is newe or strange vnto them I knowe one whom I doe not name for great considerations who besides the admirable knowledge hee hath of diuers Languages and sciences remembers the meanest things that hee hath seene in diuers Countries euen the names of Men Citties Townes Villages and Hamlets marking the circumstances of infinit things so as if anie one did put him into discourse of any Towne where hee had not beene these fiue and twentie or thirtie yeares hee will speake of all the particularities thereof more exactlie then hee that had continued there for the space of fiftie yeares togither and neuer come forth I will not speake of many great and excellent memories in France Italie and else where contenting my selfe with this for the present whereof some other time will shew other admirable obseruations Memorie lost and recouered againe A Siennois named ANTHONY being recouered of a great sicknesse found his memorie to faile him in such sort as he could not remēber any thing Being at Florence hee thought himselfe to be at Sienna neither could he discerne his friendes from his enemies Beeing abandoned of the Physitions as a madde-man after three weekes he had a great fl◅x whereby hee purged himselfe of strange humors the infectious vapors whereof had toucht the faculties of the spirit By meanes of which euacuation he recouered his vnderstanding and memorie so as hee remembred not what had chanced vnto him nor what hee had done during those three weekes A. BENIVENIVS Chapter 47. I haue seene a Friar who cured of a violent ague which had tormented him lost his memorie so as hee who before was a great Diuine did not now knowe A nor B. Hauing continued foure monthes in this estate he went to the Childrens Schole learning to knowe his letters This began to applie diuers remedies vnto him by the helpe whereof hee sodenly recouered his memorie so as hee shewed himselfe as learned as before his sicknesse CHRISTOPHER de VEGA Booke 3. of the arte of Physick Chap. 10. FRANCISQVO BARBARO a learned Venetian did in his old age forget the Greeke tongue in the which hee was very learned yet notwithstanding his Iudgement was good and his spirit perfect to write or dictate BASSIAN LANDVS lib. 1. of the History of man The same man beeing to make an oration before the Duke of Milan was at a non-plus hauing for-gotten what he intended to say RAPHAEL VOLATERRANVS Book 21. of his Anthropologia GEORGE TRAPEZONCE a very learned Greeke beeing growne olde hee forgot all that hee had knowne before The same Author Monsieur RONDELET a learned Physition in our time did report that a young man studying at Montpellier going throught the streetes in the night met with disordred fellowes which liued by spoile who thrust with a rapier at his bodie and hurt him very sore in the eye By the care of the Physitions and Surgions he was cured but hee fell into so great a forgetfullnesse of artes and sciences and especially of the facultie of Physicke in the which hee was well aduanced as hee remembred not any thing whatsoeuer so as they were faine to vse him like a Child of seauen yeares old setting him againe to his A B C. THOMAS IOVRDAN Chap. 2. of the 2. treatise of Signes of the plague I haue knowne an ancient man in France which spake good French and Latin plaied excellently well of the Lute and that was verie actiue at all exercises of the bodie and handled his weapon well through a sicknesse he was so depriued of all these things as hee did not remember the names of them neither yet had any habilitie in him no more then a yong Child and so were they faine to vse him and to set him to Schole againe as one that knewe nothing T. DAMIAN Chap. 13. of his Theorie of Physick GONSALVE GILLES of Bourgos a learned Diuine a Spaniard had in his time one of the happiest memories in the world the which notwithstanding hee lost wholie by a greeuious sicknesse into the which hee fell at his returne from Paris into Spaine ALVAR GOMECIO Booke 4. of the Historie of Cardinall XIMINES A certaine man beeing sore hurt in the head and with some difficultie cured at the ende of three monethes lost the remembrance of all that had happened vnto him FERNELIVS Booke 2. of his Panthologia Chap. 5. Father fertill in his ofspring IN the memory of our Fathers there was seene a village in Spaine of about a hundred houses whereof all the Inhabitants were issued from one certaine olde man which then did liue when as that village was so peopled so as the name of consanguinitie ascending and descending as well in the direct as the collaterall line fayled to shewe and distinguish howe the little Children should call him L. VIVES in his comentarie vpon the 8. Chap. of the 15. Booke of the Citty of GOD. Mothers fertill in Lignage issued from them IN Saint Innocents Church-yard in the Cittie of Paris is to bee seene the Epitaph of YOLAND BALLY widdowe to M. DENIS CAPEL a Proctor at the Chastelet which doth shewe that shee had liued foure score and eight yeares and might haue seene 288. of her Children and Childrens Children shee dyed the 17. of Aprill 1514. Imagine howe much she had beene troubled to call them by a proper denomynation that were distant from her in the fourth and fift degree E. PASQVIER Booke 6. of his Recerches of France Chap. 46. In our time there was a Lady of the noble family of the DALBOVRGS who saw of her race euen to the 6. degree The Germains haue made a Latin Distichon of it thus 1. Mater ait 2. Natae Dic. 3. Nata filia 4. Natam Vt moneat 5. Natae plangere 6. ◅iliolam That is to say The Mother said to her Daughter Daughter bid thy Daughter tell her Daughter that her Daughters Daughter cryes This is recited and written by Maister THEODORE ZVINGGER a Physition at Basil in the 3. volume of his Theater of Mans life lib. 11. Vigorous Mothers A Woman hauing had a continuall vomiting of bloud for the space of seauen whole moneths conceiued not-with-standing and was deliuered of a goodly Boye and a lustie A certaine other woman beeing with Childe had her Termes orderly and in greater aboundance then before her conception they continued vntill her lying in and yet they were no hinderance to her happye deliuerie More-ouer I haue seene one neere vnto GREVENBROVCH who beeing neere to her deliuerie had her Termes extraordinarilye voyding congealed bloud in great cloddes yet shee escaped well with her fruite R. SOLENANDER lib. 5. of his Councells Chap. 15. art 36. 38. 39. Mother and Children preserued from death IN the yeare 1564. about tenne or twelue daies after Easter diuers persons of the Towne of Ast did crosse the Riuer which passeth along the Towne in a boate the Water beeing very deepe and broade the boate being in the middest of the Riuer it beganne to leane on the
afterwards discouered and proued against him hee was first of all laied starke naked on a bare planke so drawne through the chiefest streetes of the towne then hee had his flesh plucked away in foure principall places of his body with hot burning pincers lastly hee had his bones broken and was left so a liue on a cart wheele where hauing languished in grieuous torments the space of nine houres with great acknowledgement and detestation of his damnable fact he gaue vp the ghost GASPAR HEDIO in the 4. part of his Chronicles On Sattarday the last sauing one of September 1565. it happened that IOHN GVY the Sonne of EME GVY an Haberdasher of hattes and cappes in the Towne of Chastillon vpon Loire being a very lewd vnruly youth stayed forth according to his custome and came not home till it was very late in the night Whereat his Father being much offended told him that if he continued in those fashions he should be constrained to turne him out of dores Wherevnto the Sonne answered very sawcily that it should not neede for hee would goe of himselfe and that forth-with if hee might haue his clothes Therevpon the Father went to his Chamber and being a bedde was faine to threaten his Sonne for to make him hold his peace he was so lusty with his tongue At length seeing hee but lost his labour and not able any longer to endure his proud and sawcy answeres hee rose in an anger out of his bedde for to go and Chastice the arrogancie and disobedience of this vnruly youth who seeing his Father comming to beate him caught a sworde which hunge in his Chamber and rebelling against his Father ranne him quite through the bodie Wherewithall he fell presently downe crying out he was slaine The neighbors flighted with his crie came running in and found the poore Father lying all along on the floore ready to giue vp the Ghost as within a little while after he did and his Sonne standing by him with the sword all bloudie in his hands who notwithstanding that his Father mooued with compassion and forgetting his vnnaturall cruelty towards him had willed him to saue himselfe and that his Mother had also perswaded him therevnto yet had not the power to stirre a foote So that apprehended and examined at first he excused himselfe saying that his Father ranne vpon the sword himselfe But his excuses found friuolous hee was condemned to haue his right hand cut of then to haue his flesh plucked away in foure places of his body with burning pincers and finally to bee hanged by the feete on a gibbet and there strangled with a stone of a hundreth and twentie pounds weight which should be tyed about his neck All which hauing confessed his fault hee patiently endured calling vpon GOD for mercy euen to the verie last gasp In the Historie of our time A friend of mine a man of a great spirit and worthie of credit beeing one night at Naples with a kins-man of his heard the voice of a man crying out for helpe in the streete Whereat he arose lighted a candle and ranne out to see what it was and comming into the streete hee sawe an horrible fantosme of a dreadfull and furious aspect which would haue carried away a young youth that cried out and struggled with him aswell as he could but seeing him comming hee ranne suddainely vnto him and caught him fast about the middle and after his feare was some-what past hee beganne to call vpon GOD whereat the fantosme vanished presently away My friend carried this young man to his lodging and after hee had comforted him hee would haue sent him home but hee could not get him to go by any meanes for the youth was so frighted that hee shaked euery ioynt of him through the apprehension of so hideous an encounter At last being some-what come to himselfe hee confessed that till then hee had lead a very wicked life that hee had beene a contemner of GOD and disobedient to his Father and Mother whom he had so intollerably misused that they had cursed him Wherevpon hee went forth of dores and was presently encountred by that fiend ALEXANDER of Alexandria in the 4. booke of his geniall daies Chap. 19. A young man borne at Gabies not farre from Rome being of a wilde and vnruely nature and verie lewdly giuen hauing abused his Father diuers and sundry waies got him in a rage out of dores and went towardes Rome entending to plot some newe villany there against his sayd Father Vpon the way hee met the Diuell in the likenesse of a desperate ruffian with long haire and ragged apparel who comming to him demanded the cause of his discontent The young man answered that hee had beene at some wordes with his Father and determined to be meete with him some way or other Whervnto the Diuell replyed that such an inconuenient had befallen him and therefore desired him they might keepe company togither for to deuise some meanes to bee reuenged of the wrongs they had sustained Night approching they went into an Inne and lay togither in one bedde But the wicked fiend when the young man was a sleepe caught him by the throate and had strangled him if hee had not awaked and called to GOD for helpe Wherevpon the Diuell vanished away and in his departure so shaked the Chamber that both the roofe and walles crackt in sunder Whereat this young man was greeuiously terrified with such a soddaine spectacle and almost dead with feare repented him of his wicked life and guided from thence forward by a better spirit became an enemy to vice past the rest of his life farre from the rumors of people and serued for a good example to his neighbors In the same booke and Chapter Children brought vp among Wolues GOD repented that he had made man saith MOYSES Gen. 6. And Philosophers Bookes are full of complaints touching the malice of mans heart PLATO in the 7. Booke of his lawes saith That a child is the wildest beast the vnruliest and hardest to bee tamed of all other and that it cannot be too neerely looked vnto ARISTOTLE also in the first Bookes of his Politickes confirmes the same Lyons Beares and other sauage beasts are vntractable but yet not so much as children left to themselues and destitute of good direction It is reported that a childe of a village in the Landgrauiat of Hesse was lost through the rechlesnesse of his Father and Mother who sought him a long time after but could not finde him This Village was full of Trees and Gardens hard by a Forrests side wherein were a great number of Wolues Certaine yeares after there was perceiued among the Wolues which came into the Gardens to seeke their prey a creature not altogether like a Wolfe nor nothing so nimble as they which seene many and sundry times with great meruaile by the Country-folkes and thinking it was a beast of some other kinde they went and reported it to the
chinne was couered with a beard and at ten yeares he begot a sonne hauing at that age all the naturall and vitall faculties as perfect as a man at thirtie yeares TORQVEMADO in the first iourney of his Hexameron I haue seene in a towne in Italie called Prato about two leagues and a halfe from Florence a child new borne which had the face couered with thicke haire halfe a foote long very white soft and fine as flaxe beeing two moneths olde this beard fell off as if the face had pield by some disease The same A certaine man went throughout all Spaine shewing a sonne of his for money The childe being ten or eleuen years old had so much haire of his face which was long thicke and curled as they could not see any thing but his eies and mouth The same A young boy beeing but nine yeares olde got a nurce with child So saith IOHN FOXIVS L. DANEVS lib. 2. of his morrall Philosophy Chap. 14. A horrible Iealousie ABout the yeare 1517. a yong Cittizen of Modena very rich and not married called FRANCIS TOTTE abandoning himselfe to the pleasures of the world began to frequent the house of a Gentlewoman that was married who was named CALORE she kept open house through her husbands suffrance for dancing playing at cardes dise other entertaynments for all commers from whome she still drew some commoditie being of her selfe alluring and stately in apparrell stuffe feasts and all that belongs thereto This young Modenois who had good meanes began to frequent this entrie to hell and within a while was so drunke with the intising baites of this Curtizan as he did not cease to pursue her in that sort as from that time they concluded a mutuall and cordiall loue betwixt them They liued in this estate about three yeares that the Modenois did enioy and was enioyed of this CALORE to whom hee gaue his person and his goods more freely then hee would haue done to a lawfull wife Shee did handle him cunningly but one day as shee plaied at Chesse with a certaine gentleman it chanced that smiling shee tooke this gamester by the hand and griped it like vnto a woman of her trade FRANCISCO growes iealous at this countenance and from that time seemed discontented CALORE a licentious woman and not accustomed to be restrained began to contest and to braue him In the end disdaine growes thorough words so as shee hauing told him that shee cared not for his humors nor choller this wretched man did shut himselfe into a chamber where hauing made some notes containing a disposition of his goods and that hee would not haue any one accused for his death but himselfe hee did put them in his shooes in such sort as they must presently see them then with his girdle and his garters he made a kind of halter and leaping from a great coffer he strangled himselfe presently It was in the very house of CALORE who afterwards liued more retired At that time FRANCIS GVICHARDINE an excellent Historian of our age was Gouernor of Modena for the Pope The Historie of Italie About the yeare 1528. there chanced at Rimini a towne in Romagnia a notable Historie A certaine yong gentle-woman married to an old gentle-man forgetting her honour did prostitute her selfe villanously to a yong gentle-man of the place caled PANDOLPHO continuing their infamous course by the means of a chamber-maid that was their bawde for the space of two yeares There was in the chamber of this wretched woman a great coffer where shee did put some part of her iewels and money in the which her adulterer did hide himselfe if at any time hee were in danger to bee surprised and could not escape This coffer had a vent for aire in a secret place so as PANDOLFO continued sometimes long there It happened at the ende of this time that GODS diuine iustice began to call this Adulteresse to an account by a grieuous and incurable sickenes who finding her selfe abandoned of the Physitions was yet more in regard of her soule Her husband comming about midnight vnlooked for PANDOLFO casts himselfe into the coffer shutting it easily of himselfe Then this woman transported with some horrible spirit began after some speech to make an humble request vnto her husband making him to promise with an oath that he should not refuse her Which was that he should put into her tomb in the caue neere vnto her coffin that coffer which shee shewed him without looking himselfe or suffering any one to looke into it hauing certaine stuffe in it which shee would not haue any one to vse after her The which request the husband did graunt her Miserable PANDOLFO vnderstood these terrible words which made him to curse his owne wickednesse a thousand times and his adulteresse withall who within two houres after died without repentance or confession of her wicked sinnes beeing desirous to drawe him with her vnto death that had beene the companion of her wicked life After her death as they gaue order for her Interment some seruants and kinsfolkes would haue him leaue this coffer in the house or at the least that they should open and visit it But the husband holding the solemne promise made by him hindered the opening thereof and caused it to bee carried out shut the which after the Obsequies were made was let downe with the coffin into the Caue and a great Tombe-stone laied vpon it without morter for that it was now night and that they meant to finish all the next day Miserable PANDOLFO hearing them sing in Saint Cataldes Church made his account then to die in the coffer and in tumbling vp and downe he felt certaine bagges full of iewels but hauing no minde of golde nor siluer hee disposed himselfe to other thoughts when as GOD would giue him newe respight to haue a better care of his conscience and life than hee had formerly had A young man of the house who knewe that the deceassed had good stuffe in the Coffer and beeing couetous of such a booty found meanes to enter about ten or eleuen a clocke at night into Saint Cataldes Temple whereas the Caue and Sepulcher of the deceassed was With the help of two of his companions he lifts vp the stone and beginnes to get open the Coffer pretending to carry away a good prey PANDOLFO taking a sodaine resolution in so strange an accident doth rise and gets out of the coffer with such a noise as the rest thinking it had beene some Diuell fled away speedily PANDOLFO being come to himselfe lights a Torche and visiting the Cofer lodes himselfe with Iewels and money which hee found there and going out of the Church past by the Couent gardens vnto his owne house I leaue it to the Reader to iudge if hee had not reason to thinke of GODS helpe and to amend his life Hist of Italie Impiety punnished IN the yeare 1505. a certaine Curat of one of the Parishes of Misnia in