otherwise then by enchantment or witch craft which made him mock at the plebeian simplicity laughing at the vulgar who for the most part attribute that to the Magick art which appears wonderfull and produceth stupendious effects from their incapacity to comprehend the cause but to return to our voyage From the Bucca Coronea we are brought to Zolfettara as at present they call those places which were of old celebrated with the invention of various fables of old Poets for these wonders of nature who sing that the Gyants buryed under this mountain even from hell cast forth of their throats Flames at that time when earthquakes happen Et montes scopulos terrasque invertere dorse These Mountains are full of Sulphure Allum and Vitriol the chief whereof as Strabo writes stood pendent at a few paces distance from the Colonna of Pozzuolo now distant from the castle Novo about a mile from the form of which place t is guessed that the top of this Mountain was at last consumed and emitted into the profundity of the near valley by the continual fires whence that which of old was a high and eminent top or head is now a great ditch in the plain of a valley and that which was of old the ribs and flanks of a mountain are now the upper part of shelfs and rocks which surround the plain with a certain fence in length about a thousand and fifty foot in bredth about a thousand foot Pliny writes that they were nominated from their whiteness Leucogei and the plain or Level Campagna Phlegerea from the flame and fire there ever extant which Silius the Italian confirms Cornelius Strabo calls this place the Piazza and shop of Vulcan where likewise some fable the Gyants to be overcome by Hercules here the Mountains seem continually to burn at their roots for that on all sides they emit smokes by many mouths which smell of sulphure which smokes are blowen by the wind all over the neighbouring Countrey and sometimes to Naples Antiently these Hills as we draw from Dion Cassius and Strabo emitted greater fires as also those about the Lucrino and Averno which are not a few burnt and emitted like furnaces gross smokes and flames Now the plain as also the hill Phlegrei are deprived of their perpetual flames and are cavernous in many places and become yellowish as from the materiall and colour of sulphure the earth when spurned by the foot resounds like a drum through its concavity underneath where you may hear with wonder under your seet boyling waters grosse and inflamed smokes to make a horrid noise and run too and fro through the subterranean Caverns which the force of the exhalation hath made which how great you may thence guesse stop any of those mouths or holes with a good great stone and you shall suddenly and with violence see it amoved by the strength of the smoke Here they compose medicinable pots of brimstone In the same plain or level lies also a great marish filled alwaies with a black scalding hot water which sometimes useth to change place and the waters making themselves hard as tryed sewit useth being cold to bind it self to the sides of the Vessel t is melted in do thereby and with the force of the exhalation increase or diminish When I was there it boyled with great noise and smoke as if it had been a huge chauldron filled with blackish mud and therefore exceeded not then its bounds and limits but I remember that at my view thereof this Vorago mounted and cast up of asudden like a Pyramides eight or nine foot high beyond the common stature of man that thick water yellow and of the colour of sulphure which also the people of Pozzuolo affirm adding that sometimes t will rise from sixteen to twenty four feet When the Sea is in a storm this water is of various colours though for the most part like sulphure and sometimes other according as the subterranean winds are disturbed by the sea blasts and being in vigoured among the flames with all possible force expels some of the earth mixed with divers colours from the deepest veins These very winds when most quiet under ground the top of the Fens or moors being only disturbed cause a gross thick water coloured with black to be cast out These things of such occult nature do certainly afford usefull and welcome matter for consideration and study to such as love to search thereinto which Cicero very pertinently terms the natural food of the mind And hence we certainly know that the globe of the earth is not in every part solid and massy but in some places hollow cavernous and full of vains and pores like as is the living body of any animal and that with the continual motion of the imbodied elements water and air it becomes penetrated and is by the same nourished increased or diminished together with its several kinds and changes of plants and that the earth soops up vast quantities of the Sea waters disperst on it by means of those pores the which being encountred by some fierce winds occasion a motion of those waters in its inmost part and in the straitest passages and the same winds there split in sunder among the rocks and stones grow violently hot and kindle vast fires the which conâ—…uming whatever they meet empty the internal parts of the earth and drawing to themselves through those pores the neighbouring winds together with great smokes they there augment beyond measure searching out an egresse with horrible noise and shakings of the earth and mountains Pellunt oppositas moles ac vincula rumpunt As more at large Cornelius Severus a most learned Poet hath declared in his AEnea and hence proceed the earthquakes whirlpooles and openings of the earth the forcing out of flames the rivolets of fire boyling fountains and hot vapours Dion Cassius writes that in his time the said Mountains of Pozzuolo had more fountains of running fire in the likeness of water that through the excessive heat the water took fire and burnt and the fires with the mixture of the waters acquired a fluxible corpulency in such sort that these contrary elements did not separate and we find even in our time that the flames and sulphure conserve and nourish themselves in these waters and that they endure for so many ages and never consume but alwayes continue and gush out in the same conduits the which Severus the Poet graciously sets down in these verses Atque haec ipsa tamen jam quondam extincta fuissent Ni furtim aggeneret secretis callibus humor Materiam silvamque suam pressoque canali Huc illuc ageret ventos pasceret ignes So also he writes of the Phlegrean Fields and of the same place between Naples and Cuma whereof we now discourse viz. Ejus ab aeternâ—… piâ—…guescens ubere 〈◊〉 In merces legitur As at present the King exhausts a great toll from that brimstone and merchandize of allum Wee observe furthermore
that these sulphurious or brimstone waters commixt with the saltness of the Sea and with the ashes of burnings turn into stone after they have cooled themselves by running a short course and that they communicate the same faculty to those rivers and brooks with which they commix whereof though a clear experiment cannot be had yet that innate quality in all the rivers of Italy as the Tybâ—…r the â—…everone the Lake of Luca in the Nera and others of vesting the sides or brims of the banks and the Conduits whereby they paâ—…s as also the conserves and receptions of their standing pools give sufficient proof Besides t is as clear as the Sun and dayly observed that their continued washing of wood plants arms bodies and roots of trees the stubble of herbs and the leaves by little little are covered with a kind of scurf of stone and by revolving become by chance formed like comfits of aniâ—…eeds fennel cinamon and almonds and so much resembling such that with no great difficulty some more greedy then wary have been cousened with them and in truth what Vitruvius Seneca Dione Pliny and others have writ of the wonders of Vesuvius and Pozzuolo seems beyond reason to wit that the waters receive that nature and particularity from the tenuity of the ashes of the burned sulphure which ashes the fire having in part reduced as small as atomes in part dissolved into liquid moisture and in part expelled by the vapours of the subterranean fires through the veins of the earth and by springs we observe to be converted into that dust which the antients called Pozzuolo from the place and that they unite so soon as they attain the waters and cooling with them attain the just substance of stone and that the waters which run by those places mutually receive a certain nature of connexing to any thing so that they easily cleave to the body they touch and make it become stone And for wonders of this kind scarce can any be found like those in the caves of the Apenines near the old chanel of the Aâ—…iene by Vico Varo where the waters distilling through the clefts and chinks in the Rocks in their fall by little and little form it self like stone in the likeness of high Collumns in divers forms branchy bodies of trees and monstrous bodies of Centaures and Gyants in which Caverns or labyriâ—…ths of pure darkness with candles may be found out objects which in one word may worthily be said to feed and satiate the mind of the curious searcher into the secrets of nature but beware that the light be not extinguished by the frequent flappings of the night batâ—… who thither retire as to a secure retreat by millions to avoid the light of the day Thus beholding the hills Leucogei and the various surges of medicinal fountains of baths hot baths and the Cavernes you go to Pozzuolo amids the great and spatious ruines of the antient Colony POZZVOLO THe Roman Empire flourishing that maritime tract of Campania about Cuma Misena and Pozzuolo was in great reputation for the temperature of the air the pleasantness of the scite the quantity of good waters and the extream fertility of the fields and therefore replenished with great possessions of the Gentry and proud Palaces of the principal men And to speak truth no other part of Italy nor of the Provinces or the world appears more proper for the consumption of the Romans riches then that peice of Campania lying betweeen Capua and Naples and extending to Cuma where with good reason the common saying was that Bacchus and Ceres contended for superiority the luxury and sensuality of which maritime places and Islands made the old Poets in their antient fables of delights call these the house and habitation of the Syrenes And this caused some old Poets and them of no small esteem to aver those things which happened between Ulisses and the Nymph Calipso to have been acted in the Island of Pozzuolo and not in Ogygia a place of the Thebans or in the Island of the Promontory of Lacinio which Goddess by some called the daughter of Atlas by others of Oceanus and Tethys was held a Nymph of the Sea and reigned in the Isle Ogygia receiving Ulysses when he escaped drowning and took this name from her adornments of body and delights she liued in Homer calls her a Nymph very well adorned with fair riches And in truth who considers the shores of Pozzuolo must in truth conclude that to his imagination a more pleasant delightfull and glorious place cannot be found out than it nor a Seat more inclined by nature to receive and carress Travellers thence t is that the Poets of old feign that Ulysses there fixing and dwelling recollected his many past peregrinations and perils and also in the Isle Ithaca whereof Dion Cassius and â—…hilostratus Lemnius in the Life of Apollonius make mention And although at present the whole is filled with ruines and every thing lies even with the earth through too intollerable sufferings by war and time yet are there objects enow which such as will reape any profit from the curiosity of the antient arts and histories ought maturely and with great industry to consider But to begin Pozzuolo is a City scituate on a hill in the midst of a shore of the Sea which though very fair and large cannot yet be at all compared in any part with the riches and grandezza of the antient Colony as may be clearly extracted from the wayes pitched with flint and the foundations of publique edifices whereof the Sea hath swallowed up one part earthquakes and wars the other It was a most antient Colony of the Graecians which the Samii conducted hither in the time of Tarquinius Superbus in the sixty second Olimpiad as the Chronologer Eusebius writes and Stephanus â—…ysantius confirms which happened about the time that the republique of the Samii was ty ranized by the three Brothers Policrates Silus and Pantagnostus At that time also Pythagoras Samius flying from his own Countrey in Morava attained the potent City of Italy Croione where he layed down a new Philosophy then called Italian and by it acquired a high esteem with whose Laws the Italian Cities being reformed from the Graecian by the indeavours of three hundred of his Scholars as Diogenes Laertius writes received the government of Aristocracy under which they lived happily for many Ages Others will likewise that the Colony of the Samii from the observance of the Justice of the most holy Empire wherewith it was governed was called Dicearchia by which name all the Greek writers stiled it and many times after their example the Latin Strabo writes Dicearchia was once the Piazza of the Cumani and that afterwards the Romans called it Pozzuolo either as some will from the many deep piâ—…s or as others from the sulphurious stenches of the waters there arising It became under the power of Romans in the warr with Hannibal when Capua was taken by
present a religious Person and a lover of Learned men BASSANO FRom Trento the way lies to Bassano travelling towards the East by the Valley of Sugana called by the Antients Euganea because a People of that name dwelt there This Plain is eighteen miles in length and two only in bredth whence you may go to Venice but 't is too long a journey Five Miles forth of Trent is situated the rich and populous Countrey of Perzene At the Head of the Valley near Primolano are the confines between the Venetians and Germans Upon the high Mountain of Primolano is there built a most strong Bulwark of the Venetians called Strada where a few Souldiers can repel the Dutch when ever they offer by violence or force to advance forwards At twelve miles distance from thence towards the East among the Alps is the City of Feltre by the which way at the right-hand-shore of the River Brent three miles distance from Scala is seated Cavolo a Fort of the Germans inexpugnable in respect that 't is founded upon a great Rock directly hanging over the high-way with a Fountain of living water in it whereto neither Man nor Goods can be mounted from the Earth unless fastned to a Rope and that wound up upon a wheel from which because 't is a very narrow way underneath between the Mountain and the River with small labour may their enemies be slain with Stones cast on them as they march along Thence five miles distant is the River Cisimone wch disembogues it self into the Brenta where the Dutch and Feltrini daily load great quantities of Timber and Wood as well for the use of Building as for firing which they afterwards transport to Bassano to Padoua and to Venice Seven miles distant from Bassano on the Right-hand-shore of the Brent lies the Countrey of Valstagna placed at the foot of the Mountains and famous for the Sawes there made thence distant three miles lies the Countrey of Campese where in the Church of the Fryers of Saint Benedict lies buried he that wrote la Macharonea Bassano lies at the foot of this streight Valley and is washed towards the West by the Brent called antiently Brenta or Brentesia the which hath its Sourse or head beyond the Alps of Trent twelve miles near Levego Over the Brent a little forth of the Gate of Bassano is built a great Bridge of Wood which conjoyns both the Rivers Between the Alps and this Castle there are some Hills which produce most abundantly all things requisite as well for necessary living as delicacy but most particularly they abound with Olives and precious Wines The River Brenta runs thorow the Territory of Vicenza passeth by the City of Padoua and in the end dischargeth it self by the Fenny or Moorish grounds into the Sea In this River they take excellent Fish as Trouts Pollard or Chieven Eyles Pyke Tench Lampreys Barbel and Crabfish In no place are the men more ingenuous in Merchandize than in this particularly in weaving of Cloth in turning most neatly in Ivory and in Carving in Nut-Trees There is never a year that they dress less than fifteen thousand pound weight of Silk and notwithstanding that that which is made in China is esteemed better than is made in any other part of the world nevertheless 't is known that this of Bassano is more subtile or thin and more light Hence the Family of the Carrareci drew their Original and Eccellino the Tyrant as also Lazaro surnamed Bassano a person not meanly learned nor less acquainted in the Greek tongue than in the Latine he lived a long time in Bologna with great satisfaction to the learned afterwards he rendred himself at Padoua to the end that he might illuminate those who were studious of good Letters At present Giacomo dal Ponte an excellent Lymner greatly illustrates this Country together with four of his Sons called vulgarly the Bassani Bassano hath under it twelve Towns which with it self contein to the number of twelve thousand Souls MAROSTICA AT three miles distance from Bassano towards the West is seated a strong place named Marostica a Castle built by the Lords of Scala near the Mountain and fortified with Walls and two Sconceâ—… Antiently this Castle stood in the neighbouring Mountain which looks towards the East where at this time are to be seen the Foundationâ—… Here the Air is most perfect and the Countrey as pleasant and produceth excellent fruits in great abundance but it most excels in Cherries of all sorts which are so infinitely pleasant and so well â—…elished that therefore in many places they are called Marosticane There are many Fountains of clear Water and thence about two miles is a Lake called Piola whose waters abate and rise in the same manner as they in the Golf of Venice with great admiration to the beholders The Inhabitants of this Castle are extreme contentious whereupon an Elegant Poet wrote thus Restat in Civibus Marii discordia vetus Quae cum Syllanis saevit in urbe viris Within this Castle are many Churches among which is that of Saint Bastiano where the Fryers of Saint Francis dwell wherein lies the Body of the blessed Lorenzuolo the Child Martyred by the wicked Jews who antiently there inhabited Francesco of the Family of the â—…reschi hath much illustrated this Castle who publickly Read the Civil Law in Padoua and likewise Angelo Mateaccio who hath composed some Books of the Laws At this present adds no small Fame to this his Countrey Prospero Alpino the most excellent Physician publique Reader of the first matter of Simples in the Academy of Padoua who hath written De plantis AEgypti De Opobalsamo and De Praesagienda vitâ—… morte AEgrotantium lately published And is now employed besides his publick Reading in composing and ripening some other noble Work for publick view Thorow the middle of this Castle runs the little River called Rozza whence about a mile passeth the Sillano so called because in Antient Language it signified a Stream of running water 'T is believed that the Antient Romans much frequented this Place for that the Inhabitants to this day retain certain Latine words though something corrupted Before the Church of Saint Floriano stand two Marble Stones of great antiquity upon the one whereof is written thus TI Claudio Caes. M. Salonius ⸫⸫ es Martina Chara Conjux quae Venit de Gallia per mansiones L. Vi commemoraret memoriam Mariti sui Bene quiescas duleissime mi Marite TREVISO THe Antient City of Treviso is situated on the East of and at the distance from Bassano twenty five miles This City was founded by Osaride the third King of the Greâ—…ans who being adopted Son of Dionisius therefore conceded unto him AEgypt and Reigned in Italy ten years And because after his death there appeared to the AEgyptians an Ox they supposing it to be their King Osiris worsnipped it as a God and called it Apâ—… which in their language signifies an Ox for which reason
build a City where he should find a Farrowing Sow half black and half white with Wool between her shoulders Whence finding such a Sow in that place and esteeming it a good augure and praesage he built it naming it Mediolana as much as to say Meza Lana or half Wool in remembrance of which thing we find in a Marble over the Gate of the Palace of Merchants the shape and figure of the said Scrofa or Farrowing Sow The Galls kept the Dominion of this City a long time under Belloveso and his Successors till they were beaten out by the Romans who subjected it for a great while to them under whom it augmented in riches and People chiefly under the Emperors as well Greek as Latine some whereof much delighted to reside there invited thereto by the beauty of the place and the comodiousness of managing the Wars against the French and Germans as necessity required It so much humoured Trajan the Emperor that he there built that proud Palace which to this day retains his memory Adrian Massiminian Hercules Filippo a Christian Emperor Constantine Constanzo Theodosio with many other Emperors dwelt there left most stately Edifices and caused four Wi-draughts or Common shores to be dugg which continue to this day Afterwards it became subject to the Goths and to the Longobards who being driven out by Charls the great it came under the power of the Emperors In which time Contado Suevio being Emperor it began to take boldness and aspire to Liberty when Justice was administred by the Captains and other Officers elected by the People uniting with them the Primate or Arch-Bishop of the City by the Peoples election In which time great discord arising between the Nobility and Plebeians and thereby governing themselves very ill they to prevent those disorders put themselves under the power of those of Torre afterwards to the Visconti who a great space kept the Dominion whom the Sforzeschi succeeded them the French and last of all the house of Austria obtained it and keep it to this day in good peace and tranquillity Milan lies under the sixth Climate or Degree which affords it a great benignity of the skies yet the Ayr is somewhat thick Chanels of water environ both the City and Suburbs upon which by Barks they conveigh great abundance of goods and provisions of all sorts In truth t is a wonderfull thing to behold the great plenty of all things for the life or necessity of Man which are there and t is held for certain that in no other part of Europe there is so great provision for the Belly nor at less price than is here whence the Proverb is taken Solo in Milano si mangia For whereas in other Cities one finds not above three Piazzaes at most where are kept sueh publick Markets in Milan there are a hundred whereof 21. are principal which every fourth day of the week are vastly laden with all sorts of Provisions For wines they chiefly have Vernaccie of Montfâ—…rrat and the Wines of Brianza so much spoken of Moreover for that it is the Centre of Lombardi hither they transport infinite quantities of Merchandize from Germany France Spain and Geneva T is seated in a wide Plain having about it green hills delightfull Meadows navigable Rivers and Lakes which furnish them with delicate Fish In summ this Country affords in most plentifull measure whatsoever can be desired T is so thronged with Artizans of all sorts that the vulgar proverb goes Chi volesse rassettare Italia rovinarebbe Milano But the chief of them are Gold-Smiths Armourers Gun-makers and Weavers who here exceed in these particulars and in works of Christal either Venice or any other part of Italy the Nunns work here likewise most exact and neat curiosities in straw works It abounds likewise with most magnificent and Stately Palaces among which the stupendious Palace of Tomaso Marini built with so vast expence and Artifice that whoever beholds it stands amazed shines like the Moon among the Starrs The Castle of Porta Zobbia named among the chief of Europe both for its site greatness beauty and its plenty of Artiglery Arms and Ammunition is so impregnable that hitherto t was never taken by force but through failer of provisions and Famine it hath been yeelded up This Fort may be compared to an indifferent City for within it are streets Piazzaes Palaces Shops for Gold-Smiths and all other Trades whatsoever together with all sorts of Victuals and other provision in time of War as well as Peace Immense Bastions with three large profound Dykes environ it through which run great Chanels of Water with a most vast Wall and spatious Ramparts under which they walk by a close way made to that purpose Upon the Battlements and through the Porteholes up and down are drawn out great Mouths of Cannon and other pieces of Artiglery set upon Iron Carriages some whereof shoot Bullets of 800. pound weight with such force that no obstacle can withstand them It hath one place to lay up and dispose the Arms in a Capacious Arcenal replenisht with infinite Arms of all sorts both for Offence and Defence The Tower in the midst of it is of a square form and is in circuit not reckoning the Towers which one may call little Forts 200. paces The whole Castle or Fort is 1600. paces in circum ference besides the Trenches In fine t is accounted by all Ingineers the fairest and strongest fortification of Europe They unwillingly admit any Stranger to see the out-works much less the interiour parts It abounds with rare and excellent Pictures among others there is one upon the Front of a Palace near the Fort wherein are painted the Acts of the Romaus by the hand of Trofo da Monza so divinely that t is impossible to add to it The Images are done so exact to the life and so natural that all the beholders rest astonisht and expect speech from those inanimate but seeming breathing and moving Pictures To say no more Art here hath overcome Nature Towards the Gate Beatrice is the Front of another Palace of the Lituadi painted so rarely well by the hand of 〈◊〉 that it almost fascinates the eyes of the Aspicients And at the Gate â—…osa stands an admirable Statue made to the middle at the Publick cost in remembrance of a Strumpet who principally caused Milan to gain its Liberty Milan from the death of Belloveso continued ever head of the adjacent Countrey which made the antient Emperors to send thither a Lieutenant with title of Count of Italy who also was Captain General of the Empire and remained there with Consular authority and Captain of their Armies that he might bridle the Fury and shut up the passage from the Inroads into Italy of the Ultramontaneous People Such is the wholsomness of the Ayr the Beauty of the Country and Copiousness of sustenance that it hath tempted many Princes desirous to rest quiet to make this their Retreat and Asylum as also many other
the Castle Vichiera Tortona Allessandria Montferrate and then Piedmont The Journey from MILAN to BOLOGNA by the VIA EMILIA afterwards to FLORENCE and Lastly to ROME INtending to travel from Milan to Rome you must proceed out at the Roman Gate and after some space towards Lodi you meet on the right hand in the Territory of Milan the rich and famous Monastery of Chiaravalle to which the Abbot Manfredo Archinto among other Farms gave the great Vineyard Pilastrello which was formerly called the Vineyard of the Poor for that the wine there collected and thereof made was usually dispenc'd among the Poor being to that end preserved in one entire Vessel the greatest in the World which contayned 600. measures each of which held about threegallons was conjoyned with great Beams and encompassed with large Hoops which when empty hath for its grandure been held a worthy object to many People and to some Princes Kings and Emperors among which was Charles the fifth who disdained not to enter therein Somewhat further from whence in the Territory of Pavia lies the Town Landiciano and at tenn miles distant from Lodi the noble and rich Castle Meregnana and close by it runneth the River Lambro which brings to it delight and all sorts of provisions near it is the place where Francis the first King of France flew 16000. Switzers by whose deaths Massimilian Sforza happened to lose his Seignory and liberty thence six miles stands the Castle S. Angelo washed by the Lambro where every Wednesday is kept a fayr Market thence three miles you see the place where antiently stood Lodi the Old On the left of this fair way lies Cremona and other places whereof we have formerly treated in the voyage from Brescia to Milan on all fides you behold this Country abounding with Fruit and manured with Vineyards LODI THis City was founded by Frederick Barbarossa three miles distant from the old Lodi at whose foundation laying the said Federick with himself brought all his Princes and endowed it with many privileges which under the shadow of the Empire preserved it a long time in Liberty Afterwards it chose for its Lords the Vestarini it s own Citizens and in the end submitted to the Dukes of Milan The old Lodi was called antientiy Laus Pompeia for that it was restored by Pompeius Strabo Father of Pompey the great and this new Lodi was made a City by Corrado the second Emperour at the request of Erimberto Arch Bishop of Milan and though at his instance yet it no way abated the envy reigning in the breasts of the Milanesi for they in the yeer 1158. under Ussi for the great hatred between them destroyed it being not at all satisfyed with their throwing down of the Walls and driving away the Inhabitants un till they had inforced the Citizens to live in villages separate one from another at such distance that they might not assemble nor take Counsel how to restore their unhappy Country prohibiting them traffick and sale of any thing or to joyn in allyance under penalty of losing their patrimony and banishment into the like punishment fell such of them as went out of the place they were confined to under which misery and servitude they continued for 49. yeers But the Milanesi were severely chastized for this their cruelty by God the just Judge Their City Milan being not long after sacked and burnt by Frederick the Emperor This City situate in a plain is of two miles compass and a round form having a pleasant and sertile Territory environing it which produceth all sorts of Grain delicious Wines ane lovely Frui â—… The Pasture and Meadows are alwaies in a flourishing green being well preserved from the scorching heat by the overflowing of the Waters which for that conveniency are conveyed in 4. or 5. Chanels one above another almost to a wonder and so much to their advantage that they mow their Meadows 4. or 5. times a yeer which with their pasture affords them so much milk as is incredible to such as have not seen it wherewith they make abundance of Cheese and some of them weigh 500. weight here also they dry with salt those savory Calves Tongues so much admired every where It hath many Rivers and they afford excellent Fish particularly most delicate Eels The City contains 12000. Souls and many noble Families among others that of the Vestarini who a long time Reigned over it It hath also given Birth to many Persons no less eminent in Letters than Arms. It received the light of the Christian Faith from the preaching of Saint Barnabas at the time when Milan was therewith enlightned S. Bassano was Bishop of this City to whom a Church therein is dedicate enriched with sacerdotal habits embroideries of Gold and Jewels Cups Crosses Censors and other valewable Vessels T is washed with the River Adda over which there is raised a Bridge of Wood fix miles off which is the rich Abbacy of Borgheto and six miles thence stands mount Columbano much celebrated for the delicate Wines and fruit on the left hand of the Strada Ricca lies the Town Samalia with an Hospital and the Abbacy of the Fryers of Saint Gyralamo a little fartherly Lorlesco and Pusturlingo built by the noble Pusterli of Milan whence crossing the River by Boat about a mile lies Piacenza PIACENZA SOme will have this City to take its name from the Pleasantness of its fite and the beauty of its buildings nor have we any other Original for Piacenza T is seated near the Poe in a delightfull place having a flourishing Champagua and fruitfull Hills The first yielding plenty of Corn and other things for humane sustenance the later incomparable Wines delicate Fruits and Oyl The Meadows alwaies green by reason of the artificial flowing from the surrounding Rivers are continually stocked with great herds of Cattel whence they extract that cheese which for its goodness is so much cryed up through Enrope that when they would commend any Cheese they call it of Piacentia It affords also certain springs of salt water from which with fire they extract the whitest salt and some Mines of Iron and Woods filled with Creatures for the Chase. It was reduced into a Colony of the Romans together with Cremona in the 350th yeer after the building of Rome by their expulsion of the French out of that Country as Livy saies who of it makes an honourable mention in divers places as well as divers other Historians whence t is gathered that t was very flourishing in the time of the Romans since when it hath suffered many calamities more by civil than forein invasions In the 70th year after the Nativity of our Saviour when Vitellius waged War against Otho the Amphitheatre standing without its Wall was burnt which made Silio to say Quassata Placentia bello It is embellished with noble structures As the antient Fountain erected by Augustus Caesar the sumptuous Church of Santa Maria the Virgin the Church of
said Bembo Exiguo tumulo Danthes hic sorte jacebas Squallenti nulli cognito pene situ At nunc marmoreo subnixus conderis arcu Omnibus cultu splendidiore nites Nimirum Bembus Musis incensus Hetruscis Hoc tibi quem in primi hae coluere didit And with this other Inscription which the said Dante near his death composed Iura Monarchiae superos Phlegetonta lacusque Lustrando cecini voluerunt Fata quousque Sed qua pars cesset meliorib hospita castris Actorumque suum petiit faelicior astris Hic claudor Danthes patriis extortis ab oris Quem genuit parui Florentia mater amoris The biggest Church of Ravenna is the Arch-Bishops upon whose high Altar was formerly sustained a massy Silver heaven or canopy on four Pillars which was worth 30000. Crowns with excellent ornaments wrought with Gold all which were taken away by the sacriligious people of Lewis the 12th King of France when without any difference he sacked this City for which they afterwards received from the most high condigne punishment being most of them cut in pieces or forced to leap into the Poe or Tesino where they drowned themselves In a Semicircular Chapel are Limned those first Arch-Bishops of Ravenna elected by the shewing of a Dove in Mosaick work a fair piece whose election was after this manner Sant Apollinare believed one of the 72 Disciples of Christ then ascended into Heaven departing from Antiochia with Saint Peter togo to Rome had in his passage taught the Christian Faith at Ravenna and afterwards stayed there to govern it whom none of the Disciples by him left judged themselves sit to succeed to govern that Church where fore all of them together withdrew themselves into a Temple to pray to God to demonstrate to wâ—…h of them it would please his Divine Majesty to commit that care whereat the holy Spirit in the form of a Dove descended upon the head of one who was understood by it to be elected by God to that Dignity after which manner eleaven Arch-Bishops were successively chosen And the Casement whereat the Dove entred is yet apparent though half shut over the Arch of the high Altar in the Church of Spirito Santo in this City in which Church on the left hand is a heap of Bricks near which in a Corner stood Severus a mean person and a simple Man upon whose head the holy Spirit descended visible to all he being the last of the eleaven T is worth ones pains to view the Church of Saint Apollinare called the golden heaven built most sumptuously by Theodorick King of the Ostrogoths it hath two ranks of most noble great Columns brought hither by that King from Constantinople and is garnished with many pretious Marbles extracted from Rome and other places of Italy and also some other Churches In Ravenna are many antiquities Epitaphs and antient Memorials whose Letters and words require a University of Interpreters The ruines of a stately Palace supposed King Theoricks appear yet in the midst of its Fountain is a statue of Hercules Horarius not elsewhere found Hercules stands like an Atlas bending with his left knee as ready to rise who with his two hands elevated and his head together supports a Solar Horologe whereon the shadow of the needle from the Sun shewes the houre of the day A like statue of Hercules was found in Rome in the Vineyard of Steffano del Buffalo which instead of the Horologe supported a round Globe with the Celestial Signs distinctly figured but this difference is not of any great moment nearly weighing the Signification of the thing for the knowlege of the hour arose from the observation of the Celestial motion and t is the Sun distinguishes the hour who by his annual course visites the whole Cirk of the Firmament which hath caused some to conjecture that Hercules signifies the Sun and that the 12 labours counted as of a Mans is the Ingress of the Sun through the twelve Signs in the circuit of the skies whereby the Sun of it self casts forth its beams persuing which Opinion misteriously though with somewhat accult sense they apply to the sun all the other Fables of Hercules which are two tedious here to be applyed let it suffice to have spoken so much to the purpose of that statue to rouse up our youth into a more near Scrutiny of the sense of the Fables of the antients from the knowledge wherein may be extracted many natural secrets hid under those their sayings and Fables Before Ravenna stands a most antient round Church of the blessed Virgin being so fair and large that the inward circle is 25. foot in diametre The walls are finely wrought and all the pavement is layed with small stones of various colours disposed into divers pleasing figures after the Mosaick work the Roofis of one squared entire hard stone hollowed in the midst whereof is the Cupola whereby the light penetrates t is scarce imaginable how or by what Art so great a stone could be mounted so high nor where had the Edge or Plate on the Walls at top as near as can be guessed are about 35 foot in circuit above the said Edge on the top four fair Collumns in former times susteyned the noble Sepulchre of Theodorick King of the Ostrogothes of Porphire specled with white being one entire stone eight foot long and four foot high with a cover of Brass figured and wrought to admiration with gold and othergarnishments which Tombe t is supposed Amalesunta his Daughter erected but in the time of the French war the wicked Souldiers of Lewis the 12th King of France with hopes of some great booty within drew it down and broke it whereof some Reliques yet remain Three miles forth the City in the way to Forli runs the River Ronco on the Bank whereof stands a Cross of stone in testimony that in the year 1512. Gastone de Fois Captain of the French Army there obtained a victory with the loss of his own life for that being too fiercly bent against his enemies he advanced two forward with very few in full speed of his Horse and of a sudden was dead in which battail dyed that day eighteen thousand Souldiers between French Spaniards Italians Germans and Switzers CERVIA NEar Ravenna lies that notable Wood called Pigneda from the infinite number of Pyne trees there growing whose Fruit supply all Italy Some miles beyond which stands Cervia a City but ill peopled by reason of the malignant ayr all whose Inhabitants are such as get a livelyhood by making Salt with salt-Saltwater dryed in the Sun whereof they make such quantity that white Salt lies in Mountains In it is nought worth noting unless the model of so old a City built meerly for necessity The Cathedral Church although it hath a good revenue seemes but a Church of a Villa near it lies a Tomb of Marble in form of a Pyramide with two lovely Children carved at the foot of it After it had
been under several Lords in Anno 1527. it became a part of the Church Patrimony and so continues Whence you must passe the River Savio in whose Port Caesar Octavianus prepared a great Armada and then to the River Pistatello formerly called Rubicone famous not only for that the Romans made it the bound of two Provinces calling the one towards Rome Italia and the other towards the Alpes Gallia Cisalpina and commanded that no Commander of what quality soever should presume to pass that River towards Rome with armed Souldiers but also for that Iulius Caesar afterwards against the determination of the Senate and people of Rome conducted his Army over that River towards Rome where he first consulted by reason of the dangerous consequence might ensue so rash a Deed and in the end resolved and passed saying Eatur quo Deorum ostenta inimicorum iniquitas vocant Iacta sit alea and upon his demurr there he saw certain Birds fly called Augurii which to his Judgement seemed to invite him to transport those Souldiers he had commanded in France to commence a War against Rome his Mother and Country Travailing from Ravenna to Rimini on one hand lies the Sea and on the other fertile and pleasant Fields the Via Flaminia and Alpes at whose Feet stands the stately City Forli FORLI T Is believed that after Asdrubal was slain by the Roman Consul Livio Salinatore then united with Claudius Nero certain old Souldiers built a Castle and called it Livio in honour of the said Livius the Consul a mile and halfe's distance from where Forli now stands but because in the Via Maestra there was a fair Town wherein they made their Mart for Merchandize and Seat of Judicature for that cause called Foro they say that the Inhabitants of Livio after some time cousidering that t was more comodious to inhabite the said Town than their Castle Livio agreed with the Townes men to cohabite together and accordingly by Common consent with leave of Augustas which was easily obtained through the mediation of Livia his consort and Cornelio Gallo a Liviese they conjoyned those two names Foro and Livio and for brevity called the place Forli which in Latine by the name clearly appears being called forum Livii which union was made in the time that our Lord Christ was being on the Earth and 208. yeers after the first foundation of the Castle Livio Forli is placed between the Rivers Ronco and Montone enjoyes a delicate ayr with a most fertile Country in Wines Oyls Corn and Fruit together with Coriander seed Anniseed Cumin-seed and Woad in great abundance The men of Forli are for the most part gallant beyond measure and retains the martial disposition of their first Founders It was a long time subject to the Romans after them to the Bolonians and because four Bolonians banished out of Bolonia were courteously entertained in Forli the Bolonians raised a great Army against them but in a Battail received such an overthrow by the Forlesi that they never could raise their heads after it whereby the Bolonians power being abated the Forlesi yielded themselves up to the Roman Church from whome afterwards revolting Martin the 4th dismantled it and threw down the Walls consigning it to the Family Monfredi from whom it passed to the Ordelasi who again Walled it round but Sistus the 4th gave it to Giorlamo Biario Savonese whom Caesar Borgia Son of Alexander the 6th expelled and and took it by force of Arms but at last in the time of Giulius the second it again returned to the Church under whom to this day it continnes in peace and fidelity it hath yielded many learned and brave men as Guidon Bonato Rainiero Biondi and others BRITTONORO ABove Forli stands Brittonoro called in Latine Forum Trijarinorum this City is built upon a hill and above it hath a strong Fort fatal to Frederick the second it was a Town but created a City at the instance of Egidius Carrilla a Spanish Cardinal and Legate of Italy who having destroyed Forlimpopoli transferred thence his Episcopal Seat to Brittonoro in Anno 137. it participates a most happy Ayr and rich Country in Olives Figgs Vynes Fruitful Trees and good Waters It hath one place erected intentionally for a prospect where you have a full view of the Adriatick Sea of Dalmatia Croatia Venetia and all Romagna at one instant Barbarossa the Emperor at the instance of Pope Alexander the third being reconciled to the Venetians for this beautiful prospects sake requested Brittonora of the Pope for his habitation but the Pope perpending the constant fidelity of this People to the Sea of Rome prevayled with the Emperor by fair words not to take from the Churches government a place that in all occasions had demonstrated so sincere a Faith to it and so it continued under it till Alexander the 6th consigned it to Caesar Borgio his Son after whom the civil discords had almost destroyed it its Inhabitants being so prone to Arms that they know not how to live in Peace Finally Clement the seaventh consigned it to the Family Pii who yet enjoy it FORIMPOPOLI A Mile and halfe from Brittonoro on the Via Emilia stand Forlimpopoli called in Latine Forum Popilii which is one of the four Fori recorded in Pliny on the Via Emilia T was a City but in the year 700. Vitaliano being Pope Griomaldo King of the Longobardi secretly entred it on the Sabbath day when all the People with the Bishop were at Divine Service and slew all the Males and Females which done he sacked the City and levelled it with the ground It was afterwards renewed by the Forlinesi and again destroyed by Egiddio Carilla the Popes Legate dwelling in Avignone who in the yeer 1370. plowed it and sowed it with salt for its utter extirpation transferâ—…ng the Episcopal Seat to Brittonoro as afore aid twenty yeers after which Sinibaldo Ordelafo Lord of Forli repaired it and built the formidable Castle now there It enjoyes a good ayr fertile Fields and a great Ferry affording ample profit Bofello a most holy man of of stupenduous miracles was its Bishop in the Catalogue of Saints whose holy bones now lye in the Church called Santa Lucia Antonel lo Armuzzo with his Sons Meleagro and Brunoro much honoured this Country who by his Genius and strength from a mean person acquired the dignity of being Captain of the Popes Cavalry SARSINA NEar Forlumpopoli is seated the City Sarsino at the foot of the Appenines whose Citizens furnished 20000. Armed Souldiers in supply to the Romans against the French when they made a most furious eruption over the Alpes into Italy Its ayr is healthfull and Territory abounds with Olivs Vines and other fruitful Trees It continued a long time under Malatesti but when Rimini became subject to the Church Sarsina yeelded with it afterwards Leo the 10th bestowed it on the house of Pii this City gave birth to Vicino Bishop of Liguria a most holy man
habet Hîc tu quo vivas lux septima det medicinam Absit odor faedus sitque labor levior Pelle famem frigus fructus femurque relinque Nec placeat gelido fonte levare sitim Romes evil air the stranger kills Brings to its Natives unwelcome ills who 'l live the seaventh day Physick must Nor noysome smells nor labour trust Hunger and Cold avoid Fruit and Venus fly Cold water drink not though nere so dry The Wines drunk in ROME They drink in Rome the best wines as hereafter followeth Vin greco di Somma the best white growes in the Terra di Lavoro in the Monte Vesuvio named di Somma from the Castle Somma which stands at the foot of it Chiarello a brisk white wine from Naples Latino a mean wine from Naples Asprino a white wine from Naples which is stiptick or as we may say astringent Mazzacani a small white Wine from Naples D'Ischia the best Greek wine this Island is under Naples Salerno white and red Sanseveren white and red both good Corso d'Elba a strong white Corso di Brada a gross white Corso di Loda a heady white From the River of Genoua white and red Gilese white and red small and wholsome Ponte Reali from Genoua white small and healthfull Moscatello di Sardia of a deep colour small and wholesome Vindellia Tata from the Genoueses smal and wholesome Lacrima the best red Romanesco small white of divers tastes Albano white and red De Paolo indifferent white Di Francia moderate red Salino mean white and red from Tivoli and Velletri From Segno moderate Magnaguerra the best red Castle Gandolfo the best white Della Riccia the best white but small made Respise wine Malvasia from Gandia Moscatello the best and most excelling wine of Italy Of the divers sorts and kindes of wine some Italian Physicians have also written to wit Giacòmo Prefetto Netino printed in Venice in anno 1559. Gio Battista Confalonieri of Verona printed in Basilea 1539. Andrea Baccio stampt in Rome in the yeer 1597. And now not recollecting any thing more to be spoken of to the purpose of this small tract concerning Rome we will make a conclusion with certain verses writin praise of her that we may observe the same method we began with in our discourse of Rome to wit her due comendations Verses composed by Faustus Sabeus a Brescian in praise of ROME ENCOMION MArtia progenies quae montibus excitat urbem Civibus ditat conjugibusque beat Tutaturque armis Patribus dat jura vocatis Jam repetit caelum Post data jura Jovi De nihilo imperium ut strueres te hac Romule causa Gignit alit servat Mars Lupa Tibris aqua Encomion Julii Caesaris Scaligeri Vos septemgemini caelestia Pignora montes Vosque trumphali maenia structa manu Testor adeste audite sacri commercia cautes Et Latios animos in mea vota date Vobis dicturus meritis illustribus urbes Has ego Primitias primaque sacra fero Qui te unam laudant omnes comprenderit orbem Non urbeâ—… qui te noverit ille canet The End of the Second Part. THE HISTORY OF ITALY CONTAINING The VOYAGES and JOURNEYS FROM ROME TO NAPLES The Third PART From NAPLES to POZZUOLO With the Return to TIVOLI TRavailing from Rome by the Via Latina to Marino you pass between great ruins of many famous Villages the which were no less rich then numerously disperst over the Tusculan Champaigne and the Apenine Hill during the flourishing age of the Roman Empire and hence t is that the old Town Mariana will derive her Original name from the Castle Marino On the right hand whereof lyes near the villa Luculliana of the Lieinij the Villa Murentana famous for the Tusculane questions of Mar cus Tullius Cicero His immortal testimony of Morality and Learning At this day t is called Frascati and is distant from Rome twelve miles in this circuit you may also behold the Ville or Manor Houses of the Portii and of many other the prime Persons of the Roman Republick whom we finde recorded by Strabo Pliny Seneca Plutarch and other writers Departing thence turn towards the Strada Appia leaving Veletri on the left hand where the Ancestors of Augustus were born and on the right hand Aricia now called Ricia and Lo Spechio or the looking glass of Diana Tremâ—…rense as Servius calls the Lake near that Castle which Lake is consecrated to Diana Taurica together with the wood famous for the fiction of Acteon and a Temple named Artimisio by Strabo Heretofore this was a famous place for the old but barbarous Religion instituted in that place by Orene and Iphegene to wit the custom of the Scythians the sacrificing with humane blood Here was that Temple whither the Fugitives brought from Tauri the Image of Diana hid in a pyle of wood whence in Italy they gave the Surname of Fascilede and Fascilina to Diana but of this superstition shall we with better conveniency treat in another place Pursue the Journey just to the Pontine Fens where at a little distance lye the Tres Tabernae or three Taverns the famous Hostery on the Via Appia mentioned in the 28th Chapter of the Acts which are distant from Arelia eleaven miles and from Rome thirty three as is clearly demonstrated by the antient Roman Itineraries and the very distance of the places they are indifferent entire being built as the other Fabricks of the Romans of great stones and bricks in squares Saint Luke writes in the Acts of the Apostles that certain Brothers yet Fresh men as we call them at Oxford in the Faith of Christ left Rome and came to meet Saint Paul as far as the Tres Tabernae at such time as he was transmitted as a criminal Person with a guard of Souldiers from Judea to Rome by Portius Festus the Procurator Thence leaving the Straâ—… or street Appia as it may be called from the former beauty testified by the ruines of Houses and Tombs c. on each side carried through the Pontine Fens with vast expence though now wholly obstructed and impassable through the waters of the Fens the ruine of structures and fall of Bridges you are necessitated to take a long journey by the Volsci the foot of the Apenines the craggy and sharp Rocks of Mountains to Terracina You shall see Setia on the left hand celebrated by the old Poets for the goodness of the wines and going more onward you leave behind you in the plain the walls of Priverno destroyed by the Germans and Brittons as Biondo testifies where in the circumspection remember that Caâ—…illa exercised the Empire of the Volsci Thence passing by Priverno Novello now Piperno scituate in the adjacent Mountain round which runs the River Anâ—…asceno you may behold before your eyes though at some distance the Coasts of the Mediterranian Sea and some Promontories which seem as it were disjoyned from the Terrafirma the firm Land of old full
with art and in such plenty that they suddenly wet all the aspicients not thinking of it in the summer a sufficient cooling these Fields by the vicinity of the Vesuvius enjoy great plenty of sweet waters the Fire within forcing out many fountains of sweet waters purged and pure hence also the Sebeto acknowledgeth its being and the greatnesse of its Chanel being conveighed into all the streets of Naples by Pipes under ground to all the publique and private palaces and habitations so great comodity of all things brings to its inhabitants the Paradise of Italy as Corona Pighio frequently and not improperly calls her that flourishing part of the Neapolitan territory although many times afflicted with wars and earthquakes IL MONTE VESUVIO VEsevo or Vesuvio or Vesuvius so called by the Antients from the sparkling was a most fair mountain and formerly a goodly Countrey for about four miles compasse lay at top which then produced the excellent Graeco but t is now layed wast T is an imitator and companion or rather the Brother of flaming AEtna and is begotten by earthquakes and fire the materials whereof it continually retains in the profoundest part of it which as if withheld within it self for some yeers till come to maturity and as if the spirits were summoned and fomented with fury evaporates fire breaks open the firm parts of the Mountain and vomits forth its inward parts as earth stones flames smoke and ashes throwing them up into the air with horrid noise and with such force that the Vesuvio seems to imitate the war of the Gyants by fighting against Jupiter and the Gods with flames arms and huge stones some whereof four porters can scarce move and seeming to draw the Sun down to the earth to change the day into night and lastly to cover the very heavens Experience and the testimony of Strabo Vitruvius and other antient Authors assures us that under Vesuvio aud the adjacent Maritimate Mountains and of the neighbouring Islands are vast burning sires of sulphur pitch and allume the hot bathes and sulphu reons boyling fountains sufficiently prove it and therefore the Vesuvio when abounding with fire sometimes asends sometimes useth to move earthquakes and vast ruins and destructions That incendium was the greatest and most famous which happened under the Emperor Titus Vespasianus described in a print by Dion Cassius and other Authors the ashes of which fire were not only exported to Rome by the wind but over the Seas into Affrick and into AEgypt the Fish in the boyling Sea were dressed the birds were suffocated in the air and the famous and most antient adjacent Cities Stabia Herculeano and Pompeo were heaped and covered over with ashes and stones while the people were sitting in the Theatre and C. Plinius the famous Naturalist who then governed and commanded the Armada of Misenus too inquisitive after the cause of this intestine fire approached too near and by the heat and savour received his end by being suffocated near the Porto Herculiano Francesco Petrarca noting this acutely in his triumph of Fame saies he wrote much but dyed little discreetly Mentr'io moriva subito hebbe scorto Quel Plinio Veronese suo Vicino A scriver molto a morir poco accorto Yet for all that to Pliny succeeded so fearfull his dalliance Stephano Pighino himself not thereby fore warned could not forbear but took a voyage of 30. yeers old in order to his studies into Italy through Campania and Naples to the end he might search out and behold the place of such wonders although very high and no lesse difficult to ascend which cost him an entire dayes labour and with his two companions he marched round the mountain reaching the very top where he could scarce satiate his view in looking on the bourg the Countrey round about the Islands and the Sea Vesuvio riseth in the midst of a most fertile Countrey the ashes scattered over it the stones and clods of earth burnt by the fire and dissolved by the rain afterward infinitely enrich and fructifie all the countrey in such sort that the vulgar to purpose enough call Campagna the mountain and the Castle built at the foot of the mountain Sommano from Somma the sum and wonderfull abundance of generous wines and excellent fruit the Vesevo as well as the Campagna and neighbouring hills being surrounded with fair vineyards So also Martial sung that in his time it was green with the sprouts of the vines bewailing in his first book with a fair epigram that fierce fire happening in Vespasians dayes the top in all times and ages hath been ever held barren through the burned stones as if eaten up by flames T is hideous to behold the deep cracks in the earth through which the streams of sulphur pass but when arrived at top the Vorago represents hell so terrifying is the spectacle T is a hole about three miles compass and round as if formed like the middle and lower part of an Amphitheatre t is called Lazza from the form of the Rock Fish the bottom of it reaches to the bowels of the Earth The place is cold now nor seems it to emit the least heat or smoak which the said Pighius testifies who descended as far into that profundity as the the precipices and obscurity of the place would permit the first entrance of the Vorago is fertile through the earth and ashes cast on it and growes green through the firre and other great trees growing in it as far as the Sun can reflect into it or the rains penetrate but the parts under restrained to a narrow compass are as t were stopped by the great pieces of stone and rocks and arms and bodies of trees fallen down which obstructions when the in ward Materials of fire abound like little bundles of straw are easily raised and mounted to the skyes by the invincible force of its smoake or flames The fire also is known to open it self a way not only by the ordinary mouth but on other sides also as occasion offers whereof we have a memorial in the Italian Annales To wit that two hundred sixty and six yeers since in the Pontificacy of Benedict the 9th from one side of the Mountain gushed out a stream or river of flames which ran into the Sea in a liquid fire like water the issue and footsteps of which Cavern t is said appear yet The Roman History tells us that besides the mouth it had other issues and courses for the flames of old for instance it saies that Spartacus the sword-player having begun to raise the war of the Fugitives against the Romans in Campania and having possessed the mountain Vesuvius with his army as a strong fortress and sure retreat for war and being there afterwards besieged he escaped from the Roman siege by an admirable way for that covertly fastning chains at the mouth of the Mountain he with his companions let themselves down to the bottom as L. Florus briefly relates in his
heal internal wounds and are helpfull for many infirmities of the body which if any desire ampler satisfaction in he may read the Tract of Gio Francesco Lombardo who gives an account of all such as have writ in verse or prose of the baths and wonders of Pozzuolo but we are obliged to too much hast to relate with care and amplitude all particulars wee meet with In the Campagnia of Pozzuolo Baia Cuma and the near Island Enarie by the old Greeks called Pythecus are found great quantity of the like Miracles that it might be well beleived that there nature serves Apollo perpetually and AEsculapius Higia and the Nymphs although the earthquakes and the volleys of fire which frequently happen demonstrate sufficiently that in divers places that as well under the foundation of the Sea as under the Mountains and in the lowest parts of the Earth great fires are kindled whose boyling vapours and flames working their own way through the veins of Allum sulphure pitch and other materials cause to rise in divers places hot and boyling fountains and create baths in the Caverns comodious for sweating Yet the nature and faculty of these things are different being conformed to the propriety of the materials and the earth whence the source proceeds so that among the medicinal and healthfull faculty of these waters we find some waters and vapours mortal which issue out of some muddy earth evil in it self Pliny in the second of his natural Histories writes that in Italy and particularly in the Campagna of Siâ—…vessa and Pozzuolo are vents or breathings so evil that they evaporate a mortall air At the foot of the mountain which circles the Lak Anianus not far from the said waters appears a Cave called Grotta di Cane eight or nine paces in circuit by which mouth two or more men may commodiously enter together where from the inmost part of the stone from its invisible pores proceed hot spirits but so subtile and dry that they carry not with them any similitude of smoke or vapour although they condense the air driven thither by the wind and the colds of the Cavern with great heat and change them into water as the dâ—…ops demonstrate which hang at the entrance of the Cave shining like little staâ—…rs when they are beheld at the opening of the Cave by those without in the light they have been often taken for drops of quicksilver All men generally believe this Grotta to have such an innate property that if any living thing should pass the prefixed term of a certain ditch in the entrance it would without doubt suddenly fall upon the earth and would be wholly deprived of life if not immediately drawn out and cast into the near standing waters or pool called Agnano by whose coldness only in a short time by little and little it recovers Life Whereof Travellers dayly make experiments if curious to know the wonders of nature by casting in cocks or dogs or some other live creature to which they fasten a rope to draw them up by Leandro Alberto writes that Charls the eighth King of France when a hundred and 14. yeers since he drove out the Spanish and for some time Lorded over Naples caused an Asse to be driven in who suddenly whirled about and dyed Another who two hundred yeers since wrote of these baths relates that a foot hardy rash Souldier run in armed and dyed miserably Corona Pighio writes that in the presence of Charls Prince of Cleves the Spanish Captains cast two cheerfull dogs by force into the Grotta who strove all possible to avoid it as if they had formerly experimented the danger the which being taken out dead by means of the refreshing waters in the aforenamed Lake were restored to life one of which being again cast into the cave and being thence drawn cast into the Lake returning not thereby to Life was left for dead on the bank who not long after as waking from a profound sleep raising himself and limping and staggering so soon as possible ran away every one that saw it smiled and Charls praised the dog that he would not for that time become a victime to the beares after this tryal they cast a brands end lighted into the Grotta beyond the prefixed sign which come to the bottom seemed to extinguish and raised up a little higher to rekindle which demonstrated that the spirits proceeding from the superficies as more hot and dry in the bottom consumed the more subtil nutriment of the flame but having lesse vigour at more distance from the foundation they rather rekindle the hot and gross smoke and flames of the brandsend as we see the flame of a lighted candle will pass to another newly put out by means of the so oke and the beams of the Sun when united by a burning glass are very vigorous and will set tow or flax on fire if approached too near Pighius through his exceeding love to study travialing over Italy and having an extream desire to inquire into the nature of all things by which he might acquire knowledge wondring at the reports of the miracles of Pozzuolo resolved to search out the cause by a nearer scrutiny then had been made by others He could not beleive that those drops that hung so resplendent at the end of the Caverne were quick-silver wherefore being counselled by a certain juvenile and youthfull audacity he passed the proposed measure in the Cavern having enclined his body a little and getting somewhat nearer he found they were drops of clear water and taking them on his finger from the sharp pendent of the rock he demonstrated the truth to his companions requiring them either to beleive or enter and make proof Which also happened for that Antonio Anistelo and Arnoldio Niveldio two Holandesi noble youths and companions in the journey with Pighius got near who when he had for some time stood in the Cave and perceived the heat how it ascended from his feet to his leggs and knees yet underwent no other then a giddiness and pain in his head and sweat only on the forehead and the temples through the heat of the place he learnt by experience that that heat and those nocive vapours are not lusty and violent but when near their rise and there they kill small animals or great but chiefly the four footed because they alwayes go with their head downwards whereby being necessitated to draw in with their breath those hot and boyling vapours their vital spirits become suddenly suffocated with too much heat the which also are as suddenly releived by the imediate refreshment of the waters in the Lake if the animal be forthwith cast therein when drawn out of the Cavern Whilst Pighius was performing this an Italian who guarded some herds wondred strangely at his temerity and remained astonisht at the success many times demanding if he did it not by the magick art nor would he be perswaded that Pighius could avoyd the nocivenesse of that Grotta
stagne or Moore about a thousand paces distant from the allodgment of the Armada And therefore the neighbouring precincts as also the Miseno began to be accommodated for the Souldiers stations for that the Fleet there was wont to winter and both Strabo and Servius the Commentators upon Virgil report that the wood and Trees on Averno were cut down because they through their thicknesse rendred the air offensive and prejudicial to the health of the Inhabitants furthermore hills were boared thorough and leuel waies layed to the end there might be a short and facile accesse to the shores of Baia and Lucrino And that fresh water might never be defective with infinite expence and no lesse labour Rivolets from Rivers and fountains from springs were conveyed thither from a far off cisterns and conservatories were built vast enough in divers figures as the conveniency of the place afforded both in the plain and under the ground and in the very bowels of the hil that so cold water might be at all times ready for refreshing the bodies in the excessive heat of the Summer t is for these reasons that we find the Miseno in great part hollow and concave within and exposed to the air to the very top In which we see sitting places for washing baths lakes and tables for eating being within full of grotts waies and edifices arched here and there sustained by frequent pillars part built with brick part cut out of the same rock among which edifices the biggest conservatory of the waters called vulgarly Grotta Dragonacia is admi rable as are the conveyances into it for the rain waters descending from the Promontory the which Grotta is capable of many thousand butts being large beyond measure and twnety five foot deep the largness not being to be measured for that the vaults and ruines fallen into it have filled many parts of it all these conservatories are incrusted or plaistered with a certain hard composition used by the antients for rendring them tenable of the waters so that none could pass nor soak thorough the inward space between the walls is two hundred foot long and eighteen broad having four doors through which is entrance into four great chambers near these are other conserves different in artifice and grandeur That which vulgarly they call Cento Camere from the multitude of abodes by some thought to be Nerva's prison where among the other Fabricks they preserved their waters is wonderful for the vastnesse and art wherewith t is built its walls within are conjâ—…ined within in squares and support the vaults forming every where square chambers which on all sides have small doors by which may go from one to the other the servants whose office t was when the waters were spent to cleanse them of the dirt and soyle the vaults of these chambers have certain open holes whereby the waters might be drawn up as occasion required The Piscina Mirabili or Pool for water was admirable and famous and known by this name the which is yet almost entire on the back of the Promontory of Miseno toward the Port for the Navy and Cuma This Fabrick Leandrus Albertus affirms is inclosed by four walls is five hundred foot long and two hundred and twenty broad and the Vault somewhat higher raising a little archwise from the walls it riseth higher towards the middle being supported upon forty eight columns each of which is three foot square which being disposed into four ranks represent a beautifull and proportionable object for the whole length The whole Fabrick is composed of brick and the walls being of a great thicknesse render it of an extream firmnesse both the Walls and Pillars with in are exactly incrusted as useful to keep them from leaking and in the arch are many open ovals for drawing up the waters at each end were forty steps for descent to the very bottome The Pavement on the sides is higher even to the midst of the Porticue whence was a descent by fiue steps into a lesser chamber on each side and thence was a descent into another very narrow inclosed place into which t is supposed the waters purged their filth and uncleannesse the which was afterwards exhaled by the publique officers for this purpose called Castellarij from these conservatories of waters being denominated Castella in Latine All the Pavement is Terras beaten with all art and diligence so that to this day it holds the rain water like a dish in the lowest part of it Many variously conjecture who should be the first builders of so vast Fabricks some whereof suppose L. Licinius Luâ—…ullus to have been the first Author and that this was built out of the ruines of the said Lucullus his Villa which Plutarch and Varro write he built most proud in the Tract of Baia neare the Promontory of Misenus with whom agree Suetonius and Cornelius Tacitus who write that Tiberâ—…us the Emperor dyed in the same Villa whence hindred by the storms at Sea being sick he could not sayle over to the Island Caprea Others think this was the Fabrick of Nero and thence t is to this day called Peschiera di Nerone and Suetonius writes that he began a Peschery extending from Baia to Avernus covered and shut in by porticues But this conjecture pleaseth not me much nor any other who hath diligently seen those places who know the use of the like Fabricks to have been meerly for conserving of waters and for that these three Fabricks afore described lye so contiguous one to the other it may not be far from the purpose to imagine that 〈◊〉 and the Princes his successors built them for the use of the â—…leet since it is assuredly known the Souldiers thereof there continually lodged and wintred some vast fragments of their military lodges yet being extant and I remember that I copied out some Epitaphs of the Souldiers of the Armada from the near sepulchres wherein are placed the names of the Pretorian ships as Fede Isede Gallo wherein they had served whereof some brief ones for delight of the studious of antiquity hereunder follow D. M. Ti Porroniceletis Nat. Alex. Ex. III. Isidevix Ann. XL. Mil. am XIIII Titi. Us. Aquilibus Epidius Parisi III. Isid. H. A. M. fecerunt D. M. C. Senio Severo Manipulato ex III. Fide Natione Bessus Vixit annos XLVI Emilius dolens Erei E. M. Fecit D. M. C. Julio Quarto Ver Ex. Pr. N. Gallo M. Cecilius Felix S. Inâ—…ia Heraclia S. S. These had the captainship of the Fleet who constantly resided there as was Anicetus the libertine of Nero who was first his Master by means of whose frauds these there slew near the Bauli Agrippina his Mother In such a command though different from this was Pliny the writer of the natural history in the time of Vespasian at Misenus and there governed the Armada and Navy at the eruption and burning of the Vesuvius being with it shaken by the earthquake but approaching too near with his ships to
customes and Tolls much decayed in value through the ruine of that Port which was afterwards called Julia from the Reaccomodators name Julius Caesar. So saies Servius upon these verses in the second of the Georgicks An memorem potius Lucrinoque addita claustra Atque indignatum magnis stridoribus aequor Julia qua Ponto longe sonat unda refuso Tyrrhenusque immittitur aestus Avernis A wonderfull Adventure In our times that is in the yeer 1538 those adjacent Fields and places being for two whole yeers before shaken moved and disturbed in the end the night of the twenty ninth day of September between the foot of the mountain Gaurus and the Sea near the aforesaid Lakes there arose a new mountain called Monte Novo a mile high in the upright which now is in circuit at the bottome four mile A miraculous thing to fall out in one night At the birth of this mountain the shore and the waters of the Sea retired the space of two hundred spaces one great and entire town called Tripergolano was entirely swallowed up by the Vorago and gulf of the earth with some of its baths which were very celebrious and the near Lakes Avernus and Lucrinus were almost filled up with stones earth and ashes This was thought to have proceeded from the ashes which came out of Sulfatara how many other old memorials this new mountain hath covered cannot be known On the top of it is a large mouth about 50. paces in circuit which at the beginning vomited out fire at the bottome whereof are now found warm waters The Lake AVERNUS THe Lake Avernus hath been illustrated by the most esteemed Poets and diligently described by Strabo and other Historians for the Fables sake which the Antients gave credit to appropriated to it For this was consecrated to Pluto the God of hell Hereabouts as Fame went was the Poets Acheron or descent into hell and here was the gate of hell thorough which they caused to rise the infernal Spirits when any humane creature was sacrificed unto them And hence the Gimerian Priests the antient Inhabitants of this place sent down by certain Caverns into hell to find Pluto such Travellers and strangers as came to be resolved in any questions or to receive counsel or answer from Pluto To this day the vulgar believe that through the Caverns in the neighbouring hill hence denominated Monte della Sibylla one may descend to the subterranean residence of the Sibylla Cumana and that there she is seen and consulted by many which things Leandrus Albertus in his Italia diligently advertiseth Lactantius saieth that she among the other Sybils prophesyed of Christ. The Inhabitants further hold for certain that Christ returning from Limbus with the souls of the holy Fathers arose out of the earth through a certain mountain near the Lake Averuus and the Monte Novo and therefore they call that Mountain by the name of Monte di Christo which opinion some old Poets confirm writing of the Baths of Pozzuolo Est locus effregit quo portas Christus Averno Et sanctos traxit lucidus inde Patres And another Est locus Australis quà Portam Christus Averni Fregit et eduxit mortuos inde suos T was also believed by the multitude of hot waters springing out all over those quarters that this Lake reached to a vein of the infernal waters and therefore called Palude Acherosia the Acherontick Fenns from which Maro disagrees not when he saies Quando hic inferni janua regis Dicitur et tenebrosa Palus Acheronte refuso Though in truth this false opinion was augmented by the natural quality of the places and other circumstances to wit some rare and stupendious miracles which have there come to passe Then as to the Avernus know it lies in a low Valley almost surrounded by high hills clothed of old with thick and heavy Trees capable to keep out the wind Whence the Lake was not frequented by any but emitting an unwholsome sulphurous stink it so infected the air above it by being so closely 〈◊〉 by mountains and woods that Birds flying over it fell down dead and thence t was named by the Latins Avernus that is to say without Birds So also may we collect from Livy that in old time this Vale was a horrid place and esteemed altogether inaccessable for saith he the Romans waging war against the Samniti the enemies when the Romans put them to flight by whole Armies retreated into the Woods in the said Vale as to secure places But Strabo writes not so of it in his time but saies that then this vale and nearer hills were delitious places in respect Augustus had caused the woods to be felled and a free passage opened to the air At present the Lake is full of fish and water-foul nor hath it any of those incommodities attributed to it by the antients Yet t is true that not many ages since a vein of sulphurous pestilential water gushed out of the bottome of the Lake which suddenly killed a world of fish their colour and smell being cast on the earth confirming that to be the cause of their death Joannes Boccaccius in his little tract of Lakes saies he saw it with his own eyes in the time of King Robert about the yeeer 1380. The Sybil Cumana was she which gave AEneas free passage into hell as Virgilâ—…aith â—…aith she was called Cumana of the City of Cuma here under treated of and was one of the twelve Sybils all which prophesyed of Christ though some more obscurely yet two so fully that with submission I shall here insert somewhat of their prophecies touching the Saviour of Mankind SIBILLA CUMANA GReat Rome shall then look high Whose proud Towers from seaven hills shall brave the sky And overlook the world In those blest daies Shall come a King of Kings and he shall raise A new Plantation and though greater far Then all the Monarchs that before him are In Majesty and power yet in that day So 〈◊〉 and humble he shall daign to pay Tribute to Caesar yet thrice happy he That shall his subject or his servant be And the SIBILLA ERITHRAEA to this effect THe times by the great Oracle assigned When God himself in pity of mankind Shall from the heaven descend and be incarnate Entring the world a Lamb immaculate And as himself in wisdâ—…m thinks it meet Walk on the Earth on three and thirty feet And with six fingers all his subjects then Though a King mighty shall be Fishermen In number twelve with these war shall be tride Against the Devil world and flesh their Pride Humility shall quell and the sharp sword With which they fight shall be the sacred word Establish't upon Peter which foundation Once laied shall be divulg'd to every Nation At one side of the Lake Avernus is the Temple of Apollo at the other this Sibilla Cumana her Grott which is very spatious having at the end a magnificent ascent where the oracle stood with
the second time as Livius relates or the following yeer when Pirrhus began to reign as Velleius Paterculus will have it Vast ruines of this City lye disperst on every side there but chiefly towards the Sea where the footsteps of a large port also appear T was a renowned City having a healthfull air and some salutiferous hot fountains for which the Poet Silius stâ—…les Sinvessa luke warme these fountains are now denominated Bagni Gaurani but Tacitus calls them Sinvessan waters saying in the 12th book of his Annals that Claudius the Emperor being restored to his sences caused himself to be conveighed to Sinvessa for recovering his health hoping and depending much on the goodnesse of the aire and the benefit of the Sinvessian waters when his wife Agrippina had prepared for him those poisoned mushrooms which himself and his Son Brittanicus eat This Agrippina was Daughter of the noble Germanicus Sister to Caligula and by him abused she was first married to Domitius by whom she had Nero afterwards to Claudius whom with his Son as aforesaid she poisoned that her Son Nero might be Emperor But her falshood abomination cruelty was not unpuni'sht by that Son who though he had joined her in equal authority with himself and carnally known her as some suppose yet caused her to be most cruelly slain after sundry attempts to do it privately and with least trouble and pain to her Tacitus saies further in the first book speaking of the histories of his time That Onofrius Tigillinus one of the principal actors of Nero the Emperours misdeeds had the wezel pipe of his throat cut near the waters of Sinvessa whilst disporting himself among his Concubines he least thought of any such thing MINT URNE The River Garigliano being passed wherein the Scille or Seashrimp or prauns are taken a sweet little fish held very delitious by the Romans you may see the reliques of Minturnae of old a most flourishing Colony of the Romans and among them the footsteps of vast publique and Private Fabricks some despoiled of the marble which embelâ—…ished them and some entire As a very sumptuous Aqueduct a Theatre with its Scenes and all other necessary parts a work after the antient way of building but solid An Amphitheatre with its accomodation for sitting one seat above another but despoiled of its marble wherwith for ought appears the 〈◊〉 â—…rajetto standing on the neighbouring hill hath been adorned and fortified which Amphitheater is now used as an inclosed pasturage for goats and sheep Therein lye great footsteps of Walls and Towers great arches over gates and vast foundations of edifices from whence we easily collect she hath a been potent and noble City This place hath acquired an illustrious fame also from that great victory which the Christians there obtained against the Saracens and Infidels under the Captains of the Christian Army Pope John the 10 and Albericus Marquess of Tuscany when all Italy was delivered from that cursed people except Monte Gargano whither such as could escape fled and possessed it a long time after robbing both by sea and land At the mouth of the river Garigliano was the sacred wood where the Minturnesi honoured the Nymph or Goddesse Marica the wife of Faunus to whom on the banks they built a proud Temple whereof nought now remains no more then of the honourable City Venista or of Ausonia a most noble City which was so named of Auson the Son of Ulâ—…sses and Calypso which City afterwards gave name to all Italy over all which it also Lorded which Cities stood in those parts along the aforesaid river LE PALVDI MINTVRNESI THe adjacent Fenns now Medows called Minturnesi are famous for that they reduce to memory a notable example of the various changes of Fortune which was that C. Marius who had been seaven times Consul and had seaven times triumphed had the good hap to abscond himself therein for saving his life where notwithstanding he was found by a Frenchman an Enemy but one that had not the boldnesse to offend him being terrified and put to fear by the Majestick aspect and noble presence of that great man Whence Marius having reached a ship passed into Affrick whereof Juvenal speaks concisely in these words Exilium carcer Minturnarumque palludes Et mendicatus victa Carthagine panis FORMIA Thence the Via Appia leads by Hercoleana to Formia which way is very pleasant but the Castle Mola now stands near if not in the place where Formia of old stood Mola takes its name from the many Mills grinding in that quarter by reason of the quantity of water The Countrey is such that a more delicious cannot be fancied wherfore Martial saies O temperatae dulce Formiae littus And a little after follows Hic summa legistringitur Thesis vento Nec languet aequor viva sed quies Ponti Volaterrannâ—…s and others well skilled believe that here was the Villa Formiana appertaining to Cicero famous for his slaughter there which opinion cannot well be contradicted because the Epitaphs inscriptions reliques of antiquity on the Appia and near Towns demonstrate that the City Formia was there but chiefly these words to be read on the basis of a Statue in that place following Imp. Caesari Divi Hadriani Filio Divi Trajani Parthici Nep. Divi. Nervae Pronepoti Tito AElio Hadriano Antonino Aug. Pio. Pont. Max. Tr. Pont. XI Cos. III. II. P. P. Formiani Publicè Strabo Pliny Solinus and other historians concurring say that the Lacedaemonians built Formia in the antient Territories of the Lestrigoni and therefore Silius Italicus calls it the house of Antifata because there Antifata the Son of Janus and Nephew of Neptune ruled over the Lestrigoni and first called it Hormia which in their Language signified a comodious port which that was The Lacedaemonians were afterwards subjugated by the Campani and they by the Romans who reduced that with Capua into the form of a Prefecture yet leaving Formia in Liberty or free and making her participate of the Roman honours for some time as Livins in his 33 book at last in the civil warrs Formia was made a Roman Colony and reduced with many others in Italy into Castles and Forts as Frontinus saies by the Triumvirate Caesar Antonius and Lepidus T was most flourishing in the time of the Emperors through the goodnesse of the air it in joyed as Horace Martial and other authors worthy credit relate which may also be conjectured from the more noble structures now extant In the end the Saracens destâ—…oyed it with many other Cities in Campania or the Terra di Lavoro when Pope Gregory the 4th translated the Fpiscopacy to Gaiela And thus then pursueth the Via Appia leading to Fondi VELLETRI VElletri was an antient and potent Castle of the Volsci whereof the Roman histories frequently speak Livius and Dionysius Hallicarnasseus say that Velletri was besieged and enforced to yeild to Ancus Martius King of the Romans and Livy adds further that t was severely
Pollux and Helena ravished by Paris of the other Castor and Clytemnestra Thence the hill a pleasant descent is reduced into four long Piazzaes and so levelled contains before the front of the palace four great and spatious gardens into each of which at each end and in the middle three pair of stone stairs artificially composed conduct by a facile descent whose sides are bathed by divers purling streams running towards their Lakes Every garden is divided in its orders hath places to sit in and fair collumnes erected in divers parts so that such as go walking from one part to another through places and passages covered over with leaves and vines and other verts alwaies flourishing enjoy a most beautifull prospect and no less sweet odours from the circumjacent flowers which make a pompous shew In the appartments growes fresh grasse which with the flowers by their variety wonderfully entertain the eye and fancy of whoever regard them nor can any satiate himself in the view of those infinite and wonderfull statues pillars Fountains and other objects there presenting themselves The passage from the Piazza before the Palace on the right hand leads through divers walks trees and small groves wherein are placed several Fountains as that of Tothyde that of AEsculapius that of Nigga that of Aretusa and Pandora and that of Pomona and Flora. In the descent into the first garden shews it self the Colossus of Pegasus in Pamosso a horse feigned to have wings under whose shadow a fair Fountain casteth up her waters very high and in the wood rocks is a Cavern and near them a statue of Venus Bacchus near which is a Lake into which some rivolets run among rocks with a murmuring noise between two Colossus one of the Sibilla Tiburtina the other of Melicerta the son of Athamas and Ino whom the Gentiles did honour for one of the Gods of the Sea Below which lye the statues of the Rivers Aniene and Herculano conjoined to certain vessels out of which some waters run into the Lake as also out of the Urns round which stand ten Nymphs In the midst are two Grotts the one of the Sibilla Tiburtina the other of Diana the Goddesse of the woods both which are adorned with fountains statues Curral mother of Pearl and a pavement exactly wrought with mosaick work On the other side of the garden you have a fair prospect of Rome in a semicircle round which appear her most memorable Fabricks and in the midst sits Rome in the habit of a warlike Goddesse between her seaven hills this statue is of marble bigger then a man in shape of a Virgin in a short girt coat with naked hands military buskins and a sword hanging in a belt from the right shoulder Her head is covered with a murrion in her right hand she holds a spear in the left a shield she sits as aforesaid in the midst of her wonders in the City and on every side appear her sacred Fabricks as the Pantheon the Capitolian Temples the Circs the Theatres the Amphitheatres the Collumnes the Obelisks the Mauseoli the Arches Triumphant the Pyramides the Acqueducts the Baths the River Tyber with the wolf and Twin Brothers pouring water into the City out of an urn in the midst of which running waters riseth an Island cut in the shape of a ship which bears on the main yard an Obelisk and the ship seems to be laden with these four Temples the Temple of AEsculapius in the poope and those of Jupiter Berecinta and Faustus it beares in the prow Thence descending to the lower garden you find on the left hand in a semy circle called the great a green grove placed between certain Rocks amid which run fountains this may be called the residence for birds for on the arms of the trees you see many images of little birds singing more sweetly then the natural who clap their wings as if alive receiving their motion from the aire and the waters with miraculous artifice by means of certain little reeds hid in the armes of the trees sometimes to please the spectators they will make a screech owle to appear and then on a suddain as if the birds were sensible of fear they are all silent but that again withdrawn in an instant they all begin their notes and sing most melodiously In the middle of this garden is a round standing water Lake and in it a capacious vessel and a fountain named from the Dragons which vomit out of their throats great store of waters having trumpets in their hands which also emit plentifull waters with a horrid noise imitating the sound of the trumpet On the right hand lies the Grotto of Nature adorned with many statues and in it an Organ with fair pipes the which perform an harmonious consort of various and artificial musick by the motion of the waters The next garden is not only beautifyed by the fair fountains but by the quantity of Swans and fish preserved in their several stations separated with rare artifice In the three greater fountains are certain Beacons called Sudanti and other boundaries round them which cast water very high in such quantities that in their fall they seem natural showers refreshing the air and cooling the earth making noise of waters in their fall as if the winds were high sprinkling and washing at a good distance In the midst of these conserves you see the effigies of the great Father Oceanus placed in a semicircle like a Theatre and in the middle thereof a marble chariot like that of the Venus Marina drawn by foure Sea horses on which sits a great Neptune seeming to threaten with his Trident. Lastly descending into the last garden near the rock you find in one part a Fountain of Triton and on the other a Fountain of Venus Clonina and in the rest of the level besides the Pescheries four Labyrinths difficult enough for any one to get out of that 's once in placed one by another in foure compartments amidst forreign plants The entrance and outlet of these gardens are embellisht with great Fabricks built of Tiburtine stone with great expence Thus much concerning the Villa of Tivoli of Cardinal Hippolito E stense The noble sepulchre of Cardinal Hippolito da Este in the Church will recompence your pains in the sight of it being composed with marble of various colours on it stands a great white marble statue of the said Cardinal of great cost and fair appearance The Castle also affords many worthy objects but what is more considerable is the precipitous descent of the River which falls with such noise and fury from high cliffs of mountains that for the most part its vapours render the air foggie and many times at a distance there seem to hang celestial rainbowes cloudes being at most times over it This River infamed by the writings of the antient takes its rise at the mountain of the Trebani and runs into three noble Lakes which give name to the adjacent castle called
Sea this fish bears a great price in May or June as also of the sword fish particularly at Messina which t is written they cannot take unlesse they speak Greek and to say no more both the Seas and the Rivers abound with all sorts of excellent fish They have also in divers places many baths of hot cool sulphurous and other sorts of water usefull and advantagious in several Infirmities but those are in the River Sen◅ntina near the Cities Sacra and Himera are salt and un wholsome to drink We will not speak of the Fountains of sweet water that are found over all Sicilia and many Rivolets accommodated as well for the life of Man as the enriching their Lands by the overflowing And to speak in brief this Island is not at all inferiour to any other Province either for its fatnesse or abundance but somewhat exceeds Italy in the excellency of their grain saffron honey Beasts skins and other sustenance for the life of Man in so much that Cicero not improperly called it the Granary of the Romans and Homer said that all things grew there of their own accord and therefore calls it the Isle of the Sun Sicilia is likewise admirable for the fame of those things which told exceed our beleef as the Mount Etna Mongibello who sending forth continual fires from its bowels hath not withstanding its head on that part where the fire issues deeply covered in snow to the midst of Summer Not far from Agrigento or Gergento is the Territory Matharuca which with assidu al vomiting of divers veins of waters sends forth a certain Ash coloured Earth and at certain times casting out an incredible Mass of that Earth the one and the other Fields may be heard to roar In Menenino is the Lake Nastia called by Pliny ◅fintia where in three eddies you behold boyling water which alwaies gurgles with an egregious stink and somtimes spues up flames of fire hither antiently resorted all such as through their superstition were to be sworn to any thing It hath likewise in sundry other places divers other Fountains of admirable Qualities and nature for an ample account whereof the reader is referred to Thomaso Fazellio to the end we may abridge our relation here Sicily was inhabited by the Cyclopes which is verified besides what Authors affirm by the bodies of immense bignesse and heigth which in our daies are seen in the Grots or Caves Those Cyclopes being monsters of Men or Gyants whom the Sicani succeeded and them the Siculi or Sicilians Then the Trojans the Candiots the Phenici the Calcidonians the Corinthians and other Greeks the Zanclei the Guidii the Sarasini the Normans the Lombards the Swedes the Germans the French the Arragonians the Spaniards the Catalonians the Genouans and at length many Pisans Lucchesians Bolognians and Florentines all which people at several times inhabited divers parts of this Island untill Charls the fifth Emperor took Corona and after a little time leaving it to the Turks all those Greeks that dwelt there transported themselves into Sicilia The People are of an acute and quick wit noble in their inventions and industrious by nature and said to be of three tongues for their velocity in speech wherein their expressions proceed with much grace to facetiousnesse and quicknesse they are held loquacious beyond measure whence the Antients borrowed the proverb Gerrae Siculae the Sicilian bablings Antient writers attribute the following things to the invention of the Sicilians the art of Oratory the Bucolick or pastoral verse dyall making the Catapul◅e a warlike engine the illustrating of Pictures the Art of Barbing the use of skins of wilde beasts and Ryme They are by nature suspectfull envious evil spoken facil to speak Villany and prone to revenge but industrious subtle flatterers of Princes and studious of Tyranny as saies Orosie which at this day does not so generally appear They are more covetous of their own commodities or conveniences then of the publiques and reflecting on the abundancy of the Countrey sloathfull and without industry Antiently their tables were so splendidly furnished that it became a Proverb among the Greeks but now they follow the frugality of Italy They are valiant in warrs and of uncorruptible faith to their King beyond the custōme of the Greeks they are patient but provoked they leap into extream fury They speak the Italian Language but roughly and without the least sweetnesse and in their habits and other customes live after the manner of the Italians MESSINA THat City of Sicilia that is most illustrious is Messina built with the ruines and reliques of the City Zancla at a thousand paces distance from hence came Dicearchus the hearer of Aristotle the most celebrious Peripatetick Geometritian and eloquent Oratour who wrote many books whereof Fazellius makes mention and Ibicus the Historian and the Lyrick Poet and in the memory of our Fathers times lived there Cola the Fish born at Catana who leaving human society consumed the best part of his life among the fish in the sea of Messina whence he acquired the nick name of fish Hence came also Giovanni Gatto of the preaching order a Philosopher Divine and famous Mathematician who read in Florence Bologna and Ferrara and was afterwards elected Bishop of Catano and lastly hence came Gio Andrea Mercurio a most worthy Cardinal of the holy Church Here stood the City Taurominio which gave birth according to Pausanias to Tisandro Son of Cleocrito who four times overcame in the Olympick Games and as many times in the Pythick and Timeus the historian son of Andromacus who wrote of the transactions in Sicilia and Italy and of the Theban warrs CATANA IT hath also the City Catana one part whereof is washed by the Sea and the other extends it self to the foot of the Mountains where antiently was the Sepulture or burying place for famous and illustrious persons as of Stesicorus the Poet Himerese Xenofane the Philosopher and of two young Brothers Anapia and Anfinomo who the fire of AEtna raging and burning all the Countrey round took up upon their shoulders the one his Father the other his Mother but being disabled by the weight to proceed with speed and the fire overtaking them and at their very feet yet lost not their magnan imity and courage but when almost in despair the fire on a suddain divided it self before them and so they miraculously escaped safe In this City is a Colledge for all the sciences but most particularly they here study the Civil and Canon Laws and from her have issued many illustrious persons as Santa Agatha which the Palermitans will call of their City a Virgin Martyr who under Quintiano in the yeer of our salvation 152 suffered Martyrdome for Christ and Carondo the Philosopher and Legislator and he that was reputed the great Magus Diodorus or Liodorus Hence came also Nicolo Todisco called the Abbot or Panormitano the great Cnnonist and Cardinal who wrote so many books of the Canon Laws
you may see the Castle Del'ovo so named for that the shelf which there in largeth it self to the similitude of an Island retains an oval form Collanutius writes that this Fort was built by William the third a Norman and thence called Normannica which afterwards Alfonsus the first King of the Arragonians repaired and beautifyed in many things t is said that the antient called this by a greek word Miagra either from a salutatiferous plant there growing or from the site and quality of the place or for that t was difficult to escape out of it This Mole is like an artificial street casting it self into the Sea whither all the gentry in the evening resort for the benefit of the Fresco. The Townesmen shew one after another Grottes hollowed under the shelf also some old memorials erected upon Cliffs and great quantity of Arms of different fashions Afterwards pass into the Court of the Palace by the Gulf of the Sea called by Strabo and Tazza della forma and if you would learn the discipline and labour of the Galleots you must view in the passage the near shores the Islands and Promontories round about as Liseno Procrite Patecusa Capreta Herculaneo and Atheneo or Minerâ—…vio which as Pliny relates was the residence of the Syrens and that gave denomination to the Promontory and here as Strabo records Ulysses consecrated a Temple to Minerva for his deliverance from the crafty wiles of the Syrens For the most part 40 galleys lye in this Port besides other vessels to discover and do other service which Port is very large and as well as is possible defended against fortune with a large bank which for the space of 500. foot runs from the shore into the Sea in form of a bended arm and the whole length and bredth made of huge pieces of squared stones There gusheth out at one end of the Mole a fountain of sweet water conveighed thither through the midst of the said Bank this fountain hath much marble under it wherein the water is received the name is drawn from a Latin word the foundations are known to have been layed by Charls the second the French King above two hundred and eighty yeers ago which Alfonsus the first a Spaniard amplified with all magnificence afterwards as well as many other publique edifices within the City this fancy also Charls the 5th Emperor and Philip his Son took up in augmenting fortifying and furnishing the same for its commodity and ornament without respect to the expence Hither the mariners in little boats row persons to see the Galleys and the life of the slaves with their arts who from the want of bread learn to speak with the words of the Poet Perseus Venter Magister c. and sitting exercise themselves together with the munition and naval preparations for war here in a little time may be learnt the mariners art with their manner of living wherewith they keep their bodies in health and the offices and charges of the Presidents of the Vessels thence you go to see the denoted stables of the King where are kept and managed whole heards of beautifull and valuable horses where some Princes are always to be found beholding with attention and delight their swift course their wheelings and turnings made in as little room and with as much art as is possible their curvets and leaps of all four performed excellently at the nod of the switch of the Rider Thence you go to the Castle Santermo on the top of the near mountain very strong looking on and defending the City the shore Port and Islands in the Sea King Robert Son of Charls the second built it 250 yeers agoe adding to it such strength and defences as render it little lesse than inexpugnable the Emperor Charls the first and Philip his Son some years since enlarged the Guasto conjoyning it with the City and increasing the structures in the inward space with new walls and new forts On the top of the Hill you meet a most fair and rich Temple with a stately Monastery possessed by the Carthusians In which Monastery if you can obtain so much favour from the Monks who lovingly receive forraigners and shew their Monasterie you will meet an ample satisfaction in the view of the Monks chamber in a corner of the Monastery where you have as great delight as Italy affords for on the right hand is presented to your view the prospect of the Sea as large as the eye can reach the Islands Enarea Caprea and Prochite and opposite the manured places of Pausilipo the gulf of Surrenio the streight of Surrentano some Cities and many Burroughs On the left hand the Field Holana very large and the mountain Vesuvius as high then looking downwards you behold Naples which whither to be styled the miracle of art or nature is disputable since there you may see have and enjoy what ever is esteemed pleasing or sweet In the voyage see the garden of Gacia di Toleda kept in as good order as any t was made with vast expence and with as many curses being with the sweat and blood of enforced galley slaves reduced to that perfection it now retains in the time that his Father Pietro di Toledo continued Lord of the City and Kingdom under the benevolent aspect of the Emperour Charles the 5th Nor is it a mean pleasure to view the places surrounding the City worth the seeing especially in a good season the which are in that fertile plain near the Sea in pleasant scites very pompous and adorned by the nobles with magnificent Edifices and fair gardens well kept and enriched which have such plenty of Fountains grottoes made by art and Fishponds adorned with Curral mother of Perle and Fish shels of all sorts as the beauty is almost impossible to be ghesâ—…ed at as also of Porticues walks vaults covered with Leaves and Flowers of divers sorts Roses pomegranates collumnes and Lodges beautifyed with pictures statues and marbles of antiquity and among those Lodges those of the Marques di vico and the other Princes placed on the strond near the Vesuvius are very famous as also the Villa of Bernardino Martizano adorned with many reliques of of antiquity Poggio Reale a vast Palace built heretofore by Ferdinand King of Arragonia whither the King used to retreat when he desired to repose himself and to recreate his minde from the fortunes of the Sea in a blith and secure port This Palace is contrived in this manner four square Towers upon four corners are bound together by great Porticues so that the Palace hath two bredths in a length each Tower hath fair and pleasant Chambers aboue and below and you passe from one to the other by the means of those open galleries the Court in the midst is ascended by certain little steps and therein a fountain and clear fishpond and on all sides by the nod of the Master from the pavements rise sprouts of water by meanes of infinite subtile Chanels there placed