiles he was but Tribune or Prouost of the comminalty had in siluer vessell as much as weighed eleuen thousand pounds Now if I should tell you that the Romane Censors vpon a time disgraced yea and degraded an antient captain and one who in his time had rode in triumph only for that he had in plate fiue pound weight it would be taken in these daies for a meere tale and vaine fable as also that Catus Aaelius in his Consulship was found sitting at dinner served with earthen vessell of potters worke when the Embassadors of the Aetolians came vnto him that he refused also siluer plate presented to him for the furniture of his boord and to his dying day had neuer in siluer more than two drinking cups which Lusius Paulus his wiues father bestowed vpon him after the defeiture of K. Perseus in regard of his valiant seruice wehold it now for no lesse than an vntruth and incredible And here I call to minde a merry conceited speech that I haue read in the chronicles of certain Carthaginian Embassadors who said that no men in the world had more good fellowship in their houses and liued more friendly together than the Romanes for why when they feasted one another say they the same siluer plate went round about amongst them all from one to another without change But howsoeuer this frugality whereof I speak may seeme strange and fabulous to the world wherein we liue certes wee all know this to be true and no fable that Pompeius Paulinus the son of a Roman knight or man of armes borne at Arles was not only banished out of the country and nation where his father was borne but confined also to the marches of most sauage and barbarous people and exposed to their cruelty only for this That he had in his campe to the euil example of the army as much siluer plate as weighed 12 pounds But long ago it is since the fashion came vp at Rome that our dames had their beds couered all ouer with siluer yea and some dining rooms with tables laid with the same which inuention came first as it is reported from Caruilius Pollio a
gentleman or knight of Rome who deuised to garnish his bourds with siluer not couering them full and whole throughout with plates thereof nor after the manner of Deliacke workemanship but onely by parcels and according to the Punicke or Carthaginian fashion The same Pollio made beds and tables of gold but not long after those siluer beds and boords came to the order of those in the Isle Delos But all this sumptuositie was punished sufficiently and expiat by the ciuill warre of Sylla for a little before those troubles this excesse and these superfluities came vp as also about the same time men fel to make great chargers platters of siluer weighing one hundred pound a piece of which there were at Rome as it is well knowne when the said warre beganne to the number of fiue hundred and aboue which was the cause that many a man fell into the danger of proscription and confiscation for that their rich plate set their enemies teeth on water who for the loue and desire thereof practised by all cunning meanes their vtter vndoing Certes our Historians heretofore who attributed this cursed and vnhappie ciuill warre betweene Sylla and Marius vnto such superfluities and vices of those times which reigned so rife might be ashamed and blush to say so for our age hath been more hardy and hath proceeded farther without any such feare of punishment from aboue No longer since than in the daies of Claudius the Emperour Drusillanus a slaue of his syrnamed Rotundus the Seneschol or Treasurer vnder him in high Spaine had a siluer charger of fiue hundred pound weight for the working whereof there was a forge framed beforehand of set purpose and the same was accompanied and attended with eight more of a smaller size weighing 50 pound a piece Now would I gladly know if it might please you how many of his fellowes such slaues I meane as himselfe there must be to carry the said vessell and serue it vp to the table or what guests they mought bee who were to be seruâ—…â—…ith such huge plate Cornelius Nepos writeth that before the victorie of the sayd Sylla 〈◊〉 defeated Marius two dining tables and no more there were throughout Rome all of siluer Fenestella saith that in his time and he died the last yere of the reigne of Tyberius Caesar the Emperor men began at Rome to bestow siluer vpon their cupboords and side liuery tables euen then also by his saying Tortoise worke came in request and was much vsed Howbeit somwhat before his daies he writeth that those cupboords were of wood round and solid of one entire piece and not much bigger than the tables whereupon men eat their meat but when hee was a young boy they were foure square and of many peeces joyned together and then they began to be couered ouer with thin boords or painels either of maple or citron wood Soone after they fel to lay siluer plates vpon them at the corners only and along the joints where the planks were set together but by the time that he was come to be a well grown yong man they were at their drinking mazers or round-bottome dishes like balances whereupon they were called Staterae also at those platters which in old time were named Magides Howbeit men rested not contented to haue furnished themselues with plenty of siluer in their plaine plate and about their houses vnlesse the curious workmanship also thereof were more costly than the mettall and matter it selfe But lest this superfluity should be imputed vnto vs in these daies be it knowne that such curiosity was crept into the world long ago for C. Gracchus had in the furniture of his house certain vessels of siluer called Dolphins which cost him at the gold-smiths hand 5000 sesterces a pound an exceeding price for the fashion and workmanship considering L. Crassus the Orator had two pots artificially engrauen by the hand of Mentor that cunning workman the fashion and making whereof cost 100 sesterces a pound and yet he confessed and protested that hee was abashed to vse them and durst not for shame bring them abroad Moreouer knowne it is that he had in his cabinet pieces of plate which to be bought and sold were worth euery pound 6000 sesterces Briefly the conquest and reducing of Asia vnder our Empire was the first occasion that brought into Italy such wastfull excesse for L. Scipio shewed in triumph of siluer plate intailed and ingrauen 400 thousand and 50 pounds weight besides vessells of gold amounting to the weight of 100 thousand pound and this was in the yere from the foundation of Rome 565. But the free donation and bestowing of the said Asia vpon the city of Rome which fell vnto the Romans by the death of K. Attalus who in his last will and testament ordained them his full heires did most hurt vnto our state and this succession which our Antients injoyed by vertue of that gift did greater dammage to the integrity of manners and brought more corruption into our city than the former victory atchieued by force of armes for from that time forward men grew to be shamelesse and without regard of modesty euery mans fingers itched to be tempering with the treasure of K. Attalus and to buy the same at any price sold in open port-sale to them that would giue most which hapned in the 626 yere after the foundation of the city for in 56 yeres which was the meane space between the foresaid subduing of Asia and this feoffement of K. Attalus our city was well nuzzled and trained not onely in the admiration of such puissant forrein kings and princes but also in some affectionat loue to their wealth and riches About which middle time between namely in the 608 yere reckoning from the first founding of Rome when Achaia was likewise brought vnder our obedience and subjection this victory also was a mighty means to bring vs also out of al good order and to set vs forward to imbrace superfluities and to ouerthrow al honesty and vertue for now were brought in the stately statues and proud painted tables that we should want no inticing delights but that all the pride and pleasure of the world might be found at Rome Finally the ruin of Carthage was the rising of superfluitie with vs as if the Destinies had so appointed that at one the same time we should haue both wil to imbrace vice also power liberty withal to perform sin so that in regard of our times and the enormities thereof we may justifie yea and honor any of our ancestors who seemed before to offend in this behalfe for as it is said C. Marius after he had defeited the Cimbrians contented himselfe to drink in a woodden godet and tankerd after the example of father Bacchus C. Marius I say who of a good husbandman in the country about Arpinum of a common and ordinary souldier came to be a braue captaine and commander in the field CHAP. XII
adorned with the pourtraitures of noble champions they delight also to haue the face of Epicurus in euery chamber of the house yea and to carry the same about them vpon their rings wheresoeuer they go in the remembrance and honour of his natiuitie they doe offer sacrifice euery 20 day of the Moone and these moneth-mindes they keep as holy-daies duly which thereupon they call Icades and none so much as they who will not abide to be knowne another day by any liuely image drawne whiles they be aliue Thus it is come to passe that whiles artificers play them and sit still for want of worke noble arts by the means are decaied and perished But I maruel nothing hereat for thus it is verily and no otherwise when we haue no respect or care in the world to leaue good deeds behind vs as the Images of our minds we do neglect the liuely portraitures and similitudes also of our bodies In our forefathers daies ywis it was otherwise their hals and stately courts were not set out with images and pourtraitures after this sort there were not in them to be seene any statues or images wrought by artisan strangers none of brasse they had none of marble their Oratories Chappels were furnished with their own and their ancestors pourtraitures in wax and those liuely and expressely representing their visages these were set out and disposed in order these were the images that attended the funerals of any that was to be interred out of that stock linage Thus alwaies as any gentleman died a man should see a goodly traine of all those which were liuing of that house accompanying the corps causing also the images of their predecessors to march ranke by ranke in order according to their seuerall descents in which solemne shew the whole generation that euer was of that family represented by these images is there present ready to performe that last duty and honour to their kinsman Moreouer wheresoeuer these images stood within the ora tory and chappell before said there were lines drawne from them vpon the wall directing to the seuerall titles and inscriptions which contained their stile their dignities and honors c. As for their studies and counting houses full they were of books records and rols testifying all acts done executed by them both at home abroad during the time they were in place to beare office of state Ouer and besides those images within house resembling the bodily shape countenance there were others also without dores to wit about the portals and gates of the house which were the testimonies of braue minds valiant hearts there hung fixed the spoiles conquered and taken from the enemies which notwithstanding any sale or alienation it was not lawfull for the purchaser to pluck down in such sort as the house it self triumphed still and retained the former dignity notwithstanding it had a new lord and master and verily this was to the master and owner a great spur to valour and vertue considering that if he were not in heart courage answerable to his predecessor he could neuer come in at the gates but the house was ready to reproch and vpbraid him daily for entering into the triumph of another Extant there is vpon record an Oration or act of Messala a great Orator in his time wherin vpon a great indignation he expressely forbad that there should be intermingled one image that came from another house of the Leuini among those of his owne name and linage for feare of confounding the race of his family and ancestors The like occasion moued and inforced old Messala to put forth and publish those bookes which he had made of the descents and pedigrees of the Roman houses for that vpon a time as he passed through the gallerie belonging to Scipio Africanus his house he beheld therein his stile augmented by the addition of Salutio for that was one of his syrnames which fel vnto him by the last wil and testament of a certain rich man so called who adopted him for his owne son as being greatly discontented in his minde that so base a name as that to the shame and dishonor of the Africans should creepe into the noble family of the Scipio's But if I may speak without offence of these two Messalae it should in my conceit be some token of a noble spirit and good mind that loueth and imbraceth vertue to entitle his owne name although vntruely to the armes and images of others so long as they be noble and renowned and I hold it a greater credit so to doe than to demeane our selues so vnworthily as that no man should desire any of our armes or images And seeing that I am so far entered into this theam I must not passe ouer one new deuise and inuention come vp of late namely to dedicat and set vp in libraries the statues in gold or siluer or at leastwise in brasse of those diuine and heauenly men whose immortall spirits do speak still and euer shall in those places where their bookes are And although it bee vnpossible to recouer the true and liuely pourtraits of many of them yet we forbeare not for all that to deuise one Image or other to represent their face and personage though we are sure it be nothing like them and the want therof doth breed and kindle in vs a great desire and longing to know what visage that might bee indeed which was neuer deliuered vnto vs as it appeareth by the statue of Homer Certes in my opinion there can be no greater argument of the felicity happinesse of any man than to haue all the world euermore desirous to know What kinde of person hee was whiles he liued This inuention of erecting libraries especially here at Rome came from Asinius Pollio who by dedicating his Bibliotheque containing all the bookes that euer were written was the first that made the wits and workes of learned men a publique matter and a benefit to a Commonweale But whether the kings of Alexandria in Egypt or of Pergamus began this enterprise before who vpon a certain emulation and strife one with another went in hand to make their stately and sumptuous libraries I am not able to auouch for certain But to returne againe to our flat images and pictures that men in old time delighted much therein yea and were carried away with an ardent and extraordinary affection to them may appeare by the testimony not only of Atticus that great friend of Cicero's who set forth a book intituled A Treatise of painted images but also of M. Varro who in all his volumes whereof hee wrote a great number vpon a most thankfull and bountifull mind that he carried deuised to insert not onely the names of 700 famous and notable persons but also in some sort to set down their physiognomy resemblance of their visage not willing as it might seem that their remembrance should perish but desirous to preserue
a decree from the Amphyctions who are the lords of the publick counsel of state in Greece it was granted that in all cities and towns of Greece wheresoeuer he came he should be lodged and entertained of free cost Besides that Mycon before mentioned there was another of the name distinguished only by this that the former was called Mycon the elder and this Mycon the yonger who had a daughter named Timarate she could paint likewise excellently But to come now to that ninetieth Olympia there flourished in that time Aglaophon Cephissodorus Phrylus and Euenor who was both father and master to Parasius that most renowned painter of whom I purpose to speak in his rank when the time comes all these were reputed very good artizans in their time howbeit not so excellent that I should need stand long vpon them or their workmanship making haste as I do vnto those glorious and glittering painters indeed who shine as bright stars aboue all their fellowes among whom Apollodorus the Athenian was the first that gaue light and he liued in the 93 Olympias this man led the way to others taught them to expresse the fauor and beauty of any thing which he obserued especially of whome I may well and truly say that he and none before him brought the pensill into a glorious name especiall credit Of his making there is one picture of a priest at his deuotions praying worshipping as also another representing Ajax all on a flaming fire with a flash of lightning which at this day is to be seen at Pergamus as an excellent piece of worke And verily before his daies there cannot be shewed a table of any ones painting worth the sight and which a man would take pleasure to behold and looke vpon any long time When this man had opened the dore once and shewed the way to this art Zeuxis of Heraclea entred in and that was in the fourth yere of the 95 Olympias and now that the pensill was taken in hand for now I speak thereof he seeing that it made good worke followed on therewith and by continuall practise brought the same to great perfection whereby he wan much credit to the art and reputation to himselfe Some writers there bee who range him wrong in the 89 Olympias at which time it must needs be that Demophilus the Himeraean and Neseas the Thracian liued for to one of them apprentice he was but whether of the two was his master there is some doubt made and verily so excellent he proued in his art that the abouenamed Appollodorus made verses of him in which he signifieth that Zeuxes had stollen the cunning from them al and he alone went away with the art He grew in processe of time to such wealth by the means only of his excellent hand that for to make shew how rich he was when he went to the solemnity of the games at Olympia he caused his owne name to be imbrodered in golden letters within the Iozenge worke of his clokes whereof he had change and which he brought thither to be seen In the end he resolued with himselfe to work no longer for mony but to giue away al his pictures saying That he valued them aboue any price Thus he bestowed vpon the Agrigentines one picture of queen Alcmena and to king Archelaus he gaue another of the rustical god Pan there was also the pourtraict of lady Penelope which he drew in colours wherein he seemeth not only to haue depainted the outward personage and feature of the body but also to haue expressed most liuely the inward affections and qualities of her mind and much speech there is of a wrestler or champion of his painting in which picture he pleased himselfe so well that hee subscribed this verse vnder it Invisurus aliquis faciliús quam imitaturus i. Sooner will a man enuy me than set such another by me Which thereupon grew to be a by-word in euery mans mouth One stately picture there is of his workmanship Iupiter sitting vpon a throne in his Majestie with all the other gods standing by and making court vnto him Hee pourtraied Hercules also as a babe lying in a cradle and strangling two fell serpents with his hand together with his mother Alcmena and her husband K. Amphytrion in place affrighted both at the sight thereof Howbeit this Zeuxis as excellent a painter as he was is noted for one fault and imperfection namely that the head and joints of his pourtraicts were in some proportion to the rest somwhat with the biggest for otherwise so curious and exquisite hee was that when he should make a table with a picture for the Agrigentines to be set vp in the temple of Iuno Lacinia at the charges of the city according to a vow that they had made he would needs see all the maydens of the city naked and from all that company he chose 5 of the fairest to take out as from seuerall patterns whatsoeuer he liked best in any of them and of all the louely parts of those fiue to make one body of incomparable beaury Many draughts he made of one color in white There liued in his time Timanthes Androcydes Eupompus and Parasius who were his concurrents and thought as well of themselues as he did CHAP. X. ¶ Of birds deceiued by pictures What is the hardest point in the art of painting OF those foure before named Parasius by report was so bold as to challenge Zeuxis openly and to enter the lists with him for the victory in which contention and triall Zeuxis for proofe of his cunning brought vpon the scaffold a table wherein were clusters of grapes so liuely painted that the very birds of the aire flew flocking thither for to bee pecking at the grapes Parasius againe for his part to shew his workmanship came with another picture wherin he had painted a linnen sheet so like to a sheet indeed that Zeuxis in a glorious brauery and pride of his heart because the birds had approoued of his handy-worke came to Parasius with these words by way of a scorn and frumpe Come on sir away with your sheet once that we may see your goodly picture But taking himselfe with the manner and perceiuing his own error he was mightily abashed like an honest minded man yeelded the victory to his aduersary saying withall Zeuxis hath beguiled poore birds but Parrhasius hath deceiued Zeuxis a professed artisane This Zeuxis as it is reported painted afterwards another table wherein he had made a boy carrying certaine bunches of grapes in a flasket and seeing again that the birds flew to the grapes he shook the head and comming to his picture with the like ingenious mind as before brake out into these words and said Ah I see well enough where I haue failed I haue painted the grapes better than the boy for if I had don him as naturally the birds would haue bin afraid and neuer approched the grapes He pourtraied also diuers pieces
Apelles for to countenance and credit the man demanded of him what price he would set of al the pictures that he had ready made Protogenes asked some small matter and trifle to speake of howbeit Apelles esteemed them at fifty talents and promised to giue so much for them raising a bruit by this means abroad in the world that he bought them for to sel againe as his owne The Rhodians hereat were moued and stirred vp to take better knowledge of Protogenes what an excellent workeman they had of him neither would Protogenes part with any of his pictures vnto them vnlesse they would come off roundly and rise to a better price than before time As for Apelles he had such a dexterity in drawing pourtraits so liuely and so neer resembling those for whom they were made that hardly one could be known from the other insomuch as Appion the Grammarian hath left in writing a thing incredible to be spoken that a certain Physiognomist or teller of Fortune by looking onely vpon the face of men and women such as the Greekes call Metoposcopos judged truly by the portraits that Apelles had drawne how many yeres they either had liued or were to liue for whom those pictures were made But as gracious as he was otherwise with Alexander and his train yet he could neuer win the loue and fauor of prince Ptolomaeus who at that time followed the court of K. Alexander and was afterwards king of Egypt It fortuned that after the decease of Alexander and during the reigne of K. Ptolomae aforesaid this Apelles was by a tempest at sea cast vpon the coast of Aegypt and forced to land at Alexandria where other painters that were no well willers of his practised with a jugler or jeaster of the kings and suborned him in the kings name to train Apelles to take his supper with the king To the court came Apelles accordingly and shewed himself in the presence Ptolomae hauing espied him with a stern and angry countenance demanded of him what he made there and who had sent for him and with that shewed vnto him all his seruitors who ordinarily had the inuiting of ghests to the kings table commanding him to say which of all them had bidden him whereat Apelles not knowing the name of the party who had brought him thither and beeing thus put to his shifts caught vp a dead cole of fire from the hearth thereby and began therewith to delineat and draw vpon the wall the proportion of that cousiner beforesaid He had no sooner pourfiled a little about the visage but the king presently tooke knowledge thereby of the party that had played this pranke by him and wrought him this displeasure This Apelles drew the face of K. Antiochus also who had but one eie to see withall for to hide which deformity and imperfection he deuised to paint him turning his visage a little away and so he shewed but the one side of his face to the end that whatsoeuer was wanting in the picture might be imputed rather to the painter than to the person whomhe portraied And in truth from him came this inuention first to conceale the defects blemishes of the visage and to make one halfe face onely when it might be represented full and whole if it pleased the painter Among other principall pieces of worke some pictures there be of his making resembling men and women lying at the point of death and euen ready to gasp and yeeld vp the ghost But of all the pictures portraitures that he made to say precisely which be the most excellent it were a very hard matter as for the painted table of Venus arising out of the sea which is commonly knowne by the name of Anadyomene Augustus Caesar late Emperour of famous memory dedicated it in the temple of Iulius Caesar his father which hee inriched with an Epigram of certaine Greeke verses in commendation as well of the picture as the painter And albeit the artificiall contriuing of the said verses went beyond the worke which they seemed to praise yet they beautified and set out the table not a little The nether part of this picture had caught some hurt by a mischance but there neuer could be found that painter yet who would take in hand to repaire the same and make it vp again as it was at first so as this wrong harm done vnto the work and continuing still vpon the same turned to the glory of the workeman This table remained a long time to be seen vntill in the end for age it was worm-eaten and rotten in such sort as Nero being Emperor was fain to set another in the place wrought by the hand of Doratheus But to come againe vnto Apelles he had begun another picture of Venus Anadyomene for the inhabitants of the Island Cosor Lango which hee minded should haue surpassed the former howbeit before he could finish it surprised he was with death which seemed to enuie so perfect workmanship and neuer was that painter knowne to this day who would turne his hand to that piece of worke and seeme to go forward where Apelles left or to follow on in those traicts and liniments which he had pourfiled and begun One picture he drew of K. Alexander the Great holding a thunderbolt and lightening in his hand which cost twentie talents of gold and was hung in the temple of Diana at Ephesus And verily this deuise was so finely contriued that as Alexanders fingers seemed to bear out higher than the rest of the work so the lightening appeared to be clean without the ground of the table and not once to touch it But before I proceed any farther let the readers take this with them and alwaies remember that these rich and costly pictures were wrought with foure colours and no more And for the workmanship of this picture the price thereof was paid him in good gold coine by weight and measure and neuer told and counted by tale Of his handyworke was the picture of a Megabyzus or guelded priest of Diana in Ephesus sacrificing in his pontificall habits vestiments accordingly Also the counterfeit of prince Clytus armed at all pieces saue his head mounted on horse-back and hasting to a battell calling vnto his squire or henxman for his helmet who was portraied also reaching it vnto him To reckon how many pictures Apelles made of K. Alexander and his father Philip were but losse of time and a needlesse discourse But I cannot omit the painted table containing the pourtrait of Abron that wanton and effeminat person which piece of work the Samians so highly extoll and magnifie ne yet another picture of Menander the K. of Caria that he made for the Rhodians and which they so much admire Neither must I forget the counterfeit of Ancaeus of Gorgosthenes the Tragaedian which he made at Alexandria or while he was at Rome one table containing Castor and Pollux with the image of Victorie and Alexander the
during those dangerous troubles Moreouer he made the picture of lady Cydippe and of * Tlepolemus he painted also Philiscus a writer of Tragoedies sitting close at his study meditating and musing Also there be of his making a wrestler or champion Antigonus the king and the mother of Aristotle the Philosopher who also was in hand with Protogenes persuading him to busie himselfe in painting all the noble acts victories and whole life of king Alexander the Great for euerlasting memoriall and perpetuitie but the vehement affection and inclination of his minde stood another way and a certaine itching desire to search into the secrets of the art tickled him and rather drew him to these kinds of curious workes whereof I haue already spoken Yet in the later end of his daies he painted K. Alexander himselfe and god Pan. Ouer and besides this flat painting he gaue himselfe greatly to the practise of founderie and to cast certaine images of brasse according as I haue already said At the very same time liued Asclepiodorus whom for his singular skill in obseruing symetries and just proportions Apelles himselfe was wont to admire This Painter pourtraied for Mnason the foresaid king of the Elateans the 12 principall gods and receiued for euery one of them 300 pound of siluer The said Mnason gaue vnto Theomnastus for painting certaine Princes or Worthies one hundred pounds apiece In this rank is to be ranged Nicomachus son and apprentice both to Aristodemus This Nichomachus pourtraied the rauishing of Proserpine by Dis or Pluto which picture standeth in a table within the Chappell of Minerua in the Capitoll aboue the little cell or shrine of Iuventus In the same Capitoll another table there is likewise of his making which Plancus Lord Generall of an army for the time being had there dedicated and set vp the same doth represent Victorie catching vp a triumphant chariot drawn with four horses aloft into heauen He was the first that pourtraied prince Vlixes in a picture with a cap vpon his head He painted also Apollo and Diana Cybele likewise the mother of the gods sitting vpon a Lyon of his workmanship is the table representing the religious priestresses of Bacchus in their habite together with the wanton Satyres creeping and making toward them Semblably the monstrous meermaid Scylla which at this day is to be seen at Rome within the temple of Peace A ready workeman he was you shall not heare of a painter that had a quicker hand than he at his worke for proofe wherof this voice goeth of him That hauing vndertaken for a certain sum of money to Aristratus the tyrant of Sicyone to paint a monument or tombe which he caused to bee made for Telestes the Poet and to finish it by such a day appointed and set downe in the couenants of the bargain he made no great hast to go about it but came some few daies before the expiation of the prescript term for to begin the same worke whereat the tyrant was wroth and menaced to punish him for example howbeit he quit himselfe so well and followed his worke with such wonderfull celeritie that in few daies space he brought it to an end and yet the art and workmanship therof was admirable Vnder him were brought vp as apprentices his brother Aristides his owne son Aristocles and Philoxenus the Eretrian This Philoxenus made one painted table for Cassander the king containing the battel between Alexander the Great and K. Darius which for exquisitart commeth not behind any other whatsoeuer One picture there is of his doing wherein he would seeme to depaint lascious wantonnesse which he pourtraied by 3 drunken Sylenes making merry and banquetting together He gaue himselfe also to the speedy workemanship of his master before him and for that purpose inuented other compendious means of greater breuitie to make riddance and quicke dispatch with his pencill With these may be sorted Nicophanes also a proper feat and fine workman whose manner was to take out all pictures and paint them new againe thereby as it were to immortalize the memory of things a running hand hee had of his owne and besides was by nature hasty and furious howbeit for skill and cunning there were but few comparable vnto him In all his workes hee aimed at loftinesse and grauity so that a man may attribute the stately port that is in this Art vnto him and no other As touching Perseus apprentice to Apelles who wrote a book to him of the very art he came far short both of his master also of Zeuxis As for Aristides the Theban who also liued in this age he brought vp vnder him his two sons Niceros and Aristippus This Aristippus pourtraied a Satyre crowned with a chaplet and carrying a goblet or drinking cup he taught Antonides and Euphranor his cunning of whom I will write anon for meet it is to annex vnto the rest such as haue bin famous with the pencill in smaller works and lesse pictures among whom I may reckon Pyreicus who for art and skill had not many that went before him and verily of this man I wot not well whether he debased himselfe and bare a low sale of purpose or no for surely his mind was wholly set vpon painting of simple and base things howbeit in that humble lowly carriage of himselfe hee attained to a name of glory in the highest degree his delight was to paint shops of barbers shoomakers coblers taylers and semsters hee had a good hand in pourtraying of poore asses with the victuals that they bring to market such homely stuffe whereby he got himselfe a by-name and was called Rhyparographus Howbeit such rude and simple toies as these were so artificially wrought that they pleased contented the beholders no thing so much Many chapmen he had for these trifling pieces and a greater price they yeelded vnto him than the fairest and largest tables of many others Whereas contrariwise Serapion vsed to make such great and goodly pictures that as M. Varro writeth they were able to take vp fill all the stals bulks and shops jutting forth into the street vnder the old market place Rostra this Serapion had an excellent grace in pourtraying tents booths stages and theaters but to paint a man or woman he knew not which way to begin On the other side Dionysius was good at nothing els and therefore he was commonly called Anthropographus Moreouer Callicles also occupied himselfe in smal works and Calaces set his mind especially vpon little tables and pictures which were to set out comoedies and interludes but Antiphilus practised both the one and the other for he pictured the noble ladie Hesione K. Alexander the Great and Philip the king his father with the goddesse Minerva which tables hang in the Philosophers schoole or walking-place within the stately galleries of Octauia where the learned clerks and gentlemen fauorers of learning were wont to meet and conuerse Within the galleries also of
Philippus there are to be seen the picture of prince Bacchus the pourtrait of Alexander in his childhood and of Hyppolitus the yong gentleman affrighted and astonied at the sight of a monstrous bull let loose and ready to incounter him Likewise in the gallerie of Pompey the counterfeits of Cadmus and Europa all pictures of Antiphilus his making Of his handy-worke there is a fool with his bel cockscomb bable and in other ridiculous habit going vnder the name of Gryllus deuised for the nones to make sport and pastime wherupon all such foolish pictures be called Grylly Himself was born in Aegypt howbeit he learned all his cunning of Ctesidemus In this bed-roll of painters I should not do well to passe ouer in silence the workeman that painted the temple of Iuno at Ardea especially seeing that he was infranchised free burgeois of that city and honored besides with an Epigram or Tetrastichon remaining yet to be read in the mids of his pictures in these foure Hexameter verses following Dignis digna loca picturis condecorauit Reginae Iunonis supremi conjugis templum Marcus Ludius Elotas Aetolia oriundus Quem nunc post semper eb artem hanc Ardea laudat This stately Church of Iuno Queen with pictures richly dight Whom wife to mighty Iupiter and sister men do call Commends the hand of Marke Ludie Elotas also hight Aetolian born whom Ardea doth praise and euer shall These verses are written in antique Latine letters By occasion of whose name I must not defraud another Ludius of his due praise and commendation who liued in the time of Augustus Caesar Emperor of happy memory for this Ludius was he who first deuised to beautifie the wals of an house with the pleasantest painting that is in all varietie to wit with the resemblance of manors farms houses of pleasure in the country hauens vinets floure-work in knots groues woods forrests hils fish pooles conduits and drains riuers riuerets with their banks and whatsoeuer a man would wish for to see wherin also he would represent sundry other shews of people some walking and going to and fro on soot others sailing rowing vp and down the stream vpon the riuer or els riding by land to their farms either mounted vpon their mules and asses or els in wagons and coaches there a man should see folk in this place fishing and angling in that place hauking and fouling some hunting here the hare the fox or deere both red and fallow others busie there in haruest or vintage In this maner of painting a man should behold of his workmanship faire houses standing vpon marishes vnto which all the ways that lead be ticklish and full of bogs where you should see the paths so slipperie that women as they goe are afraid to set one foot afore another some at euery step ready to slide others bending forwards with their heads as though they caried some burdens vpon their neck and shoulders and all for feare lest their feet failing vnder them they should catch a fal and a thousand more deuises and pretty conceits as these full of pleasure and delight The same Ludius deuised walls without dores and abroad in the open aire to paint Cities standing by the sea side All which kinde of painting pleaseth the eie very well and is besides of little or no cost Howbeit neither hee nor any other in this kinde howsoeuer otherwise respected grew euer to be famous and of great name that felicitie they only attained vnto who vsed to paint in tables and therefore in this regard venerable antiquitie we haue in greater admiration for painters in old time loued not to garnish wals for to pleasure the master only of the house ne yet to bedeck houses in that maner which canot stir out of the place nor shift and saue themselues when fire commeth as painted tables may that are to be remoued with ease Protogenes as excellent a painter as he was contentented himselfe to liue within a little garden in a small cottage and I warrant you no part therof was painted Apelles himselfe might well haue the walls of his house rough cast or finely plaistered but neuer a patch thereof had any painting they took no pleasure nay they had no lust at all to paint vpon the whole wals and to work vpon them from one end to another al their skil and cunning attended vpon the publique seruice of states and cities and a painter was not for this or that place only but imploied for the benefit indifferently of all countries and nations But to return again to our particular painters there flourished at Rome a little before Augustus Caesars days one Arellius a renowned painter but that he had one notable foul fault that marred all and discredited his art giuen he was exceedingly to wenching and sure hee would be to haue one woman or other all times in chase which was the reason hee loued alife to be painting of goddesses which were euer drawn by the pattern of his sweet-hearts whom hee courted A man might know by his pictures how many queans he kept and which were the mistresses or rather goddesses whom he serued Of late daies wee had among vs here at Rome one Amulius a Painter he caried with him in his countenance and habit grauitie and seuerity howbeit he loued to make gay and gallant pictures neither scorned he to paint the most trifling toies meanest things that were The picture of Minerva was of his making which seemes to haue her eie ful directly vpon you looke which way soeuer you will vpon her Hee wrought but some few houres of the day and then would he seem very graue and antient for you should neuer find him out of his gown and long robe but very formall though he were close set at work euen lockt as it were to his frame The golden house or palace of Nero caught vp all the workes hee made where they remained as it were in prison and neuer came abroad which is the reason that none of his pictures els be extant After him succeeded Cornelius Pinus and Actius Priscus two Painters of good reputation who painted the temples of Honour and Vertue for Vespasianus Augustus the Emperor when he caused them to be re-edified but of the twaine Priscus in his workemanship came neerer to the painters of antient time CHAP. XI ¶ The manner how to make Birds silent and to leaue their chattering and singing Who first deuised with fire and pencill to enamel and paint the arched roufes and embowed seelings of houses The admirable price of pictures inserted here and there among other matters SInce I haue proceeded so far in the discourse of Painters and their art I must not forget to set down a pretty jest which hath bin reported by many as touching Lepidus It hapned during the time of his Triumvirat that in a certain place where he was the magistrates attended him to his lodging enuironed as it were with woods on euerie side
king Tarquinius Priscus sent for one Turianus to no other purpose in the world but to agree with him for to make the image of Iupiter in earth to set it vp in the capitoll for surely no better he was than made of clay and that by the hand of a porter which was the reason that they vsed to colour him ouer with vermillon yea and the charriots with foure horses which stood vpon the lanterne of the said temple were of no other stuffe concerning which I haue spoken in many places The same Turianus also made the image of Hercules which at this day retaineth still in the city that name which testifieth what matter he is made of Lo what kind of images there were in those daies made in the honour of the gods by our ancestors for the most excellent neither haue we cause to be ashamed of those our noble progenitors who worshipped such and no other As for siluer and gold they made no reckoning therof either about themselues or the very gods whom they worshipped and verily euen at this day there continue still in most places such images of earth As for the festiers and lanterns of temples there be many of them both within the city of Rome and also in diuers burrough townes vnder the Empire which for curious workmanship as it were chased and ingrauen are admirable and for continuance of time more lasting and durable than our louvers of gold and for any harme they do lesse subject I am sure to injurie Certes in these daies notwithstanding the infinit wealth and riches that we are growne vnto yet in all our diuine seruice and solemne sacrifices there is no assay giuen or tast made to the gods out of Cassidoine or cristallbols but only in earthen cups If a man consider those things aright weigh them duly in particular he shall find the bounty and goodnesse of the earth to be inenarrable though he should not reckon her benefits that she hath bestowed vpon mankind in yeelding vs so many sorts of corne wine apples and such like fruits herbs shrubs bushes trees medicinable drugs mettals and mineralls which I haue already treated of for euen in these works of earth and pottery which we are glutted with they be so vsuall and ordinary how beneficiall is the earth vnto vs in yeelding vs conduit pipes for to conuey water into our bains tyles flat yet hooked and made with crochets at one end to hang vpon the sides of the roofe chamfered for to lie in gutters to shoot off water curbed for crests to clasp the ridge on both sides brickes to lie in wals afront for building and those otherwhiles to serue as binders in parpine-worke with a face on both sides to say nothing of the vessels that be turned with the wheele and wrought round yea and great tuns and pipes of earth deuised to contain wine and water also In regard of which stone and earthen vessels K. Numa ordained at Rome a seuenth confraternitie of potters Ouer and besides many men there haue bin of good worth and reputation who would not be burnt to ashes in a funerall fire after they were dead but chose rather to haue their bodies bestowed entire within coffins of earth lying among leaues of myrtle oliue and blacke poplar after the Pythagorean fashion in which manner M. Varro tooke order for to be interred And if we looke abroad into the world most Nations vnder heauen do vse these earthen vessels and euen still those that be made of Samian earth and come from that Isle are much commended for to eat our meats out of and to be serued to the bourd and Eretum here in Italy retaineth yet the name for such vessell but for drinking-cups onely Surrentum Asia and Pollentia within Italy Saguntum in Spaine and Pergamus in Asia be in credit at Tralleis also a city in Sclauonia and Modenna to goe no farther than Lombardie in Italy there is made much faire vessell of earth appropriat vnto those places for euen in this respect some nations are innobled and growne into name This earthen ware is of that price besides that it is thought a commodity worth the transporting too and fro ouer land sea by way of merchandise But if we speak of that kind that is wrought by turners craft with the wheele the daintiest vessels come from Erythrae And in very truth such may the earth be that much art and fine workmanship is shewed therein in testimony whereof there be two stone vessels or earthen call them whether you wil within the principal temple of that city to be seen at this day thought worthy to be consecrated there in regard of their clean worke and their thinnesse besides which a master and his prentise wrought in a strife and contention whether of them could driue his earth thinnest howeuer it be they of the Island Cos are most commended for the fairest vessels of earth and yet those of Hadria beare the name to be more durable and of a more fast and firme constitution And since I am entred thus far I will obserue vnto you some examples of seueritie not impertinent to this discourse I find vpon record That Q. Ceponius was condemned and fined for an ambitious man onely for this because hee had sent an earth amphor of wine as a present vnto one who was to giue him his voice when he stood for an office And that you may certainly know that vessels of earth haue in some sort been in request among riotous gluttons and wastfull spend thrists listen what Fenestella saith as touching this point the greatest exceeding quoth he and gaudiest fare at a feast was serued vp in three platters and was called Tripatinum the one was of Lampreys the second of Pikes the third of the fish Myxon whereby it may appeare that euen in those daies men began at Rome to grow out of order and to giue themselues to riot and superfluity yet were not they so bad but we may prefer them euen before the Philosophers of Greece for it is written that in the sale of Aristotles goods which his heirs made after his decease there were sold 60 platters which were wont ordinarily to go about the house As for that one platter of Aesop the plaier in tragoedies which cost six hundred thousand sesterces I doubt not but their stomackes rise thereat when they reade thereof in my treatise as touching birds But this is nothing I assure you to that charger of Vitellius who whiles he was Emperor caused one to be made and finished that cost a million of sesterces for the making wherof there was a furnace built of purpose in the field the which I rather note because they should see the monstrous excesse in these daies that vessels of earth should be more costly than of Cassidonie Alluding to this monstrous platter Mutianus in his second Consulship when he ripped vp in a publicke speech the whole life of Vitellius now dead vpbraided
at Rome for his owne vsâ—… pillars of Marble brought from forraine Lands NEither can it be alledged for excuse of this tolleration in Scaurus that hee tooke the vantage and spied his time when the city of Rome was not ware of any such matter toward as hauing not been acquainted beforetime with the like and therefore he stale vpon them with these superfluous pompes as doubting nothing lesse than such new deuises and therefore hauing no time to preuent and stay them for long before this L. Crassus that great Orator who was the first that inriched his house within the same Palatium with pillars of outlandish marble although they were but of the Quarry in Hymettus hill and neither more in number than six nor carying in length aboue 12 foot apiece was reproued and reproched for this pride and vanity by M. Brutus who among other hot words and biting terms that passed interchangeably between them taunted him by the name of Venus Palatina Certes considering how all good orders and customs otherwise were trodden vnder foot weare to presume thus of our predecessors That when they saw other injunctions and prohibitions as touching diuers abuses crept in take no effect but daily broken they thought it better policy to make no lawes at all for restraint of such columns than to haue them infringed or at leastwise not obserued when they were made yet are we in these daies in better order than so and I doubt not but the age and generation following will justifie and approue of vs in comparison of them for where is there one in Rome at this day who hath in the portaile or entrie of his house any columns that for bignesse and pride come near to those of Scaurus But before that I enter farther into this discourse of marbles and other rich stones it shal be good to speak somwhat of the men that haue excelled in the cutting thereof and whose workmanship hath carried the greatest price First therfore I wil go through with the artificers themselues CHAP. IIII. ¶ The first Imageurs that were in name for cutting in Marble and in what ages they flourished THe first that we reade renowned for grauing and caruing in marble were Dipoenus and Scyllis both Candiots borne who during the Empire and Monarchie of the Medes and before that Cyrus began his reigne in Persia liued in great fame and that was in the fiftieth Olympias or thereabout These men went together vnto Sicyone a city which I may truly say was for a long time the very natiue country that brought forth the excellent workemen in all kinds of mettals and minerals It fortuned at the same time that the magistrates of Sicyone had bargained with them for certaine images of the gods to be made at the publicke charges of the city but these artificers who had vndertaken the thing agriued at some wrongs offered to them departed in Aetolia before they had finished the said images and so left them vnperfect Presently vpon this there insued a great famine amongst the Sicyonians by occasion that the earth failed to yeeld increase the citizens therefore full of sorrow and heauinesse fearing vtter desolation had recourse to the Oracle of Apollo Pythius to know what remedy for this calamity and this answer was deliuered vnto them from the said god That according to their petition they should finde meanes for to be eased of this plague in case Dipoenus and Scyllis had once finished the images of the gods which they begun and this was performed accordingly but with much difficulty for they were faine to pay whatsoeuer they would demand they were glad also to pray vnto them with cap in hand And what images mought these be Euen Apollo Diana Hercules and Minerva and this last named was afterwards smitten and blasted with fire from heauen CHAP. V. ¶ Of singular pieces of worke and excellent artificers in cutting and grauing Marble to the number of 126. Of the white Marble of Paros and of the stately sepulchre called Mausoleum LOng time before Dipoenus and Scyllis there had been in the Island Chios one Melas a cutter and grauer in marble after whom his son Micciades succeeded and he likewise left a sonne behind him named Anthermus of the said Isle a cunning workman whose two sons Bupalus and Anthermus proued also most skilfull Imageurs These flourished in the daies of Hipponax the Poet who as it is well knowne liued in the 60 Olympias Now if a man will calculate the times according to the genealogie of these two last named and count backeward in ascent no higher than to their great grandsire he shall find by the ordinary course of Nature that the art of cutting and grauing in stone is equall in antiquity to the originall and beginning of the Olympiades But to proue that these two Bupalus and Anthermus liued in the daies of Hipponax aboue named recorded it is That the said Poet had a passing soule ill-fauored face of his own and these Imageurs could find no better sport than to counterfeit both him and his visage as liuely as possibly might be in stone and in a knauery to set the same vp in open place where mery youths met in knots together and so to propose him as a laughing stock to the whole world Hipponax could not indure this indignitie but for to be reuenged vpon these companions sharpened his style or pen against them and so coursed them with bitter rimes biting libels that as some do thinke and verily beleeue being weary of their liues they knit their necks in halters and so hanged themselues But sure this canot be true for they liued many a faire day after yea and wrought a number of Images in the Islands adiacent to Chios and namely in Delos vnder which pieces of their worke they subscribed certain arrogant verses to this effect That the Island of Chios was not only enobled for the vines there growing which yeelded so good wine but renowned as well for Anthermus his two sons who made so many fine â—…nd curious images The Islanders also of Iasus haue to shew the image of Diana their handiworke within the Isle of Chios their natiue country there was likewise another Diana of their making whereof there goeth much talke and which standeth aloft in a temple there the visage of which Diana is so disposed that to as many as enter into the place it seemes sad and heauy but to them that goe forth it appeareth pleasant and merry And in very truth there be certaine statue at Rome of these mens doing to wit those which stand vpon the lanterne of Apollo's Temple 〈◊〉 the mount Palatine and almost generally in all those chappels which Agustus Caesar Emperor â—…f glorious memory erected Moreouer their father Anthermus left behind him certain images both in Delos and also in the Island Lesbos As for Dipoenus his workes were rife in Ambracia Arâ—…os and Cleone in which cities a man should not see a corner without them
in the precinct or cloister of the said galleries and in the chappell of Iuno there is the goddesse her selfe curiously made in marble the handy worke of Dionysius and Polycles but the image of Venus in the same place Philiscus wrought al other statues there came out of Praxiteles his hands Moreouer Polycles and Dionysius the sons of Timarchides made that Iupiter which is in the next chappell the images of Pan and Olympus wrestling together in the same place were the workmanship of Heliodorus and this is one of the fairest images coupled together as wrestlers that are knowne in the world as for Venus bathing her selfe he also made her but Daedalus standing by Polycharmus As touching one piece of worke that Lysias made it may appear how highly it was esteemed by the honourable place wherein it stood for Augustus Caesar late Emperor of happy memorie to the honour of Octauius his father dedicated it in mount Palatin ouer the triumphant arch there and placed it within a shrine or tabernacle adorned with columnes but what might this worke be surely nothing else but a charriot with foure horses set vnto it Apollo and Diana all of one entire piece Within the gardens of Servilius I finde there is great praise of Apollo made by Calamis that singular grauer in mettall the religious priests and prophetesses also of Phoebus called Pytheae done by Dactylis and Callisthenes the Historiographers statue wrought by Amphistratus Moreouer many cunning workmen there were whose fame notwithstanding is obscured by reason that albeit many singular pieces those vnmatchable haue passed through their hands yet for that many haue ioined in the workmanship together the number hath bin a checke and barre to the excellency of some that went beyond their fellowes for neither is there one among them that goeth away cleare with the honor from the rest nor many together can well bee named for one thing and this may be seene in the image of Laocoon which remaineth within the pallace of Emperor Titus a piece of worke to be preferred no doubt before all pictures or cast images whatsoeuer and yet we know not whatone artificer to praise for it Agesander Polydorus and Athenodorus Rhodians most excellent workmen all agreed by one generall consent to expresse liuely in one entire stone Laocoon himselfe his children and the wonderful intricat winding of the serpents clasping and knitting them about semblably the houses Palatine of the Caesars a man shall see fully furnished with right excellent statues which Craterus and Pythidoras Polydectes and Hermolaus another Pythodorus also joyned with his fellow Arthemon wrought together as also those that Aphrodisius Trallianus alone himselfe did cut As for the temple called Pantheon which Agrippa built Diogenes of Athens inriched it with marble images The Virgins also going vnder the name of Caryatides erected vpon the chapters of the columnes in that temple are commended as few like vnto them for workmanship like as the other images which be aduanced vp to the very top of the lantern of the foresaid temple are thought to be excellent pieces howbeit for that they stand so high and cannot well be discerned lesse speech there is of them As touching that Hercules in the honour of whom the Carthaginians were won euery yere to sacrifice the flesh of mankind it is an image not regarded for he hath no place in any temple or chappell neither is he erected vpon pillar no nor so much as vpon a base but standeth vpon the bare ground just ouer-against the entrie to those galleries in Rome called Ad Nationes howbeit the workmanship of this Hercules is not to be despised There stood also beneath the nine Muses called Thespiades vnder the temple of Felicity and as Varro saith one Iunius Pisciculus by place a gentleman of Rome was enamored vpon one of them so beautifull they were made and yet to this day Pasiteles cannot look enough thereupon but hath the same in great admiration who also wrote fiue books comprising all the famous and principall pieces of worke that are to be found in the world This Pasiteles was borne in the marches and coasts of Italy called Graecia and together with the townes of that tract was made a Romane free denizen being himselfe also a good cutter in stone hee made that image of Iupiter in Yvory which standeth in the chappell of Metellus in the way which leadeth into Mars field It happened vpon a time that being about the Arsenall where certaine wild beasts were newly brought out of Affricke hee looked in at a grate to behold a lyon and to take out the counterfeit of him but as hee was ingrauing in stone according to the patterne behold out of another cage a panther brake loose to no small danger of that most curious and painfull workeman â—…t is said that hee made many works but in particular which were of his doing it is not precisely set down Moreouer M. Varro doth highly magnifie Arcesilaus of whose handy-worke hee saith that hee had a lionesse in marble and certaine winged Cupids playing with her of which some seemed to hold her fast bound others forced her to drinke out of a horne others againe would seeme to shooe her with their sockes and all this prettie anticke worke was of one entire stone The same Varro writeth that Coponius made the images of the foureteene Nations which are about the galleries or theatre of Pompeius I finde also by my reading that Canachus whom I commended for a good founder or imageur in brasse in my catalogue of such artisans wrought in marble likewise and cut many faire statues neither is it meet that Sauros and Batrachus should be forgotten who wrought the chappels that are within the close or cloister belonging to the galleries of Octavia notwithstanding they were themselues Lacedaemonians borne Some also are of opinion that they were exceeding rich men and that of their owne purses they defraied the charges of building those chappels hoping to haue had the honour to be immortalized with the inscriptions in the forefront thereof which being denied them yet in another place and after another sort they made meanes to eternize their name for they deuised in the foot or base of euery pillar as it appeareth yet at this day to cut the forme of a frog and a lizard to represent thereby their owne names Moreouer I cannot conceale from you one pretty thing to be obserued and which we all know to be true That in one chappell of Iupiter all the pictures therein as also all the ceremoniall seruice thereto belonging are respectiue altogether to the foeminine sex the which happening at first by meere chance continued afterwards for when the temple of Iuno was finished the porters who had the carriage of the images ordained there to stand mistooke their markes and carried thither those which were appointed for the chappell of Iupiter and contrariwise those for Iuno into the chappell of Iupiter which beeing once done
aboue the Pyramides abouesaid a great name there is of a tower built by one of the kings of Egypt within the Island Pharos and it keepeth commands the hauen of Alexandria which tower they say cost 800 talents the building And here because I would omit nothing worth the writing I cannot but note the singular magnanimity of K. Ptolome who permitted Sostratus of Gnidos the master workeman and architect to graue his owne name in this building The vse of this watch-tower is to shew light as a lanthorne and giue direction in the night season to ships for to enter the hauen where they shall auoid bars and shelues like to which there be many beacons burning to the same purpose and namely at Puteoli and Rauenna This is the danger onely lest when many lights in this lanterne meet together they should be taken for a star in the skie for that a far off such lights appeare to sailers in manner of a star This enginer or master workman beforesaid was the first man that is reported to haue made the pendant gallery and walking place at Gnidos CHAP. XIII ¶ Of the Labyrinths in Aegypt Lemnos and Italy SInce wee haue finished our Obelisks and Pyramides let vs enter also into the Labyrinths which we may truly say are the most monstrous workes that euer were deuised by the head of man neither are they incredible fabulous as peraduenture it may be supposed for one of them remaineth to be seen at this day within the jurisdiction of Heracleopolis the first that euer was made to wit three thousand and six hundred yeares ago by a king named Petesuccas or as some thinke Tithoes and yet Herodotus saith it was the whole worke of many KK one after another and that Psammerichus was the last that put his hand to it and made an end thereof the reason that moued these princes to make this Labyrinth is not resolued by writers but diuerse causes are by them alledged Demoteles saith that this Labyrinth was the roiall pallace and seat of king Motherudes Lycias affirmeth it to be the sepulchre of K. Moeris the greater part are of opinion that it was an aedifice dedicated expressely and consecrated vnto the Sun which in my conceit commeth nearest to the truth Certes there is no doubt made that Daedalus tooke from hence the pattern and platforme of his Labyrinth which he made in Crete but surely he expressed not aboue the hundreth part thereof chusing onely that corner of the Labyrinth which containeth a number of waies and passages meeting and incountring one another winding and turning in and out euery way after so intricat manner and so inexplicable that when a man is once in he cannot possibly get out againe neither must wee thinke that these turnings and returnings were after the manner of mazes which are drawne vpon the pauement and plain floore of a field such as we commonly see serue to make sport and pastime among boies that is to say which within a little compasse and round border comprehend many miles but here were many dores contriued which might trouble and confound the memorie for seeing such variety of entries allies and waies some crossed encountred others flanked on either hand a man wandred still and knew not whether he went forward or backward nor in truth where he was And this Labyrinth in Crete is counted the second to that of Aegypt the third is in the Isle Lemnos the fourth in Italy made they were all of polished stone and besides vaulted ouer head with arches As for the Labyrinth in Aegypt the entrie thereof whereat I much maruell was made with columns of stone and all the rest stuffed so substantially and after such a wonderfull maner couched and laid by art of Masonrie that impossible it was they should in many hundred yeres be disjointed and dissolued notwithstanding that the inhabitants of Heracleopolis did what they could to the contrary who for a spight that they bare vnto the whole worke annoied and impeached it wonderfully To describe the site and plot therof to vnfold the architecture of the whole and to rehearse euery particular therof it is not possible for diuided the building is into sixteene regions or quarters according to the sixteene seuerall gouernments in Aegypt which they call Nomos and within the same are contained certain vast stately pallaces which bear the names of the said jurisdictions and be answerable to them besides within the same precinct are the temples of all the Aegiptian gods ouer and aboue fifteen little chappels or shrines euerie one enclosing a Nemesis to which goddesse they be all dedicated to say nothing of many Pyramides forty ells in height apiece and euery of them hauing six walls at the foot in such sort that before a man can come to the Labyrinth indeed which is so intricat inexplicable wherein as I said before he shall be sure ro lose himselfe he may make account to be weary tyred out for yet he is to passe ouer certain lofts galleries garrets all of them so high that he must clime staires of ninety steps apiece ere he can land at them within the which a number of columns and statues there be all of porphyrit or red marble a world of images and statues representing as well gods as men besides an infinit sort of other pieces pourtraied in monstrous and ougly â—…hapes and there erected What should I speake of other roums and lodgings which are framed and situat in such manner that no sooner are the dores and gates opened which lead vnto them but a man shall heare fearfull cracks of terrible thunder furthermore the passages from place to place are for the most part so conueighed that they be as dark as pitch so as there is no going through them without fire light and still be we short of the Labyrinth for without the main wall therof there be two other mighty vpright wals or wings such as in building they call Ptera when you are passed them you meet with more shrouds vnder the ground in manner of caues and countermines vaulted ouer head and as dark as dungeons Moreouer it is said that about 600 yeares before the time of K. Alexander the Great one Circamnos an eunuch or groome of K. Nectabis chamber made some small reparations here about this Labyrinth neuer any but hee would go about such a piece of work It is reported also that while the main arches and vaults were in rearing and those were made all of foure square ashler stone the place shone all about and gaue light with the beams and plancher made of the Aegyptian Acacia sodden in oile And thus much may serue sufficiently for the Labyrinths of Aegipt and Candy The Labyrinth in Lemnos was much like to them only in this respect more admirable for that it had a hundred and forty columns of marble more than the other all wrought round by turners craft but with such dexterity that a
shew otherwhiles of sparkles running to fro Enhydros is euermore absolutely smooth and white containing within a certain liquor that moueth too and fro if a man shake it as he may perceiue in egges Polytrix is a greene stone bedecked with fine veines in manner of the haire of ones head but by report it will make the haire to shed off as many as carry it about them Of a Lions skin Leontios beareth the name like as Pardalios of a Panther The golden color in the Topaze gaue it the name Chrysolith so the grasse green of a Leeke was occasion of the name Chrysoprasos and of hony was deuised the colour and name Melichrus although there be many kinds of it As for Melichloros it is of two colours partly yellow and partly resembling hony Crocias is yellow as Saffron and Polia sheweth a certaine greynesse in manner of Spart As for Spartopolios the blacke it sheweth like gtistly veins to the other but much harder Rhodites took name of the Rose Melites of the apple the colour wherof it shews Chalcites of brasse and Sycites of a fig. I see no proportion or reason at all between the stone Borsycites and that name this stone is blacke and branching and the leaues are whiâ—…e or red like bloud no more than I do in Gemites which representeth as it were engrauen in the stone white hands clasped one within another As for Ananchitis it is said That spirits may be raised by it in the skill of Hydromantie like as by Synochitis the ghosts which are raised may be kept aboue still What should I speake of the white Dendritis which if it be buried in the ground vnder a tree that is to be fallen the edge of the axe that heweth it will not turne or wax blunt There be a number of other and those in nature more prodigious than the rest for which the Barbarians haue deuised strange names professing to vs that they were stones indeed for mine owne part it shall suffice that I haue disproued their lies in these abouenamed CHAP. XII ¶ Of new stones and those naturall Of such as be counterfeit and artificiall Of diuers formes and shapes of gems THere grow still precious stones vnlooked for euery day that bee new and haue no names such as that in Lampsacus where one was found in the gold mines so faire and beautifull that it was thought a present worth sending to K. Alexander the Great as Theophrastus writeth As touching the stones Cochlides which now are most common they seeme rather artificial than natural and verily it is said That in Arabia there be found of them huge masses which are sodden in hony 7 daies and nights together continually by which means after that all the earthy and grosse refuse of this stone is taken away the stone it selfe remaineth pure and fine and then comming vnder the lapidaries hand they be diuided into sundry veines and reduced into drawne or inlaid worke of Marquetage as he will himselfe And herein is seen the cunning of the cutter for that it is so vendible euery mans mony In old time they were made of that bignesse that the KK of the East had their horses set out therewith not only in their front stals but also in the pendants of their caparisons And verily al other precious stones being decocted in hony look faire and neat with a pleasant lustre but principally the Corsicks which abhor all things els that are more eager than hony Moreouer this is to be noted that our lapidaries haue a tearme for those stones which are of diuers colors and they call them Physes as if they had not another vsuall name for them this they do in the subtilty of their wit to make them seem more wonderful by these strange words of art as if they would venditat them for their very wonders of Natures worke whereas indeed there be an infinit number of names deuised all by the vain Greeks who knew not how to make an end which I purpose not to rehearse and verily after I had discoursed of the noble and rich stones I contented my selfe in some sort to specifie those of a baser degree such I mean as were more rare than others to distinguish them that were most worthy to be treated of But this eft soons would be remembred that one the self-same stone changeth the name according to the sundry spots marks werts that arise in them according also to the manifold lines drawn in them the diuers veins running between and the variety of colors therein obserued It remains now to set downe some generall obseruations indifferent to all sorts of gems and that after the opinion of the best approoued and experienced authors in this kind Any stones that be either hollow sunk in or bearing out in bosse or belly be nothing so good as those which cary an euen and leuell table The long fashioned gems are most esteemed next to them such as be formed like to lintil seed after them those that be round in manner of a targuet and as for such as be made with many faces angled they be of al other least accounted of To discern a fine true stone from a false and counterfeit is very difficult forasmuch as there is an inuention io transform true gems into the counterfeit of another kind And in truth men haue deuised to make Sardonches by setting and glewing together the gems named Ceraunia that so artificially that it is vnpossible to see therein mans hand so handsomly are couched the black taken from this the white from that the vermilion red from another according as the richnes of the stone doth require all those in their kind most approued Moreouer there be in my hands certain books of authors extant whom I wil not nominate for all the good in the world wherein is deciphered the manner and means how to giue the tincture of an Emeraud to a Crystall how to sophisticat other transparent gems namely how to make a Sardonyx of a Cornalline in one word to transform one stone into another to say a truth there is not any fraud or deceit in the world turneth to greater gain and profit than this CHAP. XIII ¶ The way how to make proofe of fine precious stones LEt other writers teach how to deceiue the world by counterfeiting gems for mine own part I will take a contrary course and shew the means how to find out false stones that be thus sophisticat for surely wanton and prodigall though men and women bee in the excessiue wearing of these jewels yet meet it is they should be armed and instructed against such cousiners And albeit I haue already touched somwhat respectiuely as I treated of the chiefe principall gems yet I wil adde somwhat more to the rest first and formost therfore this is obserued That all stones which be transparent ought to haue their triall in a morning betimes or at the