thirtie THVLE Schetland Of these Brittish isles beside the ancient writers Tacitus and Caesar reade Henry Huntington Polydore Virgill Iohn Mayor Paulus Iouius Gregory Cenall in the 2. summa of his 3. booke de re Gallica Antony Sabellicus Enne 10. lib. 5. William Paradine Ieffrey of Monmouth Ponticus Verumius and Beda but especially M. William Camden Clarenceux his Britannia whom when thou hast discreetly read I doubt not but thou wilt thinke thou hadst particularly surueyed the whole ile ANGLIAE SCOTIAE ET HIBERNIAE SIVE BRITANNICAR INSVLARVM DESCRIPTIO Britannia oim insularum Occidentis Septentrionis maxima potentiss est cuius potiorem hodie partem Angliam vocamus ab Anglis videlicet Saxonum gente quae sub Valentiniano eam ingressa tenuit Haec veteribus Albion dicebatur ad differentiam quum reliquae oēs eò tractu Britannicae dicebantur Ab Occasu vicinam habet Hiberniam hodie Irlandiam appellatam regibus Angliae subditam Of SCOTLAND SCOTLAND the North part of Brittaine anciently called Albanie and is of the first inhabitants which they call the wilde Scots and dwell more in within the land retaining yet the old language at this day called Albaine was formerly called of the Romanes Britannia minor and secunda as Lhoyd doth gather out of Sextus Rufus This country is diuided into 2. parts by the rough craggy mount Grampius now Grantzbeen whereof Tacitus maketh mention For it begining at the German ocean neere the mouth of the riuer Dee coasting along by Aberden through the middest of the country toward the Irish-sea staieth at the lake Loumond This Mountaine was sometime the bound of the kingdome of the Pictes and Scottes Scotland is fuller of mountaines and more barren then England Yet euery where it hath many commodious ports and hauens For so is this country embraced of the armes of the sea that there is no house in it as Iohn Maior affirmeth which is aboue twentie leagues distant from the salt water In the vallies are Lakes meeres pooles riuers and fountaines well stored with sundrie sorts of fish In the mountaines are champion plaines yeelding great store of pasture for cattell and woods abounding with plenty of Deere By the meanes of which commodities it hath been so maintained that hitherto it might neuer be wholly conquered For in any eminent danger they presentlie flie to the woods and bogges for succour and refuge where they haue of venison and fish sufficient store for prouision of victuall Scotland hath many wonders whereof some we haue heere set downe out of Hector Boëthus In Galloway saith he is a lake called Myrtoun part of whose water in the winter freezeth as other waters do the other part was neuer knowne to haue beene frozen in the greatest frosts that euer were In the country of Carict there are very great and large Oxen whose flesh is verie tender and of a pleasant and delicat tast Besides that the fatte neuer waxeth hard but is alway thinne in the manner of liquid oile The Sea that washeth the coast of this prouince is very rich of oisters herrings congers cockels and other such like fishes In the prouince of Coyl about ten miles from the towne Aër is a Stone hardly twelue foot high of 33. cubites thicke called of the inhabitants The deafe stone For although you shall make neuer so great a noise nay if one shall shoote off a peece of ordinance on the one side it shall hardly be heard on the other side except one bee a good way off from it for then the sound may easily be perceiued In Lennox which Ptolemey calleth Lelgouia Lelannonia as I conceiue out of Ptolemey but I thinke our authour meant Selgouiae which is farre from this place there is a very great lake which they call Loumond aboue twenty foure miles long and eight miles broad It conteineth thirtie Ilands whereof diuers haue villages well inhabited with Churches and Chappels dedicated to the seruice of Almighty God In this three things are especially worth the obseruation For the fishes there most wholesome and good haue no sinnes The water oft times when the winds are most calme and still is so boisterous and rough that it affraieth the best experienced watermen from putting forth to crosse the same For the wind being alaied the boates are taken in their midde-course and are tossed with such danger that except some commodious hauen shall fortune to be neere hand many times they are ouerturned and cast away Lastly there is an iland in it very good pasture for the feeding of cattell which swimmeth and moueth euery way as the winds driue It is credibly reported that there is a stone which groweth in Argadia Argathelia or Argile which if it be couered but a while with straw or flax it will set it on fire At Slanis a castle in Buquhan there is a caue of a strange nature For the water that droppeth into it in continuance of time is turned into a very white stone and if within a certaine number of yeares they should not be taken out it would haue been long since filled vp with them In this prouince there is no ratte euer seene and if so be that any should be brought in thither it will not by any meanes liue there In the countrie of Fife great store of a kind of blacke stone is digged out of the earth we call it sea-coale a most excellent kind of fuell At the mouth of the riuer Forth in the maine sea there is a very high rocke out of whose toppe a spring of fresh water a great miracle of nature doth runne abundantlie About two miles distant from Edenburgh is a spring vpon the toppe of whose water dropps of oile do continually swimme in such sort that if you take none from off it there will be neuer the more and if you take ought from thence there will be neuer the lesse This oile is good against the roughnesse of the skinne Thus farre of the strange thinges of this Realme Scotland in the countrie of Drisdaile hath a mine of Gold in the which also is found that which they commonly call Lazure It hath also mines both of Iron and Lead The inhabitants which possesse the South part on this side the mount Grampius are more ciuill and humane and do speake the English tongue Those which dwell in the North parts are a rough and more hard kind of people they call them The wild-Scottes and do weare mantles and skirts died with Saffron after the Irish fashion and go barelegged They speake the Irish tongue And as the Language of Scotland is of two sorts so are their maners as diuers These Marianus Scotus calleth High-land-men the other I meane the wild-Scottes they call Low-land-men The chiefe city of Scotland is Edenburgh there is the kings seat and the castle of Maidens often mentioned in histories Saint Andrew and Aberdon are two Vniuersities The city Glasow is the Archbishops sea The towne of Perth commonly
as appeares out of the Map by an Ocean so huge and to the Indians so vnnauigable Also what else may we coniecture to be signified by this word Norumbega the name of a North region of America but that from Norway signifying a North land some Colonie in times past hath hither beene transplanted But why in mine opinion the maine Ocean was neuer sailed by ancient Nauigatours I haue declared in my Thesaurus Geographicus speaking of OPHIR All this part of the World except the North tract thereof whose Coasts are not yet discouered hath in these last times beene sailed round about From North to South it stretcheth in forme of two Peninsulae or Demi-isles which are seuered by a very narrow Isthmos or neck-land The Northermost of the two conteineth New Spaine the prouince of Mexico the countrey of Florida and New-found-land But the Southermost which the Spaniards call Terra firma containes Perú and Brasil A description of all which regions the studious in Geography may reade in Leuinus Apolonius in the Decads of Peter Martyr and in Maximilianus Transsiluanus who writ all in Latine Also to this purpose you haue many things worthy the obseruation in the Iesuites Epistles and in Maffeius his story of the Indies Postellus also promiseth Discourses of West-Indie-matters and so doth Fredericus Furius Caeriolanus These that follow haue purposely written of America but all in their mother-languages and for the most part in Spanish but the better halfe of them are translated into Italian PEDRO CIEçA DE LEON GONSALVO FERNANDO DE OVIEDO FERNANDO CORTEZ PETER ALVARADO DIEGO GODOYA ALVAREZ NVNNEZ NVNNEZ DE GVSMAN FRANCIS VLLOA FRANCIS VASQVEZ DE CORONADO ANTONIE MENDOçA FRIER MARCO DE NIZZA FERNANDO ALARCHON FRANCIS XERES IOHN VERARZANO AMERICO VESPVTIO FRANCIS LOPEZ DE GOMARA IEROME BENZO in Italian IAQVES CARTHIER and ANDREVV THEVET wrote in French IOHN STADEN in Dutch Diuerse of which Authours and many that haue written since are translated into English in the third volume of M. Hakluyts English Voyages AMERICAE SIVE NOVI ORBIS NOVA DESCRIPTIO Vlterius Septentrionem versus hae regiones incognitae adhuc sunt The peaceable or the south sea called by the Spaniards MAR DEL SVR. THis sea albeit vnknowen yet was it not vnnamed by ancient writers for Plinie calles it Ecum and Orosius Orientale that is The East sea Ptolemey falsly termes it SINVM MAGNVM A great bay whereas he should haue nam'd it MARE MAGNVM A great sea For of all the seas in the world it is the greatest and the widest In Paulus Venetus it is described vnder the name of Mare Cin that is as I interpret it out of Nubiensis Arabs Bahci'ltzni vel alkini Mare Sinarum The sea of China and in Haithon Armenus whom elswhere we more truly call Antonie Curchino by the name of Mare Cathay Well therefore might it be named by the ancient and middle-age writers but neuer was it fully knowen and discouered till Fernando Magellan a Portugale sailed thereupon Seene it was indeed and as it were saluted in the yeere 1513 by Vasco Nunnez from the coast of Perú But Magellan in the yeere of our saluation 1520. hauing passed the streight by him found and called after his owne name which it hitherto retaineth for euery common Mariner calles it The Streight of Magellan with an heroick and Herculean courage entred this sea which vncertaine it is whether any shippe before his had euer stemmed For meditating a voyage to the isles of the Moluccos whereunto the Portugals vsually sailed from West to East and intending to make thither a shorter cut from East to West he came at length vnto them by this sea in one of which isles called Machian he was slaine in a skirmish The course of his voyage was this Departing from Siuil with fiue ships whereof one being his owne was called by a name of good presage Victoria he came to the fortunate or Canary-isles then to the Gorgones or Hesperides now termed The isles of Cape verde and thence to the Streight abouenamed which when he had found and past thorow he enters into this sea where with a fresh and prosperous gale hauing sailed vpon the maine 40. dayes together and beholding nothing but sea on all sides and still the sea when he had crossed the South tropick he descried two small barren and vnhabited isles where notwithstanding because they found good fishing they staied two dayes then departed calling them the Vnfortunate isles Now they are knowen by the name of Tuberones and the isles of S. Peter Then he proceeds on his nauigation in the space of 3. moneths and 20. dayes hauing sailed ouer this vast Ocean 2400. leagues he attained at length to the Aequinoctiall and thence to the desired Molucces And because as we haue said he had for the most part a prosperous no tempestuous wind he named this Pacificum or The peaceable sea now called by the common Mariner The South sea or Mar del Sur. Those that haue written of the New world say that this sea about those vnfortunate isles is most exceeding deepe and that neere vnto the coast of Perú it yeeldeth pearles and that there are in it 7449. isles so that some in our times not vnfitly haue called the Western part thereof Archipelagus or A sea thicke set with isles seeing this like the Aegean sea which is planted all ouer with the Cyclades the Sporades and many other islands and is called in the Italian tongue Archipelago is also with isles most notably replenished In the bottome of this sea Francis Vlloa and Antonie Digafetta do report that there growes a weed of 14. or 15. fathoms high within the water and that it riseth out of the water to the height of some 4. or 5. fathom so that sometimes you shall seeme not to saile thorow a sea but rather thorow a greene medow The place of Aristotle in his booke De Admirandis c. doth not much disagree from this where he writes of the Phoenicians which inhabited Gadyra that when they had sailed a while without the pillars of Hercules they arriued at certeine regions abounding with weeds and slime which were ouerflowed with the tides of the sea The very same affirmeth Iornandes in the beginning of his Getish history where he writes that none could saile thorow the Ocean being impassable in regard of weeds or turfs and for that cause vnknowen Yea Plinie and Antigonus out of Megasthenes haue left recorded that all the East Ocean growes full of woods And that the sea neere Portugale should beare Okes laden with mast Polybius reporteth in Athenaeus Also that the Bay-tree growes in the Red sea the same authour affirmes vpon the credit of Pythagoras Hereunto you may adde that of Theophrastus in his 4. booke of the history of Plants cap. 7.8.9 and the testimony of Aelianus lib 13. de Animal cap. 3. and Strabo lib. 16. and Plinie lib. 2. cap. 103. lib. 6. cap. 22. and lib. 13. cap.
therefore they are of the English Nobility for seruice preferred before the English Yet of late heere they haue vsed themselues to dwell in cities to learn occupations to trade as merchants to go to plough and to do any maner of businesse good for the common-wealth as well as the English nay in this thing they excell them that there is no man so poore amongst them but for a while will set his sonnes to schole to learne to write and read and those whom they find to be apt they send to the Vniuersities cause them for the most part to giue their minds to the study of the ciuill law Heere hence it is that the greater part of those which in this kingdome doe professe the Ciuill or Canon law are Welshmen borne You shall find also very few of the common and meaner sort of people but can read and write his owne language and after their fashion play vpon the Welsh harpe Now also they haue the Bible and common praier booke printed in their owne tongue a language as we said vsed of their ancestors and wholly different from the English And as in old time long since being a people as Tacitus reporteth impatient of the least wrongs that might be offered they were alwaies together by the eares and cutting one anothers throates so now for feare of law to which they are more obedient then any other nation they will wrangle and contend one with another as long as they are worth a groate These few obseruations we haue gleaned out of Lhoyd to whom we send the Reader that desireth more of the particulars of this country Syluester Gerrard a Welshman hath described VVales in a seuerall treatise Read also the Iournall of VVales Moreouer VVilliam of Newbery in the 5. chap. of his 2. booke hath many things of the nature of this country maners of the people To these you may adioine Polyd. Virg. those things which Robert Caenalis hath written in the summe of his 2. booke de re Gallica This Cymri or as the English call it VVales belongeth that we may heere by the way say something of this by an ancient decree to the King of Englands eldest sonne or daughter if he faile to the Kings heire I meane who is to succeed next after him and he is called assoone as he is born The Prince of VVales and that in the same sense as in Spaine and Portugall they call the Kings heire The Prince and in France The Dolphin Ieffrey of Monmouth writeth that in these parts of VVales neere the riuer of Seuern there is a poole which the country people call Linligune This saith he when the sea floweth into it enterteineth the waters like a bottomlesse gulfe and so drinketh vp the waues that it is neuer full nor euer runneth ouer But when the sea ebbeth the waters which before it had swallowed do swell like a mountaine which then do dash and run ouer the banks At which time if all the people of that shire should stand any thing neere the poole with their faces toward it so that the water shall but dash into their clothes and apparell they shall hard be able to auoid the danger but that they shal be drawne into the poole But if ones backe shal be toward it there is no danger at all although he should stand vpon the very edge of the same This is the story I haue nam'd the authour let him approue the truth of the same Of Mona the iland vpon the shore of this country thou hast the opinion of Humfrey Lhoyd in his epistle which we haue adioined to the end of this booke Of this also Iohn Leland in his Genethliacon of Edward Prince of VVales thus writeth This Iland saith hee being conquered by the English changed the name and was called Anglesey that is the iland of Englishmen Polydore Virgill a man of great reading and good iudgement in many matters is of another opinion Hee laboureth with all his forces to proue Menauia to be Mona If the name which yet it retaineth If the citie Caernaruon which is ouer against it vpon the maine do take his denomination from hence and is called Aruon for Ar-mon If that same very short cut ouer of which the Roman writers do speake If the nesse or promontorie Pen-mon that is as the word signifieth The head of Mon If the huge bodies of trees and rootes couered ouer with sand which daily are digged out of the shore of Tir-mon If the firre-trees of maruailous length which in squally grounds are heere and there found within the earth in this Iland do not sufficiently proue that that was anciently called Mona which now we call Anglesey I know not what to say more then that I haue read this in the 14. booke of Cornelius Tacitus his Annales Excisique luci saeuis superstitionibus sacri c. Felling the woods consecrated to superstitious seruices c. The same Leland in another place hath these verses of this Iland Insula Romanis Mona non incognita bellis Quondam terra ferax nemorum nunc indiga siluae Sed Venetis tantum cereali munere praestans Mater vt à vulgo Cambrorum iure vocetur c. Tyr-môn in former times thus witnesse writers old was full of stately woods but now li'th bleake and cold The soile is passing good of corne it yeeld'th such store That Welsh-mens nurse it 's call'd as we haue shew'd before c. CAMBRIAE TYPVS Auctore HVMFRE DO LHVYDO Denbigiense Cambrobritano Aliquod Regionum huius tractus synonyma prout Latinè Britannicè Anglicè etiemnum appellanture Cambria L. Cambrÿ B. Wales A. Venedotia L. Gwÿnedhia B. Northwales A. Demetia L. Dÿfet B. Westwales A. Ceretica L. Ceredigion B. Cardigan A. Pouisia L. Powijs B. Dehenbart B. Sutwales A. IRELAND IRELAND which the Greekes and Latines call HIBERNIA others IVERMA and IERNA the Irish themselues call Eryn From hence strangers taking it from the mouth of the English which pronounce e the second vowell with the same sound that other nations do sound i the third vowell haue made as it seemeth Irynlandt compounded as is apparent of the Irish Erin and the Saxon or Dutch Landt which afterward was contracted for more commodity of speach and roundnesse of pronunciation into Irland from whence the Latines framed IRLANDIA The first inhabitants which seated themselues in this Iland came hither as may be easily demonstrated from Brittaine or England not from Spaine as some most absurdly haue written For the abridgement of Strabo doth flatly call these ilanders Britaine 's and Diodorus Siculus saith that Irin is a part of Britaine wherefore it was iustly of all old writers called INSVLA BRITANNIA One of the Brittish iles About the yeare of CHRIST 400. in the daies of Honorius and Arcadius the Emperours at what time the Roman Empire began to decline the Scottes a second nation entered Ireland and planted themselues as Orosius writeth in the North parts whereupon it was
euer die or could die of a naturall death In Vlster there is another Lake in which there is an Iland of two diuers qualities one part of it hauing a church consecrated to the seruice of Christianity is very beautifull goodly and pleasant The other very rough ouer growne and vnpleasant is said to be bequeathed to Diuels and euill spirits This part hath in it nine caues or trenches in any of which if a man do chance to sleepe all night he is presently assaulted by the euill spirits and all the night so greeuously tormented and vexed that by the morning hee shall scarce be able to breath and will be almost halfe dead This place is called of the country people The purgatory of S. Patricke There is also a spring or fountaine in Mounster with whose water if any man shall wash himselfe he will presently become hoary or gray-headed I my selfe saw a man who washed the one halfe of his beard with this water and the haire became white the other remaining blacke as it was before On the contrary there is in Vlster a fountaine in which if any man wash his haire he shall neuer be horay or gray-headed In Connagh there is a fountaine of fresh water vpon the toppe of a very high mountaine which ebbeth twise in 24. houres and floweth as oft in this imitating the vnconstant motion of the sea There is a fountaine in the farder and North part of Vlster which by reason of the great coldnesse of it in seuen yeares space turneth sticks and wood cast into it into stone In Connagh there is a fountaine only kind and wholesome for men but for cattell and other such kind of bruite beasts pestilent and dangerous There is a fountaine in Mounster which if any man shall touch by and by the whole country wil be ouerflowed by storms of raine The people of this countrie do weare course blacke mantles or rugges for the sheep of this Iland are blacke and they put them on as rudely and vnhandsomely They vse also little hoods which hang down to their shoulders In riding they vse no saddles boots nor spurres but with a rod sharpe and tapered at one end they pricke forward their horses and make them runne Their bridles are such as do serue both for bitte and reigne so made as their horses only vsed to grasse are neuer hindred from eating They go into the field to warre naked and altogether vnarmed They vse three kind of weapons long speares darts and battell-axes The people is wild and very vnciuill they delight in nothing more then to liue idly and libertie they preferre before great riches I only obserued the people to delight much in musicall instruments and in that to deserue some commendation These briefly we haue gleaned heere and there out of the historie of Gyraldus Cambrensis diligently retaining the tenor of his owne phrase which we haue thought good to translate word for word as they are deliuered by our Authour that succedent ages might see either the credulous simplicity of former times or how time doth alter countries people and maners of men And because we haue spoken before of S. Patricks purgatory it shall not be amisse to adde to those former this discourse of it taken out of the twelfth booke of Caesarius his historie of Things worth the remembring When as S. Patricke saith he conuerted this nation to Christianity and they made a doubt and beleeued not that men should be punished for their sinnes in the world to come hee by earnest praier obtained this place at the hand of God the maner of the place is thus There is a deepe pit or trench enclosed round with a wall there are also certaine Regular Canons No man is so great a sinner to whom they enioine any greater penance then to abide all one whole night in that purgatorie If any man be desirous to enter in first making his confession they administer the sacrament vnto him they anoint him perfume him and instruct him thus Thou shalt see this night say they the assaults of the Deuill and the horrible paines of hell but they shall not hurt thee if thou haue but the name of Iesus alwaies in thy mouth But if thou shalt yeeld to the flattering enticements or terrible threatnings of the Deuill and so shalt cease to call vpon the name of Iesus thou art surely but a dead man Then in the euening putting him into the pit they shut vp the dore and comming againe in the morning if they presentlie find him not they looke no farther for him Many haue died there and many haue gone home againe whose visions haue been written of the foresaied friers and are shewed to such as are desirous to see them IReland saith M. Camden according to maners of the people is diuided into The wild Irish and The English pale but according to the ancient iurisdictions and naturall situation of it it is more fitly diuided into fiue parts and indeed it once conteined fiue kingdomes Mounster in the South Leinster in the East Connagh in the West Vlster in the North and Methe almost in the middest and heart of the land MOVNSTER Memomia the Irish call it Mown sometime diuided into West Mounster which in Ptolemeys time the Gangani Luceni Velabri and Iterni did inhabit and East Mounster possessed then of the Vodiae comprehendeth now these seuen Shires Kerry Limiricke Corke Tiparary Holy crosse Waterford and Desmond Of which Kerry and Tipararie were sometimes county Palatines LEINSTER Lagenia they call it Leighnigls a fertile soile and holesome seat possessed sometime by the Brigantes Coriondi Menapij Cauci and part of the Eblani Now it is diuided into these counties Wexford Caterlogh Kilkenny Dublin Kildare The Kings county The Queenes county Longford Fernes Wicklo METHE Media the Irish call it Mijh in the mid'st almost of the country the other part of the ancient possessions of the Eblani for his great fertility either for corn or grasse fish or flesh pleasant situation healthful aire multitude of people strength of castels and towns commonly called as Bartholomeys English reporteth The chamber of Ireland was lately diuided into East Methe and West Methe CONNAGH Connacia they call it Connaughty where long since were seated the Auteri and Nagnatae now it containeth these shires Clare Letrimme Gallawey Rosecomin Maio Sligo The whole prouince although it be in many places fertile and pleasant yet it is euery where full of dangerous Bogges darke Woods Creeks and Baies conuenient Stations and Harborough for shippes VLSTER Vltonia the Irish call it Cui Gully the Welsh Wltw a large country euery where full of great Lakes thicke and huge woods in some place resonably fruitfull in others leane and hungry but in all places greene and pleasant to the eie and therefore it maintaineth great plenty of cattell Here in Ptolemeys time inhabited the Voluntij Darni Robogdij Vennicny and Erdini at this day it conteineth these shires Louth Down Anwimme Monalion
Tiroen Armagh Colrane Donergall Formanagh and Cauen On all sides round about Ireland in the sea as also in the baies riuers lakes and fresh water are heere and there many small ilands whereof some are fertile others wast and barren of which to speake seuerally would require a larger discourse then heere we are allowed Coelestinus Pope of Rome in the yeare of CHRIST 431. sent into Britaine Paladius a Bishop as Prosper Aquitanus writeth to purge it of the Pelagian he esie wherewith it was but lately distained and by this meanes also at the same time caused Christian religion to be planted in Ireland Palladius died in Britaine before he had brought to passe that which he came for whereupon Patricke a Brittaine and of kinne to Martinus Turonensis was by Celestine put in his place who with such wonderfull successe did preach the Gospell in Ireland that he conuerted the greatest part of that I le vnto Christianity that he well deserued the name of The Irish Apostle From hence after that at sundrie times diuers colonies if I may so vse the word of learned and religious men were sent into sundrie parts of Europe and were not only the great patrons and planters of the Gospell there but founders of Monasteries cities and towns as schooles of that profession In those bloudy warres of the barbarous Saxons all scholes of learning in Brittaine were shut vp and all religion almost wholly banished so that whosoeuer was desirous of instruction that way was constrained to seeke for it in Ireland and after these wars ended those which returned brought with them not only the Irish letters which yet the same charecters common to both nations do plainly shew but also liberall arts and sciences which together with Christianity they taught the Saxons To these the Reader may adioine such things as Henry of Huntington Polydore Virgill William Newbery Iohn Maior and others haue written of this in their seuerall histories Daniel Rogers hath set forth a description of this Iland in verse dedicated to Thomas Phediger And M. William Camden in prose hath most exactly described the same in his Britannia But Richard Stanihurst a worthy gentleman this countrie man borne hath this other day put forth a seueral treatise of the history and state of this iland Baptista Boazio hath described it in a mappe apart by it selfe dedicated to the late Queene Elizabeth and my good friend M. Speed with no lesse care and diligence hath done the same in his Imperium Brittannicum or Empire of Great Brittaine lately set forth and dedicated to his Highnesse The Isles of the AZORES SOme are of opinion that these Isles situate in the Atlantick or West Ocean are so named by the Spaniards from a kinde of Hauks which they call Azor. And in the plurall number Açores One writes but fondlie that they are so called from the French word Essorer which signifieth to drie or wither In Latin a man may call them Accipitrarias or the Isles of Hauks and in Greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Our Netherlanders terme them De vlaemsche eilanden that is The flemish Islands because they are thought first to haue beene discouered by certaine Flemish Marchants of Bruges At that time they said they could find nothing vpon them but trees especiallie great store of Cedars and woods and foules of diuers sorts and thither they sent inhabitants to possesse and manure the said Isles Afterward they submitted themselues to the Portugales vnder whose gouernement they yet remaine Lewes Marmolius fol. 38. reports that they were discouered about the yeare 1455. Vndoubtedly auncient writers knew them not yet might they name them perhaps For whether they specified them vnder the name of Cassiterides I cannot be assured The Spanish fleets laden with Indian commodities doe vsually in their returne touch at these Isles before they ariue at Lisbone or Cales One strange thing haue I heard concerning the soile or the heauenly influence or if I may so say the Genius of these Isles For sailing from these parts of the world towards America so soone as you are past the said Isles you are freed from gnats fleas lice and all kinde of noisome vermin which beyond the Açores doe immediately die and come to nothing They are in number nine and thus called by the Portugales The Isle of S. Michael Terçera S. Georges Isle Pico Fayal Flores Cueruo and the Isle of S. Marie all which we will particularly entreat of TERÇERA THis Isle is called Terçera because it is the third in order as you saile from Spaine And from this one the common mariners confusedly call the whole nine by the name of Terçeras It abounds with corne and fruits neither is it destitute of wine The Inhabitants are greatly inriched by their Madder wherewith clothes are died red In this Isle growes plenty of this commodity especially about the places commonly called Los Altares and Falladores Angra the head city is most strongly fortified with an impregnable rocke or bulwarke called Brazil This Isle also from the name of our blessed Sauiour the Spaniards call Isola del buen Iesu PICO THis Isle was so named from a mountaine therein rising sharpe in forme of a round Pyramis or Sugar-loafe For whatsouer is naturally of that shape is by the Portugals called Pico This hill is three miles high within it is hollow and full of darcke caues At the foote of this mountaine Eastward there is a spring of fresh water which sometimes dischargeth fierie streames and stones burning hoat and that with so great force and violence that it sends them packing as it were with a current by steepe and lower places euen to the sea whereas of the multitude of these stones is made a promontory or headland commonly called Misterij It is distant from the said fountaine 12. miles At this present it stretcheth a mile and halfe further into the sea in regard of the continual increase of this heape of stones They are much deceiued which write that this Isle was so named from the bird called Picus Martius in English the woodpecker FAYAL THis Isle is so named of the Beech-tree For the Portugals call the Beech Faya and a place planted with Beeches Fayal That heere are yet in this Isle certaine families of the Flemish race which first inhabited the same namely such as are called Bruyn Vtrecht c. I haue learned from a Portugale of good creditte Linschott also an eye-witnesse in his Iournall published in Dutch writeth that in this very Isle there is a riuer called by the Portugales Ribera des Fiamengos or the riuer of Flemings and saith further that all the Inhabitants of this Isle came originally out of Flanders and that they doe as yet much fauour the Flemish nation Concerning the residue namely Flores so called of abundance of Flowers Cueruo of Crowes Gracioça of pleasantnesse or the Isles of S. George S. Marie and S. Michael so denominated of those saints for it is vsuall with the Spaniards
any man that shall thinke and obiect that this storie of the Round Table is too fabulous to confirme this our assertion yet this is certaine and cannot be doubted of that in England almost in the middest of the kingdome there is a towne called Mansfield situate betweeene the riuers of Trent and Rotheram not farre from the city of Nottingham This county containeth also foure other counties namely ARNSTEDT WIPRA WETHIN and QVERNFVRT all which in former times had their proper and peculiar Earles but now at this day beside the counte Mansfield they haue not any one In this county also there is the county Palatine of Saxony Moreouer there are beside these certaine other Lordships and Principalities as thou maist see in the Mappe The chiefe and principall cities are MANSFIELD EYSLEBEN WIPRA and LEIMBACH This country is very full of Mettall-mines Heere out of the earth are digged those sleitstones which they call Scheyffersteyn such as scarcely are to be found as Sebastian Munster writeth in any other place of the world beside It hath also certaine stones laden with Copper which being burnt in the fire and then steeped and washed in water do yeeld the mettall and together with it some good store of Siluer But this is a wonderfull strange pranke that Nature heere in sporting maner vsually plaieth which the same authour there speaketh of well worth the obseruation namely of a great Lake in this country well stored with diuers and sundry sorts of fish all which kinds of fish together with the paddockes frogs newts and such other things liuing in this lake are found so curiously expressed shaped out in stones as we haue to our great admiration beheld as it is a very hard matter at the first sight vpon the sudden to discern them from the naturall liuing creatures of that kind and that so liuelily that thou shalt be able presently to distinguish one from another and to call them by their seuerall and proper names Some of these I haue giuen me by Peter Ernest the most renowmed and illustrious Earle of this country and worthy Gouernour of the prouince of Lutzenburg There is a Lake in this country which by reason of the saltnesse of the water they call Gesaltzen into which if the fishermen shall cast in their nets ouer deepe they will presently be sienged schorched euen as if they had beene burnt or drawne through the fire as Seuerinus Gobelinus in his history of Amber reporteth The same authour writeth that neere vnto Eisleben there was not long since a piece of Amber found as bigge as a mans head Syriacus Spangeberg did promise to set out the history of this countrey wherin all the cities castles villages mountaines woods riuers lakes mines c. should seuerally be described together with the Antiquities Records Petigrees and such other historicall matters of the same MANSFELDIAE COMITATVS DESCRIPTIO auctore Tilemanno Stella Sig. The Principality of HENNENBERG THe terrirory and precinct of the Princes of HENNENBERG a part of East France how large and wide it was you may see by this our Chorographicall Mappe the buts and bounds of it are thus Vpon the West and North it hath Thuringen and the great forest which of this countrie is called Durynger Waldt whose head on these parts doth diuide Thuringen from Frankenland on the South it is confined with the riuer of Meyn and the bishoprickes of Bamberg and Wuitzburg Moreouer the East part is enclosed with that great mountaine which the country people do call Die Rhon or Rosn vpon the same side also it hath the Diocesse of Fulden and the prouince of Hessen This country is wonderfully stored with deere wild fowle fish and such other things necessary for the maintenance of mans life It hath also some Mines of mettals especially of iron whereof great store is yearely from hence to the great gaine and commodity of the inhabitants transported into forren countries It is watered heere and there with many and diuers fountaines heads or springs of the riuer Visurgis which in these parts they call Die Werra but moâ—e properly it is of some in other places called Die Wesser which indeed the name of the Abbey Vesser doth seeme to approoue for truth which Francis Irenicus and Wolfgangus Lazius do verily beleeue to haue beene so denominated of Wasser which in the Germane is as much to say as water in the English Of the first beginning and originall of this house or family of Hennenberg by reason of the negligence of the writers and Historians of those times we can determine nothing for certainty beside this that in the time of Attila and Charles the Great some authours do make mention of the Princes of Hennenberg which also were Earles of Frankland and Burggraues of Wurtzeburg So againe in the time of Henry the first Emperour of Germany Gottwald and Otto of this house of Hennenberg serued valiantly in defence of the Empire against the assaults and inrodes of the Vgri Item the Boppones two learned men of this family in the yeares of Christ 941. and 961. were bishops of Wurtzeburg and gouerned that sea with the great applause and praise of all men But the true pedigree of these Princes is deriued from BOPPO who in the yeare of our Lord 1078. following Henry the fourth the Emperours side in the battell fought betweene him and Rudolph the Switzer neere to the city Melrichstadt valiantly fighting was honourablie slaine in the field After him succeeded his sonne GOTTEBALD first founder of the Abbey of Vesser for the Monkes of the order of the brotherhood of the Praemonstratenses After him followed his sonne BERTHOLD then BOPPO the Second next him BOPPO the Third all which succeeded one after another in a right line This Boppo the Third had by his second wife Iutta of Thuringen HERMAN whose sonne BOPPO the Fourth died leauing no issue behind him But by his first wife Elizabeth of the familie of the Princes of Saxony he had HENRY who had issue HENRY the Second HERMAN the Second and BERTHOLD the Second Henry had issue BOPPO the Fift whose sonne BERTHOLD the Third died without issue But after Herman these Princes HENRY the Second HERMAN the Third FREDERICK the First GEORGE the First and lastly FREDERICK the Second lineally descended one from another successiuely gouerned this prouince This Fredericke had issue HERMAN who by his wife Margaret of the family of Brandenburg had two sonnes BERTHOLD the Fourth and ALBERT both which died in the yeare of our Lord God 1549. and left no issue behind them Then of the line of Berthold the Second third sonne of Henry the First succeeded BERTHOLD the Fift who for his singular virtues wisedome experience and excellent gifts other waies was in the yeare after Christs incarnation 1310. by Henry of Lutzelburg the Emperour with the generall consent of the whole company of the Electours installed one of the Princes of the Empire And after that for the same his virtues and
fifth Section of the third Climate of his Geographicall garden imprinted in the Arabicke language at Rome in the yeare of our Lord 1592. The place saith he where Lot with his family dwelt the stinking sea and Zegor euen vp as high as Basan and Tiberias was called the Vale for that it was a plaine or bottome between two hils so low that all the other waters of this part of Soria do fall into it and are gathered thither And a little beneath in the same place he addeth All the brookes and springs do meet and stay in the lake of Zegor otherwise called the lake of Sodom and Gomorrha two cities where Lot and his family dwelt which God did cause to sinke and conuerted their place into a stinking lake otherwise named The Dead lake for that there is in it nothing that hath breath or life neither fish nor worme or any such thing as vsually is wont to liue or keepe in standing or running waters the water of this lake is hot and of a filthy stinking sauour yet vpon it are little boates in which they passe from place to place in these quarters and carry their prouision The length of this lake is 60. miles the breadth not aboue 12. miles Moreouer Aben Isaac who in like maner wrote in the Arabicke tongue a treatise of Geography certaine fragments of which I haue by me for which I am beholding as also for many other fauours to Master Edward Wright that learned Mathematician and singular louer of all maner literature thus speaketh of this place The sea Alzengie saith he is a very bad and dangerous sea for there is no liuing creature can liue in it by reason of the vnwholesomnesse and thicknesse of his waters which happeneth by reason that the sunne when it commeth ouer this sea draweth vp vnto it by the force of his heat the thinner and more subtill parts of the water which is in it and so doth leaue the thicke and more grosse parts behind which by that meanes also become very hot and salt so that no man may saile vpon this sea nor any beast or liuing creature liue neere it Item the sea Sauk as Aristotle speaketh of it which also is in these parts and doth reach vp as high as India and the parched Zone so I thinke the word Mantakah that is a girdle or belt which heere he vseth doth signifie that there is not in it any liuing creature at all of any sort whatsoeuer and therefore this sea is called The Dead sea because that whensoeuer any worme or such like falleth into it it mooueth no longer but swimmeth vpon the toppe of the water and when it is dead it putrifieth and then sinketh and falleth to the bottome yet when there falleth into it any stinking and corrupt thing it sinketh immediatly and swimmeth not vpon the water at all Thus farre out of Aben Isaac This sea is of Ptolemey called ASPHALTITES the lake Ashaltites of others Asphaltes of the bitumen which it doth yeeld in great plenty of the Iewes MARE PALAESTINORVM ORIENTALE SOLITVDINIS siue DESERTI the Sea of Palaestina the East Sea the Sea of the desert or wildernesse of the situation and position of it vnto the land of Iewry Item MARE SALIS the Salt-sea of the hot and fitish saltnesse of the same aboue other salt-salt-waters which the Arabian iustifieth to be true Pausanias that ancient and famous historian of the Greekes and Iustine the abridger of the large volume of Trogus Pompeius call it MARE MORTVVM the Dead sea of the effect there is saith Iustine a lake in that country which by reason of his greatnesse and vnmoueablenesse of his waters is called the Dead sea for it is neither mooued with the wind the heauy and lumpish bitumen which swimmeth vpon the toppe of the water all the lake ouer resisting the violence of the greatest blasts neither is it saileable for that all things that are void of life do sinke to the bottome neither doth it sustaine any thing that is not besmered with bitumen to these both my Arabians do subscribe of Galen the Prince of Physitions it is called LACVS SODOMAEVS the Lake of Sodome for him Nubiensis doth stand who neuer nameth it Bahri a sea but Bahira a lake or standing poole yet contrariwise Isaac termeth it Bahri not Bahira and by this name it is generally knowen to all the Europeans Solinus calleth it TRISTEM SINVM the Sad-bay like as the gulfe of Milinde is of some named ASPERVM MARE the rough or boisterous sea like as Isaac my authour calleth this same lake Tzahhib the churlish and dangerous sea Iosephus in the tenth chapter of his first booke of the Antiquities of the Iewes saith that this place where now is the Dead-sea was before named the Vale of bitumen pits Strabo otherwise a most excellent Geographer and curious searcher out of the truth in these discourses falsly confoundeth this lake as I touched before with the Sirbon lake Why the Arabian should call it Zengie and Sawke I know not This we haue heere added partly out of the Geographicall treasury of Ortelius for the ease and benefite of the Reader least the diuersity of names might make him mistake the thing Hauing thus finished the Mappes of HOLY write It now remaineth that we do in like maner begin and go on forward with those of PROPHANE histories A draught and shadow of the ancient GEOGRAPHY THou hast gentle and curtuous Reader in this Mappe a draught a plot or patterne I might call it of the whole world but according to the description ruder Geography of the more ancient authours of those of middle age For this our globe of the earth was not then further knowen a wonderfull strange thing vntill in the daies of our fathers in the yeare 1492. Christofer Columbus a Genoway by the commandement of the king of Castile first discouered that part of the West which vnto this day had lien hid vnknowen After that the South part hitherto not heard of togther with the East part of Asia much spoken of but neuer before this time entered was descried by the Portugals That part which lieth toward the North we haue seen in this our age to haue been first found out by the English merchants and nauigatours a particular view and proofe of which thou maist see at large in that worthy worke of the English Nauigations composed with great industrie diligence and charge by my singular good friend Master Richard Hacluyt By him England still shall liue and the name of braue Englishmen shall neuer die The other countries which as yet do lie obscured within the frozen Zones and vnder both the Poles are left for succeding ages to find out Peraduenture ancient writers that liued many hundred yeares since haue named some country or some one place or other out of this our continent but they haue not written ought of the situation of the same as being indeed altogether vnknowen vnto them In
Entribae Erasinij Gondrae quae et Cyndrae et Rondaei Hypselitae Ligyrij Maduateni Mypsaei Podargi Priantoe Pyrogeri Sabi Satro centae Scaeboae Sindonaei Trisplae MONTES Cissene Dunax Edonus Ganos Gigemorus Libethrius Melamphyllon Meritus Mimas Nerisum Pindus Zilmissus FLVVII Aristibus Cebrinus Cius Cyndon Edon Zorta VICI Aliphera Asae SINVS Bennicus NEMVS Abroleua FONS Inna CAMPVS Areos pagos Plura erant his addenda uti quoque in ipsa tabula referenda ex Zonara Cedreno Nicephoro ceterisque Byzantinae historiae graecis scriptorib at quia hos inter veteres non numero consulto omisi Cum Imp. et Belgico privilegio decennali 1585. round vntill they die In this countrie is the riuer Cochryna of whose water if any sheepe do drinke they bring foorth none but blacke lambes Between Byzantium Constantinople and the Chersonesus there is an hill which they call The holy mount neere to which the sea oftentimes carieth vpon the top of his waters a kinde of slimy substance called of the Latines Bitumen In Agria a shire of this country the riuer Pontus carieth downe in his channell certaine stones much like vnto coales which being kindled and water cast vpon them they burne the better but being blowne with bellowes they go quite out There is no manner of vermine or venemous creatures that can abide the smell of this kinde of siring Amongst the Cinchropsoses there is a fountaine of whose water whosoeuer shall drinke they die immediately In Botiaea there groweth a stone which by the heat or reuerberation of the Sunne beames kindleth and casteth foorth sparks and flames of fire Plutarch writeth that there is a spring not farre from the hill Pangaeus of whose waters if one fill one and the same vessell and then weight it he shall finde it to be twise so heauy in the winter as it was in the summer Plutarch whom Tzetzes calleth The yonger another nameth him Parthenicus reporteth certaine things of the herbe Cythara the stones Pansilypus and Philadelphi found in the riuers Ebrus and Strymon which because they are more like to fables than true stories I do in this place willingly omit To reckon vp heere the seuerall Nations Mountaines Riuers or Cities of this country I thinke it nothing necessary because they are at one view better to be seene in the Mappe it selfe Yet of the city Byzantium now Constantinople for that it is sooft mentioned in ancient histories to say nothing at all for that we do in some sort hold it an iniury I thinke it not amisse to write these few lines following of the description of it The first founder of BYZANTIVM which was also in times past called LYGOS was as Trogus and Eustathius do thinke one Pausanias a Captaine of the Spartanes and that as Cassiodorus writeth at such time as Numa Pompilius was king of the Romanes It was so called of Byzantes the sonne of Ceroessas a captaine of the Megareans whom Eustathius affirmeth to haue beene the vprightest and most iust man that euer the earth did beare This city is situate vpon an high cliffe at the narrowest place of Bosphorus Thracius the frith or streights of Constantinople in a very fertile soile and vpon a fruitfull and commodious sea fertili solo foecundo salo as Tacitus writeth In respect of which situation being strongly fortified by nature it is thought to be almost inuincible Whereupon Trebellius Pollio calleth it claustrum Ponticum The blocke-house of Pontus Orosius termeth it Principem gentium the soueraigne of all Nations Sextus Rufus Arcem secundam Romani orbis The second bulwarke or fortresse of the Romane Empire Procopius Arcem Europae Asiae obicem ponentem The Castle of Europe and barre against Asia Themistocles Euphrada Magnificentiae officinam The shop of all manner of brauery and courtlike fashions and Ouid he calleth it Vastam gemini maris ianuam The huge gate of the two seas to wit Propontis Mar di marmora and Pontus Euxinus Mar maiore For the rampart and wals of it which Pausanias and both the Dions so highly commend were so strong that the Athenians vsed in former times as the same Eustathius writeth to cary all their goods and treasure thither and there to bestow it holding it to be a place impregnable and not to be surprized by any enemy whatsoeuer Of the great felicity of this city you may read many things worth the obseruation in diuerse ancient writers especially in Polybius Herodian Xiphiline Dion Prusens and Themistocles Euphrada in his sixth oration who deemeth the citizens thereof to be most happie men both for the goodly riuer which passeth by it temperature of the aire fertility of the soile wherein it standeth capacious hauen and creeke of the sea gorgeous church and stately wals of the same Heerupon grew that daintinesse luxury drunkennesse and wantonnesse of these people which vices of theirs are noted by Athenaeus in the tenth booke of his Deipnosophiston and Aelianus in the foureteenth chapter of the third booke of his varia historia This city fortune often frowning vpon it was sometimes possessed of the Spartans or Lacedemonians after that it was vnder the command of the Athenians Then shaking off their yoke it began by a little and a little to chalenge vnto it selfe a kinde of soueraignty and freedome from any forren iurisdiction which it held for a while vntill Vespasian the Romane Emperour subdued it and reduced it vnto the forme of a prouince While it thus stoode vnder the command of the Romanes it was by Septimius Seuerus who held on Nigers side assaulted battered raced to the ground and of a goodly flourishing city made a poore and beggerly village and withall was adiudged to belong vnto the Perinthij But Antonius Caracalla Seuerus his sonne restored them to their ancient liberties and was called by the name of ANTONIA as Eustathius testifieth Yet for Antonia that I may note this by the way an ancient brasse coine of the Emperour Seuerus which I haue doth teach vs that it ought to be read Antoninia For vpon this peece of money was stamped ΑÎΤΟÎΕΙÎΙΑ ΒΥΖΑÎΤΙΩΠΣΕΒΑΣΤΑ that is Antoninia the Emperiall city of the Bizantini But after this it was againe wasted by Gallienus the Emperour and all the citizens and garrison souldiers thereof slaine and put to the sword Yet for feare least the Scythians Getes and other barbarous nations might breake in to the Romane territories on that side it was againe reedified repaired and fortified by the same Emperour But Constantine worthily in deed and name surnamed the Great did yet farre more strongly fortifie it and adorne it with the most goodly temple of Santa Sophia and moreouer gracing it with many stately ornaments and curious workes of Architecture which he caused to be brought out of Asia Africa Europe yea and from Rome it selfe and after his owne name by proclamation caused it to be intituled and called by the name of CONSTANTINOPOLIS that is Constantines city Item he tooke it from the
little beneath Memphis in the South is of all ancient Geographers Historians and Poets in respect of the forme and proportion of it called DELTA for it is as you see of forme triangular like vnto Δ the fourth capitall letter of the Greeke alphabet And this also of Ptolemey who was borne here and therefore knew the state of it best diuided into Great Delta Little Delta and Middle Delta or the Third Delta This Delta as Pliny testifieth of all the chiefe parts of the world was somtime accounted the Fourth and reckened vp amongst the ilands and was not esteemed as any portion of the continent Vnder Egypt also the three OSITAE beyond the Libyan mountaines are vulgarly comprehended yea and LIBYA it selfe to if a man may giue credit to Ammianus This countrey is watered with no other riuer than NILVS of all the riuers in the world the most famous and renowmed and therefore called knowen by the greatest variety of names for the ancients haue giuen this riuer many titles Some haue called it AEGYPTVS from whence the whole country tooke the name others OCEANVS the sea in respect of the greatnesse of it AETOS an eagle for the swiftnesse of the streame NIGIR MELAS or Melo SIRIS TRITON CHRYSORRHOAS Gilden-flood of the goodnesse and beauty of his waters and others DYRIS Orus Apollo writeth that the Egyptians in their language called it NOYVM that is as I thinke _____ sweet pleasant delightfull for so the impostor Mahomet vseth this word in the xxxij Azoara of his wicked Alcoran as also the Arabian paraphrast 2. Pet. 2.13 And R. Saadias Hagaon Gen 2.15 calleth Paradise Phardusi'nnaym which the forenamed beast at the 66. Azoara nameth Ginnati'nnaym The pleasant garden Iosephus calleth it GEON or Ginon for that as R. Salomon Yarhi the great Rabbine thinketh it runneth from his fountaine or rather rusheth on with great violence and hideous noise Arias Montanus affirmeth that in the Holy Scripture it is named PHISON because as the forenamed Iew sayth his waters do spread themselues swell and wax so high that they flow ouer the banks and water the whole land And SIHOR that is blacke or troubled for that the waters of the same issuing from a durty fenne with great violence oft breaking ouer into the medowes and marsh grounds by which it coasteth along for many hundred miles together are thicke and muddy The Georgians call it MAHARA that is swift or violent item BAHARI'NNIL the sea of Nilus The Africanes as Marmolius writeth commonly call it NIL that is in my iudgement _____ Nehil or Neil of the theame Nahal which in the Arabian dialect signifieth to be liquid thinne dissolued and apt to runne from whence in the Hebrew tongue is deriued Náhal a streame or swift water course And this opinion of mine Pomponius Mela the worthy Geographer doth seeme to patronage where he writeth that In horum finibus fons est quem Nili esse aliquibus credibile est Nuchul ab incolis dicitur videri potest non alio nomine appellari sed à barbaro ore corruptius c. In the confines of Ethiopia there is a spring which some do verily thinke to be the head of Nilus Nuchyl the inhabitants and countrey people do call it and it may seeme probable that they name it by no other name only the barbarous word is corrupted and otherwise pronounced of forreners c. The Abassines Ethiopians and other nations inhabiting neere vnto it do call it by diuers and sundry other names as thou mayest see more at large in our Geographicall treasury It vnladeth it selfe as most men thinke and all antiquity hath constantly affirmed into the Midland sea by seuen mouthes or very great floudgates Ptolemey in his time made mention of nine but of them two were false gates pseudostomata he termeth them then almost quite stopped vp Pliny speaketh of eleuen of which foure were false gates the other seuen were great and more renowmed Herodotus also mentioneth two false gates but in all he speaketh not of more than seuen with him Eustathius word for word agreeth And that which of these mouthes or falles are of this man held for a trueth in others are held for false and contrariwise The like difference there is about the names and proper appellations of these mouthes euen in the best approoued authours Pliny maketh Heracleoticum to be a diuers and distinct mouth from Canopicum in which notwithstanding it seemeth he is much deceiued yea and Diodorus Siculus doth flatly deny it affirming that Canopicum is otherwise named Herculeum or Heracleoticum All this difference about the names number and nature of these mouthes if I mistake not the matter arose in continuance of time from the change and alteration of places For euery man describeth them according to the situation of the sea coast as it then was in that time wherein he liued which by violence of tide and inundatious drifts of sand and shifting of the same backe againe in processe of time haue sometime one forme somtime another as is very likely and they do very well know which dwell neere to the sea who do neuer wonder to see riuers change their channels and leaue their ancient course to see their mouthes sometime to be quite dette vp with sand and to seeke new issues and channels where neuer none were before or to see them which in former times were not nauigable but full of flats and shelfs afterward to become deepe and able to entertaine ships of good burden Galen sayth that this riuer for goodnesse of water hath but few peeres Arethaeus the Cappadotian sayth that the water is thicke Plutarch in the eighth booke of his Conuiual calleth it turbidam troubled and muddy Statius in his fourth booke Amor. sayth that it is sweet and coole without any vnpleasantnesse in taste and therefore he addeth in the same place that the Egyptians do neuer feare any want or dearth of wine Diodorus Siculus sayth that for sweetnesse it doth surpasse all other riuers in the whole world beside which opinion of his Pescennius Niger an Emperor did long since auouch to be true when he thus answered his garrison souldiers demanding wine of him Haue ye Nilus and yet do ye demand wine A description of this riuer thou maist see in Claudian Of his inundation and ouerflowing euery yere beside others reade Strabo and the Panegyricke oration pronounced before Traian Emperour of Rome Item Achilles Statius and Heliodorus He that listeth and hath more vacant time to these may adde Plutarch in his treatise of mountaines Mountaines of Egypt beside those which Ptolemey mentioneth namely Montes Libyci Troicus Alabastrinus Porphyritis Smaragdus Aiaces Acabes Niger Basanites and Pentadactylus are diuers as Nitria Pherme Sinopius Climax Eos Lacmon Crophi and Mophi They haue many Fennes yet these two only Moeris and Maria are of name AEGYPTVS ANTIQVA Terra suis contenta bonis non indiga mercis Aut Iouis in solo tanta est fiducia Nilo
much the more neerely vnto him Pausanias saith that in Motya a city of Sicilia there was the statue or counterfet of this our Vlysses but by Nero the Emperour it was from thence transported to Rome in Italy And thus much of this braue Captaine Qui mores hominum multorum vidit vrbes who as the Poet writeth of him saw many mens maners and knew many cities Of whom also thus speaketh Ouid Si minùs errasset notus minùs esset Vlysses If great Vlysses had not strai'd he had beene more obscure But of him I will speake no more lest peraduenture with the Grammarians I bee hit in the teeth with that of Diogenes who said that while they did search diligently to know all the crosses and euils that befell Vlysses did forget their owne And moreouer that worthy admonition of wise Seneca where he saith Quid proderit inquirere vbi Vlysses errauerit quà m ne nos semper erremus What shall it auaile vs to seeke where and which way Vlysses wandred more then to restraine vs that we do not in like maner alwaies wander as he did And now it is high time to take penne from paper As for those coines which we haue spoken of before I wish thee to repaire to Goltzius and others which haue at large and peculiarly handled that argument A description of the RED SEA now vulgarly called The INDIAN SEA MARE ERYTHRAEVM or as the Latines call it MARE RVBRVM The Red Sea which heere we offer to thy view in this Mappe for as much as we can gather out of ancient writers stretcheth it selfe from the West as Liuy writeth along by the coast of Africa or Aethiopia euen vnto India in East yea and beyond that I know not how farre as Arrianus testifieth whereupon Ptolemey Pliny and Melado call it MARE INDICVM The Indian Sea But Herodotus calleth it MARE PERSICVM The Persian Sea Which Pliny doth seeme to iustifie to be true where he saith That the Persians do dwell along by the coast of the Red Sea between the coast of Africa and the iland Taprobana Strabo that worthy Geographer he calleth it MARE MAGNVM The Great sea who moreouer doth affirme it to be a part of the Atlanticke sea and that truly A part of this sea to wit where it toucheth the coast of that Aethiopia which lieth beneath Aegypt Pliny of the countrie Azania which at this day some do thinke to bee called Xoa nameth it MARE AZANIVM Where it ioineth with the Bay of Arabia it is of Ptolemey named HIPPADIS PELAGVS now called of some Archiplago di Maldiuar Item of the same Ptolemey it is otherwise called BARBARICVS SINVS The Barbarian bay I meane in that place where it beateth vpon Aethiopia and the iland Menuthesia now of the seamen generally called The iland of Saint Laurence but of that country people Madagascar and of Theuet Albagra There are two Baies or Gulfes as the Italians and Spaniards terme them of this sea much talked of in all ancient histories to wit SINVS PERSICVS The Persian Bay and SINVS ARABICVS The Arabian Bay which some not well read in old writers do for the most part call Mare Rubrum The Red Sea Very improperly being indeed but a part of that sea properly called the Red sea which we haue hitherto spoken of But why it was of the Greekes named Erythraeum and of the Latines Rubrum Red it is a great question amongst the learned not yet decided Some there are which do deeme it to haue beene called The Red Sea of the colour of the water but this of all late writers trauellers seamen and other eie-witnesses of good credit which haue in this our age euery day do saile through this Sea haue diligently viewed the same is improued and found to be altogether false Moreouer Qu. Curtius amongst the ancients doth plainly testifie that it differeth no whit in colour from other seas Some there are as Pliny writeth which do thinke that by reason of the reuerberation of the Sunne beames it seemeth to cast vp such a like colour to the sight of the beholders Others doe thinke that this is caused by reason of the colour of the sand or earth in the bottom of the same others do affirm it to be the very nature of the water Some do write that it was so named of king Erythrus Perseus sonne whose tombe as Quintus Curtius writeth did in his time remaine in a certaine iland of this sea not farre distant from the maine land Strabo calleth this iland Tyrina Pliny and Pomponius Mela Ogyris Arrianus Oaracta or else of a certaine Persian named Erythras as the forenamed Strabo giueth out Who as Pliny with him testifieth in a small barke or barge first sailed through this sea and discouered the same Which story also is at large handled by Agatarchides Yet our authour calleth him Hippalus who first found out the course to saile through the middest of this sea Pliny by that name calleth the wind by which they make their iourneis through this sea So called as is very probable of the inuentour Which wind the same authour in the thirteenth chapter of his 6. booke maketh the same that Fauonius is vnto the Latines Mela Agatarchides do call it a tempestuous stormy rough and deepe sea Pliny Philostratus Elianus Athenaeus do giue it the title of Margaritiferum the pearle-bearing sea And the same Pliny maketh it Arboriferum a tree-bearing sea For he writeth in the fiue and twentieth chapter of his thirteenth booke that it is full of groues and tall woods the toppes of whose high trees he affirmeth are seene much aboue the waters and therfore at high tide they vse to fasten their shippes vnto the toppes and at the ebbe vnto the roots of the same Item the same authour in the two and twentieth chapter of the sixth booke of his Naturall historie writeth that about Colaicum which also is called Colchi or as Solinus affirmeth about Tapobrana an iland not farre hence the sea is of a very greenish colour and so full of trees that their toppe boughes are barked and brushed with the rudders or sterne of those ships that saile this way Moreouer that trees do grow in this sea Megasthenes out of Antigonus de Mirabilibus doth affirme which Plutarch in his Naturall questions and againe in his booke de facie Lunae doth auouch to be true where he doth particularly nominate some of them to wit Oliue-trees Bay-trees and Plocamus which otherwise they call Isidis Capillus This also Strabo in the sixth booke of his Geography iustifieth to be true so doth the forenamed Pliny who teacheth vs that it is a plant much like to corall without leaues Agatarchides saith that it resembleth much the blacke rush Athenaeus out of Philonides the Physician writeth that the vine was first brought from the Redde-sea and planted in Greece In the eigth chapter of the fourth booke of Theophrastus his history of plants you may reade of diuerse
wals of this citie which are about three miles in compasse are not ancient although some doe write that at the entreatie of Queene Helena Constantine the Great caused them to be built Beside those many and large Suburbes without the wals there is ioined to it vpon the West the citie of WESTMINSTER and vpon the South by a faire stone bridge the BOROVGH OF SOVTHVVARKE equall for bignesse and multitude of people to many great and good cities So that London in this respect may iustly be called Tripolid ' Angliterra This Bridge was begunne first of timber and afterward in the time of King Iohn it was made all of Free-stone The foundation of that goodly Mynster or Cathedrall Church of Saint Paul was first laid by Ethelbert King of Kent z Yarmouth as we now call it a very goodly sea towne in the county of Norffolke situate at the mouth of the riuer Gerne Garienis whereof it tooke the name and was first called Giernemouth and then by corruption in processe of time Garmouth and Yarmoth It is inclosed almost on all sides with water vpon the West with the riuer aforesaid vpon the South and East with the maine sea only vpon the North it lieth open to the firme land vpon which side it is defended from the assault of the enemy by a very strong wall which together with the riuer doe make a kinde of Square figure longer one way then an other On the East side standeth a Block-house well furnished with great ordinance to defend the hauen and towne from pirates and sea robbers It hath but one Church but that is a marueillous faire great one with a very high Spire seene far off both by sea and land a What this towne should be and where it should stand I cannot say for certaine The letters in the Arabicke and the proportion of distance from Yarmouth and Grynsby doe directly point at Drayton in Northhampton-shire But because it is too far off from the sea and was neuer greater then now it is and for that I finde him so often faulty in those accounts I doe not beleeue that he meant that place The name commeth very neere to Torksey which is situate vpon the Trent and as Master Camden sath although now it be but a small towne yet in times past it hath beene much greater and more famous For in time of William the First as appeareth by Doomesday booke it had two hundred citizens and enioyed many great and large priuileges b Grimsby in Lincolnshire sometime a very great Marte towne much resorted vnto from all quarters both by Sea and Land so long as the hauen lay open ready to entertaine Ships of any reasonable burden But as the hauen did in continuance of time decay so the glory of the towne by little and little vanished and resigned vp her trade vnto Kingston vpon Hull her ouerthwarte neighbour which euer since the time of Richard the Second hath greatly flourished in whose daies of a small village and a very few poore Fisher-mens cottages it began to grow to that greatnesse that of a sudden it was not much inferiour to many prety cities c Yorke a very goodly citie situate vpon the riuer Ouse For beauty greatnesse strength riches and pleasure it is inferiour to none in all England but London only Old writers call it EBORACVM the Welchmen Ebrauc or Effroc the Saxons Eferwic And therefore I suspect that this my authour did write it _____ Efferwic not _____ Effradic but I alter nothing It is a very ancient citie oft mentioned in Roman Coines and histories whereby it is manifest that Legio sexta victrix the sixth conquering legion did ordinarily reside in this city The Emperours Seuerus and Constantius father to Constantine the Great so long as they abode in this I le did keepe their court heere and dying in these parts were buried in this city This Constantius being a very godly and religious Christian Prince made it first as our histories report a Bishops sea which Honorius Bishop of Rome afterward aduanced vnto the dignity of a Metropolitane or Archbishopricke which beside the large iurisdiction that it had heere in England had also vnder it all Scotland d Wiske it is called at this day It riseth in Richmond-shire not farre from Wharleton Castle as Christopher Saxto maketh me beleeue e I finde no mention at all of this place either in Master Camden or any other Onely in the same Saxton vpon the foresaid riuer some two or three miles aboue Northaluerton I finde Danby Wiske but whether our authour meant this or not I cannot tell But I would gladly learne of what place the Lord of Vescy tooke his name f Lincolne a large and faire city situate now vpon the North side of the riuer Witham called by Ptolemey and Antonine LINDVM by Beda Lindecollinum by the Normans as Master Camden testifieth Nichol. g This is very false For this riuer hauing hitherto from his fountaine bent his course Northward as if it meant indeed to vnload it selfe at Grimesby doth notwithstanding heere alter that determination and turning it selfe cleane another way at length falleth into the sea at Boston a place almost full South both from Lincolne and Grimesby h Durham situate vpon the top of an hill by the riuer Weare which runneth almost round about it and thereupon was called by the Saxons Dun-holme that is if we shall interpret it into English The hill-ile is no ancient city For the fiirst stone of it as our histories report was laid by the Monkes of Lindesferne in the yeere of our Lord 995. before that we find no mention of it William the First built the Castle vpon the top of the Hill which since that time was the Bishops palace i Ireland the greatest iland in these Seas Brittain only excepted for it runneth out in length from South to North about foure hundred miles and where it is narrowest it is well neere two hundred miles ouer But of this we haue spoken in another place k Denmarke we now cal it is for the most part inuironed and washed with the salt sea and therefore he doth not greatly erre in that he termeth it An Iland l Island if I be not deceiued which Solinus in the thirtie fiue chapter of his Polyhistor saith is two daies saile from Cathnesse the North cape of Scotland His words are these A Caledoniae promontorio Thulen petentibus bidui nauigatio est Those that doe trauell betweene the cape of Caledonia or Cathnesse and Thule doe make it two daies saile Item in the same chapter a little beneath he writeth that Ab Orcadibus Thulem vsque quinque dierum noctium nauigatio est From the Orkney iles to Thule are fiue daies and fiue nights saile Yet Island is not that ancient Thule as Master Camden in his Britania proueth at large The position and distances answer well to Thule but the quantity or bignesse argueth that he meant Island which is much farther off either from
which is from the head or fountaine of this riuer directly vnto the North Ocean it is diuided from Asia according to the opinion of Glarean And thus it beares the shape of a Peninsula which signifies a place of the earth almost disioyned and cut from the Continent and so well neere on euery side enuironed with waters as in the Table it selfe is manifest The head hereof Rome was whilome conqueresse of the earth The regions thereof as they are now called are Spaine France Germanie Italie Slauonia Greece Hungarie Poland with Lithuania Moscouia or more significantly Russia and that Peninsula which conteineth Norway Sweden and Gotland Among the Isles thereof the first place is due to Britany conteining England and Scotland then followes Ireland Groenland Frisland and Island all situate in the maine Ocean In the Mediterran sea it hath Sicilia Sardinia Corsica Candia Maiorica Minorica Corfu Negropont and others of lesse note the particular names and situations whereof are to be seene in the Table This our Europe besides the Roman Empire reuerenced of all the world hath in all if you adde those foureteene which Damianus à Goes reckens vp only in Spaine eight and twentie Christian Kingdomes whereby you may estimate the worthinesse of this region It is a place out of measure fruitfull and the naturall disposition of his aire is very temperate For all kindes of Graine for Wine and abundance of Woods it is inferior to none but comparable to the best of the others It is so pleasant and so beautified with stately Cities Townes and Villages that for the courage and valour of the people and seuerall nations although it be lesse in quantitie and circuit yet might it well be accounted and indeed of all ancient Writers hath it euer beene accounted superiour vnto the other parts of the World most renowmed also hath it beene both in regard of the Macedonian Empire and the great command and power of the Romans The praises thereof you may reade in Strabo who in his third booke and seuen bookes following hath most learnedly and excellently described it Peruse also other ancient Geographers Of late Writers amongst other things by the way Volateranus Sebastian Munster Dominicus Niger Georgius Rithaimerus in their Geographies haue endeuoured to paint it out in his colours But Pius the second Christopher Cella and Anselmus his brother haue described it a part and by it selfe Diuers Iournals ouer all Europe in a maner together with the distances of places haue beene committed to writing by Cherubin Stella John Herbacius and George Mayerus The like hath beene done by William Gratarolus in the end of his booke which is entitled De regimine iter agentium or A direction for trauellers AFRICA THis the Ancients haue diuersly distinguished but at this present it is diuided by Iohn Leo of Africa into foure chiefe parts Barbarie Numidia Libya and the Land of Negros BARBARIE which is accounted the best they circumscribe with the Atlantick Mediterranean seas with mount Atlas with the region of Barcha bordering vpon Aegypt NVMIDIA called by the inhabitants Biledulgerid and abounding with Dates for which cause the Arabians call it by no other name but the Date-bearing region is bounded Westward by the Atlantick Ocean Northward by mount Atlas it stretcheth East as farre as the citie Eloacat which is an hundred miles distant from Aegypt and the sandie Deserts of Libya embrace it on the South LIBYA the third part is named in the Arabian tongue Sarra which word signifies a Desert It beginnes East from Nilus and thence runneth West as farre as the Atlantick sea Numidia lies to the North of it and the Land of Negros to the South Now followeth the fourth part which they call NIGRITARVM terra either from the inhabitants which are of a blacke colour or from the riuer Niger that runneth thorow the countrey It is confined North by Libya South by the Aethiopick Ocean West by Gualata and East by the Kingdome of Gaoga And here we are to note that according to this their diuision all Africa is included within the Mediterran Atlantick and Aethiopick seas and the riuer Nilus wherefore Aegypt and Aethiopia are accounted parts of Asia which we notwithstanding thinke more properly to belong to Africa For the true Aethiopia containes at this day Presbyter Iohns Empire which by all late Writers is ascribed to Africa We therefore with Ptolemey iudge that it ought to be bounded by the Mediterran and Ocean seas rather than by any riuer whatsoeuer and so it hath the forme of a Peninsula being ioyned to Asia by an Isthmos or small neck-land which lies betweene the Mediterran sea and the gulfe of Arabia The South part hereof was vnknowen to our ancestours till the yeere 1497 whereas Vasco de Gama first doubling the Cape de buona speranza or of good hope and sailing about Africa came to Calicut in East India This Southern part by the Persians and Arabians is called Zanzibar At the foresayd Cape of good hope the inhabitants are exceeding blacke which we thought in no wise to omit because all men suppose the cause of blacknesse to be heat and the nearenesse of the Sunne wheras here the Sunne scorcheth no more than about the Streight of Magellan if we measure the heat of the place according to the position of the heauens and distance from the Equinoctiall line where notwithstanding the people are reported to be maruellous white But if we will needs ascribe this blacknesse to the scorching heat of the Sun let vs consider what makes the Spaniards and Italians looke so white whenas they are equally distant from the Equinoctiall with the inhabitants of the foresayd Cape namely the one towards the South and the other towards the North. Presbyter Iohns people are of a browne colour in Zeilan and Malabar the inhabitants are coale blacke yet all in one the same distance from the aequator and vnder the very same parallele of the heauens * And on the contrary why did Herodotus and Pindarus describe such as inhabited the same climate with themselues namely Colchis to be of a blacke colour and curled haire Herodotus in his Thalia makes the Indians blacke like the Aethiopians which the experience of our times confirmeth I know Herodotus will haue the cause hereof to be the seed of the parents which he sayth is not white as that of other people but blacke To whom Postellus also subscribeth and imputeth the originall of this blacknesse vnto Chams curse Against which opinion I haue nothing to allege Let the trueth of the matter rest vpon the authours credit But this a man may thinke more strange that in all America there were no blacke people found besides a few only in one place called by them Quareca What then is the efficient cause of this colour Is it the drinesse of the heauen or of the earth Is it perhaps some hidden propertie of the soile Or a kind of qualitie inherent to the nature of men
and according to the testimony of Peter Quirini Christopher Fiorouanti and Nicolas Michele who in this our Ocean suffered that horrible shipwracke which we reade of in the Italian volumes witnesse also Lewis Cadamosta who in his Epistles written about the yeere 1454 affirmes this city of Bruges to be a Mart inferiour to none else in all the North parts of the world Wherefore that the citizens of Bruges receiued the vs◠of the sea-compasse from the Italians and out of Italian translated the names of the winds into their owne language and that from them the other nations before mentioned borrowed this knowledge I see not well how it may be denied Of the nature and admirable vertue of the loadstone you may reade many notable things in Liuius Sanutus his description of Africa printed in Italian at Venice The isles or Salomon which in this table you see described about Noua Guinea were not long since discouered by Oliuer Mendanio after he had conducted his fleet out of the part of Lima in Perú had sailed ouer this huge Ocean as I find recorded in Iosephus Acosta his 1. book 17. chapter De natura nouiorbis MARIS PACIFICI quod vulgò Mar del Zur cum regionibus circumiacentibus insusisue in eodem passim sparsis novissima descriptio SPE ET METV GENIO ET INGENIO NOBILI DN NICOLAO ROCCOXIO PATRICIO ANTVERPIENSI EIVSDEMQVE VRBIS SENATORI Abrahamus Ortelius Regiae M t s geographus lub merito dedicabat 1589. NEVV SPAINE THis Prouince was about the yeere 1518 forcibly subdued to the Spanish gouernment vnder the command and conduct of Fernando Corlez who with the great slaughter of his owne people but farre greater of the inhabitants fighting for their liberty conquered the same It is a region rich of siluer and golde for it hath very many riuers yeelding sands or graines of perfect gold Vpon the coast of this countrey are many commodious fishings for pearle Salt lakes here are diuers the water whereof through the heat of the Sunne is conuerted into excellent salt Here is great abundance of Cassia fistula and a kind of fruit in the Mexican language called Cacao somewhat resembling an Almond which is with them very highly esteemed for hereof they make a kinde of drinke to their owne taste most delicate The seas and riuers belonging to this countrey abound mightily with fish Their riuers also breed Crocodiles whose flesh is food to the inhabitants In these places this creature is for the most part aboue twenty foot long It is a countrey very mountainous and beset here and there with most lofty and cragged rocks So great is the diuersity of languages in these regions that one cannot vnderstand another without an Interpreter The principall Colonies to be seene in this Table which in New Spaine haue been planted by the Spaniards are first Compostella the seat of a Bishop and of one of the Kings counsels Colima by another name called the city of the Purification Guadalajara a towne most famous and head of the Kingdome of New Gallicia Mechoacan a Bishops sea also Sacatula the city of Angels a mother-towne and a Bishoprick Mexico a Kingly city or rather Queene of all the cities in the New world situate vpon the banke of a lake or rather of a fenne yea the very ground-plot of this city is so fenny that you cannot come thither nor depart thence but ouer bridges and cawseys The lake adioyning is salt being six leagues long and fiue broad Fishes it hath none but very small ones which more aptly may be called wormes than fishes of whose putrefaction which is there caused by the heat of Summer the aire is sometimes so infected that it is most vnholesome dwelling there yet is it as much frequented with inhabitants and merchants as any mart-towne in Europe It is a large city for in compasse it containeth about three leagues The other lake adioining to this is fresh water and very plentifull of fish wherein also stand many townes There are likewise a great number vpon the banks of either lake In this city as Ierome Giraua reporteth there was by Pope Paul the third established the seat of an Archbishop in the yeere 1547. This citie was taken by the Spaniards 140 yeeres after the first foundation thereof Montezuma at the same time being King the ninth in number A wonder how in so few yeeres it should grow to such largenesse and magnificence The nature situation and customes of this citie and of the territory adiacent who desires more perfectly to know may reade the relations of Fernando Cortez Extant they are in the volume intituled Nouus orbis and in the volume of Nauigations printed at Venice in Italian but especially John Gonsaluo who in his little booke of China hath a most large description of this region You haue also many notable discourses hereof in the third Volume of M. Hakluyts English voyages HISPANIAE NOVAE SIVAE MAGNAE RECENS ET VERA DESCRIPTIO 1579. Lectori Partium longitudinis huius tabulae inituum non fumitur Ptolemaico more ab infulis Canarijs versus Oriente sed à Toletano Hispaniensis meridiano Occidentem versus Notularum circa Mexico explanatio a. Escalpucoleo b. Tucuba c. Istapalapa d. Ximaloaca e. Teutitlan f. Gucytitlan g. Mexicalcingo h. Culiacan i. Catlavaca k. Nicsquique l. Cinarantepec m. Xiquicpico n. Ocellotepec o. Vcicilapa p. Mimiapa q. Tecaÿuca r. Chalcontengo s. Tapalcapan t. Tisquiquiac u. Xilocingo x. Chiconantla y. Techcistlan z. Caltoca The Prouince of CVLIACAN THis Prouince of CVLIACAN is part of the kingdome of New Galicia It was discouered vnder the gouernment of Charles the fifth in the yeere 1530. In this region is one only colonie of Spaniards called The towne of S. Michael Villages here are very many built by the inhabitants all which before the Spaniards arriuall were at their owne libertie yeelding obedience to no King or Gouernour The region is indifferently furnished with things necessary Out of the mountaines is digged great abundance of siluer The inhabitants are addicted to war and robbery They that dwell vpon the coast employ most of their time in fishing but the vplandish people liue by hunting They goe naked couering only their priuities with a piece of Cotton They haue many languages They lodge for the most part in the open aire They are a most beggerly nation CVBA and HISPANIOLA THis Island of Cuba is so called by the naturall inhabitants but by the Spaniards Fernandina and Joanna and as Peter Martyr reports Alpha and Omega In length it extendeth East and West 300 Spanish leagues containing in bredth fifteene and in some places twenty of the said leagues The land is very mountainous but rich of gold and excellent copper Madder which the Apothecaries because it is very apt to die wooll and leather call Diers-madder is heere found in great abundance It is in all places beautified with thicke woods with riuers and pooles of fresh water albeit there are lakes naturally
duckats a yeere Besides here are in this church 20. masse-priests which from their number we call Vicenarios who for their nightly and daily orizons are allowed euery day amongst them all 200. duckats and aboue also there are 200. other priests who out of their priuate chapels do raise stipends sufficient for their maintenance Rich benefices in this diocesse there are to the number of 600 many whereof are valued at 1000. some at 2000. duckats by the yeere and of lesser cures which are called chapels or chanteries almost 2000. Here are likewise many cloisters of monks and nunnes wherein their religion and the study of their diuinity flourisheth most of them in yeerely reuenues being able to dispend 6000. duckats There stands a monastery of Carthusians most sumptuously built vpon the banke of Baetis within view of Siuill which hath 25000. duckats by the yeere Long it were to recken vp all their hospitals whenas within Siuill only there are aboue 120. very richly indowed many with 8000. and some with 15000. duckats of yerely income Thus much of this region or diocesse out of the relation of Don Francisco Pacheco Concerning Siuill and the territory thereto adiacent you may reade at large in the Iournall of Nauagierus The Kingdome of VALENTIA PTolemey calles the people inhabiting this part of Hispania Tarraconensis Heditanos Plinie names the region Edetania It seemes that in Strabo they are called Sidetani and in Liuy Sedetani Plinie also mentions the people Sedetanos and the region Sedetania but diuers from these as appeareth out of his third booke and third chapter In this tract stands the city of Valentia albeit Ptolemey ascribes it to the Cotestani a nation bordering not farre off From this city as from the principall all the whole region is denominated and it containes the ancient Hedetania Cotestania and part of Ilercaonia This prouince put on the title of a kingdome about the yeere of our Lord 788. as you may reade in Peter de Medina and Peter Antonie Beuthero It is situate vpon the Mediterran sea and is refreshed with the streames of Turia a riuer so called by Salust Priscian and Vibius by Pomponius Mela Durias and by Plinie Turium Now they call it Guetalabiar which is an Arabicke name imposed by the Moores and in English is as much to say as pure and cleare water It is a riuer not very deepe but in regard of the euerflourishing banks bedecked with roses and sundry kinds of flowers most exceeding pleasant It is on both sides from the very fountaine to the outlet naturally clad with beautifull and shadie woods euery where you may behold the Withy the Plane the Pine-tree and other trees neuer disrobed of their leaues so that Claudian wrote most truly of it Faire Duria with flowers and rosie banks adorn'd There is also the riuer Sucro which by a new name they call Xucar Two hilles here are among the rest one called Mariola and the other Pennagolosa that is The rocke of dainties wherunto from other places resort great store of Herbalists Physicians for vpon these hilles grow great abundance of very rare plants and herbs They haue also a siluer-mine at a place called Buriol in the way from Valentia to Tortosa In a place likewise named Aioder are found certaine stones interlaced with golden veines At Cape Finistrat there are yron-mines and so are there by Iabea About Segorbia there is yet mention of a quarrey from whence Marble was wont to be conueyed to Rome In Picacent they dig Alabaster and all the countrey ouer Allume Oker Lime and Plaister in great abundance But the greatest riches of this countrey consisteth in earthen vessels which they call Porcellan which may perhaps be the same that ancient Writers call Vasa Murrhina These are made in diuers places of this kingdome so curiously and with such arte as the best Porcellans in Italie whereof in all countreys such reckening is made can hardly be preferred before them Who desires to know more of the excellency of this region and how fertile it is of all things especially of Sugar Wine and Oile let him reade the 9. 12. and 13. books written by Bernardine Gomez concerning the life of Iames the first King of Aragon Among the cities of this kingdome Valentia is the principall and the sea of a bishop which bishop as Marinaeus Siculus and Damianus a Goes do report may dispend 13000. duckats by the yeere Amongst all the Valentias of Europe this saith Bernardin Gomez is called by the French Valentia the great for it containeth 12000. houses besides the suburbs gardens which haue as many houses almost as the city it selfe Peter de Medina writeth that in this city there are aboue 10000. welles of fountaine water An exact description thereof you may reade in Iohn Mariana his 12. booke and 19. chap. It is so beautifull as the Spaniards in a common prouerbe say Rich Barçelona Plentifull Saragoça and Faire Valentia Plinie cals it a colonie of the Romans He saith it is three miles distant from the sea That this city of ancient time was called Roma of Romus the king of Spaine Annius out of Manethon and Beutherus out of the Annales do report let themselues auow it In an ancient inscription it is named COLONIA IVLIA VALENTIA It retained the name of Rome saith the same Beutherus vntill the Romans subdued it Who hauing inlarged beautified the same called it Valentia a name signifying the quality of the place Here was a councell held in the yere of our Lord 466. It is a city of venerable antiquity where euen till these our dayes remaine many ancient marbles with inscriptions of the Romans grauen vpon them whereof some are in the custody of the said Beutherus and Ambr. Morales The territory of this city is for the greatest part inhabited by a people descended of the Moores retaining as yet the speech and conuersation of their fathers and grandfathers which I learned of that most worthie and famous man Frederick Furius Caeriolanus naturall of Valentia VALENTIAE REGNI olim CONTESTANORVM SI PTOLEMAEO EDETANORVM SI PLINIO CREDIMVS TYPVS Cum priuilegio ad decennium 1584. GADES otherwise called CADIZ CALIZ or CALIS-MALIS VNder the name of Gades Strabo Plinie and some other Writers giue notice of two islands Mela Solimus Dionysius and Ptolemey make mention but of one which together with the city they call Gadira They that will haue two Gades call the one The greater and the other The lesser This as writeth Plinie out of Philistides Timaeus and Silenus and Strabo out of Pherecides was named Erythia and Aphrodisea and they call it also Iunoes Island By the inhabitants also it was properly called Erythia and Cotinusa by the Carthaginians Gadir and the Romans named it Tartesson as the same Plinie writeth At this present there is but one only isle and that verie much diminished by the oceans violent waues which the Spaniards call Cadiz and corruptly Caliz and our countrymen I know not
also we haue borrowed this Table LIMAIGNE THe length of all this region which some ab alimonijs or victuals call Alimonia others of the fat slimie soile Limaigne being part of Auuergne which for shortnesse of time and in regard of the high hilles and low valleys and the crooked windings and turnings we could not exactly measure The length hereof I say from the bridge of olde Briuata as farre as Ganao abounding with Corne Wine Honie Cattell Horses Saffron Nuts Pot-hearbs Pastures Woods Fountaines Riuers Bathes Marle Lakes Siluer-mines Honourable families Strong fortresses and Rich merchandize stretcheth about twenty leagues and the bredth almost eight leagues But we describing only the more fruitfull and inhabited part do in the Table following comprehend about eight leagues in length and almost seuen in bredth placing the townes and villages according to the scale vnder-annexed Thus farre the Authour in a Treatise intituled A godlie and speculatiue Dialogue by him written in Italian where you may see the very Table which I haue here put downe In the lower part of this Table stands a mountaine with a small towne named Gergoie This is Gergouia in Aruernis neere the riuer Elauer whereof Caesar in his seuenth booke of the French warres maketh mention REGIONIS BITVRIGVM EXACTISS DESCRIPTIO PER D. IOANNEM CALAMAEVM LIMANIAE TOPOGRAPHIA GABRIELE SYMEONEO AVCT The Dukedome of ANIOV THe people and countrey of the Andegauenses are by Ptolemey placed in Gallia Lugdunensi The countrey at this present is called Aniou and the people Angeuins In times past it went vnder the name of an Earledome but since the yeare 1350. it hath beene adorn'd with the title of a Dukedome East it confineth vpon Tourain and Vendosme West it bordereth vpon Bretaigne Poictou bounds it Southward and the Counties of Maine and La Val on the North. It is a country not very large but for fruitfulnesse inferior to none other in France the wine of Anjou excelleth all other French wines Neither is it destitute of other commodities requisite either for the necessity or the pleasure of mans life being euery where beautified with Riuers Mountaines Woods and Medowes It aboundeth with cattell great and small and with fish All this their Riuers and Medowes affoord them Out of their Mountaines they digge Marble and a kinde of blew Slates wherewith they couer Churches and houses The common people call them Ardoises This Region is watered with so many Riuers Freshets Fountaines Fish-pooles Lakes and Pondes that some are of opinion it was heeretofore called Aeguada or Aguada of the abundance of waters for in the Aquitaigne tongue they call Water Aigues The principall Riuers besides others are Ligeris which the inhabitants do name Loire calling it likewise The Father of French riuers Into this Riuer within the compasse of Anjou do fall the riuers Vienne Diue Thouets Layon Leure Guiuatte Maine Seure Loir a riuer diuers from Ligeris for it falles thereinto and is called by late Writers Ledus Aution Oudon Maienne Brionneau Losse and Erdret c. So that there runne about fortie Riuers thorow this Prouince It hath diuers faire cities the principall whereof is called Angiers perhaps the same which in Ptolemey is named Juliomagus This being the head citie of all the Region is built on either side the riuer Meduan and ioyned together by a stone bridge The antiquitie hereof is euident out of certaine ancient ruines of a Theater which hang ouer the Citie and are called by the common people Brohan Heere sometimes are olde coines found Lewis the second in the yeere 1389. established an Vniuersitie in this place There be also other townes of note as Saumur Beufort Bauga c. Most of the premisses for the illustration of this Table we haue translated out of Belleforest his French Munster To whom he that will may adde Theuet Anjou ANDEGAVENSIVM DITIONIS VERA ET INTEGRA DESCRIPTIO Licino Guyeto Andegauense auctore Cum Priuilegio 1579. The territorie of PARIS commonly called THE ISLE OF France IN a certaine Iournall of France I reade this description of the territorie of Paris The Isle of France stretcheth from the towne of Saint Denis as far as Rossy and Montmorency and so it comprehends all the land within the winding nookes of Seine towards Normandie one way and towards Picardie another way The occasions of this name were as Andrew Theuet reporteth in that the Frankes comming out of Germanie planted themselues first in this place and here their Captaines tooke vpon them the title of Kings and also for that the Riuers Marne Seine Oyse do in a maner compasse it around Yet all the Region being comprized within these three Riuers pertaineth not to the said isle but only that part which is neere vnto Paris My opinion is that this diuision might be made when the sonnes of Clouis sharing the whole Kingdome limited and included within these bounds the dominions of him who bare rule at Paris and was only called the King of France Howbeit now this diuision is not obserued seeing that certaine Cities of Picardie Briè and other Prouinces are comprehended within the same But let vs heare the opinion of Belleforest also After the death of the great King Clouis France was diuided after a new maner for out of one King sprang many and he only was called The King of France who gouerned at Paris wherefore the Isle of France is the true and ancient iurisdiction of our Kings albeit Pipins posteritie beganne to neglect it and afterwards the Parisian territorie fell to them by inheritance who enioyed the Crowne of all France L'Isle de France PARISIENSIS AGRI DESCRIP The Dukedome of TOVRAIN THis region is not very large being on euery side so restrained with bordering Prouinces West thereof lieth Anjou and part of Poictou from the first it is seuered by the confines of Saumure and from the second by the riuer Creuse whereupon stands the city of Chinon subiect to this Dukedome of Tourain South also lies part of Poictou along the riuer Creuse to La port de Pilles which diuides Guienne from Tourain and Berry in like sort from whence it is separated by Chastillon situate vpon the riuer Indre East not far from Loire the riuer of Cher diuides it from the prouince of Blois and from part of Berry and North it is seuered from the territories of Maine and Vendosmois by the riuer Loire vpon which riuer is built the citie of Tours and it imbraceth the same on the part of S. Lazarus suburbs This riuer also bends his course to the towne of S. Anne and to the suburbe called Rich for East West and South it toucheth the riuer Indre and North all the region towards Anjou and Maine To the Dukedome and gouernment of Tourain are subiect these cities Chinon Lodun Touars Langestz Amboise Loches Chastillon vpon Indre Montrichard besides other places and fortresses of Barons But the cities which I haue named are of best note and as it were the
the territorie of Hundsruge together with this present Dukedome of Lorrain retaining as yet the ancient name Lotharingia imposed by Lotharius sonne to Ludouicus Pius vnto whose share it befell lying in the midst between Westrasia or as some vnskilfully call it Noastria which fell to Charles and Austrasia to Lewis Lotharius Brethren This therefore I thinke not amisse more largely to describe not in mine owne wordes but in the wordes of Symphorianus Campeggius sometimes a famous Physition of Lorrain LORRAIN saith he ioineth East vpon Alsatia commonly Elsas South vpon Burgundy West vpon Champaigne North it is bounded vpon the Forest Arduenna This region albeit compassed with loftie Alpes is notwithstanding so fat and fertile as it need no supply from the neighbour-prouinces it abounds with cattell great and small with meadowes corne wine fishpooles high woods healthfull bathes saltpits yron copper lead tinne siluer precious stones looking glasses Calcidons and is watered by sundrie riuers foure whereof are famous aboue the rest Mosa the first of these foure springing out of mount Vogesus of which mountaine a great and a good part of Lorraine is named Le bois and Le forest de Voige and running along by Neufchasteau a towne very commodious both for pleasant situation and wholesome ayer diuideth the duchie of Barre from Lorraine and casteth it selfe into one of the chanels of Rhene before it falleth into the sea Mosella the second beginneth Southeast not far from the towne of Rimeremont wherein is a monastery of Nunnes all gentlewomen endowed with large reuenues About six miles from hence are certaine hot-bathes whereunto resort great multitudes of people to cure themselues of sundrie diseases Then runnes it along with swift streames to the townes of Espinall Charmes Toul which in olde time was called Leuca and Mediomatrices now called Metz not farre from whence it falls into the Rhene at a city of Germany called of olde Confluentia and now Cobolentz Betweene these two riuers neere the towne of Vitell is a double fountaine seuered like a mans nosethrills from whence the small riuer Vena issueth which sometimes is sandy and sometimes miry and for the most part very vnseemely and forlorne the waters whereof are commonly dried vp in Iune except the pooles which the swelling and violent streames haue made so deepe Murtha the third riuer falling from certaine rockes of siluer-mines holdeth on his course through the valley of S. Didier wherein is S. Godeberts fountaine which is generally reported to be medicinable for many diseases The said riuer runnes along by the towne of S. Didier and then by the townes of Raon and Luneuill all which both for naturall situation and for rampiers and walles are places of singular defence Then followes the towne of S. Nicholas generally famous both for abundance of marchandise and multitudes of miracles Lower downe the riuer stands Nancey the principall towne of Lorraine a place for munition and fortification of great importance First it is compassed with two ditches of exceeding depth and a double wall also it hath foure most admirable bulwarks with plenty of warlike engins and artillery Murtha falles into Mosell And Sartha the fourth riuer running along the confines of Westereich a prouince subiect to Lorraine towards the East holdeth on his course by the townes of Sarburg Saralben Sarprucke with others and then falles into Mosell Now whereas Lorraine aboundeth all ouer with speciall commodities many of them we will omit and speake only of the most principall First therefore the mountaines of this prouince doe in all kind of mineralls excell euen the Pyreney mountaines wherein not to speake of the rest there are diuers siluer-mines so abounding with that kinde of mettall as it is incredible what commoditie it yeelds to the whole countrey There are also salt-mines out of which is digged most pure sauorie and snow-white salt which yeeldeth yerely to the Duke all charges deducted 100000. francks Heere is found likewise a kind of matter whereof they make looking glasses and drinking glasses the best by all mens confession in Europe nor is there in any place the like to be had Also Calcidons of so extraordinarie bignesse that I my selfe saw at the Bishops of Toul a great cuppe made of one whole piece Item the Lazul or Azure stone representing most excellent colours A minerall out of which the miners raise exceeding gaine In the valley of Voige are fountaines a matter memorable and not to be omitted so abounding with a kinde of pearles and precious stones as the greater part of Germanie doth vse them which all Lapidaries and Iewellers of other countries do not only approue but also preferre before the stones and pearles of the Indies There is a lake of foureteene miles in compasse stored with carps of huge bignesse for they are generally of three foot long and a foot broad which for pleasantnesse of taste are in mine opinion to be preferred before all other standing-water-carps in Europe The lake is fished with nets euery third yeere the fishing whereof as euery man knowes yeeldeth the Duke of Lorrain 16000. francks Moreouer Lorrain aboundeth with wheat wine cattell of all sorts woods excellent horses which surpasse the Turkish horses in courage the Spanish in swiftnesse and the English in stature In briefe for tall men and beautifull women and all things necessary for mans life it is inferiour to no other countrie Thus farre Symphorianus Francis Roseus very lately wrote a large volume of the pedegree and famous acts of the Dukes of Lorraine And I my selfe in mine Itinerarium or Iournall haue published some things of this Region not vnwoorthie the remembrance Lorraine LOTHARINGIAE NOVA DESCRIPTIO Scala milliariorum Lotharingicorum 1587. Cum Priuilegio decennali The County of BVRGVNDIE THere are two Burgundies the lower called Regia intitled with the name of a Dukedome whilome the countrey of the Aedui and the higher named Imperatoria adorned with the title of a Countie or Earledome commonly called LA FRANCHE COMTE that is to say The free Countie This of old the Sequani inhabited It is represented in this Table The confines hereof to the North are Lorraine and vpper Germany to the South Sauoy and Bresse to the West the lower Burgundie and to the East part of Switzerland It is at this present diuided into three partitions or gouernments The Vpper the Lower and that of Dole The cities of the vpper are GRAY one of the principall of the whole gouernment situate vpon the riuer Araris or Saone rich in sundry kindes of merchandise and brauely built On the one side it is endowed with most large and fruitfull fields VESOVL It hath strong walles beautifull houses and faire vineyards MOMBOSON IVSSEY and PALMA standing vpon the riuer Dubis or Doux PORT-SVR-SAONE vpon the riuer Araris or Saone with CROMARAY MONTGVSTIN and FAVLCOGNEY The cities of the lower Burgundie are SALINS a large citie so named in regard of certaine salt and high fountaines for here is excellent white
whereunto adioyneth a castle Some places here are also which in Dutch we call Vrijheden or Free townes which though they be not fortified with walles and ditches yet because they enioy the priuileges and immunities of Princes we thinke not altogether vnwoorthie the naming Osterwijck Orschot Turnhout Hoochstraten Duffel Walen Merchten Asche Wernen Duisbosch Hulpen Waure Braine Genappe Gheel Arendonce and Dormal Here are seuen hundred villages with parish-churches that haue steeples and belles a great many of which villages are adorned with titles of dignities Also vnder the gouernment and iurisdiction of Brabant are certaine regions beyond the Maese as namely the duchy of Limburg the countie of Dalem the state of Valkenburg c. Besides all which it hath many other places of importance but it is not our purpose here to make relation of all Iohn Seruilius published a briefe treatise as touching a conspiracie of the people of Guelders against this countrey of Brabant where you shall finde many furtherances to the better knowledge of this region But in Guicciardin his description of the Low countries you shall not only reade of these places but euen behold them with your eyes so curiously hath he described them The antiquities and memorable acts of this countrey my learned friend M. Iohn Gerard is now in hand withall All which we earnestly expect that he will ere long publish The ancient inhabitants of this region were called Ambiuariti and Aduatici Concerning whom reade Iohn Goropius Becanus his Becceselanis BRABANTIAE DESCRIPTIO Valkenborch MACHLINIAE VRBIS DOMINIVM Stemmate et eruditione claro Dn. Hadriano Marsselario patricio Antwerpiensi Ab. Ortelius dedicab L. M. Cum Imp. Reg. Brabantiae privilegio decennali 1591. NAMVRE THe region of Namur is at this present endowed with the title of an Earledome Whether it was thus named of the principall citie or that the city assumed this name from the region remaineth as yet vncertaine as likewise the originall of the word it selfe The inhabitants call it Namur and the high Dutch Namen but the true signification of the word they are vtterly ignorant of For those that affirme that an Idol called Nanus was of old worshipped and deliuered answers and oracles vpon the same hill whereon now the castle of Namure is situate and that afterward when Christian religion began to shine this Idol waxing mute or silent the whole region of Namure was so named of Nanus mutus do I thinke report fables without the authority of any approoued writers Meierus affirmeth that anciently it was called Neumur as much to say in Latine as Nouus murus a new wall Vpon this region do border the prouinces of Liege Brabant Henault and Lutzenburg It is watered by Maese and Sambre two nauigable riuers The country is neither mountainous nor plaine but raised here there into little hilles and depressed into valleys the woods whereof the greatest is called Marlaigne yeeld plenty of game for Gentlemen It abounds with things necessary for mans life Here are many yron-mines Here also they digge a kinde of stony or minerall coles which in Dutch we call Steenkolen the inhabitants as likewise the Ligeois for they are found with them also terme them Hoille the learned call them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as much to say as Stone-coles The nature of these stones is most wonderfull for whereas oyle increaseth the flame of all other fewell these burne more vehemently by casting on water and are quenched with oyle With these coles the inhabitants and bordering nations for they are transported hence into other countries do make lusty fires and Black-smithes do soften their yron better with this than with any other fiering Here are quarries also out of which are cut marbles of exceeding hardnesse both blacke browne and particoloured wherewith the churches houses of the regions adiacent are maruellously adorned By meanes of which marbles the people of Namure reape no small benefit This county hath foure walled townes Namure Bouuignes Charlemont and Vallencure NAMVRE as hath beene said is the principall city and of late is become the see of a Bishop it is right commodiously situate namely at the confluence or meeting of the riuers Maese and Sambre it hath bridges to passe ouer both riuers Here is the chiefe tribunall of iustice for the whole region BOVVIGNES stands vpon the Westerne banke of Maese a towne in times past glorious for building and populous for inhabitants but now so deformed and ruined with often warres as it hath lost the greatest part of her beauty CHARLEMONT is a most impregnable castle so named and built by Charles the fift neere the banke of Maese on the top of an hill by a village called Giuet Neither is VALENCVRE a towne of small moment Also within this county besides diuers Abbies there are 82. villages of which Floreu Vascie Samson and some others are so large and beautifull as they may well be compared with townes This region of old bare the title of a Marquesate but about the yere 1200. it was conuerted into an Earledome The people are very warlike and most loyall to their Prince They speake French This region as the rest of the Lowe countries is exactly described by Guicciardine NAMVRCVM Comitatus Iōes Surhon describ Cum Imp. et Regiae M t is priuilegijs 1579. HENAVLT LEssabaeus writeth vpon what ground I know not that this Prouince was of old called Pannonia because the rusticke god Pan was here worshipped then Saltus carbonarius or The cole-forest and afterward The lower Picardie But at length it was named Hannonia of the riuer Haysne that runnes thorow the midst of it The inhabitants call it Henault and the Germans Henegow which in the ancient language of the place signifies The field of Hainault For Gow in Dutch signifies a field Another deriuation also of the name of this countrey is produced by Carolus Bouillus in his discourse of the variety of vulgar languages To the West of this Prouince by Flanders and Artois on the North Brabant and Brabant againe with part of Namure and Liege vpon the East and South it is bounded by Champaigne a Prouince of France A country as pleasant and as well stored with woods lakes fountaines medowes and pastures as any other in all these parts The inhabitants are warlike and towards their Prince most loyall and seruiceable Their libertie or freedome they vsually boast of in a common prouerbe saying Pays de Hainault tenu de Dieu du soleil that is The Prouince of Henault holds of God and of the sunne Which prouerbe Nicolaus Brontius in a discourse of his published in commendation of this region interpreteth in two Latine verses to this effect Star-guiding Ioue and Phoebus bright Of this place only challenge right In length it conteineth about twenty and in bredth sixteene miles In which space as Guicciardin reporteth it comprehends foure and twenty townes and aboue nine hundred and fiftie villages or hamlets Robert Caenalis reckons vp in this
The greater part of Flanders was from the beginning vnder protection of the French Kings but now it is at libertie and absolute of it selfe being released by Emperour Charles the fift Earle of Flanders who in the treatie of Madrid quite shooke off the French yoke This region Guicciardine hath most diligently described and Iacobus Marchantius most learnedly You may reade also Iacobus Meierus his ten tomes of Flanders affaires Ad autographum Gerardi Mercatoris in hanc formulam contrahebat parergaque addebat Ab Ortelius ZELAND LEuinus Lemnius of Zirichzee in his booke De occultis naturae miraculis Of the bidden secrets of Nature amongst other things writeth thus of Zeland his natiue country That this Marine tract saith he was notvnknowne vnto the ancients it may out of Cornelius Tacitus easily be gathered although not by the same name that at this day it is knowne by but of a custome and common kind of salutation and speaking one to another which acquaintance and friends of this prouince do vse at their meetings therefore he calleth them by the name of MATTIACI when he thus writeth In the same iurisdiction are the Mattiaci a nation very like the Bataui but that those in regard of the situation of their countrie are more desperate and couragious Whereby he giueth to vnderstand that although they are next neighbours and do border vpon the Bataui or Hollanders so called of the hollownesse and lownesse of the ground so that they might iustly be accounted one and the same people yet are only distinguished by the name of their customary saluation and being neerer the Sea are more hardie and audacious as indeed they are and for manhood witte policy craft deceits cunning in buying and selling and diligence in getting and waies to enrich themselues they do farre excell them And in that hee calleth them Mattiaci I conceiue it that they were not so named either of any place or captaine but of that fellowlike salutation as I said and vsuall maner of speaking one to another vsuall amongst them to witte of Maet which in common speach and friendly meetings signifieth a fellow and companion in all our actions bargaines contracts and dangers of all our purposes counsailes labours and trauailles a copartner and consort in any thing whatsoeuer we take in hand or go about c. For the name of Zeland is not ancient but is lately inuented and made of Sea and Land as who would say Sea-land a country or land bordering vpon the sea for it is enclosed round with the ocean consisting of fifteene Ilands although it be not long since the raging Sea did great hurt in this country by whose violence and ouerflowing a good part of Zeland his dammes walles and banks being rent and broken downe was ouercome of the salt-salt-water and laid leuell with the sea notwithstanding certaine of them do remaine of which especially three do continually wrestle with the boisterous billowes of the sea and do very hardly defend themselues with infinite costs and charges against this rude and vnruly element Of these first Walcheren Walachria doth offer it selfe to the eie of such as do saile to these coasts so named either of him that first entered and inhabited in it or as I gesse of the Gaulls Galli which much frequented this country who of the Low-countrie-men are yet called Walen or of that part of Brittaine which lieth vpon the West side of it and is called Wales the most gentleman-like and brauest nation you may beleeue him amongst the English and descended also from the Gaulles which their language as yet doth manifest c. From hence Northward or somewhat declining toward the East is Scouwen Scaldia the Latines call it of the riuer Sceldt which runneth by it and heere falleth into the sea c. Suytheuelandt so named of the situation of it toward the South to distinguish it from another distant from it Northward and therefore called Noortheuelandt a large and most goodly tract of ground coasting along the shore of Flanders and Brabant although of late yeares hauing suffered great dammage and losse it is now much lesse and narrower Thus farre Lemnius Tritthemius in the Annalles of the Franks nameth Middleborough the chiefe city of these Ilands Mesoburgus Meyer calleth it Mattiacum more like a Latinist then a true Geographer More of these thou maist read in the forenamed Lemnius who hath most excellently well described all the Ilands of Zeland and the cities of the same To these if thou wilt thou maist adioine Lewis Guicciardine and I know not what els thou canst seeke for further satisfaction There are also certaine Annalles of these Ilands written in the mother tongue by Iohn Reygersberg But for an incomme thou maist also to these former adde the descriptions of the cities of the Low-countries done by Adrian Barland Of the people of this prouince these verses are commonly spoken Crescit nequitia simul crescente senectâ In Zelandinis non fallit regula talis The worse they wax as they grow old In Zelanders this rule doth hold These Ilands are situate between the mouthes of the riuers Maese and Sceldt bordering on the North vpon Holland on the East vpon Brabant on the South vpon Flanders on the West vpon the Germane sea Iames Meyer thinketh that Procopius calleth these Arboricas Yet Petrus Diuaeus is of opinion that this place of Procopius is corrupt and for Arborichas it ought to be read and written Abroditos That these are those Ilands I do verily beleeue vnto which Caesar in his sixth booke De bello Gallico affirmeth that he forced a part of the army of Ambiorix Prince of the Eburones which as his owne words do giue to vnderstand did hide themselues in Ilands which the continuall motion or ebbing and flowing of the sea had made It is also very probable that Lucane in his first booke aimed at these Isles in these his verses Quaque iacet littus dubium quod terra fretumque Vendicat alternis vicibus cùm funditus ingens Oceanus vel cùm refugis se fluctibus aufert Ventus ab extremo pelagus sic axe volutat c. They come in troopes amaine From where th' vncertaine shore doth lie that is nor sea nor land But both by course as raging Tethys flow'th and ebb'th againe Or as the wind with rowling waues all calm'd doth stand From North to South thus carrying to and fro c. And that which the same Authour in his ninth booke sometime did speake of the Syrtes or Quicksands one may now not altogether vnfitly applie to these Ilands where he thus speaketh Primam mundo Natura figuram Cum daret in dubio terrae pelagique reliquit Nam neque subsedit penitus quo stagna profundi Acciperet necse defendit ab aequore tellus Ambigua sed lege loci iacet inuia sedes When as this massie world by Nature first was fram'd A doubtfull case it seem'd how God would haue it nam'd For neither could
two hundred or three hundred faile of Merchants shippes hulks they call them to ride heereat anchor Therefore this city for traffique is commonly held to yeeld to none but Antwerp ENCKHVISEN vpon that sea which they vulgarly call in their language Suyderzee Famous euen in forren countries for the building of great shippes HOORN situate also vpon the same bay Heere in May is kept a faire where there is sold such infinite store of butter and cheese as is wonderfull ALKMAER this place for plenty of butter and cheese doth excell all other cities of this prouince PVRMERENDE famous for the castle or palace of the Count Egmond EDAM for building of shippes and good cheese deserueth also to be remembred amongst the rest Moreouer MVNNEKENDAM WEESP NAERDEN and WEERT may not be forgotten OVDEVVATER heere groweth great store of hemp so that heere they make almost all the nets ropes and cables which the Hollanders and Zelanders do vse in fishing SCOONHOVEN as who would say At the faire Orchards Here is continuall fishing for Salmons where also is held a Staple of this commodity as we said there was of wine at Dordrecht Next after these do follow ISELSTEIN VIANEN Item LEERDAM ASPEREN and HVEKELEN three little cities round in a circle vpon the riuer Lingen not about 500. pases one from another GORICVM and WORICHVM situate vpon the banke of the riuer Wael one ouer against another Gorichum hath a very goodly and beautifull castle A man may iustly call this town a city of store of all maner prouision such a market is heere daily kept of such things as are necessary for the sustenance of mans life which are from thence transported by shippe vnto other countries but especially to Antwerp Lastly there are HVESDEN ROTERODAM SCHIEDAM and both the MOVNTS the one known by the name of S. Gertrude the other of the number of Seuen Seuenbergen I meane and Geertruydenberge for so they call them Other towns there are which sometime were walled which although at this day we do now see them to want either by the rage of violent warre or by reason of other misfortunes yet they still enioy their old liberties and fredoms Of this sort Medenblick Beuerwijck Muiden Neuport Vlaerdingen and Grauesande Moreouer in this prouince there are aboue foure hundred villages amongst the which the Haghe which they call Earls Haghe doth farre excell the rest This town Guicciardine thinketh for bignesse wealth beauty and pleasant situation to surpasse all other in Europe whatsoeuer for it conteineth two thowsand houses of which the Princes pallace built like a castell fortified with a wall and dich where the Priuy courts of Iustice are held is one Neere vnto is a darke or thicke grone which by reason of the singing of birds and sight of Deere is both to the eares and eies most pleasant and delightfull I might more iustly call it Comopolis a citie like town and may boldly compare it with Ctesiphon a borough in Assyria situate vpon the riuer Tigris much magnified of all ancient writers of which Strabo writeth that that town is equall to a city for command and bignesse and was the place where the Parthian kings did vse to winter when they were desirous to spare the city of Seleucia Vnder the Iurisdiction also of Holland are certaine Ilands as Voorn with the towns Geervliet and Briele Goereden or Goere with a town of the same name Somersdijcke Tenel diuers others The diocesse of Vtrecht gouerned not long since by a Bishop in which were 5. cities yeelded it selfe to be subiect to the iurisdiction of Holland in the time of Charles the fifth Emperour of Rome This country is so enclosed with the sea seuered by riuers lakes creeks and ditches whereby it is diuided as it were into certaine plots and quarters that there is no city nor village heere to which one may not go aswell by water as by waggon Neither is there any place in the whole prouince from whence one may not easily in three houres space go to the sea Chrysostomus Neapolitanus hath described this Olland for so he writeth it in an eloquent letter of his directed to Counte Nugarolo Of this read the history of Holland compiled by Gerardus Geldenhaurius and Cornelius Aurelius as also Peter Diuey but especially Hadrianus Iunius his Batauia Of the wonderfull store and abundance of this country read Lud. Guicciardine Of the ruines of the Roman armory or storehouse of munition which the country people call The Brittish castle which is vpon the shore of the Germane ocean at a village called Catwijcke opzee not far from the city Leijden and of the inscriptions in marble there found we haue not long since set forth a peculiar treatise dedicated only to that argument Of the prouince of Vtrecht which now is vnder the command of Holland and is likewise described in this Mappe see the history of Lambertus Hortensius Monfortius HOLLANDIAE ANTIQVORVM CATTHORVM SEDIS NOVA DESCRIPTIO AVCTORE IACOBO A DAVENTRIA FRIESLAND THat the Frisij a most ancient nation did long since inhabit along the sea coast neere the mouth of the riuer of Rhein where also at this day they dwell it is very apparant out of the records of ancient writers For Ptolemey placeth them aboue the Busactores or Busacteri the people of that prouince which now is called Westfalia as some thinke between the riuers Vidrus they call it Regge and Amasius now called Eems Tacitus who reporteth that they were of good account amongst the Germanes and along by the sea coast to dwell on ech side the Rhein diuideth them according to their power and greatnes of command into Maiores and Minores the Greater and the Lesser hee moreouer affirmeth that they dwell round about certaine huge Lakes such as were capable of the Roman fleet The same authour nameth certaine Frisios Transrhenanos Frieslandmen dwelling beyond the Rhein which he saith did rather mislike the auarice of the Romanes then their command Iulius Capitolinus in the life of Clodius Albinus the Emperour saith that these Transrhenane Frieslanders were by the same Clodius Albinus discomfited and ouerthrowne Pliny mentioneth certaine Ilands of the Frieslanders insulas Frisiorum in the riuer of Rhein and the Erisciabones a kind of people between Helium and Fleuum two mouthes of the Rhein where it emptieth it selfe into the maine sea It is manifest therefore that the Frisij anciently did not passe the riuer Eems but at this day they are further spred Eastward almost as farre as the riuer Weser the old Geographers called it Visurgis Who also otherwise of them sometime were designed by the name of the Chauci or Cauchi for diuers authours write it diuersly it is out of all doubt And beside these vp higher euen in Denmarke in the confines of the little prouince Dietmarsh there dwell a people vulgarly knowne by the name of Strandt Vriesen that is Frieslandmen inhabiting vpon the sea coast These it may be were those which Ptolemey calleth Sigulones
but two walled cities namely Eemden and Awricke Of which EEMDEN situate at the mouth of the riuer Eems is the common Mart-towne of the whole prouince for concourse of Merchants especially famous which indeed is caused by the commodiousnesse and opportunity of the hauen which doth thrust it selfe so farre vp into the heart of the city at such a great height and depth that it doth easily receiue and entertaine great shippes full laden with sailes stricken into the very middest of the same This city is much beautified with the sumptuous palace of the Prince a gorgeous Church the Yeeld hall and the goodly houses of the priuate citizens AVRICK by reason of the woods and groues which on all sides almost do inclose it is inhabitd for the most part of Gentlemen and Noblemen where they recreate and delight themselues with Hawking and Hunting In the territorie of this city there is as Kempius reporteth a place called Iyl enclosed round with a wall beset with bushes a commodious dwelling for Hares and Deere in which as in a Parke or warrein they maintaine a great number of these kind of beasts which none dare take vnder a great penalty but they are reserued for the Earles disport and pastime when he is disposed to recreate himselfe with hunting In the confines also of this city Awricke is a little hill rising somewhat high commonly they call it Obstalsboom or Vpstalsbom where the seat of Iustice or Court leet for the whole shire is ordinarily held Heere they were wont euery yeare out of all the Zelands to meet in the open and wild fields and there by the most skilfull and approued lawiers such as best knew their customs and lawes to end and determine all controuersies arising between man and man In this precinct also are diuen castles villages and farms Of hamlets and end-waies such is the number that oft times one doth touch another The greatest part of which both for beauty of their houses and streets as also for multitude of inhabitants and strangers do so excell that they may foe honour and greatnesse contend with diuers cities of Germany The people do giue themselues either to traffique as Merchants or to get their liuings by occupations and handy-crafts or by playing the husbandmen and tilling the ground With their neighbours and forreners they speake in the Dutch tongue amongst themselues they vse a peculiar language proper to that nation and not vnderstood of strangers They are comely apparelled yea euen the very country people so that a man would take them to be citizens The women weare a kind of attire and apparell much differing from that of other nations They bind vp all the haire of their had into one locke and that set out with diuers siluer and gilt spangles and buttons they let to hang behind their backe Their head they bind vp in Summer with a caull of red coloured silke behung with siluer spangles but in the Winter they weare an hood of green cloth wherewith they do so couer their whole head that skarsely one may see their eies this kind of attire they call an Hatte Their vpper garment huick of loose gowne which they weare abroad from the head to the foot is pleited with many small pleits and is so stiffe with siluer and gilt wire or plate wouen into it that when it is put off it will stand vpright This sometime is made of red sometime of green cloth In this country of East-Friesland there are also two other counties the one called Esens the other Ieueren bearing the names of their chiefe towns Of the situation of this prouince nature and maners of the people read Vbbo Emmius FRISIA ORIENTALIS RIDERIAE PORTIONIS facies ante inundationem qui postea sinus maris factus est DENMARKE SAxo Grammaticus hath thus described Denmarke DENMARKE saith he parted in the middest by the boisterous sea conteineth a few small parts of the maine continent seuered and disioined one from another by the breaking in of the ocean winding and turning it selfe diuers waies Of these IVTIA Iuitland is in respect of the greatnesse and beginning in the enterance of the kingdome of Denmarke Which as it is in situation first so running out further it is placed in the vtmost borders of Germany From whose company it being parted by the intercourse of the riuer Eydor it runneth with a larger breadth toward the North euen to the banke of the frith of Norwey he calleth it Fretum Noricum In this is the bay of Lemwicke Sinus Lymicus abounding with such store of fish that it alone yeeldeth as much prouision of victuall to the inhabitants as all the whole country beside To this is adioined FRESIA Strand Friesen a prouince much lesser which lying more low then Iuitland in plaine and champion fields receiueth from the sea ouerflowing it great strength and heart and is very settile for come Whose inundation or violent tide whether it do bring to the country people more profit or dammage it is hard to say For in tempestuous weather the Sea breaking in through the creeks wherein the water was wont to be contained such a world of waters oft times doth follow and come into the country that diuers times it runneth ouer not only the fallow fields but drowneth also whole families with their goods and cattell After Iuitland the ile FIONIA Fuinex doth follow vpon the East which a narrow arme of the ocean sea doth seuer from the maine land This iland as vpon the West it looketh toward Iuitland so vpon the East it hath the ile SEELAND Sialandia he calleth it an iland much commended for the great abundance of all maner of necessary things that it yeeldeth which for pleasant situation is thought to excell all the prouinces of this kingdome and is supposed to be in the middest of Denmarke indifferently situate between the one end of the same and the other Vpon the East side of this an arme of the ocean runneth between it and SCONE Scania Scandinauia Basilia and Baltia called by diuers authours a part of Norwey or Swedland This sea yearely affoordeth great gaine to the Fishermen For this whole bay or gulfe of the sea is so full of all sorts of fish that the fishermen oft times do catch such store and therewith they so fraight their boats that they haue no roome to stirre their oares neither do they heere vse any nets or other meanes to take the fish but many times they are taken only with the hand Moreouer HALLAND and BLIEKER Blekingia he nameth it two prouinces issuing forth from the maine land of Scone like two armes from one and the same body of a tree are by many spaces and by-corners adioined and knitte to Gotland and Norwey Thus farre Saxo Grammaticus See also Albert Crantzius Sebastian Munster and the Ecclesiasticall history of M. Adams The kingdome of NORVVAY is subiect to the crowne of Denmarke as also the ile GOTLAND Item if you will giue credit to Marke
dispute of the Common-wealth and that the like tumults haue bereft many cities of their libertie and brought great calamities vpon them Now if any quarrell or dissention arise among the common sort it is not referred to the Masters or Wardens of their crafts and mysteries but to the Senatours themselues who presently appoint two arbitratours to search into the cause and to do their best to compound it If they can not bring it to agreement then it comes before the Senate who hauing awarded the matter do vnder a grieuous penaltie impose silence to both parties With great seueritie they punish fightings brawles iniuries and priuate quarrels for the maintenance of publike peace insomuch as a man would thinke that Minos and Rhadamanthus gaue dayly sentence vpon their iudgement seats Thus farre Pighius concerning the originall the magistrates and the common wealth of this citie More you may reade in the same authour The territories adiacent being naturally barren and sandie are by the industrie of the people made fruitfull In the same territorie stands Altorff where not many yeeres since the States of Nurenburg instituted an Vniuersitie Nurenburg is watered by the riuer Pegnitz which it crosseth with many stone-bridges In compasse it containeth eight miles It is compassed with a double wall whereon are 183. turrets besides castles and fortresses Concerning the originall situation maners and customes of this citie you haue a notable discourse written by Conradus Celtis a Poet laureat BRAVNSVICENSIS ET LVNEBVRGENSIS DVCATVVM VERA DELINEAT NORIMBERG AGRI FIDISSIMA DESCRIP Habet urbs Nurenberga plateas et vicos 52. puteos aquarum 16. fontes ex arborum truncis emanantes 12. pontes lapideos 11. publica balnea 13. Cum priuilegio decennali Imp. Reg. Cancel Brabantiae 1590. FRANKENLANDT FRANKENLANDT is partly plaine and partly mountainous the mountaines are not very steepe nor the plaines very fruitfull being for the most part sandy In many places the hilles be set with vines do yeeld pleasant and delicate wine especially about Wirtzburg There are great store of woods and much hunting The country is subiect to many gouernours notwithstanding they call the Bishop of Wirtzburg Duke of Frankenlandt The Bishops of Mentz and of Bamberg haue many places here And the Count Palatine enioyeth a great part Here the Marqueses Orantes are seated And here are many imperiall cities also As touching Norimberg it is doubtfull whether it belongs to Frankenland or Bauaria by the name Bauaria should seeme to chalenge it For Norimberg is as much to say as Mons Noricus The Norick hill whereby it appeareth that it was the city of the Norici And after the Norici succeeded the Boiari or Bauarians and now that portion of countrey that lies betweene Danubius and Norimberg is called Noricum Howbeit the city is in the diocesse of Bamberg which belongeth to Frankenlandt The inhabitants of Norimberg will be accounted neither Bauarians nor Frankes but a nation differing from both It is a stately city with churches castles and houses most sumptuously built It stands vpon the riuer Pegnitz in a barren and sandy place which increaseth the peoples industry for they are all either artizans or merchants so that they are exceeding rich and beare a great name in Germany It is a place most fit for the Emperours court a free city and seated almost in the midst of Germany Betweene Bamberg and Norimberg lies Forchaim a towne famous for snow-white bread The inhabitants suppose that Pilate was here borne Thus farre Aeneas Siluius in his description of Europe Reade also Iohannes Aubanus Hermannus Comes Nuenarius Tritthemius the Abbat and Iohn Auentinus who thinks that the principall city thereof Wirtzburg was of old called Poeonia THE BISHOPRICK OF MVNSTER OF this Bishopricke thus writeth Sebastian Munster in his Cosmography Charlemaine erected a third Bishopricke in the midst of Saxonie now Westphalia in Myningrode a place which afterward in regard of a famous Monastery there founded was called Munster and there he ordained as Bishop one Ludgerus borne in Frisland Whose successour Hermannus consecrated the Monastery and Church on the other side the water to the honour of the blessed Virgin Mary Which Monastery in short time so mightily increased and became so famous that it gaue name both to the City and Bishopricke so that the old name of Myningrode being abolished by little and little it began to be called the City and Bishoprick of Munster which name remaines euen till this present day Hitherto Munster out of Crantzius Concerning this Bishoprick and that of Ozenburg reade the Saxonie of Albertus Crantzius and Hamelman his commentaries of Westphalia This City anno 1533. receiued great dammage by the Anabaptists who expelling the citizens vsurped the same and chusing a King out of their rabble they held it almost a yeere against the Archbishop of Colen and the Duke of Cleue who besieged it with a strong army But the Bishop at length growing Master punished both them and their King as they deserued FRANCIAE ORIENTALIS VVLGO FRANCKENLANT DESCRIPTIO AVCTORE SEBAST A ROTENHAN MONASTERIENSIS ET OSNABVRGENSIS EPISCOPATVS DESCRIPTIO Auctore Godefrido Mascop Embricense Cum priuilegio BOHEMIA IOannes Dubrauius in his Bohemian story describeth this region in maner following Bohemia is situate in Germanie East it extendeth to Morauia and Silesia and west to Bauaria Austria bordereth to the South as Saxonie and Misnia do Northward It is in forme of a Theater enuironed around by the forest or woods of Hercynia Wherefore there is no great difference between the length and the bredth containing not much aboue 200. miles a piece Charles king of Bohemia who afterward was Emperour diuided it into 12. regions of which one only he named after the riuer Vultaw that runneth through Prage the other eleuen he called by the names of their principall townes some of them being so harsh of pronunciation that a man shall hardly speake them vnlesse he be a Bohemian borne or very skilfull in the language The chiefe Bohemian townes lying towards Morauia are Mutha Chrudima Konignigretz Pardubitz Litomitz Towards Bauaria you haue Glatow Domazlitz Misa and Tachow On the side towards Austria the principall towne is Buduitz with Cromlawe Trebon Hradeck as likewise on the Misnian side stand Pons Cadana Chomutawe Austia and on the Silesian quarter Iaromir Glacitz Curia and some others In the heart of the countrey the principall townes of note are Cuttenberg Kolim Pelsin Veron Zateckz Launa Slana Lytomerick and Tabor But the head citie of all is Prage being so great as it containeth three faire cities within it namely the new the old and the little towne which is disioyned from the two former by the riuer Vultaw Their Buildings both Publique and priuat are stately and magnificall This city hath two castles one called Vissegard whilom the Kings palace but now waste and almost desolate by meanes of ciuile warres Again that other castle that ouer looketh the little towne as it is named so it
Nigra and that of Switta whereon standeth the city Brin next in dignity to Olmuntz also Thaysa which glideth along by the city Znaim famous for the death of Sigismund the Emperour and lastly Igla passing by the city Igla rendreth vp his owne and his neighbours substance to the great and renowmed Danubius But the riuer Odera springing not far from Olmuntz retaineth his name to the Ocean sea Some thinke it is called by Ptolemey Viadrus Odera is so named of a word borrowed from fowlers which call their watch-towers for the spying and taking of birds Odri and such towers you haue now in Morauia at the fountaine of Odera Neither must we heere omit the riuer Hana which albeit sometimes scant of water yet doth it so moisten the neighbour-fields being thereby the fertilest in all the region as the husbandmen in regard of their plentifull increase call them the fat of Morauia Here also more than in other places are found the siluer and gold coines of M. Antoninus of Commodus and other Emperours Which is a manifest argument of ancient warres betweene the forces of the Empire and the Marcomans in these parts This one thing is most worthy the admiration that in Morauia there is a kind of Frankincense Myrrhe not distilling out of trees as in other countries but digged from vnder the ground in one place only called Gradisco where till this present is found not only Frankincense called Male frankincense in regard of the resemblance it hath with the priuie parts of man but also in the shape of other members both of man and woman And of late VVenceslaus of the noble family surnamed à Quercu as he was making a foundation for the banke of a fish-poole in his field of Sterenberg he found the intire body of a man consisting all of Myrrhe the which distributing vnto his friends and remembring me among the rest bestowed on me more than halfe an arme which I vsed often for a perfume The inner part of the region is arable an exceeding fertile and fat soile and most apt for corne as the hilles for vines being more fauourable to Bacchus than the hilles of Bohemia wherefore it excelleth for abundance of good wine And it is so generally manured and hath such plentie of husbandmen that vnlesse it be in forests and desert places heere is no pasture at all for the feeding of cattell For the rest both in speech fashions and customes they are like the Bohemians Hitherto Dubrauius In the yeere 895. the people of this region were instructed in the Christian faith by S. Methodius at the procurement of Arnulphus the Emperour Vnder the Emperour Henry the fourth in the yeere 1086. this countrey together with Lusatia and Silesia was annexed to the kingdome of Bohemia Their language is mixt for the greatest part speake Bohemian and the high Dutch is vsed only in cities among persons of best account This Prouince as Dubrauius writeth yeelds plentie of wine but not of the strongest such saith Rithaimerus and I my selfe haue so found it by experience as exempteth not the drinker quite from care Duglossus in his Polonian storie saith that the name of the riuer Odera signifies in the Henetian tongue inundation or robbery Olmuntz the head citie of this region and the seat of a Bishop is described by Stephanus Taurinus in his Stauromachia Concerning Morauia besides Dubrauius reade Aeneas Siluius in his Bohemian story This Map of Morauia first drawen by Fabricius but afterward corrected by diuers gentlemen of the countrey was sent me by Iohn Crato Counseller and principall Physician to the Emperour Maximilian the second a bountifull fauourer of these my studies He gaue me also this catalogue of townes called both by German and Bohemian names The Dutch names The Bohemian names Behemsche Triebaw Trzebowa Czeska Landskron Landskraun Schirmberg Semanin Sciltperg Ssilperck Hanstadt Zabrzch Zwittaw Swittawa Merherische Tribaw Trzebowa Morawska Neustadt Nowy Miesto Deutstbrodt Niemeckybrod Iglau Cziblawa Budwers Budegowice Weissenkirch Hranitza Plos Pzin Drosendorff Drosdowice Freyen Vranow Schtignitz Trztenice Holsterlitz Hosteradice Mislicz Moristaw Ioslwitz Iaroslaiwice Dayex Diakowice Grustpach Hrussowamy Maydpurgk Dewczihrady Auspitz Hustopecz Nuslau Nosyslaw Tischain Itza Schwartz Wasser Strumen Selowitz Zidlochowice Brin Brno Olmutz Holomane Prostnitz Proslegew Wischa Wyskow Austerlitz Slawkow Kremfier Kromerziz Vngerischbrod Vherskybrod Goeding Hodomin Lumpenburg Brzetislaw Altmarck Podiwin Ostra Ostracia MORAVIAE QVAE OLIM MARCOMANNORVM SEDES COROGRAPHIA A. D. PAVLO FABRITIO MEDICO ET MATHEMATICO DESCRIPTA ET A GENEROSIS MORAVIAE BARONIBVS QVIBVSDAM CORRECTA AVSTRIA or AVSTRICH GEORGE RITHAYMER in his Abridgement of the situation of the world describeth Austrich vnder the name of Pannony the higher in these words Pannony the higher saith he toward the East abbutteth vpon the riuer Leyth Ptolemey maketh the riuer Rab his Eastern bound Vpon the West it is bounded with the riuer Onasus and Noricum which is a part of Bayern Some do on that coast limit it with the mountaine Caetius on the North with the riuer Tey and the countrey Morauia for so farre at this day it doth extend it selfe on that side Vpon the South coast it resteth vpon the mountaines of Steyri The soile is good and fertile of all maner of corne and is such as is manured and tilled with small charge In that part which is beyond Donaw and is called Marchfield where long since the Chetuari and and Parmecampi were seated the husbandman falloweth his land with one poore seely jade only Marle without which their land in Bayern is leane and barren what it meaneth the husbandmen of Austrich know not It beareth so good Saffron as no other in the world may compare with it It affoordeth Wine passing holesome and agreeable to the nature of man Althamerus vpon Cornelius Tacitus his Germania writeth that it yeeldeth plentie of Ginger in a mountaine neere the towne Hamburg in the middest of Austrich or Pannony It hath many ancient and famous cities notwithstanding those of greatest note are Styre Vadenhoff Melck Castell anciently called Claudionum Crembs Cetro castle now called Zeisselmaur Saint Hippolytus the two Newberies one surnamed of the Abbey the other of Corne. Petronell a village now but in old time a great citie as his foundation ruines and heaps of stones and rubbish do testifie The new city Pruck vpon the banke of the riuer Leyth and Hamburg out of all the most famous is VVien sometime called Flauiana and Iuliobona renowmed for the Vniuersitie and Schoole than which there is none that hath brought forth more excellent and greater Mathematicians This citie is round beset with Vineyards The houses of the citizens are stately and beautifull so that they may seeme to giue entertainment to Princes and are built with large and open windowes to let the aire in and out and therefore they are neuer pestered and offended with close and bad aire for that euery priuate house hath either his seuerall court-yard or back-side Hither is great concourse of forren nations
are Aquileya adorned with the title of a Patriarchy This citie Mela nameth The rich In times past it was the seat of the Emperours and therefore it was called Another Rome and was in compasse twelue miles In it there haue beene accounted long since an hundred and twentie thousand citizens The great prosperitie and flourishing estate of this citie especially grew by the great thronging hither of Merchants for that from all quarters almost of the world by reason of the great commodiousnesse of the place easie and safe entrance vnto it aswell by land as by sea merchandise were conueyed to this citie as to a common ware-house That great trade of merchandise ended together with the fortune of the citie the Venetians growing mightie and drawing vnto themselues all meanes of trade and traffique so that now of a most flourishing and populous city it is almost wast and desert Vtina which also is called Vtinum the Italians vulgarly call it Vdene the Dutch Weyden situate in a plaine hath a strong castle built vpon the toppe of an hill raised by the labour and industrie of man conteining at this day fortie furlongs in compasse Tergeste Trieste vpon the sea shore a colonie of the Romans Goritia sometime if I be not deceiued called Noreia Here are many monuments of great antiquitie to this day remaining The citie Austria many thinke it in olde time to haue beene called Forum Iulij situate in the straights of the mountaines is a place strong and fortified by nature Thorow the middest of it doth runne the riuer Natiso vpon the which is a faire stone bridge S. Daniels towne seated vpon a very high and steepe hill Porto Gruaro vpon the South banke of Limine Then Spilimbergo Marano Montfalcone and others of which thou mayest reade in Leander out of whom we haue drawen this briefe description Iohannes Candidus hath written an historie of Aquileia whose copartener in his labour and trauell Leander writeth to haue beene Gregorius Amasaeus Of the monuments and antiquities of Aquileia Sabellicus hath written six bookes which are euery where to be gotten FORI IVLII ACCVRATA DESCRIPTIO Cum Priuilegio Ex Bibliotheca Nobilis et doctissimi Ioannis Sambuci Imperatoriae Mats. Historici 1573. IVLIAE ALPES IAPIDES ET CARNI The liberties of the citie of VERONA THe citie of the Cenomanes situate in Gallia Cisalpina or as now they call it Lombardie is within the iurisdiction of the Venetians a citie most stately built vpon ech banke of the riuer Adese but conioyned by foure faire bridges The same riuer as it doth diuide it into two parts so it doth almost on euery side enclose it round so that it is not only a commodity vnto the citie but also a defence and ornament vnto the same The soile of this tract is excellent good yeelding many things necessary and profitable vnto it Great store of oile and corne yeelding yeerely great gaines vnto the country people by selling and transporting it to forren nations Woll for finenesse excelling the other sorts of Italie The citie is most excellently and pleasantly seated beautified with faire and goodly buildings aswell priuate as publike It hath many famous monuments of antiquitie worth the regarding amongst the which is the Amphitheater which the common sort call Arena The sand of all those which remaine in Italie or in other places of Europe the whollest and least defaced either by iniurie of times or rage of barbarous nations Moreouer a triumphall arche in whose inscription this citie is termed COLONIA AVGVSTA VERONA NOVA GALLIENIANA There are also other monuments which here for breuitie sake we must omit The liberties or ground belonging to this citie is in length from the little towne Baruchello vnto Riua which is on the farther side of Lago de Garda sixtie fiue miles in bredth which beginneth at La torre delle confine vnto Riuoltella fortie miles and conteineth in all 1443378. fields so the common people of Italie call the measure whereby they measure their lands Seardeonius interpreteth it Akers whereof 1223112. are fertile 220266 are barren which notwithstanding dayly by the industry and diligence of the husbandmen are made more fruitfull There is in this tract a very high mountaine the Mappe placeth it betweene Lago de Gardo and the riuer Adese which they call Baldo This hill is very well knowen to Herborists and Apothecaries which flocke hither from all quarters and do gather many kindes of herbs and roots necessary in Physicke and good and holesome for the vse of man There is also here in a certaine vale called Policella a place named Negarina where there is a very hard stone to be seene hauing vpon it teats carued to the iust fashion and proportion of a womans breasts out of the which pappes water doth continually distill and droppe wherewith if a nurse or a woman giuing sucke doe wash her breasts dried vp by sicknesse or any other mischance it presently draweth downe the milke againe There are also other waters of this countrey giuen by the benefit of nature both pleasant and profitable But the studious Reader desirous to know more of this territory let him reade Blondus and Leander he shall be I dare boldly affirme satisfied at the full Torellus Sarayna hath written a whole booke of the antiquities originall gouernment and policy and famous men of the citie of Verona Georgius Iodocus Bergamus hath described Lago de Garda or Benacke lake in verse in fiue books Iulius Caesar Scaliger hath sounded forth the praise of the citie Verona and the lake Benacke in his funerall oration VERONAE VRBIS TERRITORIVM Ã Bernardo Brognolo descriptum 1579. Cum Priuilegio decannali The Duchie of MILLANE LEander in the description of Italie after a long discourse of the gouernment of this Duchie maketh this relation of Millane his chiefe citie The citie Millane saith he is so conueniently seated that besides the great store of fruite which the ground of his territories do yeeld out of Gallia Cisalpina or Lombardie all things aswell for pleasure and delight as for profit and necessarie vse in mans life may be easily transported thither It is so great that it may well compare with the greatest cities of all Europe It hath very longe and large suburbes by which it is greatly augmented some of them so huge that they may contend for bignesse with other great cities of Italie Notwithstanding of late yeares they suffered great wrecke by reason of the mortall warres and continuall troubles betweene Charles the fift and the French and Venetians By which they were by fire and sword almost vtterly ouerthrowne and destroied although now by great diligence and industrie of the citizens they are reedified againe Wide and deepe diches full of water do compasse both the citie and suburbes by which on euery side by boate and barge such great store of prouision is brought vnto it that there is not any thing heere which is not to be bought at a reasonable rate It is very
this is one That once in a moneth they obserue one day in the which all meeting in a Church after a collation made by their filthie and wicked Superintendent at night the Candles being put out without any choice or regard they fall like bruite beastes vnto their beastly Venerie This we haue taken out of Leander where thou maist read if thou pleasest many other such like things Dominicus Niger also hath written of this Country Paradine in his description of Sauoy writeth That the Dukedome of Piemont doth conteine in it beside goodly Cities great and populous which are in number fiue more then fiftie Townes well fortified and beautifull and also two hundred Borrowes walled and fenced with Fortresses and Castles And that it hath Earles Marquesses Barones and other sorts of Nobilitie all subiect to the Duke of Sauoy Thou seest also in this Chart the description of Montferrate which at this day is vnder the dominion of the Dukes of Mantua of the which Blondus thus writeth At the riuer Taner the famous Countie of Montferrate beginneth whose boundes are the riuer Po on this side and the Mount Appennine on that side the riuer Taner from his fountaine vnto his mouth where it falleth into Po and on his vpper side the hilles next to Moncalerio where Piemont beginneth The prouince of Montferrate is almost wholly subiect vnto the Marchions the most noble house of Italie descended from the Constantinopolitane Emperours which haue held that tract these 150. yeares Thus farre Blondus Merula also in his sixt booke of his historie of Vicounts hath written something of this Country PEDEMONTANAE VICINORVMQVE REGIONVM AVCTORE IACOBO CASTALDO DESCRIP Cum priuilegio The Liberties of PADVA THe territories of Padua which is a part of the Marquesate of Treuiso in old time was more large now it is conteined within these bounds On his South side runneth the riuer Athesis now called Ladessa on the North coasteth the little riuer Muson vpon the East lieth the gulfe of Venice vpon the West are Montes Euganei and the prouince of Vincenza Whereupon this verse was engrauen in the ancient seale of the City Muso mons Athesis mare certos dant mihi fines The Mose the Hilles Ladessa and the sea enclose me round It is in compasse 180. miles In it are 347. villages and hamlets Vnto the court-leet of Padua now do belong these seuen goodly townes Montiniano Castro Baldo Atheste Monselesse Pieue di Sacho Campo S. Piero and Citadella As also these six villages Miran Oriaco Titulo and Liuiano Arquado famous for great Petrarchaes tombe Consyluio and Anguillaria There are also in this territorie the mountaines called Euganei famoused by the poets neere vnto which is Abano a village seated vpon the Spring Abano oft mentioned by Claudian and Martiall Also Cassiodorus in his Epistles writeth that Theodoricus K. of the Gothes gaue order for the repairing of them The fertilitie of the soile of this prouince of the liberties of Padua is such that of those things which necessarily are required to the sustenance of mans life it yearely transporteth vnto the neighbour cities and countries round about great abundance without any dearth or want to the inhabitants Their Wines are very rich hunting fowling and fishing heere are very common It is so well watered with brookes and riuers that to the great gaine and profit of the inhabitants there is no country village aboue fiue miles distant from a riuer This great plenty and abundance of all things they bragge of in this their common prouerbe saying Bononia lagrassa Padua la passa that is Padua for fertilitie doth surpasse rich Bononia Thus farre of the shire now something of the city whereof that tooke his name It is seated in a flatte euery way crossed with pleasant riuers The city is very strong enclosed with a broad deepe water ditch with high and thicke walles and is very populous It hath a goodly large common without the citie wherein the enemie that will besiege it shall not find a place to shrowd himselfe A Session-house the Yeeld hall we call it most stately and sumptuous all couered ouer with lead An vniuersitie most famous of all Europe begunne as they report by Charles the Great finished by Fredericke the eleuenth in the yeare of our Lord 1222. and fortie yeares after that confirmed by Vrbane the fourth Bishop of Rome There is in this citie an Orchard which they call the Physicians Garden in forme round and verie large planted with all maner of strange herbs vsuall in Physicke for the instruction of yong students in the knowledge of Herbs and Plants a singular and worthy worke Clothing is the chiefe trade of the Citizens a matter of 600000. pounds returne yearely and more This we haue taken out of Bernardino Scardeonio who hath written a whole volume of the situation liberties antiquities famous men and things worthy of note of this city he that is desirous to see more of this let him read him and if he please to him he may adioine Leander his description of Italie Of the fennie places described vpon the sea-coast thou maist read Cassiodore his twelfth booke Variar Dedicated vnto the Admirall and Masters of the Nauie Of the Liberties of TREVISO BLONDVS in his description of Italie making The Marquesate of Treuiso the tenth prouince of Italie in it placeth these famous cities Feltre Belluno Ceneda Padua Vicenza and Verona the head of which he maketh Treuiso whereof the whole prouince tooke his name The goodly riuer Sile which for clearenesse and swiftnesse of his waters is inferiour vnto none passeth by this citie running Eastward about ten miles from the same is nauigable and falleth into the Adriaticke sea Many little brookes runne through the towne which is compassed with a strong wall and is very populous it is beautified with many stately buildings both Churches and priuate houses The country adioining to Treuiso is most pleasant and rich yeelding all maner of things necessarie to the vse of man and beast For in it is a very large plaine yeelding not onely great store of all sorts of graine and excellent wines but also it hath many goodly pastures feeding abundance of cattell Neither are his mountaines altogether craggie and barren But his lower hilles are set with vines oliues and other fruit-trees and affoord plenty of Deere pastime for the hunter In this country are many faire Townes For on the East and North sides of the same are Opitergium now Oderzo as I thinke Coreglanum or Conegliano both vpon the riuer Mottegan Serraualle Motta Porto Buffole and Sacile these three last are situate vpon the riuer Liuenza To these are to be added the Countie of S. Saluador Colalto S. Paulo Cordignan Roca di val di Marino Cesarea Cesana I take it and Mel. On the West and South are Bassianum Bassan Asolo Castrum fratrum Castelfranco Nouale and Mestre Moreouer in it are diuers End-waies villages and hamlets But hee that desireth to vnderstand more of the
is for the most part in this our age full of Forrests as also it was in the time of Vopiscus as he witnesseth in the life of Aurelian especially a little beyond the riuer Arno vntill one come beyond Plumbino The inner part of the country is almost as much oppressed with Mountaines In it are these cities more famous than the rest Florence Siena Luca Perugia Pisa Viterbo c. FLORENCE or as they call it Fiorenza is situate vpon ech side of the riuer Arno conioined by foure faire bridges it is a most goodly and beautifull city whereupon commonly they call it Fiorenza la bella Florence the faire as if indeed it might seeme to bee the flower of all Italie For it is adorned with stately buildings aswell Churches and religious houses as of priuate citizens Amongst all other the Church of S. Maria Florida wholly ouerlaid with Marble arched with a roofe of an admirable workemanship neere to which is built a goodly steeple for the bels all of fine marble not farre from which standeth the ancient Temple of Mars of forme round very ingeniously built and of a cunning workemanship now dedicated to S. Iohn Baptist The dores of this Church are of cast brasse a very rare and curious peece of worke especially those which are next to the Church of S. Maria Florida are such that all men of iudgement and experience must absolutely confesse that in all Europe beside the like are no where to be seene But to reckon vp all the worthy buildings of this citie aswell sacred as profane it were too tedious and would require more paper than this our purposed discourse will beare He therefore that desireth to know more of the particulers more at large let him reade Leander SIENA lieth vpon the top of an hill round begirt with high rocks of Tophus-stone gorgeously bedecked with many noble mens houses amongst the which is the great and large Church of our Lady equall to the stateliest and sumptuousest Churches of all Europe whether you respect the worth and price of the Marble whereof it is built or the excellencie of the worke and workemanship of him that made it Besides that there is a most stately house of tree stone built by Pope Pius II. with many other goodly houses Worthy of commendation and record is the large and beautifull market place with Branda the pleasant fountaine alwaies full of most cleare water PERVGIA is seated vpon the mountaine Apennine the greatest part of the countrie arising with goodly pleasant hilles fertile of strong Wines Oiles Figges Apples and other sorts of most excellent fruits Beneath the citie at Asisia as also toward Tuder neere Tiber the pleasant champion fields do spread themselues yeelding plenty of wheat and other kind of graine The city by reason of the nature of the place is very strong adorned with gorgeous buildings both of religious houses and churches as also priuate citizens together with a famous and large fountaine in the middest of the citie It is very populous and the citizens are very ingenious and of couragious stomackes apt indifferently either for any maner litterature or for seruice in the field PISA long since hath beene a famous citie and many waies richly blessed not onely before the flourishing estate of the Roman Empire but euen when it was at the full height as also many yeares after Many famous Marine-conquests which it hath made by which it brought the Ile Sardinia subiect to their command do auouch this to be true Panormo a faire citie of Sicilia they won from the Saracens and of the bootie and spoiles taken in that warre they began to build the great Church which they call DOMNVM as also the beautifull palace of the Bishop It hath an Vniuersitie or Schoole of all maner of Liberall Arts and Sciences whose foundation was laid in the yeare of CHRIST 1309. VITERBO lieth in a pleasant and spacious champion hauing the Cyminian hilles now of this citie called Mont Viterbo vpon his backeside stately for many faire buildings and works of rare Art amongst which is a famous fountaine from whence issueth water in such abundance as is wonderfull LVCA is seated in a plaine not farre from the hilles foot a city of goodly buildings The people are neat wise and ingenious which haue most discreetly retained and kept their libertie of a long time whole in their owne hands although they haue been often assaulted by their neighbours See more at large of this in Leander Myrsilus the Lesbian Marcus Cato in his Origines and their Expositor Ioannes Annius Viterbiensis who also wrote a seuerall treatise of the antiquities of Hetruria William Postell Volaterranus and Laonicus Chalcocondylas a Grecian in his sixth booke and others haue described this prouince Ioannes Campanus hath written most elegantly of the Lake of Perugia THVSCIAE DESCRIPTIO AVCTORE HIERONYMO BELLARMATO Me Ianus tenuit primus formataue ab illo Imposui leges populis nomina Ponto Inferno Supero missos auxiue colonos Imperiumque Italos trans fines foedera natis Dum seruata meis sed me discordia preaeceps Romuleae genti domitam seruire coegit Quae deous antiquae longo post tempore linguae Auxilij male grata mei male grata laborum Abstulit mansit nomen quod Thura dedere Archades aut Lŷdi quod vel mutare Pelasgi Non ausi sacras quibus has concessimus oras Cum priuilegio The Signiory of FLORENCE OF the city of Florence read Blondus who in his view of Italie reporteth thus of it They commonly affirme saith he that this citie was first begonne by Sylla's souldiers vnto whom this part of the countrie was by Sylla assigned and because they first began to seat themselues ad Arna fluenta about the riuer Arno they then intituled it by the name of FLVENTIA And indeed Pliny who of all the old writers first mentioneth this place saith that the Fluentini were seated neere the riuer Arno. These souldiers came hither about the yeare after the building of the city of Rome 667. whereupon it appeareth that Florence was founded about 83. yeares before the birth of Christ This city suffered much wrecke in the time of the warres of the Gothes Yet was it neuer either by Totilas or any other of those ragings Tyrants vtterly rased or spoiled And therefore that which some do write of the repairing of Florence by Charles the Great I can by no meanes allow when as the histories of Charles written by Alcuinus his schoolemaster do only mention his keeping of Easter heere at two seuerall times as he went by this way toward Rome It was preserued from a great hazard of vtter ouerthrow which it was like to haue fallen into by the manhood of one Farinata Vbertino when as they of Pisa Siena and others of Tuscane meeting at a market in a consultation by them held hauing generally determined to rase Florence to the ground said stoutly That while he liued he would neuer suffer
that after his death by the triall of Hoate Iron she would approue to the view of the world how wrongfully he was put to death The day came when as the Emperour sate to heare the causes and complaints of widdowes and Orphanes Together with these came the late Countesse bringing in her hand the Earles head and demandeth what death that Iudge is worthy of that had put a man to death wrongfully The Emperour answered He is worthy to lose his head She saith Thou art the same man who at the false suggestion of thy wife didst vniustly cause my husband to be beheaded The which when as the widdow approued vnto him by the maner of triall by hoat iron the Emperour yeelded himselfe into the hands of the widdow willing to abide his deserued punishment Notwithstanding by the mediation of the Bishop and the Nobility he obtained of the Countesse respite for tenne daies then for eight then for seuen lastly for six After the end of which daies the Emperour hauing examined the matter and being assured of the truth gaue sentence against his wife that she should be burned at a stake and giuing foure castles vnto the widdow redeemed his life These castles are in the Bishopricke of Luna in Hetruria or Tuscane and they are called after the names of the daies of repreeue The tenth The eighth The seuenth and The sixth Thus farre Syffridus which I thought good to set down in this place for to my knowledge no man els hath left any record of these castles neither are they named in this Mappe by our Authour notwithstanding that he hath described the country most curiously FLORENTINI DOMINII FIDELISSIMA ET NOVA DESCRIPTIO Auctore D. Stephano Monacho Montisoliueti The liberties of PERVGIA IOhannes Campanus writing of this country affirmeth that although he had trauailed and viewed many countries yet he neuer saw in all his life a more pleasant country and better manured then the country of Perugia All things seeme wast and wild to those that are farre off but if you shall come more neere nothing may be found more glorious either in respect of the husbandry of the land or wholesomnesse of the aire or fertility of the soile The riuer of Tiber runneth through the middest of this country and kindly watereth the same Not farre from which is the city Perugia situate vpon the Mount Apennine built long since as Trogus Pompeius affirmeth by the Achaians and of the twelue cities of Hetruria it is the chiefe It was called Augusta by the Emperour Augustus as the Capitall letters halfe a yeard square grauen vpon the gate do declare This city in regard of the nature of the place is inuincible richly beautified both with religious and priuate buildings of great state and is very populous This city aboue all the cities of Italie hath been euermore most fortunate and happie hauing retained the same state and gouernment little or nothing altered which it enioied before the building of Rome and that which afterward it had in the time when Rome was ruled by Kings Consuls Emperours and Tyrants at this time it reteineth Yet it hath endured many and diuers greeuous and bitter storms For in the time when Fabius Maximus was Consull as Liuie reporteth 4500. of his citizens were slaine In the daies of the Triumuiri Augustus besiedged it and forced it to great distresse for want of victualls tooke it and rased it to the ground and was wholly defaced with fire except only the Temple of Vulcane as Appian recordeth Afterward it endured the seuen yeares siedge and batterie of the cruell Tyrant Totilas and at length was sacked and spoiled c. Now it is subiect to the Pope of Rome and hath a famous Vniuersitie which was erected about the yeare of CHRIST 1290. as Middendorpius hath written Heere in the time of our grandfathers flourished the most renowmed Ciuilians Bartholus and Baldus In the precincts of this city is Lago di Perugia the lake of Perugia anciently called LACVS TRASVMENVS famous long since for a great ouerthrow heere giuen by Hanniball to the Romanes Appianus calleth it Lacus Plestinus but for what reason I know not It is in compasse as the foresaid Campanus writeth about thirtie miles The water of it is very cleare and pure there are no riuers which runne into it neither hath it any issue forth yet is his water so exceeding sweet that any man would thinke it were fedde from some running fountaine It hath in it three Isles whereof two which are toward the North are close together the one called the Greater the other the Lesser Maiores and Minores This is wast and not in habited only it hath a Church situate vpon the toppe of an hill The other which is neere to the liberties of Cortona conteineth about 200. families The third which is toward the South and is bigger then the other two is very populous and well inhabited The inhabitants almost giue themselues wholly to Fishing they sow little Corne yet they do not neglect to plant vines For wood fuell and fodder they go out into the fields and woods neere adioining Amongst the records of Lewis first Emperour of Rome there is mention of these three Ilands where he nameth them MAIOR MINOR and PVLVENSIS now Polueso where I perceiue that they yet retaine their ancient names No boggs fennes or spuing meeres do impech the shore this is full of Oliue gardens which vpon the hills on euery side do adorne the Lake and are for their wonderfull fertility very beautifull In the plaine which is between the Lake and the Hilles there is such abundance of Hempe and Flax so that in all Hetruria or Tuscane there is not more No country yeldeth better Wines or sweeter Apples The kinds of Fishes in the lake are not many but the abundance is wonderfull in which it farre excelleth all other Lakes of Italie heere also the fishing continueth all the yeare long yea euen in the dead of winter which no other Lake in all Italie affoordeth These fish in the winter are caried into Tuscane Vmbria and Picenta to Rome also they driue much cattell daily to be sold The same Campanus affirmeth that heere they take a pickerell partly coloured spotted with diuers green specks of the which he reporteth strange wonders namely that it doth engender with serpents and from thence it getteth those strange colours The common people saith Iacobus Greumus in the twentieth chapter of his first booke verily beleeueth that lampreies do engender with serpents which Plinie holdeth for a fable notwithstanding that hee often seemeth to be much delighted in writing of fables Athenaeus also writeth out of the report of one Andreas that these Lampreies which are bred of the viper if they bite the wound is deadly which opinion he afterward reclaimeth as false Againe he telleth of a Pike that lying vpon the drie land which when a fox assaied to catch one of his feetstooke fast in his teeth and both were
is such as it doth almost exceed the capacitie of mans witte no man need to wonder why in former times as well as now the Noblemen so much delighted to dwell heere This we haue taken out of Leander where manie other things may be read of who hath described the whole kingdome this Citie and the Liberties thereof very curiouslie that indeed it is not necessarie to send the Reader vnto any other Authour but Scipio Mazzella which in a seuerall and peculiar Treatise hath with extraordinarie paines and diligence set out in the Italian Tongue a description of this kingdome There is also in Print a little booke written by Alexander Andreas of the warre betweene Philippe King of Spaine and Paul the fourth Pope of Rome out of which the Reader which is not satisfied with this discourse of ours may heere and there picke out something concerning this kingdome worth the noting and not triuiall The booke is set out in the Italian tongue by Hieronymo Ruscello Iohn Baptista Caraffa Pontanus and Pandulfus Collenutius haue written the histories and chronicles of the kingdome of Naples in the which they in diuers places speake much of the situation of this country Gabriel Barry hath very curiously described Calabria his natiue country as Sanfelicius hath done Campania REGNI NEAPOLITANI VERISSIMA SECVNDVM ANTIQVORVM RECENTIORVM TRADITIONEM SCRIPTIO PYRRHO LIGORIO AV Cum priuilegio APVLIA now called PVGLIA or TERRA DI OTRANTO WE haue composed this discourse following of this countrey out of the treatise of Antony Galatey which he wrote of the situation of Iapigya now called Terra di Barri This country saith he in respect of his situation is seated in the most temperate place of the world Of diuers authours it hath beene diuersly called by sundry names Aristotle and Herodotus called it Iapygia others Peucetia others Mesapia others Magna Gracia Great Greece others Apulia others Calabria for that which now is called Calabria was anciently called Brutia The corne hearbs and fruits of this country are of the best The oats of this soile is as good as the barly of other countries and the barly as good as their wheat Melones of a most pleasing taste and Pome-citrons do euery where grow in great plenty Physick herbs of greater force then other where are here in all places very common The aire is very wholesome the soile is neither drie nor squally or moorish But these so great gifts and blessings of God are intermedled with some mischiefe and danger for heere nature doth breed a most venemous and pernicious kind of spider the Greeks do call it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Latines Phalangium and Araneus whose poisonous bite is onely cured by Musicke or Tabret and Pipe Heere is also the venimous serpent which the Greeks call Chersydros the Latines Natrix terrestris the Land snake we call it if I be not deceiued an Adder and heere is a kinde of Locust which hurt and mar all things they light vpon The cities of this country long since more famous were Tarentum now Taranto proudly seated between two seas exceedingly stored with fish in forme somewhat like a long Iland This city in all mens iudgement is inuincible Callipolis now Galipoli Pliny called it Anxa is a city situate in the end of a promontorie or forland shooting farre out into the sea but with such a narrow Isthmos or necke-land that in some places there is scarce so much as a cartway It is very strong and round beset with high cliffes from the maine land there is only one entrance in the which is a very strong Castell Hydruntum of them called Otranto is the chiefe city and which is somewhat more Metropolitan of the whole Peninsula or Demi-ile and that not without cause for whether you respect the antiquity of it the vertue and humanity of the citizens ioined with valour and great magnanimity it hath euer been of them accounted for a very famous and worthy city It hath a very good and capacious hauen but against the raging blasts of the North wind not so safe It was sometime very strong and defencible but now it lieth almost leuell with the ground The fields adioining are very fruitfull full of springs and alwaies green From hence Montes Cerauni certaine hills of Epirus now called Cimera and Canina may easily be descried Heere is the end of the Hadriaticke and Ionian seas as Pliny testifieth Brundusium now called Brindisi a famous city hath as notable a hauen as any in the world els where the inner hauen is enclosed with castles and an huge chaine the outer hauen is heere and there beset with rocks and small Ilands but his mouth is by Alphonsoes meanes so stopped and dette vp that there is no entrance but for little shippes and barges It hath beene in former time a very populous city now it is little inhabited These are the chiefe marine cities He that would know more particularly of the ancient names situation antiquities and priuate stories of the mid-land cities and townes we refer him to the learned discourse of Galatey written of this his natiue country to which if he please to adioine the description of Leander I perswade my selfe the thirstie Reader shall not know what els he may demand CALABRIA GAbriel Barrius Franciscanus hath very curiously described Calabria in fiue bookes which are imprinted at Rome with as little heedfull diligence Out of him we haue culled these particulars following CALABRIA saith he a country of Italie in forme and fashion not much vnlike a tongue lieth between the vpper and neather seas It beginneth at the neather sea the Greeks call it the Tyrrhen sea the Latines the Mediterran or Mid-land sea from the riuer Talao which runneth into the Bay of Policastro at the vpper sea the Ionian sea the Grecians terme it from the riuer Siris otherwise sometime called Senno and coasteth along vntill it come to the streights of Faro di Messano and the city Regio and so being diuided longwise by the mount Apennine heere they call it Aspro monte it endeth in two capes or promontories the one called Leucopetra of them Capo de Leocopetra the other Lacinium vulgarly of them called Cabo delle colonne or Cabo dell ' Alice Not only the plaines and champions but euen the hillie places like vnto Latium or Campania are well serued with water Whatsoeuer is necessary for the maintainance of mans life this country doth yeeld in great abundance it needeth no forraine commodities but is able to liue of it selfe Calabria generally is a good and a fertile soile it is not combred with Fennes Lakes or Bogges but is alwaies green affoording good pastorage for cattell and excellent ground for all sorts of graine The fountaines and brooks are many and those passing cleare and wholesome The sunnie hills and mountaines open to euery coole blast of wind are wonderfull fertile for corne vines and trees of diuers kinds whereof arise great profit to
the inhabitants The valleies are pleasant and fruitfull The shady groues and woods do affoord many pleasures and delights The goodly meddowes and pastures are richly decked with herbs and sweet-smelling flowres and euer-running streames And amongst other heere is great plenty of Medicke fodder wherewith they feed and fatte their cattell Heere also grow many excellent physicke hearbs of soueraigne vertues against diuers and sundrie diseases It bringeth forth diuers plants as the Plane tree Vitex or Agnus castus the Turpentine tree the Oliue tree Siliqua Siluestris Arbute or Strawberry tree wild Saffron Madder Liquirise Tubera or Sowbread It hath also some hoate baths continually distilling from their fountaines which do cure aches and many other like maladies In diuers places there are springs of salt water whereof they make a kind of brine or pickle It is well watered with many fine riuers and those stored with sundrie sorts of fresh fish The sea also on ech side yeeldeth great plenty of fish both tunies sword-fishes and lampreies There in many places is found the best Corall both white and redde Heere is most pleasant hunting and hawking for in these quarters diuers and sundrie sorts of wild beasts do lodge and as many birds and fowles do breed and build wild boares harts hindes goates hares foxes lynces otters squerrells martens badgers ferrets porkupines tortuses both of the waters and of the mountaines Of fowles phesants partridges quailes wood-cocks ring-doues crowes c. as also of many kinds of hawks it is euery where full It maintaineth some herds of cattell and flocks of sheep and goats It breedeth excellent horses very swift and of great stomacke Mettals heere were found in old time and now also it aboundeth at this day with diuers kinds of mineralls hauing indeed euery where mines of gold siluer iron salt marble alablaster crystall marchasite red-lead or vermillion copperas alume brimstone c. many kinds of corne wheat siligo beerbarly rie trimino we call it I thinke Turky wheat barly rise and of sesamum infinite store It aboundeth also with all kind of pulse legumina the Latines call them oile wine and hony and those in their kinds the best There are heere euery where orchards thicke set with oranges limons and pome cittron trees Heere also is made great plenty of excellent silke farre better then any kind of silke made in other places of Italie The Cotton tree Gossipium groweth heere plentifully But what shall I speake of the kind temperature of the aire For heere the fields both winter and summer are continuallie green But aboue all things there is nothing that doth argue the same more soundly then that airy dew or heauenly hony which they call Manna that euery where distilleth from aboue and is heere gathered in great abundance So that that which the Israelites in the wildernes did admire and hold for a strange wonder heere kind nature doth affoord of her own accord It is adorned also with many goodly market towns where marts and faires are kept at certaine times of the yeare Heere in some places still is obserued the ancient custome of the Romanes vsed at funerals and buriall of the dead where a chiefe mourner Praefica they called her is hired to go before the rest of the mourners and she to guide their mournefull ditties and to keepe time in their howling lamentations The funerall being done and all ceremonies performed the dead mans friends and kindred bringing their meat and iunkets do banquet altogether at the dead mans house The women of this country naturally for modesty and for that the waters of these places are good and wholesome drinke naught but water It is a shame for any women to drinke wine except she be very old or be in child-bed c. See more in the same authour Cassiodore also in his Variar hath in diuers places many things of this country APVLIAE QVAE OLIM LAPYGIA NOVA COROGRAPHIA CALABRIAE DESCRIP Per Prosperum Parisium Consent Cum Priuilegio decennali SICILIA THere is not one either of the ancient Historians or Cosmographers that hath not made mention of this Iland or curiously described the same especially Strabo Plinie Solimus and others Diodorus Siculus calleth it The soueraigne of all other Ilands Solinus in like maner writeth of it That whatsoeuer this country breedeth either of the nature of the soile or inuention of man it is little inferiour to those things which are esteemed of greatest worth Of the later writers Vadianus hath thus set it out in his true colours SICILIA not only for richnesse of the soile for which cause it was of the ancients dedicated to Ceres and Bacchus and was accounted the Garner of Rome but also for the multitude and antiquity of his townes famous actes victories and quarrels betweene the Romans and Carthagians both contending for the mastery is more famous then any other Iland whatsoeuer In Plinies time there were 72. cities at this day they report it to containe twelue Bishopricks of great iurisdiction and large diocesses The Dukes of Swevland possessed it a long time It was assaulted and taken by the English Lorreiners especially at that time when they made their voiage into the Holy land against the impious Saracens Lastly it fell vnto the Kings of Arragon and so at this day it remaineth vnder the obedience of Spaine Neither is there any other Iland that I know in the whole world that both Greeks and Latines haue indifferently partly in respect of the goodnesse of the soile and situation partly for the great accidents that heere haue happened by their writings made more famous He that would be further satisfied of the particulars let him read Benedictus Bordonius who hath in one booke comprised a discourse of all the Ilands of the World Leander Albertus Dominicus Niger Franciscus Maurolycius Marius Aretius all which haue most learnedly described the same Lastly Thomas Fazellus that countrie-man borne who hath most curiously and liuelily described the true countenance of this his natiue soile where you shall find the particular story of the mount Aetna now called by an Arabicke name Monte Gibello of which also Petrus Bembus hath put forth a seuerall Treatise Tully hath written something of this Iland in his orations against Verres Thucydides in his sixth booke hath very well laid downe the history of the originall and first inhabitants of the same as Diodorus Siculus hath done in like maner in his fifth booke Hubertus Goltzius hath out of ancient coines added great light vnto the histories of this country SARDINIA SEbastian Munster in his Cosmography hath an excellent description of this Iland done by Sigismundus Arquerus Calaritanus a Sicilian The same is described by Leander Albertus Benedictus Bordonius Nicolas Leonicus besides that which you may reade of it in old writers amongst whom Pausanias hath written some things that are not common This Iland the state of the Roman Empire decaying came into the hands of the Saracens from whom it was
againe wonne by those of Pisa Now together with the kingdome of Sicilia it is gouerned by the Spaniard MALTA sometimes called MELITA QVintinus Heduus hath passing well described this Iland and hath set forth a peculiar Treatise of the same The landing of S. Paul and his shipwrecke heere vpon this coast hath made this Iland famous But not many yeares since by the ouerthrow of the Turks huge nauy the knights of Hierusalem to their eternall fame manfully defending the assault it is now againe made more famous See also Fazellus of this I le ELBA anciently called ILVA THis Iland in these our daies is in subiection to the Dukes of Florence and by a strong castell newly built it seemeth to be very defensible and safe against the inuasions of the Turks Of the new order of knight-hood by the name of the Knights of S. Steuen answereable to those of Hierusalem in Malta instituted in the yeare 1561. by Cosmus Medices Duke of Tuscane read Caelius Secundus in his historie of the warres of Malta That this Iland had many veines of mettall it is cleare by the report of ancient Cosmographers And now Leander saith it hath a rich mine of iron where also the Loadstone is found as he writeth Matthiolus telleth that from hence Liquid alume is brought and conueied vnto vs. Diodorus Siculus in his fifth booke hath a large description of this Iland where he calleth it by the name of Aethalia CORCYRA now CORFV IT is an Iland of the Hadriaticke sea subiect to the state of Venice In it is a very strong castell of the same name where is continually maintained a garrison against the Turks Beside the ancient Geographers these later writers Volaterranus Bened. Bordonius and Nicolas Nicolay in his Eastern obseruations with others haue described this Iland ZERBI of old writers called LOTOPHAGITIS THe ouerthrow of the Christian nauie neere this Iland which happened in the yeare of Christ 1560. hath made this iland more famous Of the situation bignesse and gouernours of this Iland read Iohannes Leo Africanus in his fourth booke of his description of Africa INSVLARVM ALIQVOT MARIS MEDITERRANEI DESCRIPTIO Cum Priuilegio The Ile ISCHIA THat this Iland hath been in former times called AENARIA ARIMA INARIMA and PITHECVSA Homer Aristotle Strabo Pliny Virgill Ouid and other good writers are sufficient witnesses Now it is called ISCHIA of the name of the city there built vpon the top of an hill in forme somewhat like the Hucklebone as Hermolaus Barbarons testifieth which of the Greeks is named Ischia or rather of the strength and defenciblenes of the place as Volaterranus thinketh Although it be sure that these be but synonymes of one and the same iland yet Mela Liuie and Strabo do seeme to make Aenaria and Pithecusa two distinct iles as also Ouid may be thought to do in these verses Inarimen Prochitamque legit sterilique locatas Colle Pithecusas habitantum nomine dictus By Inarime he saileth by Prochyte ile by barren Pithecuse A town on toppe of loftie cragge where wilie Apes do vse Where by Pithecusas as I thinke he vnderstandeth the city ancientlie as also now it is of the same name with the whole iland Which although now it be obserued to be ioined to the I le yet in former ages it was called Gerunda and was apart and disioined from the I le as Pontanus a man of good credit doth testifie in his second booke which he wrote of the warres of Naples where he affirmeth that in his time it was ioined vnto the Iland by a causway made between them Prochita not farre distant from hence which Plinie doth write to haue been seuered from Pithecusa doth shew that this was sometime adioined to and sometime disioined from this Iland The same authour doth affirme which Strabo also doth approue that all these sometime were cut off from the maine continent and to haue been part of the cape Miseno This doth the forenamed Pontanus in his sixth booke confirme in these words That Aenaria saith he was cutte off from the maine continent many things do demonstrate namely The torne rocks The hollow ground full of caues The nature of the soile like vnto that of the continent leane drie and spuing out hotte springs and fountaines It breedeth flaming fires in the middest of the earth wherefore it is manifest that it conteineth much Alume Andreas Baccius in that his famous worke of the Bathes of the whole world writeth that this iland doth counterfait Campania of which it was sometime a part not only in respect of the fertility of the soile but also for likenesse and similitude of the bathes Erythraeus vpon the 9. booke of Virgills Aeneiads doth thinke it to be called Arima of a kind of people or beasts so named and that Virgill was the first that when he translated that of Homer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Ionicke preposition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 altering the declension and number did make the new word Inarime Yet Plinie in the 6. chapter of his 3. booke and Solinus surnamed Polyhistor are of a contrary opinion which do affirme it to be of Homer also called Inarime And as the same Pliny reporteth it was called Aenaria for the ships of Aeneas put into harborough heere Pithecusa not of the great store of Apes there found but of Coopers shops or warehouses But this opinion the same Erythraeus in the foresaid place laboureth to ouerthrow as not altogether consonant to the truth for that of tunnes made for this purpose he protesteth that he hath not read of in any authour whatsoeuer Yet Seruius in my iudgement seemeth vpon the forcited 6. of Virgils Aeneads to stand for Pliny where he saith that by Cumae there was a certaine place named Doliola that is if we should interpret it Tunnes And it is more likely that this Iland should take the name from that place with which sometime it was vnited according to the opinion of these good authours rather then of apes for I regard not the fable of Ouid of which beasts none are heere or euer were That this Iland from the beginning hath been subiect to earth-quakes flames of fire and hot waters from thence oft breaking out we are certified by Strabo and Pliny The mountaine which Strabo calleth Epomeus and Pliny Epopos now they call it S. Nicolas mount which for the same cause they report to haue burned inwardly at the bottome and being shaken with an earthquake to haue somtimes cast out great flakes of fire Heere hence arose that fable of Typhon the giant wherof you may read in Homer Virgill Silius Italicus who calleth him Iapetus Lucane and others as the same Strabo interpreteth which they fable to lie vnderneath this hill and to breath out fire and water That it is on euery side wonderfully fertile of the last writers Io. Elysius Fran. Lombardus Io. Pontanus Solenander Andreas Baccius and especially Iasolinus the authour of this
map hath shewed abundantly who in it doth reckon vp beside the 18. naturall bathes which others haue written of 35. other first discouered by himselfe The same author also beside these baths doth make mention of 19. stoues or hot houses fumarolas they call them and 5. medicinall sands soueraigne in Physick for the drying vp of raw humours Of this fire heere in the bowels of the earth Aristotle in his booke of the Miracles of Nature affirmeth that heere are certaine stoues which do burne with fierie kind of force and exceeding feruent heate and yet neuer do burst out into flames But Elysius Pandulphus and Pontanus do report the contrary There is a place in this Iland Ischia about a mile from the city of the same name which of the raging fire that happened heere in the time of Charles II in the yeare 1301. is at this day called Cremate For heere the bowels of the earth cleauing in sunder by the flashing fire that flamed out a great part of it was so consumed that a small village being first burnt down was at the last vtterly swallowed vp And casting vp into the aire huge stones intermedled with smoke fire and dust which falling againe by their own force and violence scattered heere and there vpon the ground made a most fertile and pleasant iland wast and desolate This fire continued the space of two moneths so that many both men and beasts were by it destroied and many shipping themselues their goods forced to flie either to the ilands neere adioining or to the maine continent Yet this iland for many things is very fruitfull for in it there are excellent good wines and those of diuerse kinds as that which they call Greeks wine Latine Sorbinio and Cauda caballi It beareth good corn about S. Nicolas mount In it the Cedar the pomecitron and the Quince tree do grow euery where most plentifully Alume and Brimstone are found deep within the earth it hath had long since some veines of gold as Strabo and Elysius haue written and now hath as Iasolinus affirmeth About the hill commonly called Monte Ligoro there is great store of phesants hares conies and other wild beasts neere the cape of S. Nicolas they take much fish and withall find much Corall Not farre from thence is the hauen Ficus or Fichera where the water boileth so hot that in it flesh or fish are sodden in a short time and yet notwithstanding it is of a pleasant tast and very sauory There is a fountaine which they call Nitroli in which this is admirable that besides his great vertues for the cure of certaine diseases if you shall lay flax in it within three daies at the most it will make it as white as snow Whereupon the authour of this Table saith that this I le for bignesse good aire fertility of soile mines of mettall strong wines doth far surpasse the other 25. ilands which are in the bay of Naples Betweene the foreland called Acus the needle and that other named Cephalino there is a great caue or safe harborough for ships especially for pinnaces those lesser sorts of ships Heere it is like that Aeneas landed of which Ouid speaketh as also Pompey when as he sailed from Sicilia to Puteoli whereof Appian writeth in his 5. booke of Ciuill wars In this same Iland ouer against Cumae there is a lake in which there is continually great plenty of Sea-mews or Fenducks Larus or Fulica these are very gainfull and profitable to the inhabitants The words of Pliny speaking of this iland are worth the noting In the same saith he a whole town did sinke and at another time by an earthquake the firme land became a standing poole stagnum he calleth it although that the ancient printed copies for stagnum haue statinas in which place the learned Scaliger had rather read statiuas meaning standing waters The same Pliny hath left in record that if one heere shall cut down a Cedar tree yet it will shoot forth and bud againe Liuy saith that the Chalcidenses of Euboea did first inhabit this iland yet Strabo saith they were the Eretrienses But these also came from the I le Euboea I am of opinion that Athenaeus in his 9 booke although he nameth it not yet he meaneth this iland which he affirmeth he saw as he sailed from Dicaearchia vnto Naples inhabited by a few men but full of copies There is also neere vnto this Prochyta an iland so named not of Aeneas his nurse but because it was profusa ab Aenaria seuered from Aenaria or as Strabo in his 5. booke affirmeth from Pithecusae Notwithstanding in his I. booke he writeth that it was sundered from Miseno yet both may be true for aswell this as that by inundations and tempestuous storms were rent off from the maine land The poets same that Minas the giant lieth vnder this Iland as Typhon doth vnder Ischia Of which Horace in his 3. booke of Poems writeth to Calliope Andreas Baccius writeth thus of this ile It is a little ile saith he but very pleasant rich of mettals and hot bathes notwithstanding for the continuall fires which the continuall tides of the sea do kindle in it as Strabo writeth it neuer was much inhabited It retaineth still the ancient name for they now call it Procida Of this iland you may read more in Scipio Mazella in his additions vnto the tract of Elysius of the Bathes of Puteoli ISCHIA quae olim AENARIA Ab Aeneae classe hic appulsa sic nominata Nè mireris lector si Septentrionalem plagam non superiorem ut moris est sed contra inferiorem regionem spectare videas Id namque data opera fecimus Quo utilior magis necessaria atque amoenior Insulae pars verusque eius Situs in conspectu Caietae Cumarum Prochytae Baiarum Puteolorum et Neapolis obviam iret Omnia autem haec constant ratione Circini semper indubitata exceptis Mediterraneis locis circumvicinis Insulis Montium aliquot atque crematorum lapidum quantitatibus Quae tum situs tum ornatus perspectivae gratia ponuntur IVLIVS IASOLINVS DESCRIB CANDIA sometime called CRETA CReta which now they call Candia is bigger then Cyprus but lesser then Sicilia or Sardinia vnto which ilands only in the Mediterran sea it is inferiour Yet for worth and fertility it is equall to the best Ancient Historiographers do affirme that once it was famous for one hundred cities and therefore was called Hecatompolis In the time of Pliny it had not aboue forty At this day as P. Bellonius testifieth it hath not aboue three of any account that is Candy a colonie of the Venetians whereof the whole iland is now named Canea and Rhetimo The compasse of the iland is about 520. miles It is euery where full of mountaines and hils and therefore the inhabitants are much giuen to hunting There is in it neuer a riuer that is nauigable nor any venemous or hurtfull beast The excellent
witnesseth in his Obseruations it paieth yearely to the great Turke 12000. ducates of Gold A description of this you may read of in the tenth booke of Martin Barlet of the life of Scanderbeg Thus farre generally of Illyricum now I thinke it not amisse to speake something of this our Mappe which doth not comprehend all Illyricum according to the iudgement of the forenamed authours Pliny only excepted who doth restraine the bounds of it as we said into a more narrow roome There are in this Chart Histria Slauonia Dalmatia Bosnia Carinthia part of Carniola and part of Stiria all almost tributary vnto the kingdome of Hungary except a few prouinces abuttant vpon the sea which belong to the Venetians The Turke hath subdued the greatest part of them to his obedience All which countries almost are described in their seuerall Tables in this our Theater and therefore in this place we speake nothing at all of them Only I thinke it not amisse to adde this one story of Stiria That this country doth breed those Strumosi that is a kind of people subiect to wennes and that there are often seene some with such huge great wennes that they do hinder their speach and a woman giuing sucke as Aubanus writeth doth cast it ouer her shoulder like a sacke or wallet least it should let the child from taking the breast And indeed we in the yeare 1558. iournied from Frisach by Vienna to Venice where we saw to our great admiration a man whose chin beginning at his eares was almost as broade as from shoulder to shoulder and hung downe euen to his breast I say not without great admiration against that of Inuenall Quis tumidum guttur miretur in Alpibus It is no wonder great to see the wenne amongst the Alpes They commonly attribute the cause of the wenne to the water and aire which heere the inhabitants do vse and draw into their bodies Rithmaimer this country-man borne in his treatise of the situation of the World hath a peculiar description of Stiria Of Bosina read D. Chytraeus his Chronicle of Saxony Of these Illyrians read more at large in Dominicus Niger Volaterran and Lewis Verger in the Cosmography of Sebastian Munster as also Laonicus Chalcondylas who in his tenth booke Notiliar hath written something of this countrie worth the reading All this tract except those shires which border vpon Germanie doth speake the Slauonian tongue which that I may say something of it by the way of some is now called Windish was thought to be that which the Latines called Lingua Illyrica the Illyrian tongue and at this day is very farre spread as being generally spoken of all the nations inhabiting between the Gulfe of Venice and the North sea For the inhabitants of Istria Dalmatia Bosna Morauia Bohemia Lusatia Polonia Lithuania Pruthenia Scandinauia Bulgaria and Russia that wide and large kingdome and many other neighbour counrries vp as high almost as Constantinople do speake that tongue so that it is also much vsed amongst the Turkes SCHLAVONIAE CROATIAE CARNIAE ISTRIAE BOSNIAE FINITIMARVMQVE REGIONVM NOVA DESCRIPTIO AVCTORE AVGVSTINO HIRSVOGELIO The other Mappe of ILLYRICA I Had purposed as I promised in the Preface to this booke to haue set out of euery country but one Mappe or Table and that as exact as might be therefore when the famous man Iohannes Sambucus had sent vnto me a more absolute description of this country to be inserted into this our Theater I had determined to haue left the other out But as it is oft times both delightfull and profitable to know diuers opinions of one and the same thing so also I perswade my selfe it will not be altogether vnprofitable sometime to see the different descriptions of sundry authours of one and the same countrie Againe lest the studious and diligent Reader should misse in this our last edition that which was to be had in our first we haue thought good to reteine also aswell the one as the other and to place it heere in this place as an in-come or by-matter I doubt not but it will be a thing well pleasing to all students of Cosmography ILLYRICVM IOAN SAMBVCVS ORTELIO SVO S. Mitto hanc quòque tabellam qua necessaria confinia Pannonia declarantur fluuiorum aliquot locorum situs Hirschuogelij recte mutaui Angelini autem studio plurima adieci et interualla correxi vt parum quis si cum Hirschvogelij haec coniungat desiderarit si qui errores sint dies certiora docebit Viennae Vale 25. Octob. 1572. Cum Imperatoriae Regniae Maiestatis Priuilegio The Dukedome of CARINTHIA or KARNTEN and the County Palatine of GORCZ THis Dukedome of Carinthia which as Rithmayer affirmeth should rather be written Carnithia hath vpon the East and North Steyrmarcke vpon the West and South the Alpes and Friuli Carniola is part of this prouince In this country are many valleies and hilles very good wheat grounds many Lakes and Riuers amongst the which the chiefe is Drauus or as they now call it Dra. The more famous cities of this tract are S. Veit Villach and Clagenfurt S. Veit the Metropolitane city is a city of good note hauing a very faire large market place wherein standeth a goodly conduite of running water which we saw in building in the yeare 1558. The diameter or breadth of the cesterne we tooke to be about seuen foote ouer This cesterne made of one whole stone of white marble and there amongst other monuments of antiquity digged out of the ground was a thing worth the seeing As they go out of the city toward Clagen-furt there is a very wide champion that offereth it selfe as yet bestrewed with many ruines of ancient buildings they commonly call it Solfeldt Paracelsus in that his Chronicle of this country if so be it be his nameth it I cannot tell vpon what ground Liburnia I do rather iudge Soluense oppidum the towne Solue which Pliny maketh mention of in Carina to haue long since stood heere This is that place where the princes are wont to be crowned abroad in the open aire a strange and vnusuall kind of ceremony curiously described by Pius the second in his Europa Villach a towne whose houses in their forefront gorgeously painted and set out with histories and variety of colours yeeld a beautifull and goodly shew to the beholders It is seated vpon the riuer Dra in a plaine enclosed with very high steepe rocks with a great stone bridge ouer the riuer Clagen-furt a strong city anciently called as Lazius witnesseth Claudia Some there are that write that the citizens of this city are so hardly bent against theeues that vpon the least occasion of suspicion of theft a man shall there without examination be hanged and then the third day after that he is hanged they sitte vpon the triall if so be that they find him to haue been vniustly executed they bury him very honourably if iustly they let him hang still But Rithmayer saith
maner Pomerland at this day hath forty cities enclosed with walls and ditches besides certaine goodly castles and monasteries Amongst the which these are the chiefe Stralsund Stettin Grypswald Stargard Colberg and Anglame Fiue hundred yeares since before the enterteinment of Christian religion which was in the yeare 1124. and when they left the Slauonian tongue Pomerland was greater and not much inferiour to a kingdome For Bugslaus the first brother of Wartislaus the first sonne to Swantibore who died a Pagane when as his nephews leauing their country for the alteration of the language adioined Pomerell to Spruise POMERELL which the Polanders do at this day call Casub corner Cassubia is no very small prouince It extended it selfe from the borders of Pomerland to the riuer Wixel or Weissel and conteineth these cities Dantzk Putzka Dirsow Stargard Nauburg Smecha Tauchel Nakel Hamerstein Baldeburg Frideland Conitz Schoneg Slochow c. which cities haue for the most part castles belonging to them beside which there are these castles Moseuantz Talkenborch Subitz Lauterberg and these Monasteries Polpelin Sukow Tzernitz Oliua where the Princes of Pomerell were wont to be buried euen to Mestewin the last of that line who died at Dantzk and was buried at Oliua in the yeare 1295. Read more of Pomerland in the Saxon Chronicle of Dauid Chytraeus This mappe we haue taken out of Munsters Cosmography The Dukedome of OZWIECZIN and ZATOR THis Dukedome is a part of the kingdome of Poland where it toucheth Silesia Sometime it did not belong to this kingdome The territorie of OZVVIECZIN the Germanes in their language call it Auschwitz fell vnto the kings of Poland in the time of Cazimir the third in the yeare 1454. ZATOR about 400. yeares after in the raigne of Sigismund the first was reduced vnto the crowne of Poland and was vnited to that body in the yeare of Christ 1548. as Cromer in his Chronicle of Poland testifieth POMERANIAE WANDALICAE REGIONIS TYP LIVONIAE NOVA DESCRIPTIO Joanne Portantio auctore DVCATVS OSWIE CZENSIS ET ZATORIENSIS DESCRIPTIO ROMANIA anciently called THRACIA THat country which now they call ROMANIA the ancients called THRACIA It was a large and wide prouince hauing on the East Propontis Mar di Marmora and Pontus Euxinus the Italians call it Mar Maiore the Gretians Maurothalassa the Turkes as Busbequius saith Caradenis the blacke sea as both nations vnderstand on the South Mare Aegeum the Turkes call this Acdenis the white sea Archipelago on the West Macedony and Pannony on the North the mount Haemus Monte Argentaro and both the Moesiaes The aire is neither very kind nor the soile very fertile and except it be in those places which do butte vpon the sea it is barrein and cold Ptolemey diuideth it into thirteen shires namely these Danthletica Bennica Bessica Caenica Coeletica Corpialica Drosica Maedica Samaica Sapaica Sardica Sellitica Vrbana and Vsdesica The latter writers haue diuided it into these six prouinces Europa Hoemimontum Moesia Secunda which is the same with Moesia Inferior Rhodope Scythia and Thracia properly so called Lastly it was since called by one name Romania which it still retaineth Yet about Constantinople I vnderstand the Turkes do call it Galatia where also at this day there is the city Galata which we call Pera and the old Historiographers named Cornu Bizantium the horne of Constantinople The famous MOVNTAINES of this country are Hoemus Monte Argentaro or Catena mundi the chaine of the world the Italians call it the Turkes Balkan the Slauonians Cumouiza Rhodope Valizu or Czernaniwerti they now call it Orbelus Karopnitze Pangaeus Malaca or Castagna and diuers others of lesser note The RIVERS are Hebrus Marisa Nessus Nesto or Mestro the Turkes call it Charasou Melas now Lameta or Larissa and Strymon as some thinke although others do rather iudge this to be a riuer of Macedony The famous CITIES are Abdera now Asperosa as Niger thinketh or Polystylo as Sophianus or Astrizza as Nardus affirmeth Apollonia Phinopolis Philippolis Nicopolis vpon the riuer Haemus Nicopolis vpon the riuer Nessus Hadrianopolis the Turkes call it Endrem as Busbechius writeth or Edernay as Postellus teacheth Selyhria Debeltus Heraclea Lysimachia Hexamili and Bysantium famous in all ages so named of Bysa who first built it afterward it was enlarged and fortified by the Emp. Constantine and of him was called Constantinopolis but at this time corruptly and more short Stamboli This now as also long since it was is the most famous and honourable city of all this country next after Hadrianople Andernopoli it is commonly called then Sophia and others of lesse estimation This country also hath adioined vnto it a necke-land or demi-ile which they call the Foreland of Thrace Heere is Callipolis Gallippoli and Sesto famous for the loue of Leander Dauid Chytraeus in his Chronicle of Saxony hath diuers things worth the noting of the prouinces of this chart The ilands in the Archipelago mare Aegaeum neere to Romania are SAMOTHRACIA commonly called Samandrachi and THALASSIA of Ptolemey which others call Thassus and to this day it reteineth some similitude of that name for the latter writers do name it Tasso In Propontis or Mar di Marmora is PROECONNESVS or Elaphonnesus which some haue named Neuris Now the Turkes and Greekes do call it Marmora whereof that sea tooke the name In Bosphorus the Latines call it Stretto di Constantinopoli the straites of Constantinople the Greekes Laimon the Turkes Bogazin are the Insulae CYANEAE which Strabo calleth Symplegades now Pauonare or Iarcazes oft mentioned in the writings of ancient Poets who after their maner did feine them first to haue floted vpon the water and to be moueable and then by the sailing of the Argonautes to haue been setled and fixed Beside the old Geographers Ptolemey Strabo Pliny and Pomponius Mela which haue written of this country the latter writers also are not to be neglected especially the singular learned VVolfangus Lazius his commentaries of Greece and Bellonius his Obseruations Petrus Gyllius hath most curiously and diligently described the city Constantinople which city a man may say was by the prouidence of God ordeined to be the head of many kingdomes and to haue beene sometime called New Rome and at this day Romania so that the famous poet Tibullus may seeme to haue spoken not without iust cause and by a kind of diuine inspiration when he said ROMATVVM NOMEN TERRIS FATALE REGENDIS O Rome thy name doth giue thou shouldest the world command And in the iudgement of Romulus the Gods would haue it VT ROMA SIT CAPVT ORBIS TERRARVM That Rome should be the head of all the World as Liuy hath left record in the first booke of his Decades ROMANIAE quae olim Thracia dicta VICINARVMque REGIONVM VTI BVLGARIAE WALACHIAE SYRFIAE ETC. DESCRIPTIO Auctore Iacobo Castaldo Cum priuilegio decennasi M.D.LXXXIIII SCANDIA OR THE NORTHREN Kingdomes THis Mappe conteineth almost all the Northen tract of the knowen world
but especially the Neck-land or Peninsula knowen vnto the old writers by these names Scandia Scandinauia Baltia and Basilia but to them neuer throughly discried which in regard of his greatnesse they haue called Another World and the Shoppe of men and as it were the scabberd from whence so many Nations haue been drawen But of the diuers names of this country read that which we haue written at the mappe of Island as also in our Treasury of Geography in the word BASILIA This Neckeland in this our age conteineth three kingdomes Norwey Swedland and Gotland with a part of the kingdome of Denmarke and many other prouinces as Bothny Finmarke Finland Lappland c. whose seuerall descriptions we will heere set downe out of Iames Ziegler NORVEGIA Norway if you would interpret it is as much to say as the Northren tract or Northren way This was sometime a most flourishing kingdome and comprehended Denmarke and Friesland with the circumiacent Ilands vntill such time as the kingdome was gouerned by an hereditary succession of kings Afterward the line failing in the time of vacancie by the consent of the Nobility it was decreed that the kings should be chosen by election At this day it is vnder the iurisdiction of the kings of Denmarke who do not only take the lawfull reuenews iustly due to the crowne but imposing intolerable exactions and by scraping and raking all commodities into their hands they conuey all the wealth of this country into Denmarke Neither is this aggreeuance alone but with all the disaduantage and condition of the place doth much hurt the subiects for all the hauens roads shipping are at the command of the king of Denmarke so that neither they may without his leaue vse the sea or transport their merchandise into forren countries This kingdome either for the temperature of the aire goodnesse of the soile or benefit of the sea is not of meane estimation and account This doth transport into other parts of Europe a fish which is a kind of codde slitte and spread vpon a post and so dried and hardened with the frost and cold and thereupon the Germanes call it Stockfish The best time of the yeare to catch them is in Ianuary when as the weather is coldest to drie them those which are taken when the weather is more mild they shrinke or rotte away and are not fit to be transported any whither All the sea coast of Norway is very calme and temperate the sea freeseth not the snow continueth not long SVECIA Sweden or Swedland is a kingdome rich of siluer copper lead iron corne and cattell Wonderfull plenty of fish is heere taken both in riuers lakes and creekes aswell as in the maine ocean Heere are many Deere and wild beasts Stockholme is the kings seat and chiefe mart towne a city fortified both by nature by art and industrie of the ingenious Architect It standeth in a fenne like Venice and thereof it took the name for that being situate in the waters it is built vpon piles which they call Stockes GOTHIA Gotland that is the Good land is subiect to the king of Sweden In it is the port and mart towne Calmar a great city Heere is a goodly Castle which for ingenious Architecture or Fortification as also for large compasse and content is not much inferiour to that of Millane in Italie Neere Tinguallen are mines of excellent iron Thus farre Ziegler Of DENMARKE and the BRITISH ILES we will speake nothing in this place seeing that we entreated of them at their proper and seuerall mappes In this chart there is described also ISLAND an Iland as famous as any other for strange miracles and secret works of nature Item GROENLAND another Iland knowen to very few Heere also is FRIESLAND a third iland altogether vnknowen to ancient writers neither is it once named of the latter Geographers or Hydrographers only Nicolao Zeno a Venetian who in the yeare of Christ 1380. tossed with many continuall bitter stormes in this sea at last rent and weather-beaten arriued in this I le This authour affirmeth that this iland is subiect to the king of Norway and to be greater then Ireland and that the chiefe towne is of the same name with the I le it selfe lastly that the country people do for the most part liue by fishing For in the hauen of this towne they catch such abundance of all sorts of fish that from thence they lade whole shippes and transport them into other ilands neere adioining The sea next to this iland vpon the West full of shelues and rocks as he writeth is of the inhabitants called Mare Icarium Icarus sea and an iland in it he saith is named ICARIA Of GROENLAND he writeth that the winter heere is 9. moneths long and all that time it neuer raineth nor the snow which falleth in the beginning of winter euer dissolueth vntill the latter end of the same But that is most wonderfull which he telleth of the Monastery of the order of Frier Predicants dedicated to the honour of S. Thomas in this Iland namely that there is not farre from it a mountaine which like vnto Aetna in Sicilia doth at certaine seasons burne and cast out huge flakes of fire and that there is in the same place a fountaine of hot or skalding waters wherewith not only all the chambers of this monastery are warmed in the maner of Stones and hot-houses but also all kind of meat and bread is sodden and dressed and with no other fire All the monastery is built of a kind of hollow light stone which the flames of that burning mountaine do cast forth For these burning stones being by nature somewhat fat and oily are solid and firme but being quenched with this water they become drie full of holes and light and the water wherewith they were quenched is turned into a clammy kind of stuffe like bitumen wherewith these stones are laied in steed of mortar when they are to vse them in building and thus they make a sure worke against the iniury of all weathers Their orchyeards also and gardens watered with this water are alwaies green and do flourish almost all the yeare long with all maner of flowres kinds of corne and fruits This Priory standeth vpon the sea shore and hath a reasonable capacious and large hauen into which the forenamed fountaine emptying his waters doth make it so warme that it neuer freeseth in the hardest and egerest froast that euer was knowen Whereupon heere is such abundance of fish which do flocke hither from more colde places that not only these Monkes but also the neighbours round about are furnished from hence with prouision of victuall These thinges amongst many others Zenus hath written of these Ilands who being made by Zichimnus king of certaine Ilands heere about high Admirall of his nauy discouered all these Northren coasts The ile FRIESLAND now againe in these our daies was descried by the Englishmen and was by them called by a new name WEST
liuing men of such as are not aware that they are dead neither do they perceiue that they were deceiued vntill the Ghosts be gone Ionas accounteth this for a fable There are also certaine spirits or ghosts which do shew themselues apparantly to be seen in the businesses of mortall men or of such as came to their end by some violent mischance as Olaus reporteth They call these Drols as Rithmayer testifieth Now Drol is a giant of the mountaines if we may beleeue Arngrime Ionas an Ilander by birth and bringing vp Heere is a spring which by reason of a filthy smoaking water which runneth from it killeth any thing that naturally the earth bringeth forth and whatsoeuer is besmered with this smokie fume in continuance of time becommeth as hard as a stone yet still retaining the shape that it had before There is also a spring of pestilent waters which whosoeuer shall tast or drinke of will presently be as if he had drunke poison Heere also are certaine waters that are in propertie and tast somewhat like drinke that is made of mault There are fires heere that will not burne or consume flax yet they will quite drie vp and consume water They haue beares crowes and white hares As also Eagles with white tailes as our authour Ionas the Islander whom we haue often cited doth witnesse These Pliny as he there alleageth calleth Pygargos I thinke we call them Wringtailes But those that are desirous to know all the strange wonders of this iland let them read Albert Crantz Saxo Grammaticus Iohannes Magnus and Olaus Magnus whom they may beleeue or not beleeue according as they shall find cause To those they may adioine that which Dauid Chytraeus in his Saxon history hath written of this iland Except I be deceiued the fable which Isacius vpon Lycophron reciteth of a certaine iland of Brittany whither he saith the soules of dead men are transported doth perteine to this iland For such a like tale is commonly told of Island A declaration of the Markes and Letters of this Mappe A. Is a fish which they commonly call Nahual If any man eat of this fish he dieth presently It hath a tooth in the forepart of his head standing out seuen cubites This diuers haue sold for the Vnicornes horne It is thought to be a good antidote and soueraigne medicine against poison This Monster is forty elles in length B. The Roider a fish of an hundred and thirty elles in length which hath no teeth The flesh of it is very good meat wholesome and toothsome The fatte of it is good against many diseases C. The Burchualur hath his head bigger than all the body beside It hath many very strong teeth whereof they make Chesmen or Tablemen It is threescore cubites long D. The Hyena the sea hogge a monstrous kind of fish of which thou maiest read in the 21. booke of Olaus Magnus E. Ziphius it may be he meaneth Xiphius the sword fish an horrible sea monster swallowing the blacke seale at one bitte F. The English whale thirty elles long it hath no teeth but the tongue of it is seuen elles in length G. Hroshualur that is as much to say as the Sea-horse with a mane hanging downe from his necke like an horse It often doth the fishermen great hurt and skare H. The greatest kind of Whales which seldome sheweth it selfe it is more like a little iland than a fish It cannot follow or chase the smaller fishes by reason of the huge greatnesse and waight of his body yet he praieth vpon many which he catcheth by a naturall wile and subtilty which he vseth for to get his food I. Skautuhvalur this fish altogether full of gristles or bones is somewhat like a ray or skaite but an infinite deale bigger when it appeareth it is like an iland and with his sinnes ouerturneth ships and boates K. Seenaut sea cowes of colour gray they sometimes come out of the sea and do feed vpon the land many in a company together They haue a little bagge hanging at their nose by the helpe of which they liue in the water that being broken they liue altogether vpon the land and do accompany themselues with other kine L. Steipereidur a most gentle and tame kind of whale which for the defence of the fishermen fighteth against other Whales It is forbidden by Proclamation that no man may kill or hurt this sort of Whale It is in length an hundred cubites at the least M. Staukul the Dutchmen call it Springual he hath beene seene to stand a whole day together vpright vpon his taile It is so called of leaping or skipping It is a very dangerous enemy to seamen and fishers and greedily seeketh after mans flesh N. Rostunger which also is otherwise called a Rosmar is somewhat like a sea-calfe it goeth in the bottome of the sea vpon foure feet but very short ones His skinne may scarcely be pearced with any weapon Hee sleepeth twelue houres together hanging by his two long teeth vpon some rocke or cliffe Ech of his teeth are at the least an elle long but the length of his whole body is foureteen elles long O. Sperma ceti parmacitty or a base kind of amber they commonly call it Hualambur P. Blockes and Trunkes of tree by force of winde and violent tempest blowne vp by the rootes from off the cliffes of Norway tossed to and fro and passing through many stormes at length are cast vp or do rest against this shore Q. Huge and maruailous great heaps of ice brought hither with the tide from the frozen sea making a great and terrible noise some pieces of which oft times are fourty cubites bigge vpon these in some places white beares do sitte closely watching the silly fish which heere about do play and sport themselues But I thinke it not amisse to set downe the Verses of Erasmus Michaelis which he hath of Island in his third booke De re Nautica Vltima Parrhasias Islandia spectat in Arctos Sub Canrum porrecta gradus non diuite tantùm Laeta solo cùm vel caecis occlusa cauernis Sulphura flaua coquit mixtisque extrudit arenis Pabula vel laetis pecori gratissima pratis Fundit oppletas inuestit gramine valles At vicina etiam solidos cùm littora pisces Nec numeris nec mensura certisve ferendos Nominibus stipat ratibusque immittere certat Prouentu siquidem vario cum cxcesserit vno Hoc vincit tamen cumulato pisce redundat Aucta opibus fortesque animis complexa colonos Cuius in Notios quae pars iacet obuia ventos Aestuat aeternis per aperta foramina flammis Eructatque globos cinerum trepidoque boatu Hecla tonans inter sparsa pice sidera lambit In English thus Island a famous ile that 's farre remote and distant from the Maine North-west from hence doth lie in frozen sea The countries chiefest gaine Is Brimstone pale which heere in mountaines high in plenty great is found Or
the Portugals still called Cussij of Cush I make no question The people are blacke or of a deep tawny or blackish colour and blacke we say in our common prouerbe will take none other hue Whereupon the Prophet Ieremy in the 23. verse of the 13. chapter of his prophecy saith thus Can ישוכ Cushi the Abyssine or Blacka-moore change his skinne or the leopard his spots For the same reason also the learned Diuines do iudge that Dauid in the title or superscription of the seuenth Psalme by Cush did meane Saul for that his deadly hate was such toward him that by no good meanes that he might vse he could make him change his mind more than an Indian doth his skinne as Kimchi the great Rabbine doth interpret this place The people are by profession Christians as appeareth by the letters of the said Dauid written vnto Pope Clement the seuenth Of whose manner of life customes and religion we haue gathered these few lines out of the trauels of Francis Aluares written and imprinted in the Italian tongue In these countries there are very many Monasteries and Religious houses both of men and women Into the Monasteries of the men there is neither woman nor any liuing creature of the female sex that may enter or once looke within the gates Their Monkes which heere do hold their Lent for fifty daies together do fast for the most part only with bread and water For in these countries there is small store of fish especially in the vpland places for although the riuers are well stored of fish yet they giue not their mind to fishing because they know not how to catch them there is none skilled in that art In time of Lent certaine of these Monkes do not eat any bread at all only they liue vpon rootes and herbs some of them for all that time do neuer go to bed nor sleepe but as they sit in the water vp to the chinne In their Churches they haue bels as we haue but for the most part made of stone Their Ministers and Priests are married They say Masse and do go in procession with crosses and censers like as they vse in some Churches in Europe The Friars do weare their haire long but their Priests do not so neither of them weare any shoes nor any man neither Churchman nor Layman may once enter within the Church dores with shoes on his feet They keep Sundaies and Holy-daies vpon which they do no manner of worke They are all circumcised both men and women but they are also baptised in the name of the Father and of the Sonne and of the Holy Ghost yet not vntill the fortith day after their birth they which liue not till this day are buried vnchristened to all those that are baptized the holy communion or Eucharist as they call it is at the same instant administred powring a great deale of water into the childes mouth that he may so much the more easily get it downe The proper names which then are giuen them are all of some signification They affirme that they were conuerted vnto Christian religion by Candaces a Queen of this country spoken of in the 27. verse of the 8. chapter of the Acts of the Apostles whose proper name they thinke was Iudith They haue a booke diuided into 8. parts this they call Manda and Abetilis which they do verily beleeue was written by all the Apostles being iointly for that purpose gathered together at Hierusalem all the contents of this booke they do most diligently and strictly obserue The baser sort of people do without any controwlement or feare of punishment marry 2. or 3. wiues according to their ability and as they can tell how to maintaine them but these are excommunicated and forbidden by the Cleargy to enter into the Church Their lawes do tolerate diuorcements The Noble-men do esteem raw beefe serued in with fresh or hot bloud in manner as we vse our boiled meats with pottage or stewed broth for a great and dainty dish In all the kingdome of Prester Iohn they haue no manner of brasen or copper money but in steed of it they vse pure gold vncoined of a certaine weight In like manner salt yet not only in these prouinces but also generall throughout all Africa is vsed in exchange and buying and selling in stead of money In some places small pieces of iron bright and burnished do serue that turne But pepper amongst these people is of such great price that whatsoeuer a man will buy he may easily obtaine it for that merchandice These countries haue almost all sorts of beasts and fowles as Elephants Lions Tygres Losses Lynces the Latines call them Badgers Apes and Stagges contrary to the opinion of the old writers which haue generally denied that Africa doth veeld this kind of beast but in all that six yeare which Aluares this our authour dwelt in these countries he writeth that he neuer saw any Beares Conies Linnets Magpies or Cuccoes Yet Iohn Leo an African borne in his 9. booke saith that in Barbary there is wonderfull store of Conies The Locusts do more vex and hurt this country than any place of the World beside so that this plague is almost proper and peculiar to them Such oftentimes is the number and abundance of them that as they flie they do seeme to darken the aire and shadow the earth they flie together in such great flockes and thicke troupes that they do vtterly spoile and consume the fruits sometime of one prouince sometime of another wholly almost deuouring all their corn vpon the ground eating vp the leaues and barkes of the trees leauing their meddowes and pastures bare of grasse so that the people do oftentimes leaue their natiue soile where they were bred and borne and are forced for want of victuals to go seeke some other place to dwell in There is in these quarters a city named Cassumo sometime the seat as their histories do record and place of the Queen of Saba Maquedam that is as I thinke Antistes a Prouost or President they say she was called By whom they affirme that Salomon King of Isra l had a sonne named Meilech that is The King In this city they are perswaded that the Queen Cand ces did afterward dwell But it is best that the Reader that is desirous of further satisfaction to haue recourse to the same Francis Aluares who hath very curiously described those thing which he did most diligently obserue in that his Ambassage into these countries Item Iohn Bermundes who set foorth his Ambassage vnto the Abyssines in the Portugall language Let him also read a little treatise of Damianus à Goes which he wrot out of Ethiopia and Sabellicus his 10. Enneas of his 8. booke Of the originall of Prester Iohn and by what meanes he came out of Asia where he was knowen to writers about 200. yeares since and seated himselfe in Africa read Iohn Nauarchus in his Epistol Asiatica and Gerard Mercator in his
Heere is also great trafficke for slaues so that the Portugals do yearely buy and carry from hence aboue 5000. Negroes This country doth breed great store of Elephants which they in their language call Manzao There is also found in these quarters a kind of wild beast which they call Zebra of the bignesse and fashion of a mule But that it is not a mule it is apparent in that this beast is not barren as the mule is for this doth breed and bring forth yong as other beasts do The pelt or hide of it is different from those of other liuing creatures of like sort for it is straked with strakes of three diuers colours namely blacke white and yeallow or lion tawny as they call it It is so wonderfull swift of foote and so wild that by no meanes it may be tamed or be made seruiceable for any vse of man whereupon they commonly vse this for a prouerbe As swift as the Zebra There are also as in other places Lions Tigers Woolues Hartes Hares Conies Apes Chamaeleons with diuers and sundry kindes of Serpents beside hogges sheep goats hennes and parrattes Crocodiles which they terme Cariman are heere very plentifull But horses oxen and other beasts fit for such kind of seruices and vses for mankind they haue none at all Heere doth grow great store of Palme-trees Of the leaues of this tree they make and weaue almost all kind of silke garments and apparell For the vse of the silke-wormes which in other places is well knowen is heere altogether vnknowen The maner of their posts or maner of trauell from one place to another for as we haue shewed before they haue no horses I thinke it well worth the while to set downe in this place out of the 15. booke of Maphey his Indian histories who affirmeth that they haue no other but wooden horses which story he thus laith downe Vpon a rafter or beame saith he about nine inches thicke and eight foot long they spread a piece of a buffe hide of the breadth and compasse of a saddle vpon this the traueller sitteth stradling two men beare the bayard vpon their shoulders and if the iourney be long then other two do shift and ease them of their burden The forenamed authour Pigafetta describeth another kind of carying of passengers from place to place yet it is not very much different from this Vpon the North part of this kingdome do abutte the Anzicanes a mankind nation a people I meane that eateth mans flesh so that heere mans flesh is openly sold in their shambles and flesh markets as beefe and mutton and other meat is amongst vs. That also which they report of Loanda an iland vpon the coast of this country I thinke it worth the noting in this place namely that they say it lieth so exceeding flatte and low that it is scarcely seene aboue the water and that it is a made ground compounded of the mudde and sand which the riuer against which it lieth casteth out into the sea Lastly that if any man shall digge but two or three handfuls deepe within the ground he shall find fresh water very wholesome and good to drinke and that which is most wonderfull this same water when the sea ebbeth will he salt but at full sea only it is fresh How this nation was by the meanes of King Iohn King of Portugal in the yeare of Grace 1491. conuerted vnto Christ anity and with what successe they haue continued and gone forward and yet still constantly do persist in the same any man that list may read of in the forenamed authours Pigafetta in his second booke Maphey in his first booke of the history of India and Iohn Barros in the third chapter of the third booke of his first decade of Asia Before the entrance of the Portugals into this country the people had no proper names but were called by common names such as also stones trees herbs birdes and other creatures amongst them were called by ΜΩΡΙΑ ΠΑΡΑ ΤΩ ΘΕΩ PARERGON SIVE VETERIS GEOGRAPIAE ALIQVOT TABVLAE LECTOR S. Ad nostram Orbis terrarum descriptionem habe sequentes tabulas quas in gratiam priscae tam sacrae quà m profanae historiae studiosorum à me delineatas seorsum publicare decreueram nihil enim ad nostrum in hoc Theatro quo hodiernum tantùm locorum situm exhibere proposueram institutum facere videbantur victus tamen amicorum precibus eas in huius nostri Operis calcem tamquam Parergon reieci Vale nostros conatus boni consule HISTORIAE OCVLVS GEOGRAPHIA THE GEOGRAPHY OF HOLY WRITERS THat which we haue promised behold now ye students of Diuinity and Holy writte at length we offer to your view namely a Map of Sacred Geography or of such places as are named by holy writers in the bookes of the Old and New Testaments whether so exactly as the matter requireth and thou doest looke for I know not but that it is done with my best ability skill to which in any matter and therefore in this especially I dare not much rely I know and can truly protest Yet notwithstanding that I haue not bereaued the learned of their due commendation in doing the like I do acknowledge and do willinly confesse we haue done what we could seeing that we might not performe what we would Therefore what heere we offer it is rather our will than our wish Two things most kind Reader we desire thee to obserue and marke before thou iudge and censure this our labour First that in the Geographicall names of places we haue followed the translation of Septuagints because that is but one and vniforme The Latine translations as they are many so also they are different and in naming of places they vary much and dissent one from another so that that word which one doth interpret properly another otherwise doth translate it according to the sense and meaning Which is that I may vse Varroes phrase to make a noune appellatiue of a proper name and contrariwise of proper names to make appellatiues Examples of which thou maist see in the annotations of Emauel Sà as also in our Geographicall Treasure Therefore where we sticke as doubtfull which of these different readings and writings of proper names we may take we runne vnto the 72. interpretours as vnto a sure ground It any man be desirous to know how otherwise the Latine interpretors do call these proper names let him haue recourse to our Treasurie and he shall without any great difficulty easily satisfie his desire For in this he shall find all the Synonymes of places digested according to the order of the Alphabet The other thing gentle Reader which I would haue thee to obserue and necessarily ought to be done least preiudice do go before sound iudgement is this the seats of all places of Palestina are not set downe in this our Mapp but a few of those that are more famous according to the capacity of the table
of the grace of God where our Sauiour Christ manifested his infinite power by a sufficient testimony raising Lazarus who had lien three daies by the wals from death to life againe This place is spoken of in Matth. 21. Marc. 11.14 Iohn 11.12 BETHABARA the house of Passing ouer or the Ferry-house For there the waters of Iordan were diuided into two channels and therefore there they yeelded a safe passage to Iosua and all the children of Israel through the middest of this riuer Iosu 3.4 Heere Iohn baptized Christ and many others Matth. 3. Moreouer Saint Iohn speaketh of this place in the first and tenne chapters of his Gospell BETHEL Gen. 12. Thither Abraham remoued his houshold after his departure from Sichem For there is no doubt but that they are two diuers places First it was called Luza that is an Almond tree or place where Almond trees did plentifully grow There Iacob saw the Lord standing vpon a ladder as it is related in the 28. chapter of Genesis Therefore vpon that accident the place was called by a new name Bethel that is the house of God In the same Ieroboam erected the Golden calfe that he might seeme in that to imitate the example of the Patriarkes and holy men before him who worshipped God in that place Heereupon the Prophets changed the goodname Bethel and called it Bethauen that is the house of wickednesse or villany BETHSAIDA the house of fruites or the house of corne prouision or hunting Heere Philip Andrew and Peter the Apostles of Christ were borne Iohn 1. The Euangelists also Matthew and Marke haue made mention of this place Matth. 2. Marc. 6. CANA the Greater the country of Syrophoenissa whose daughter Christ cured being possessed with a Diuell Matth. 15. Marc. 8. of this see more beneath in Sarepta CANA the Lesser a towne of Galiley in which Christ with his presence and miracle of turning water into wine honourably graced matrimony Cana signifieth a reed or cane CANANAEA it is the name of a country so called of Chanaan the sonne of Cham. Chanaan signifieth a Merchant and indeed the posterity of Chanaan dwelling vpon the sea coast did trade as Merchants For Sidon the sonne of Canaan built the city Sidon And in the tenth chapter of Genesis the land of Canaan is so described as it is certaine that it contained all that whole tract of ground which afterward the Israelites did possesse from Iordan euen vnto the sea and so along as farre as Aegypt There as yet was no distinction between the Philistiim and Canaan For Canaan also was ancienter than Philistiim which was not borne of Canaan but of Misraim Yet afterward when the power and iurisdiction of the Nation of the Philistines grew to some heigth and greatnesse they caused the country especially all along the sea coast beneath Tyre Southward to be called after their name PALESTINA And in the 13. chapter of the booke of Iosua there are reckoned vp 5. cities of the Philistines Azotus Accaron Ascalon Geth and Gaza When therefore the Canaanites for that they possessed the places neere Iordan were almost vtterly destroied their name by a little and little began to perish and to fade away And although also the Philistines which greatly enlarged their bounds and territories in that countrie which afterward was giuen to the tribes of Iuda Beniamin Simeon Manasses and Isaschar were driuen from thence and were for the most part consumed yet they retained as I said certaine strong cities vpon the sea coast beneath Tyre and so somewhile they greatly flourish and were lords ouer others within a while after they grew weaker and were commanded of others In the time of Abraham the seat and court of Abimelech was at Gerar who in the 26. chapter of Gen. is named King of the Philistines The city Gerara was situate in that country which afterward the tribe of Iuda did possesse not farre from Hebron and was indeed placed between Hebron and Gaza It is therefore to be conceiued that the name of Cananaea Canaan is somewhat more ancient and comprehending more Nations than the name of the Philistines which neuer possessed all that tract and compasse of ground which afterward the Israelites enioyed But notwithstanding because the Philistines had certaine great cities vpon the sea coast the name of Palaestina was by reason of their traffique more famous and better knowen to the Greeke writers than Canaan or Cananaea Herodotus in Polymnia saith that the Phoenicians and Syrians possessing Palaestina sent 300. saile of ships to Xerxes and afterward he addeth that the whole country euen from the skirtes of Aegypt vnto Phoenicia was called Palestina And therefore also afterward the Greekes as Ptolemey vnder the name of Palaestina haue comprehended Iudaea Samaria and Galiley when as notwithstanding the Philistines did not possesse all that large space and compasse of ground But often times names are giuen to countries of some principall prouince of the same that doth in power and command surpasse the rest The Grammaticall interpretation and reason of the Etymology of the word Philistim is thought to be for that this nation inhabiting along the sea coast where earthquakes are very frequent and so whole townes and cities are couered with sand besprinkled and soiled with dust and dirt For the word in the Hebrew tongue signifieth Sprinklers or besprinklings as when any thing is besprinkled and foiled with dust or it signifieth otherwise Batteries and shakings as when a building is violently shaken and mooued by an externall force whereby it is in danger and ready to fall Like as Ascalon and Azotus hauing their names giuen them of Esh fire CAPERNAVM that is a pleasant and delightfull village Heere Christ first began to publish his Gospel Matth. 4. Luc. 4. and 7. For he was a citizen of that corporation betaking himselfe to that place when as he fled for feare of Herod when he put Iohn Baptist to death Therefore of Christ and his Disciples they demanded there a didrachma for poll mony as of the rest of the citizens and dwellers in this city Of this city mention is made Matth. 8.11.17 Marc. 1.2.5.9 Luc. 4.7 Io. 2.6 DALMANVTHA that is the poore mens habitation Christ with his Disciples came also into this country Matth. 16. Marc. 8. DAMASCVS It is distant from Ierusalem 42. Germane miles Breitenbach writeth that Damascus is 6. daies iourney from Ierusalem The map sheweth the situation of it to be in the mount Antilibanas It is a very ancient city which also at this day is very populous and much frequented by merchants Diuers etymologies and reasons of the imposition of this name diuers men do curiously seeke I do hold this for the likeliest The sacke of blood because the old opinion is that in this place Abel was slaine by his brother Cain Surely it is very probable and generally agreed vpon that our first parents Adam and Eue did first dwell not farre from this place DECAPOLIS the name of a prouince
country yeelding all maner of fruites and fruitfull trees and those in their kindes the best and to be such that it were pity that any king in the World should haue ought to do in but he Varro in his bookes De re Rustica of Husbandrie writeth That it is a more temperate and healthfull soile than Asia Statius in his Achilleidos more than once or twice calleth it The Mighty prouince of the World Maxima terra viris foecundissima doctis Vrbibus Europe for multitude of warlike men and scholers deeply learned doth farre excell thus Mamilius writeth of it Aristotle the prince of Philosophers maketh the inhabiters of this part of the world to be A very stout and couragious people The same authour affirmeth that All kind of beasts and cattell heere are in their kind greater and stronger than in Asia and Africke But of the nature of this country the maners and customes of the people let vs heare what Strabo that excellent Geographer saith in his second booke This part is most fertile of valiant and prudent men It is all generally habitable excepting only a very small portion toward the North and abutting vpon the Hamaxici which dwell vpon Tanais Don Maeotis palus Mar delle Zabacche and Borysthenes Nieper or Dnester which place by reason of the extream cold is not habitable Yet certaine bleake and mountainous places inhabited although in respect of the nature of the soile they are tilled and manured with greater difficulty yet hauing gotten good skilfull and industrious husbands those also are tamed and much bettered which heeretofore were badly vsed and kept only by theeues and out-lawes And indeed the Greekes when they dwelt vpon the rocks and mountaines dwelt well and conueniently by reason of their wise cariage in ciuill matters arts sciences and knowledge of those things which necessarily are required to the maintenance of mans life In like maner the Romanes hauing brought many sauage and fierce Nations vnder their seruile yoke seated I meane in places not very conuenient to dwell in in respect of the nature of the country either for that it was rough and craggy or wanted hauens or was too bleake and cold or for other causes taught them to vse merchandise before vnknowen and haue brought them from a sauage and brutish life to liue ciuilly and more humanely But those parts which are situate in an equall and temperat climate there nature administreth all things necessary for the maintenance of man and beast Now when as those Nations which do inhabite and dwell in fertile and rich countries are maintainers of peace and quietnesse and those which are seated in barren and vnfruitfull countries are most hardy and stout it commeth to passe that both are helpfull one to another while these do vse their weapons for their countries defence those againe do help and maintaine them by the profits that they raise out of the earth by their arts and mysteries as also by their learning wisedome and policy euen as in like maner also the dammage is mutuall and either side feeleth a sensible hurt when the one part doth not helpe the other yet the estate of the souldier and warlike man is somewhat better if they be not one come with multitude And the nature of Europe serueth very fitly for this purpose for it is all diuersly distinguished by lofty mountaines and lowly plaines so that euery where the husbandmen and souldiers the politicians and the martiall warriers do dwell together yet so as the greatest number are peaceable men which kind of life they enioy especially by the meanes and labour of their captaines first of the Greekes then of the Macedonians and lastly of the Romanes Therefore both in peace and warre it is sufficient of it selfe to maintaine and defend it selfe for it hath great plenty both of stout souldiers painfull husbandmen and politique statesmen In this also it doth excell that it bringeth foorth passing good fruits such I meane as are necessary for the maintenance of mans life with all sorts of mettall for what vse soeuer Spices or sweet smelling things and pretious stones are brought hither from forren countries WHICH THINGS VVHOSOEVER HAVE NOT THEY LIVE NEVER A VVHIT WORSE THAN THOSE DO THAT HAVE THEM Moreouer this is especially worth the noting that hauing wonderfull store of cattell sheep and oxen it breedeth very few dangerous wild beasts Thus farre the learned Strabo Many other things thou maist read of this Europe together with the nature and condition of the people of the same in that treatise which Hippocrates the prince of Phisitions wrote of the care and waters This Europe also and not any other place of the world beside doth yeeld Succinum or Electrum Amber we call it the Germanes Gleslum yet it is not found in Eridianas a riuer falling into some Northren sea as Herodotus doth fabulously report or in Padus a riuer of Italy Po as the poets iestingly affirme nor in the Electrides certaine fained ilands in the Hadriaticke sea as some men of better credit and more diligent searchers out of the truth as Pliny EVROPAM SIVE CELTICAM VETEREM sic describere conabar Abrah Ortelius CLARISS D. NICOLAO ROCCOXIO I.V.L. PATRICIO ANTVERP EIVSDEMQ VRBIS SENATORI HANC ANTIQVAE EVROPAE NOVAM TABVLAM ABRAH ORTELIVS DEVOTISSIME DEDICAB CVM PRIVILEGIO DECEN NALI IMP. REGIS ET BRABANTIAE CANCELLARIAE 1595. saith haue seriously thought nor in Spaine as Aeschylus beleeued nor in certaine rockes at the further end of the gulfe of Venice mare Hadriaticum as some more sober men haue giuen out nor in Liguria as Sudinus Metrodorus and Theophrastus would haue men thinke nor in Ethiopia neere Iupiter Ammons temple or in Scythia as Philemon imagined nor in Britaine as Socatus nor in the Glessariae ilands in the Germane occan as Pliny hath taught nor in Bannonia or Baltia a certain iland as Timaeus ha h broached nor in a certain riuer as Dion Prusaeus hath taught but neere vnto the neckland or peninsula Haestarum in the bay Pautzkerwicke and Frisch-hast Sinus Clilipenus in the Balticke or East sea not farre from Dantzk in Pomerell or Sprese where hitherto it hath been taken a thing wholly hidden from the ancients to the great gaine and enriching of the Nations neere inhabiting and not many other place of the world beside In the same Europe are there many goodly and stately cities amongst the which the most famous in all ages are Rome and Constantinople which afterward was called New-Rome and now are London Venice and Paris The riuers of greater note are Rhein Isther or Donaw and the Thames the woods more notable are Ardene in Gallia 500. miles of length reaching from the riuer of Rhein vnto Tourney in France and Hercynia in Germany 40. daies iourney long as Pomponius writeth and 9. daies iourney broad as Caesar in his Commentaries reporteth a greater wood than which or more vast there is no history maketh mention of Thus much of Europe But whereof it
in the very selfe same forme and fashion and is called in our language a Pallatrocke for Rocke with the Flemings is asmuch as Vestis in Latine a weed or vesture Aristotle in the seuenth booke of his Politickes in my iudgement speaketh of this kind of garment when he saith that the Gauls did weare a kind of short gabbardine The forenamed Martiall doth speake of a kind of weed vsed amongst the Gauls which he calleth Bardocucullus Santonicus The hooded cloake of Xantoigne But Pliny beside these maketh mention of another kind of vesture vsuall amongst them in these his words Wooll of it selfe driuen together and wrought in maner of a felt doth make a knid of cloath and if in the making of it you do worke it with vineger it will be so stiffe and solide that you shall not be able to pierce it with the stroake of a sword this I thinke was first inuented by the Frenchmen The same authour reporteth that these people did first make that cloth that is damasked with scutcheons or lozēge-work In Isidorus out of Plautus these words are cited Linnae cooperta est textrino Gallia For the sēse of which I refer to the author himself for the copies of Isidorus are here very corrupt Diodorus Siculus saith that they did vse to weare rings vpon their fingers yet Pliny reporteth that they wore them only vpon the middle finger Caesar testifieth that they tooke pleasure in oxen and such kind of labouring beasts Now in like maner we will speake somewhat of their diet and maner of liuing They vsed in their seruices earthen vessels very thicke and strong and goodlily set out with flowres At supper they generally all of them sit not vpon stooles but on the ground vpon woolues skinnes or dogges skinnes spread vpon the same Strabo saith that at their meat they sit vpon beds or pallades lying vpon the ground They are serued at their tables with little boies Hard by them is the fire where the pots with boiled meats hang see thing and spits full of roast meat are continually going as Diodorus reporteth Their meats for the most part are porke and bacon yea and sometime they eate anie other kind of flesh whatsoeuer and that oft times is dressed with milke as Strabo hath left recorded But Athenaeus words which hee citeth out of Posidonius are worth the noting The Celtae make their drinkings vpon tables of wood with a little hay strowed vnderneath these tables be not very high from the ground They haue bread which as Pliny writeth they make light with leauen but of it they haue no great quantity their meat is a great deale of flesh sodde in water broiled vpon the coales or roast vpon spits This when it is brought to the boord they take vp whole in both their hands and like rauening lions doe teare it with their teeth but if there be any of it so tough that they cannot easily gnaw it that they cut in smaller pieces with a little knife Their bankets they vse to furnish with all kind of fish both fresh-fish sea-fish and shel-fish whatsoeuer kind I meane that either the fresh riuers or brackish seas do affoord These they broile and dresse with salt vineger and cummin seed which things also they vse to put into their pots If many do meet at one table together they sit round in maner of a circle The best man alwaies sitteth in the middest him I terme the best man that either for martiall prowesse nobility or wealth doth excell the rest The seruitoures skinkers or such as do waite at the boord do carrie drinke to the table in pots like pitchers either of potters mettall or else of cleane siluer Of the same mettall are their dishes and platters in which they serue in their meat Yet some of them haue them of brasse other some in steed of platters do vse baskets made of twigs or osiers The wealthier sort do drinke wine brought from Italy or from the country neere about Marseilles and that for the most part is of the pure grape yet sometime they allay it or brew it with a little water dercoma they call it They suppe it vp by a little and little out of the same cuppe being euery foot sipping and bibbing A boy carrieth about the pot in both his hands But Pliny testifieth that they made a kind of drink of steeped corne so strong that it would make a man drunke Diodorus Siculus writeth that they had a kind of drinke which they call Zythum we now cal it Ale the Britans as Dioscorides testifieth called it Curmi or Curw as now the Welchmen pronounce the word Item the same authour saith that they made another kind of drink of the water wherein they had washed or sod hony combes this now we call Mead yea and Ammianus Marcellinus saith that they did make and inuent euery day many new kinds of drinke in despite of wine to counterfet it so neere as they could I reade also in Diodorus Siculus that they did vse to eate mans flesh But whether is this to be vnderstood of their enemies flesh only and of such as they ouercome in battell For that they did thus at the field fought at Thermopylae Pausanias doth flatly affirme Or whether do you thinke that he so spake of them in regard that they sacrificed men vnto their gods For this was done as Pliny reporteth in such sort that it was somwhat like as if they had gnawen them Notwithstanding in Sextus Rufus we reade of the Scordisci Galli that they vsed to drinke mans bloud out of the skuls of their enemies which they had conquered in the field Moreouer Diodorus writeth that they vsed to bid strangers trauellers to their tables after supper or dinner then to ask what they are wherfore they come whence they are and whether they will They vsed also when they had filled their bellies falling into talk vpon any argument as occasion should offer it self to fal out and so to rise and challenge one another into the fields no whit respecting their liues or limmes and that in this manner as Posidonius in Athenaeus reporteth They being armed saith he challenge one another to fight aloofe clashing onely the points of their swords neuer comming neere there by the length of their weapons as if they were afraid to hurt one another yet notwithstanding sometime it falleth out that one of them is hurt and then except the standers by doe part them and keepe them a sunder they will not giue ouer till it hath cost one of them his life whereupon peraduenture Horace said Non pauentis funera Galliae And desperate France that fear'th no death In old time also it was an ancient custome amongst them that when the quarters and ioints of mutton were set vpon the table the strongest and tallest man of them would take the legge which if so be any other would challenge as due to him and would offer to take it out of his hand
read that euery one of his mouthes whereby it emptieth it selfe into the sea are so wide and great that it is affirmed to ouercome the sea for forty miles in length together and that so farre the waters may be perceiued to be sweet amid the brackish surges of the salt sea Polybius in his fourth booke to these adioineth that by the violent and swift fall of the waters of this riuer into Pontus Mar maiore there are certaine knols hils or shelfs which the sea-men call Stethe that is breast bones made of the gathering together of such things as the riuer bringeth downe with it and are more than a day saile off from land vpon which oft times the seamen falling by negligence are in great danger of shipwracke Strabo also maketh mention of the same They which desire to know more of this riuer his name nature quality fountaine mouthes and streames which do runne into it let him read the commentaries of William Stuckius written vpon Arrianus Periplus of the Euxine sea for there he hath most plentifully and learnedly descr bed all these things Of the Thracians Moesians Getes Dakes and other countries nations and people of this mappe read the seuenth booke of Straboes Geography and the Epitome of the same PONTVS EVXINVS now called MAR MAIORE THe sea which heere we purpose to describe famoused of ancient writers by meanes of the Argonantes and fabulous story of the golden fleece was called as we find recorded by diuers and sundrie names first it was called PONTVS by the figure Synecdoche then PONTVS AXENVS that is inhospitale the harbourlesse sea but afterward it was named PONTVS EVXINVS hospitale mare the good harborough as Pliny Ouid and others do witnesse Strabo Tacitus Plutarch Ptolemey and Iornandes do call it PONTICVM mare the Ponticke sea without any addition at all Lucretius nameth it PONTI mare the sea of Pontus of the country Pontus abuttant vpon it For the same reason it is of Valerius Flaccus Ouid and Martianus named SARMATICVM and SCYTHICVM mare the Sarmatian and Scythian sea of Claudian AMAZONIVM of Herodotus and Orosius CIMMERIVM of Festus Auienus TAVRICVM of the Sarmatians Scythians Amazones Cimmerians and Tauri certaine Nations dwelling vpon the coast of this sea Of the prouince Colchis neighbour vnto it vpon the East Strabo nameth it COLCHICVM mare of the mountaine Caucasus which heere beginneth Apollonius intituleth it CAVCASEVM of the riuer Phasis which vnloadeth it selfe into this sea or towne of that name situate vpon that riuer Aristides calleth it PHASIANVM mare Procopius saith that it was sometime named Tanais vnfitly and falsly as I thinke Almost all ancient writers haue likened this sea or more truly this bay or gulfe vnto a Scythian bow when it is bent so that the string doth represent the South part of it namely from the streights of Constantinople vnto the further end of it Eastward toward the riuer Phasis for excepting only the promontory Carambis Cabo Pisello all the rest of this shore hath such small capes and creekes that it is not much vnlike to a right line The other side or North part doth resemble an horne that hath two crooked ends the vpper end more round the lower more straight which proportion this our mappe doth very precisely expresse This sea also hath two promontories one in the South then called Promontorium Carambis now Cabo Pisello the other in the North Ptolemey nameth it Criou metopon Arietis frons the rammes head Paulus Diaconus calleth it Acroma and now it is knowen by the name Famar These two capes are opposite one against the other and are distant one from another about 2500. furlongs as Ammianus and Eustathius do testifie which although they do make 312. Italian miles yet they are distant only 170. miles as Pliny saith or as Strabo reporteth so much as a ship will saile in three daies notwithstanding to those which do saile either from the East to West or from West to East they seeme to be so neere one to the other that one would thinke that there were the end of the sea and that Pontus Euxinus were two seas but when you shall come in the middest between these two capes then the other part appeareth as it were a second or another sea The compasse of it round about by the shore Strabo maketh to be 25000. furlongs Polybius but 22000. and yet from this Ammianus taketh 2000. and that by the authority of Eratosthenes Hecataeus and Ptolemey as there he affirmeth Herodotus an eie-witnesse of the same writeth that he measured the length of it and found it to be 11100. furlongs and likewise he found the breadth of it where it was furthest ouer to be 320. furlongs This measure Strabo and Pliny in the twelfth chapter of his fourth booke do more distinctly partly out of their owne and partly out of other mens opinions set downe Strabo writeth that about 40. riuers do vnloade themselues into it Yet this our mappe doth shew many more Antiquity doth hold that this sea of all our seas was by farre the greatest heere hence I suppose that the Italians haue giuen it that name of Mar maiore the Great sea and that heere as there at Caliz without the straits of Gibraltar was the end of the World and that it was innauigable both for the huge greatnesse of it as also by reason of the barbarous nations which daily did annoy the shore and vse all maner of cruelty and inhumanity toward strangers and aliens From hence arose those epithites and adiuncts giuen by the ancient poets to this sea of Pontus vast and rough Virgil and Catullus call it Ouid infinite and terrible Lucane a deuouring and dangerous sea Silius raging Statius an vncertaine and swelling sea Valerius Flaccus perilous Manilius horrible spitefull and furious Seneca mad and churlish Festus Auienus raucisonum making a hoarse ill fauoured noise Thus farre of the Names Forme and bignesse of this sea of the Situation and Nature of the same although Herodotus Pomponius Strabo Pliny Ouid and Macrobius that I may say nothing of others haue spoken much yet in mine opinion no man hath done it more exactly and diligently than Ammianus in his 22. booke whom he that listeth may adioine to this our discourse and if he be not satisfied with these he may to them adde a whole booke written by Arrianus of this sea together with the large commentaries of Struckius vpon the same As for vs we will content our selues in this place with a few peculiar obseruations of this sea gleaned heere and there out of the ancient monuments of learned writers of former ages It is sweet or at leastwise more sweet than other seas moreouer the waters of it are more light than others and do neuer ebbe and flow but alwaies keep one and the same stint of running one way as Lucrece Macrobius Pliny and Ouid do witnesse Which I take to be the cause that sometime it hath all been frozen
PONTVS EVXINVS Aequor Iasonio pulsatum remige primum Ex conatibus geographicis Abrahami Ortelij Cum Priuilegio Imp. Reg. et Belgico Ad decennium 1590. THRACE VNder the name of THRACIA many and diuerse countries with sundry people are comprehended for except the Indies it is the greatest country of the world as Herodotus doth testifie for Pliny doth confine it by the riuer Ister Pontus Propontis the Aegean sea and the riuer Strymon Yea and Strabo in the first booke of his Geography according to the opinion of Homer extendeth it as farre that way as the riuer Peneus which riuer Ptolemey attributeth to Macedonia Marcellinus maketh the Scordisci to be a people of this country Appianus to these conioineth the Illyrians So also doth Mela vpon the West who moreouer vpon the South to it doth assigne the mount Athos Many of the ancient writers likewise doe make the peninsula or demy-iland Pallene a portion belonging to this country Yea if one may credit Eratosthenes the hill Olympus doth part Macedonia from Thrace And the Epitome of Strabo in his seuenth booke maketh yet a farre other description of the bounds of this region For in Strabo himselfe the description of Thracia is wholly missing This Epitome I say seuereth Thrace from Macedony by the mouth of the riuer Nessus Yea and indeed in succedent ages the compasse of this country was not much lesse for Ammianus Procopius Sextus Rufus and the booke of Records Notitiarum do diuide it into these sixe shires or prouinces Moesia the Second or Lower Scythia Europa peculiarly calling this part by the generall name of that quarter of the world wherein the whole did stand Rhodopa Haemimontus and Thracia properly and specially so called Heere hence it is that in Trebellius and Orosius there is mention made of the THRACIA'S in the plurall number Yet this our Mappe is not so farre extended toward the North. For we haue indeed followed the description of Ptolemey in butting and bounding it who seuereth it from other Northren countries by the mount Haemus And this true THRACIA we do thinke to haue beene so named of the inchanting Nymph Thraca as Eustathius out of Athenaeus teacheth vs hauing been in former times called PERCA And had beene also sometime as many do verily thinke knowne by the names of ARIA ODRYSA CRESTONIA and SCYTONIA Iosephus a most graue authour affirmeth that it was of the Iewes called THYRAS The abouenamed Ptolemey in it nameth these foureteene shires Dantheletica Sardica Vsdicefica Selletica Moedica Drosica Coeletica Sapaica Corpialica Coenica Bessica Bennica Samaica and Vrbana Plinie diuideth it into fifty or two and fifty as I remember Dalechampius hath Regiments Strategiae shirewickes I thinke they call them in some places of England Hundreds or Wapentakes I would call them This Thracia properly so called Ammianus likeneth vnto the halfe Moone or to a Theater whose higher part is enclosed with high and steep mountaines which do diuide this same country from Dacia The lower part openeth toward the Aegean sea Of the nature and quality of this country Virgil speaketh on this manner Terra procul vastis colitur Mauortia campis A martiall country li'th farre off vast champions it conteinth Plutarch teacheth vs that it hath in it many huge fennes and bogges and that it is diuided or crossed this way and that way by diuerse deep and dangerous riuers Pliny saith that the soile of Thracia is very fertile for all manner of corne and commendeth the wheat of the same for waight and heauinesse Item for goodnesse he affirmeth that this kinde of wheat possesseth the third place Athenaeus testifieth that it beareth some vines especially about Biblina which otherwise is called Oesyma Item Pliny highly commendeth Vinum Maroneum the wine of Marogna or Marolia as Lewnclawe calleth it Homer also affirmeth that the Achiui were wont by shippe to transport wines from Thace into Grecce Xenophon writeth that in the mount Pangeus there is a gold-mine and Strabo affirmeth the like to be about Philippi Heere also is the Thracian stone which is kindled by the water and quenched with oile as Pliny witnesseth But because no man of all the ancient writers hath better described this countrie than Pomponius Mela let vs heere him speake It is saith he a countrie that cannot much bragge either of the goodnesse of their soile or wholesomenesse of their aire nay indeed except it be in some place neere the sea coast it is barren cold and verie vnkinde to all things generally that are set sowne or laid into the same It seldome beareth any apple-trees or other fruit-trees yet vines do heere and there grow in diuers places but the grapes neuer ripen kindly or come to any perfection except in some places where the vine-dressers do by the leaues keepe the cold from them It is a countrey much more kinde to men yet they are none of the properest for they are very clownish vnhandsome and rough hewed fellowes but otherwise for number and hardinesse for they are many and those very vnciuill this nation farre surpasseth others neere adioining This latter also is auerred by Pausanias who affirmeth it to containe such wonderfull multitudes of men that if you shall except France Gallia it may for ought that I know in all likely-hood for multitude of men be preferred before any countrie in the world Item Herodotus saith that next after the Indies it is the greatest countrey of the whole earth Liuy calleth it a desperate and most fierce Nation and Solinus he saith that they are a verie stout and hardy people Sextus Rufus maketh them the most cruell and furious people that euer he saw or heard of which Florus well expresseth by this example when he writeth that certaine of them being taken by the Romanes and giued as the manner of captiises is did bite the fetters and manacles with their teeth and so themselues to haue sufficiently punished their owne barbarous cruelty and that there are of their parents euen from their cradle trained vp to this wild inhumane kinde of life Sidonius doth teach vs in these words Excipit hic natos glacies matris ab aluo Artus infantum molles nix cimbrica durat Pectore vixaliter quisquam sed ab vbere tractus Plus potat per vulnus equum sic lacte relicto Virtutem gens tota bibit Creuere parumper Mox pugnam ludunt iaculis hos suggerit illis Nutrix plaga iocos pueri venatibus apti Lustra feris vacuant rapto ditata iuuentus Iura colit gladij consummatámque senectam Non ferro finire pudet Tali ordine vitae Ciues Martis agunt So soone as infant heere is borne The thing they say is sure To frost and snow their tender limmes They presently inure Scarce one of many thousands heere Doth sucke the Nurces teate Warme blood of warlike horses heere For most part 's infants meat This diet mak'th them bold and hard And as they come to growth They
it Florus writeth That the riches of this iland when it was once wholly subdued did fill the Exchequer of the city of Rome more full than any other conquest that euer they got wheresoeuer Carystius lapis Caristium I thinke a kinde of greene marble a stone of great estimation is found here as Antigonus writeth and as Pliny testifieth the Diamond Smaragd Opalus Crystall Alume and a kinde of whetstone which they call Naxium The same authour affirmeth that the Rosen of this iland doth far surpasse that of any other places of the whole world He also highly commendeth the oiles and vnguents of the same for pleasure and delight as also their wax and reeds as much for medicines and necessary vse in physicke Athenaeus extolleth their passing faire doues Fabulous antiquity did verily beleeue that the goddesse Venus here first came vp out of the sea for whose honour and memory peraduenture the women of Cyprus as the same authour affirmeth do offer their bodies to be abused of euery man that list Why it was not lawfull for any Iew to come within the I le of Cyprus reade Dion in the history of Hadrian The diuers names of this iland as we haue noted out of sundry authours are these ACAMANTIS AEROSA AMATHVSA ASPELIA CERASTIS CITIDA COLINIA CRYPTVS MACARIA MEIONIS and SPHECIA of which see more particularly in our Geographicall treasury Of the Cyprians or people of this iland thou maist reade many things in Herodotus There are also other three Cyprianiles called by this name about this iland as Pliny teacheth EVBOEA THis iland is seuered by so small a frith thus Solinus describeth it from the maine land of Boeotia that it is hard to say whether it be to be accounted amongst the number of the ilands or not Thus some haue thought of the I le of Wight For on that side which they call Euripus it is ioined to the continent by a faire bridge and by the meanes of a very short scaffold one may passe from the firme lana thither on foot and as Procopius in his iiij Aedifi testifieth by the laying ouer or taking away of one rafter or planke one may go from one to another on foot or by boat as one please Pliny writeth that it was sometime ioined to Boeotia but was afterward seuered from it by an earth-quake and indeed the whole iland is much subiect to earth-quakes but especially that frith or Euripus which we mentioned a little aboue as Strabo telleth vs who moreouer addeth that by that meanes a faire citie of the same name with the I le was vtterly sunke and swallowed vp of the sea Of all the ilands of the Midland sea this in bignesse is held to possesse the fifth place In diuers authours it is called by diuers and sundry names as MACRA and MACRIS ABANTIAS ASOPIS OCHE ELLOPIA ARCHIBIVM c. Item CHALCIS of the chiefe and metropolitan city of the same situate vpon the forenamed frith This I say was the greatest city and metropolitan of all the whole ile and was of that power and command that it sent forth colonies into Macedony Italy and Sicilia In Lalantus that goodly champion there are as Strabo writeth certaine hot baths which Pliny calleth Thermas Ellopias The baths of Hellopia They are very soueraigne against diuers diseases Here are as Strabo reporteth the riuers Cireus and Nileus of which the one causeth such sheepe as drinke of it to be white the other blacke Pliny doth also highly commend a kinde of greene marble here which they call Carystium for that it is digged out of a rocke nere the towne Carystus in the East corner of this I le where also the marble temple of Apollo is described by Strabo Copper was first found in this iland here do growe the woorst firre trees as Pliny affirmeth item here bloweth olympias a winde proper to this countrey againe that the fishes taken in the sea here abouts are so salt that you would iudge them taken out of pickle Of the Euripus where they say Aristotle abode and died very strange things are tolde by diuers writers namely that it doth ordinarily ebbe and flowe seuen times in a day and as many times in the night and that so violently and high that no windes can preuaile against it nay and the tallest ships that are though vnder saile it driueth to and fro as it listeth Of all men Strabo in his tenth booke hath most curiously described this iland See also what Procopius in his fourth booke de Aedificijs Iustiniani saith of it Item Wolfgangus Lazius in that his Historie of Greece hath set out a very large Commentarie of the same Libanius Sophista in the life of Demosthenes writeth that it had sometime two and twentie cities Yet we in this our Mappe out of sundry writers aswell Latines as Greeks haue gathered together and noted downe the names of many more RHODVS THe braue and franke RHODVS was also of the ancient called OPHIVSA STADIA TEICHINE AETHRAEA CORYMBA POEESSA ATABYRIA and TRINACRIA yea and by diuers other names also as thou mayest see in our Geographicall treasurie Pliny giueth out that this I le did rise vp out of the bottome of the sea hauing beene before all drowned and couered ouer with water and Ammianus he writeth that it was sometime bedrenched and sowsed with a golden showre of raine for the fabulous writers do tell that heere it rained gold when Pallas was borne Therefore this soile aboue all other was beloued of Iupiter the mighty king of gods and men as the poet saith In Diodorus Siculus we read that it was beloued of the Sun and made an iland by the remouing of the water which before had couered it all ouer for before this it lay hid in the bowels of the sea or else was so full of bogs and fennes that it was altogether inhabitable In memory of which kindnesse of louely Phoebus that huge Colossus of the Sun one of the seuen wonders of the world was vulgarly said to haue beene erected This we read was made by Chares Lindius Lysippus his scholler and was at least seuenty cubites high Festus saith that it was one hundred and fiue foot high This image saith Pliny within six and fifty yeeres after was by an earth-quake ouerthrowen and laid along notwithstanding as it lay it was a woonderment to the beholders Few men were able to fathom the thombe of it and the fingers of it were greater than many large statues Those parts of it that were by any casualty broken did gape so wide that they were like vnto the mouths of hideous caues within it were huge massie stones of great weight wherewith he ballaced it when it was first set vp It was finished in the space of twelue yeeres and the brasse thereof waighed three hundred talents There are beside in sundrie other places of this city an hundred less r colosses yet wheresoeuer any of them were they did much grace the place In another
and sundry other rare works and deuices the best that the most excellent Architects of the world might inuent that next after the Capitoll of which reuerend Rome doth so much glory the whole world it selfe hath neuer seene ought more rich and sumptuous at Ammianus Marcellinus writeth of it Strabo in the seuenteenth booke of his Geography doth most brauely describe the whole citie The like doth Statius Alexandrinus in his fifth booke of Loue and Diodorus Siculus in the 17 booke of his history Item Hirtius in his booke De bello Alexandrino THEBAE was the next citie of great note famous for the multitude of gates that sometimes it had and thereupon it was otherwise called Hecatompylos Hundred-gate and Diospolis Gods-towne item Busyris and Thebestis as S. Hierome affirmeth MEMPHIS an ancient towne renowmed by reason that their kings ordinarily kept their Court here was accounted one of the greatest cities of this kingdome COPTOS a great Mart-towne well frequented with Arabian and Indian merchants Of this city the whole prouince tooke the name as we haue elswhere shewed before ABYDVS the Court and Emperiall seat of Memnon their king famous for the temple of Osiris I omit SYENE with diuers others for it were more than needeth here to recken them vp all because they offer themselues at an instant to him that shall but cast his eye on the Map Besides that Herodotus Diodorus Pliny Iosephus Marcellinus Philostratus Eusebius and diuers other good authours yet extant and in many mens hands haue most eloquently and diligently described them and set them out in their true and liuely colours The situation of this countrey the riuers mountaines cities and strange things there to be seene we haue already described according as the capacity of the place assigned would permit Now it remaineth that with like breuity also we do out of Diodorus Herodotus Strabo Athenaeus Aelianus Plutarch Philo Eusebius Pliny Heliodorus Lucian Ammian Clemens Athanasius Prudentius and others speake something of their religion Eusebius in his first booke De Praepar Euang. teacheth me that the Egyptians were the first men that euer honoured the Sunne Moone and the rest of the Starres for immortall Gods But not only the Holy scripture but euen profane authours also doe plentifully testifie that they were euer from the beginning the vainest men of the world and in this their diuine seruice and choice of gods of all other most fond and foolish for beside the gods of the Gentiles as Iupiter Iuno Vulcane Venus Bacchus and such others which they had and worshipped common with all the world yet by their seuerall and different names as Isis Osiris c. they moreouer as Artemidorus and Cicero in the third booke of the Nature of gods do testifie consecrated all kinde of beasts and liuing creatures Herodotus affirmeth that they accounted all maner of beasts which they had in Egypt as sacred and holy so that as Dion reporteth they farre surpassed all nations of the world in multitude and variety of gods Neither did they only reuerence these as gods but also Anubis Orus Typhon Pan whom they called Mendon and painted him with a goats head and the Satyrs Item another which as Plutarch in Osiris writeth they called Cneph Moreouer Minutius Felix sayth that they worshipped a man and in the city Anabis did all maner of diuine seruice vnto him as vnto an immortall God as Eusebius auoucheth who furthermore addeth that they had another peculiar god which they called Canopus and expressed in the forme of a pot This Bembus hath described in his Hieroglyphicall table Athanasius and Heliodorus doe testifie that they accounted the water but especially Nilus for a god Of foure footed beasts the Crocodile the Oxe the Mneuis the Lion the Beare the Cat the Hee-goat the Monkey the Ape the Bull the Ramme the Shee-goat the Hogge the Dogge the Ichneumon or Indian rat the Woolfe the Sheepe the Weazell and the Shrewmous they put into the inuentory of their gods Of fishes the Oxyrinchus the Lepidotus the Latus the Phagrus the Maeotis fishes proper to the riuer Nilus and the Eccle beside the Cantharus as Porphyrius in his booke De sacrificijs testifieth Of birds the Eagle the Ibis and the Hawke beside the Owsell or Blacke-bird if we may beleeue Hyginus and the Vulture and Rauen as Aelianus affirmeth with the Sparrow as Porphyrius in his Treatise De Abstinentia maketh vs beleeue Iosephus in his second booke against Appion sayth that they worship the Ferrit They had beside these the Dragon or serpent the Aspis which they named Thermathis and the Beetle The counterfets of these for the most part they adored and worshipped as gods yet some delighted rather to honour the very beast themselues aliue so that it was felony for a man to kill any of them although it were by chance And if so be that one of them should fortune to die of any disease they vsed to bury it with mourning and great solemnity Item certaine vegetable things without life as Onions Leekes and Garleeke they did adore with diuine honour as S. Hierome against Iouinian testifieth of the Pelusiotae Nay they did not content themselues with these naturall things but euen certeine monsters such as were neuer seene in the world they did in like maner consecrate for gods as the Cynocephalus with a dogges head worshipped of the Hermopolitani and Cepus honoured of the Babylonians To these you may adde out of Athanasius the Serpenticipites idols with serpents heads and Asinicipites with asses heads Moreouer in the villages and vpland townes Lucian reporteth I know not whether in iest or earnest that some held the right shoulder for a god but those that dwelt ouer against them the left Some did sacrifice to the one halfe of the head others to a Samian cup or dish Diodorus Siculus reporteth I blush to speake it that they accounted the priuy parts for a god Eusebius in the second booke De praeparat Euangel seemeth to restraine it only to Osiris Clemens in the fifth booke of his Recognitionum addeth blush foolish idolaters for I will tell it and let another say surreuerence that the Egyptians worshipped the Iakes and a Part for their gods which also is auerred and iustified by Minutius Felix This is that which Lactantius reporteth of them that they reuerenced certaine beastly and shamefull things Philo Iudaeus sayth that all things vnder the cope of heauen are consecrated and enrowled amongst the number of their gods And Sextus the Philosopher sayth of them that there was not any thing which they did not hold for sacred Thus much of their gods more thou mayest see of this matter in Clemens but especially in Iuuenall the Poet. These do hold themselues to be the first and most ancient Nation in the world and to haue first had the knowledge of God to haue built temples groues and conuents in honour of them as Lucian testifieth Afterward when the light of the Gospell began to shine forth
was a waggon consecrated and sanctified couered ouer with a cloth and adored as a saint But peraduenture we haue beene too tedious in this argument As we haue out of old and ancient histories laid downe two diuers and sundry formes of this god Ammon so out of the same it is very probable that hee had two diuers temples For Diodorus in his seuenteenth booke in the description of this temple doth say that it was built by Danaus the Egyptian And the same authour againe in his first booke saith that Ofiris also erected a temple for Iupiter Ammon in Thebes a city in Egypt which was all of beaten gold cleane contrary to that which we haue described before as appeareth out of these verses of Lucane in his 9. booke Non illic libyeae posuerunt ditia gentes Templa nec Eois splendent donariagemmis In Egypt it was not in Libya as is manifest out of the second booke of Herodotus Where you shall find this description of it Iupiter being not willing that Hercules who came to visit him should see him yet at length by importunity being ouercome vsed this deuice to deceiue him He tooke a ram flead him and cut off his head this fell with the head wool and all he put vpon him and thus sheweth himselfe to Hercules Wherupon the Egyptians haue decreed to make the image of Iupiter and to picture him with a rammes head For him euery yeare vpon a certaine day they kill a ramme in like manner as before is shewed and the skinne they put ouer the image of the said c. And because the temple of this god Ammon was in the city Thebes which thereupon is of good writers called Diospolis that is Ioues towne I was of opinion that the Holy scripture did also in some place or other speake of it And indeed in the thirtieth chapter of Ezechiel the septuagints for the Hebrew No haue Dâ—â—spolu and againe in the third chapter of Naum for No Amon they haue 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is very probable therefore that Amon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hamon which in the Hebrew tongue signifieth a multitude was the proper name of this place THE VOYAGE OR Nauigation of AENEAS especially gathered out of the renowmed Poet VIRGILL with some other matters perteining to that historie collected out of others TRoy being surprized sacked and burnt Aeneas betooke himselfe for a refuge to the mount IDA a hill in the prouince of Troas in Asia Minor a place verie well wooded and serued with water from thence forsaking his natiue soile he went to ANTANDRVS a towne in Mysia abutting vpon the Aegean sea taking with him as Xenophon sayth all his kindred both by fathers side and mothers side with a nauy of twenty saile putteth forth to sea and at length landeth in THRACE or as Dionysius Halicarnasseus writeth at PALLENE a promontory and city of the same name in Macedony neere vnto which he built the citie Aenos Oeno or Inos they still call it Lycophron sayth that he came to CISSVS Cis a hill of Almopia a shire of the kingdome of Macedony Liuy writeth that he stayed about OLYMPVS But our authour reporteth that from Thrace he came to DELOS Sdiles an iland in the Aegean sea of the number of those which the ancient Geographers called Cyclades Here he maried Lauinia the daughter of Anius a Priest belonging to the temple of Apollo as you may see in a Treatise written of the originall of the Romane nation but let them beleeue him that list for Halicarnasseus condemneth him for a very lying and fabulous authour And from Delos he setting saile saluted NAXOS Nicsia PAROS Pario DIONYSA OLEARVS Quiniminio and other ilands of the Aegean sea and the third day after arriued at CRETA Candy where he built the cities RHOETEVM and PERGAMEA From hence putting off to sea againe and as Dionysius Halicarnasseus writeth saluting CYTHERA Cerigo an iland in the Midland sea where he built a Temple dedicated to the honour and seruice of the goddesse Venus then CYNETHIVM a foreland or promontory of Peloponnesus and there layed the foundation as Pausanias and Halicarnasseus haue left recorded of the cities APHRODISIADES and OETIA and the fourth day after landed at the STROPHADES Striuali two ilands in the Ionian sea From these he passed to ZACYNTHVS Zante where he dedicated as Halicarnasseus writeth a chapell to Venus then passing by DVLICHIVM SAMOS NERITVS and ITHACA came to LEVCATE Thence to ACTIVM neere the Temple of Apollo and so leauing CORCYRA Corfu coasting along by CHAONIA a prouince of Epyrus in Greece and AMBRACIA as the same authour affirmeth he came at length to BVTHROTVM Golfo de Butronto From hence on foot ouer land he went and visited DODONA a citie of Epyrus and the CERAVNIAN mountaines and vpon the third day came to Anchises Hauen ANCHISAE PORTVS where his ships meeting him he crossed ouer the Hadriaticke sea into ITALY his consorts landed on this side the forland IAPYGIVM Cabo de S. Maria himselfe with some few others as the same Halicarnasseus witnesseth at the forland or promontorie ATHENAEVM Rossia or Cabo de Campanella so named of the Temple of Minerua called of the Greekes Athene which stood in this place From thence he passed by sea to TARENTVM Taranto LACINIVM Cabo delle Colonne CAVLON Castro veto or vetore and SCYLACEVM Squilacci Afterward sailing by SCYLLA Scyllo and CHARYDIS Galofaco by the CYCLOPES giants or a certaine kinde of people neere mount Ethna in Sicilia of an extraordinary stature and strength feined by the Poets to haue but one eie and that in the middest of their fore-heads the mouth of the riuer PANTAGIAS Porcari by the bay of MEGARA a sea towne sometime called Hybla by THAPSVS a neckland or peninsula now knowen by the name of Manghisi by the forland PLEMMYRIVM Cabo Massa Vliuien by ORTYGIA by the riuer ELORVS Abyso or Atellari by the forland or promontory PACHYNVS Cabo Passaro by the citie CAMARINA by the CAMPI GELOI by the riuers GELA Cherza or Salsi by AGRAGAS Draco by the citie SELINVS Salemo or Terra de Pulici then by the promontorie LILYBAEVM Cabo Boëi or Cabo Coco and so at length to the forland DREPANVM Trapani From hence leauing the strait course he fetcheth a compasse about by those dangerous rocks which our authour calleth SAXA or ARAE directing his course toward CARTHAGE in Africa where hauing stayed a while with Queene Dido who enterteined him and his most kindly and in the best maner at length hoiseth saile and returneth backe into SICILIA againe heere landing his men at the riuer CRIMISVS as Halicarnasseus writeth after diuers games iusts or triumphs he ordeined that those dayes yeerely for euer after should be solemnly kept as holy in honour of Anchises his father and moreouer also he built the citie ACESTA or Egesta and ELIMA Alymite or Palymite if we may beleeue Halicarnasseus Item he founded the TEMPLE of Venus Idalia vpon the top of
other kinds of trees and herbs which do naturally grow in this sea Pomponius sheweth that this sea hath more and greater monsters that do liue and breed in it then any other sea in the world beside Quintus Curtius affirmeth that it is full of whales balaenae of such an huge bignesse that they are in bulke equall to the greatest shippes or vessels that are Solinus saith that one of them will couer two akers of ground The same authour doth there describe vnto vs certaine blew wormes which haue their forelegges not lesse then six foot long These are of that wonderfull strength that oft times they do with their clawes lay hold vpon Elephants comming thitherto drinke and by maine force pull them into the sea Item he telleth of certaine whirle-pooles Physeteras he calleth them of that huge bignesse that they are to see to like vnto great and massie columnes these doe many times raise themselues vp as high as the crosse-mast from whence they spout out such abundance of water out of their gullets that oft times by the violence of the storme the vessels of those which saile and passe by that way are sunke and cast away Strabo hath left in writing that Amazenas the admirall of the Indian fleet did there see a whale of fifty foot in length Arrianus in his Indica describeth certaine balaenas whales or whirlepooles of an huge and wonderfull bignesse with three sorts of great and terrible kind of Serpents which as Solinus writeth will couer more then two akers of lands It is recorded by Pliny that the Hydri certaine sea-monsters of twenty cubites in length did much affright the nauy of Alexander the Great Item he telleth of torteises of such a maruellous bignesse that the shell of one of them will make a couer for a prettie house and againe That they vsually do saile in these shels vpon this sea like as they vse in other countries in shippes and boates Yea as Agatarchides affirmeth these fishes do serue those which dwell vpon this sea coast instead of houses boats dishes and meat About the iland Taprobana now called as generally all learned do thinke Samotra there are certaine fishes which do liue partly vpon sea and partly vpon land whereof some are like oxen others like horses and other some are like other foure footed beasts as Strabo in his fifteenth and sixteenth bookes hath left recorded And thus much of the name situation and nature of this Redde-sea which Liuy in his 45. booke tearmeth Finem terrarum The outmost bound of the world He that desireth to know more of this sea let him haue recourse to Agatarchides and Arrianus in his Indica Item let him consult with Baptista Ramusio who translated this Periplus or discouery into the Italian tongue and hath enlarged the same with a discourse as hee calleth it of his owne of the same argument And I would wish him not to omit Stuckius who also translated the same into the Italian tongue and hath illustrated it with his most learned and laborious Commentaries Lastly Athenaeus in the fourteenth booke of his Deipnosophiston maketh me beleeue that Pythagoras that great and famous Philosopher did write a booke of the Redde sea HANNO'S PERIPLVS OR Discouery of the Atlanticke Seas and Coasts of Africa THis Periplus of Hanno king of Carthage was first translated out of Greeke into Latine by Conradus Gesnerus a man that hath very well deserued of all sorts of scholars succedent ages hath illustrated the same with his most learned and painfull Commentaries But before him Baptista Ramusio turned it into the Tuscane tongue and hath to it adioined a discourse as he termeth it Of the ancient writers Pomponius Mela in the second chapter of his third booke Pliny in the first chapter of the fift book of his history of Nature who there calleth him a captaine of Carthage not king of Cathage haue made mention of this Periplus or Discouery But he calleth this discourse by the name of Commentaries not of a Periplus The same Pliny in the one and thirtieth chapter of his sixth booke calleth him an Emperour Yet Solinus in the last chapter of his worke out of Xenophon Lampsacenus maketh as if hee had beene a king of the Poeni Arrianus also toward the latter end of his Indian stories mentioneth this Periplus Moreouer Pliny in the sixteenth chapter of the eighteenth booke of his Naturall historie and Aelianus in the fiftieth chapter of his fifth booke De Animalibus do make mention of one Hanno who was the first man that euer was heard of in the world that durst handle and take vpon him to tame a Lion But whether he be the same with this our Hanno I am not able to determine For there haue beene many of that name of which if any man be desirous to know more let him repaire to the Commentaries of the forenamed Gesner which he wrot vpon this Periplus These words in Pliny and Martianus in very deed are meant of another Hanno diuers from this of whom wee haue hitherto spoken Hanno say they at such time as the Punicke Empire stood in flourishing estate sailed round about by the coast of Barbary and so from thence South-ward all along by the shore vntill at length after a long and tedious iourney he came to the coasts of Arabia Moreouer that student that is desirous to know more of this Periplus or Discouery may adde to these collections of ours such things as Iohn Mariana hath written of it in the latter end of his first booke of his history of Spaine ORBIS ARCTOVS OR The Northren frozen Zone THe draught of this we haue in this place heere adioined both for an auctuary and for the better beautifying or proportioning of this Mappe To wit that there might be something that might answer to the modell of Hannoes Periplus This wee intreat the diligent student of ancient Geography to take in good part Peraduenture succedent ages shall heereafter manifest to the world another different from this of ours and perhaps more true by the diligent and painfull trauels I hope of our English nation or their consorts the Hollanders For these both haue spared no cost nor refused any danger to find out a passage through the Northren seas from hence to China and India For hitherto there is no other way discouered to saile thither but by the South by Cabo de buona speranza which is a long and most tedious iourney But of this read hose worthy labours of M. Richard Hackluyt who to the great benefit and singular delight of all men hath set out the English voyages to the immortall praise and commendation of this our Nation and those braue Captaines and Seamen which haue vndertaken and performed the same ARGONAVTICA That is IASONS voyage for the GOLDEN FLEECE ARGONAVTICA ILLVSTRISSIMO PRINCIPI CAROLO COMITI ARENBERGIO BARONI SEPTIMONTII DOMINO MIRVARTII EQVITI AVREI VELLERIS ETC. ABRAH ORTELIVS DEDICAB L. M. Ex
place Mela and the Poets do speake of Ossa the mountaine memorable for the fabulous storie of the Giants who also doe report that the Lapithae a people of Thessaly did sometime dwell here In the same mountaine I reade in Polyaenus his fourth booke that Alexander King of Indica for so I do rather yeeld to haue it read than India as hitherto the interpretours haue set foorth seeing that Indica is a countrey hard by Pontus as Stephanus directly auerreth by hewing downe the craggie cliffes of this mountaine did make certaine small staires which sequent ages called Alexanders ladder Nere these Tempe there is a water described by Seneca and Pliny which is so ilfauoured and filthy that it will make any man affrayd to looke into it and which they say will eat and consume both brasse and yron Vitruuius also in the third chapter of his eighth booke saith That in Tessaly there is a well or spring of running water whereof no cattell will drinke nor any maner of beast will once come neere hard by this fountain is a tree which beareth a purple flower Thus far Vitruuius Of the mount Olympus which Homer in the second booke of his Odysses calleth The seat of the Gods Solinus out of the sixt booke of Varro De lingua Latina citeth That it riseth vp so exceeding high into the aire that the people neere adioyning do call his lofty top Heauen Lucane saith that it is higher than the clouds For it is tenne furlongs high as Plutarch in Aemilius by the authority of Xenagoras who measured it hath left recorded No bird nor fowle doth flie higher than the toppe of this hill as Apuleius in his booke intituled De Deo Socratis doth affirme In the very toppe of it there is an Altar built and consecrated to Iupiter where if any of the entrals of beasts sacrificed be left they are neither blowen about by the blustring blasts of the roughest windes nor dissolued by the dampish aire or washing stormie raines but the next yeere after that time twelue-moneth looke how they were left so they shall finde them and at all times and seasons of the yeere whatsoeuer is there once consecrated and offered to that God is preserued from all putrefaction and corruption of the aire Letters also written and drawen in the ashes doe so remaine vntill the next solemnity of the like rites and ceremonies the yeere following Thus farre Solinus Polyhistor Et nubibus intactum Macedo miratur Olympum The Macedonian braue admir'th Olympus top to see So high and stately far aboue the highest clouds to be as Claudian the poet hath spoken of it in his poeme of the warres of the Goths Of this mountaine Varro in his sixth booke De lingua Latina noteth that the Muses were named Olympiades And thus far generally of these Tempe which from the beginning had not this forme and goodly countenance as all ancient writers doe constantly with one consent affirme but the riuer Peneus being inclosed with mountaines and entertaining many riuers into it did all ouerflow the valley making it to stand full of water like a fenne or pond and afterward when the mountaines Olympus and Ossa which sometime did touch one another were disioyned and rent asunder which happened by reason of an earthquake as Strabo Seneca and Athenaeus haue written others as Herodotus Claudian and Philostratus do ascribe it to Neptune others as Diodorus and Lucane to Hercules and so by that meanes Peneus found an issue and way to vnload it selfe into the maine ocean whereby it came to passe that the valley was emptied and cleane dried vp By Stephanus in his booke of Cities I finde that this tract and plot of ground was first called LYTAE before it was disburdened of those waters Eurypides in his tragedy intituled Troades calleth it Semnan choran the sacred and honourable countrey Amongst the poets there is euery where much speech of this most goodly coast to wit in Virgill Ouid Horace Catullus Claudian Statius Lucan Flaccus and Seneca where you may obserue these epithites attributed and spoken of it some calling it Tempe Thessala Peneia Heliconia Phthiotica others Tempe Frigida Tenebrosa Nemorosa Opaca Gratissima Lucentia Oloria and Teumessia The paradise of Thessaly Peneus Helicon Phthiotis the colde shadowy woody coole kinde swanny and Teumessiam paradise although this latter with the singular learned man Hermolaus Barbarus I doe thinke not to belong properly to this place but rather vnto another most delightfull place in Boeotia where we learne out of Pausanias Strabo Stephanus and Hesychius that the mountaine Teumessus is seated For Lutatius the Grammarian I hold to be deceiued who calleth the place The city Trumessia Neither is this altogether an vnaccustomed thing or vnusuall amongst writers especially poets to vse this word Tempe and to speake it figuratiuely of other places famous for their many delightfull pleasures as you may see by Heloria Tempe a place in Sicilia and another in Tiburtina villa Latij a place in Villa Hadriani if you will giue credit to Spartianus in the life of the Emperour Hadrian againe there was a College in Athens knowen by this name So Dionysius and Priscianus do name Daphne the suburbs of Antioch Tempe Plutarch in Flaminius describeth a place neere the riuer Apsus Spirnasse or Vreo in Macedonia for pleasantnesse much resembling the Tempe Of these and such like places I cannot but I must needs adde these words of the Emperour Iulian vnto Libanius the sophister and so to end my speech of this most goodly valley Then saith he Batnae a city of Mesopotamia did entertaine me a place such as only Daphne the suburbs of Antioch in Syria excepted in all my life I neuer saw the like Daphne which now is compared to Batnae when as before excepting the temple and image I would not doubt not only to compare it but also farre to preferre it before Ossa Pelion Olympus and the Thessalian vallies c. he meaneth Tempe These Batnae are situate if any man be desirous to know in Osroëna a prouince of Mesopotamia as Zozimus and Stephanus doe thinke or in Anthemusia as Ammianus affirmeth in the way betweene Antioch of Syria and Carrae Thus farre of these Tempe But because I see that Daphne the suburbs of Antioch in Syria is of some writers conteined vnder this name and that it is as pleasant a place as the Tempe I will addresse my selfe to describe and tricke this out also but in the next page following not in this DAPHNE OR The pleasant Suburbs of Antiochia in Syria DAPHNE Ex utriusque lingua scriptoribus adumbriabat Ab. Ortelius Cum priuilegio decennali Aethicus or more truly Iulius Orator accounteth this Daphne yet falsly and vntruely he calleth it Daphe not Daphne amongst the most goodly and famous townes of the East sea Metaphrastes also in the life of S. Artemius maketh it a citie Claudian the Christian Poet calleth it Apollineum nemus Apollo's groue Dionysius Sacra Tempe The
thee to M. Camdens Britannia where this argument is handled at large and most learnedly Only in defence of Gaulfridus lest any man should thinke that I haue all this while spoken against his person I conclude with this sayng of a learned man of our time Cardanus ait sayth he illius aetatis scriptores tantopere mendacio fabulis fuisse delectatos vt in contentionem venerint quis plura confingeret Cardane sayth That the Historians and Writers of those times betweene foure hundred and fiue hundred yeeres since were so much delighted with fables and lies that they stroue who should lie fastest and win the whetstone It was you see the fault of the time and age wherein he liued not of the man The learned Oratour Tully in the second booke of his Offices as I remember thus describeth the vertues of a true Historiographer Ne quid falsi scribere audeat Ne quid veri non audeat Ne quam in scribendo suspitionem gratiae Ne quam simultatis ostendat A good Historian may not dare to write any thing that is false He may not be afrayd to write any thing that is true He must not shew any partiality or fauour in writing He ought to be void of all affection and malice Learned Antiquaries follow this good counsell of the graue Philosopher Sell vs no more drosse for pure mettall Refine what you reade and write Euery tale is not true that is tolde Some authours want iudgement others honesty Let no man be beleeued for his antiquity For you know what Menander sayd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Grayhaires are not alwayes a signe of wisdome and deepe vnderstanding olde men do sometime dote and will lie as well as others One sayth Nesc to quo casu illud euenit vt falsa potius quà m vera animum nostrum captant I cannot tell sayth he how it commeth to passe but surely true it is that we are more easily caried away with lies and fables than with truth And how hard a matter it is to remoue one from a setled opinion though neuer so false and absurd any man meanly experienced doth very well know f Yet Caesar saith that Britanniae Loca sunt temperatiora qùam in Gallia remissioribus frigoribus The temperature of the aire in England is better then in France the cold is nothing so bitter That is as the authour of the Panegyricke oration made to Constantius the Emperour doth interpret it In ea nec rigor est nimius hyemis nec ardor aestatis In it neither the cold of winter nor the heat of summer is very excessiue And Minutius Felix hee writeth that Britannia sole deficitur sed circumfluentis maris tepore recreatur In England the Sunne shineth not very hotte but that defect is repaied by a certaine steame or hot vapour which ascendeth vp out of the sea that inuironeth this iland on all sides round g What place this should be I dare not for truth constantly affirme Perhaps he meaneth Vitsam or as we call it Whitsan a little towne in the country of Bolloine some fiue or six miles from Calais situate vpon the sea coast built at the mouth of a small riuer which peraduenture he calleth Shant For in the Arabicke tongue Wadi-shant importeth so much h This is false and by himselfe contradicted for in another place if I be not deceiued he maketh it twenty fiue miles ouer wherefore I doubt not but for a mile the authour did put a parasange which conteineth three English miles And this is somewhat neere the mark i I take it that he meaneth Cercester in Glocestershire which vulgarly they now call Ciceter It is an ancient city called of Ptolemey Corinium of Antonine Durocornouium of the Saxons Cyrenceaster taking the denomination from the riuer Corinus or Churne vpon which it is situate The tract of the decaied wals of it which are two miles about doe testifie that it was sometime a very great citie Many antiquities and auncient monuments doe plainly shew that in the time of the Romans it was a place of good rekoning Now it is nothing so populous and well inhabited k From the Seuerne I vnderstand it which at euery floude enterteineth the salt water a great way vp into the countrey l Warham is a sea towne in Dorsetshire strongly fortified by nature vpon the South and North with two riuers Ware and Trent this now they call Piddle and with the maine sea vpon the East only vpon the Wew it lieth open to the assailaunt Yet it was in times past defended with a faire wall and a strong Castle It was very populous well inhabited and graced with the Kings mint for the refining and coining of his mony vntill the time of Henry the Second since whose daies by reason of ciuill warres casualty by fire and stopping of the hauen it is much decaied and hath lost much of that former beauty m This distance is much too great whether he meaneth the lands end in Cornwall or the farther part of Wales Westward which I rather incline to But obserue this once for all that there is no great heed to be taken to those his accounts of miles and distances n Dartmouth an hauen towne in Deuonshire situate vpon a little hill running out into the sea at the mouth of the riuer Dart or Dert as some write it The hauen is defended with two strong Castels or Block-houses It is very populous well frequented with Merchants and hath many goodly tall shippes belonging to it King Iohn granted them certaine priuiledges and euery yeere to chuse a Maior for their supreme magistrrate and gouernour in ciuill causes vnder the King o Thus our seamen cal it at this day The Arabian termeth it _____ Tarfi'lgarbi mina'lgiezira The Westerne bound of the iland Master Camden in his Scotland that I may note this by the way affirmeth that Taurus in Welch doth signifie the end or limbe of any thing Heere in Arabicke thou seest it signifieth the same And in English wee call if I be not deceiued the brimmes of an hatte The tarfe p SALISBVRY or rather SARISBVRY a sweet and pleasant city within the County of Wilt situate in a plaine at the meeting of the riuers Auone and Nadder It is not that ancient city Sorbiodunum mentioned by Antoninus in his Iournall but built of the ruines of it as seemeth very probable For this old towne being often distressed for want of water and at length spoiled and rased to the ground by Swein the Dane in the yeare of our Lord 1003. although it reuiued againe a little after about the time of William the First was forsaken and abandoned by the citizens who laid the foundation of this new citie about 400. yeares since at what time Richard the First was King of England That most stately Cathedrall Church which they report hath as many doores as there be months in the yeare as many windowes as the yeare hath daies and as many pillars as there are
the coast of Norway or borders of Scotland as we shall by and by shew more plainly m So it is written apparently But obserue heere That of the Arabicke letters diuerse in forme and shape of body are the very same and are onely distinguished one from another by pricks or points placed either ouer their heads or vnderneath them Heereupon it is that that Arabicke word which heere I call _____ Zanbaga supposing only one letter to be misplaced which might be the fault of the printer may indifferently be either _____ Norbaga or Norwega as the Danes call it or _____ Neriga or Nerigon whereof Pliny speaketh which is all one in effect For Pomponius Mela saith that Thule Bergarum thus the learned Clarencieux readeth not Belgarum litori apposita est that is Thule is vpon the coast of Norway oueragainst the citie Bergen And it is out of all question saith the same authour that by Nerigon Pliny did vnderstand that same country which at this day we call Norway n That our authour did meane Island if there were no other argument this one were alone sufficient to prooue it For I doe not remember that any one of the ancient writers euer tooke vpon him to define Thule according to his length and breadth only Ptolemey and those other authours haue pointed at it as we haue shewed before and haue told vs whereabout it lieth in the Sea by the longitude and latitude of it as also by the situation of it from Scotland The Orkeney iles and Bergen in Norway Whereas he saith that the length of Rosland is 400 miles it is I say apparant that he meant Island For Ortelius in his Island thus writeth of it Patet haec insula in longitudiue centum milliarium Germanicorum vt vulgus scriptorum habet The length of this Iland as the common sort of writers doe testifie is one hundred Germane miles Now that a common or ordinary Dutch mile doth containe foure English or Italian miles it is a thing so commonly knowen that it needeth no proofe But hauing handled Gentle Reader the particulars for the most part before in their seuerall places least I be too tedious in a thing not greatly needfull I cease to trouble thee any longer GALIZIA a kingdome of Spaine THe kingdome of GALIZIA is bounded vpon the West and North with the Ocean sea vpon the East with the Asturias and the kingdome of Leon vpon the South with the riuer Min̄o and the Kingdome of Portingall It was sometime as Ferdinand Oiea the authour of this Mappe writeth much greater then now it is at this daie and was then held to be one of the largest kingdomes of all Spaine For it extended it selfe Eastward vp as farre as the mountaines of Biscaya and the head of the great riuer Duero Durius Pliny calleth it and so from thence it ranne all along by the banke of this riuer euen till where it falleth into the maine sea as our said authour prooueth by the testimony of Marius Aretius in his description of Spaine of Annius Viterbius and Floriano de Campo in the 40. chapter of his fourth booke and likewise in the third chapter of his fourth booke It is very vneuen and mounteinous or euery where full of dry barrein hils and dales and therfore much of it by reason it wanteth water is waste and not inhabited Their Villages and townes especially the greater and better sort of them are situate vpon the Sea or vpon some great riuer not farre from thence except Santiago Lugo and Mondon̄edo with one or two more Yet which is very strange heere are bred such woonderfull store of horses that that fable which reporteth that hereabouts in Spaine the mares conceiue with foale by vertue of the winde may seeme to be something probable Yea and this our authour Fernandez Oiea saith that it hath great store of cattell and of all manner of Deere aswell for necessary prouision and mainteinance of the house as for game and disporte for the nobility and gentry of the land But of Fish heere taken not only in the Sea but also in the fresh riuers there is such variety and woonderfull store that it is from hence conueighed to most places throughout all Spaine It hath many hot bathes and other springs and waters of rare and soueraigne vertues It yeeldeth great plenty of wine and that so good especially that which is made about Orense and Riuadauia that it is transported from hence farre and neere into all countries Christian It offordeth much good fruite of all sorts but especially of Limons and Orenges Silke and Flax are verie great and gainefull commodities vnto the inhabitants Heere were sometime as Pliny testifieth very rich Mines of gold And Niger writeth that amongst the Artabri who inhabited not farre from Cape finister the riuers and brooks did bring downe after any great store of raine Earth mingled with Siluer Tynne and Gold-ore yea and that the soile heere was so fertile of Gold Copper and Lead that ofttimes the husbandmen with their ploughes did turne vp great cloddes of good gold Yet we know now saith Maginus that the Mines of this country at this day are of no great account It hath also some quarreis of fine marble Pedro de Medina reckoneth vp threescore Cities and townes of note in Galizia of which these following are the most famous and renowmed and therefore the more worthy the speaking of in this place COMPOSTELLA a goodly city situate betweene the two riuers Sar and Sarela is now commonly called and knowen by the name of SANTIAGO Saint Ieameses for that the body of the glorious Apostle Saint Iames elder brother to Iohn the Euangelist who first preached the gospel heere and planted Christianity amongst the Spaniards lieth heere interred and in honour of this blessed Apostle by the consent generally of all Prince Nobles and Prelates it was long since adorned with the title and dignity of Metropolitan This by-word is common amongst the Spaniards That there be three Apostolicall Churches in the world most renowmed and famous Saint Peters in Rome Saint Ieamses in Spaine and Saint Iohns in Ephesus They commonly hold that the first Church that euer was built in Spaine was that of our Lady in Saragosa the second was this of Saint Iames. Heere also is a goodly Vniuersity and schoole of good learning where all the Liberall Sciences are professed and taught and many students are brought vp and maintained vntill they come to be of age and abilitie for publike seruice either in the Church or Commonwealth The GROINE is a very goodly towne situate in an isthmos or demy-ile betweene two baies or creeks of the sea whereof the one is held to be one of the best hauens of the world And therefore heere for the most parte of the Kings ships in time of peace doe lie at anchor LVGO one of the principall cities of all Galizia standeth vpon the Min̄o not farre from Castro de Rey where this riuer ariseth It
sted of that they make of barley steeped and sodden a kinde of very strong drinke which will assoone make the tosse-pot drunke as the strongest wine in France Lewis Guicciardine writeth that about halfe a Dutch mile off from this towne there is a Mine or quarry of stone that is very like to mettall of Pliny in the 10. Chapter of the foure and thirtieth booke of his Naturall historie it is called Lapis aerosus Cadmia and lapis calaminaris if I be not deceiued The brasse stone or Copper ore D. Fusch testifieth that it hath also diuerse veines of Lead and Iron A kinde of blacke stone cole like vnto that which we heere call Seacoale of a sulphurous nature a good fuell and much vsed of Farriers and Smithes is in diuers places of the country digged out of the ground in great abundance Moreouer heere are found diuers sorts of stone not much vnlike to Marble or Iasper party coloured very beautiful and good for building This countrey at the first was no more but a County or Earldome vntill that Fredericke surnamed Barbarosso in the yeere of our Lord 1172. graced it with the title and dignity of a Duchie The first Duke that enioied this honor was Henry the First lineally descended from Henry the Fourth that valiant and religious Emperour At length Henry the Second Duke of Limburgh dying without heire male Iohn the First Duke of Brabant about the yeere after Christs incarnation 1293 by right of inheritance claimed the same and by dint of sworde driuing out Reynold Earle of Gelderland the Vsurper obteined it since whose daies it hath beene quietly possessed by the house of Brabant Therefore for iustice in ciuill causes not only Limburg but also Faulconburg Dalem and other liberties and free townes beyond the Mose do come to the courts of Brabant which ordinarily are held at Brussels otherwise for ecclesiasticall iurisdiction they doe belong to the diocesses of that Bishop of Leige But beside this dukedome of Limburgh there are diuers other Iursdictions and Signiories described in this Charte of the which these following are the chiefe whereof it shal not be amisse to speake a word or two Faulconburgh Valckembourg it is called of the Dutch but of the French Fauquemont is a very prety towne which hath iurisdiction and command ouer a large circuite of ground conteining many fine villages It is three great Dutch miles from Aix and but two small miles from Mastricht It was conquered and taken by Iohn the third Duke of Brabant who ouercame Ramot the Lord of Faulconburgh a troublesome man that at that time laid seege to Mastricht and had much and oft vexed the country round about him DALEM is a prety fine towne with a Castle but of no great strength It is three long miles from Aix and two from Liege It was honoured with the title of an Earldome and had iurisdiction and command ouer many villages and a great circuit of ground vp as high as the riuer of Mose Henry the Second Duke of Brabant conquered it and adioined it to his dominions ROIDVCK or as Guicciardin calleth it Rhodele-duc is an ancient little towne with an old Castle about one long Dutch mile as the forenamed authour would haue it from Faulconburg yet this our Mappe maketh it about two AIX or AIX LACHAPELLE if we may beleeue Munster was that which the Latines called Aquisgranum so much spoken of and mentioned in the stories of Charles the Great and others of those times Others would haue it to be that which Ptolemey in the 9 chapter of the second booke of his Geography calleth Veterra and where he saith the thirtieth Legion called Vlpia legio did reside Limprand nameth it Palais de Grau Rheginon Palais de eaux that is the Water palace which in my iudgement seemeth most probable because I find that that city in Prouence in France which the Romans called Aquae Sextiae the Frenchmen do at this day call Aix This city is situate betweene Brabant Limburgh the Duchie of Gulicke and the Bishopricke of Liege Some thinke that it was destroied and laid leuell with the ground by Attila king of the Humes others thinke that it was first founded by Charles the Great But to leaue all these as doubtfull this is certeine that it standeth in a most pleasant plaine and as healthfull and sweet an aire as any may be elswhere found in these parts That faire Church of our Sauiour and the blessed Virgin his mother was built by this Emperour and by him was endowed with great lands priuiledges many holy and precious reliques brought thither from sundry places of the world Beatus Rhenanus writeth that Charles the Great made it the head and chiefe city of the kingdome of France and generally of all the whole Empire the ordinary Court and place of residence for the Emperour in these Westerne parts of the same Moreouer he ordained that heere the Emperour should by the Bishop of Collen Metropolitan of this prouince be crowned with a crown of Iron at Millan with a crowne of Siluer and at Rome with a crowne of Gold Ouer one of the doores of the Towne-house are written these six Latine verses Carolus insignem reddens hanc condidit vrbem Quam libertauit post Romam constituendo Quòd sit trans Alpes hic semper regia sedes Vt caput vrbs cuncta colat hanc Gallia tota Gaudet Aquisgranum prae cunctis munere clarum Quae prius imperij leges nunc laureat almi And ouer another doore these two Hîc sedes regni trans Alpes habeatur Caput omnium ciuitatum prouinciarum Galliae This famous Emperour hauing reigned ouer the Frenchmen 47. yeares and worne the imperiall diadem 14. ended his life in the yeere of our Lord 813. and was heere enterred in a tombe of Marble in our Ladies Church with this plaine epitaph Caroli Magni Christianissimi Romanorum Imperatoris Corpus hoc conditum est sepulchro That is the body of Charles the Great Emperour of the Romans lieth heere interred in this tombe Thus farre Guicciardine to whom I wish thee to repaire if thou desire a larger discourse of these particulars LIMBVRGENSIS DVCATVS TABVLA NOVA EXCVSA SVMPTIBVS IOAN BAPTISTAE VRINTS AEMVLI STVDII GEOGRAPHIAE D. AB ORTELLI P. M. COSMOGRAPHI REGII c. ILLVSTRISSIMO DOCTISSIMOQVE DOMINO D. GASTONI SPINOLAE COMITI BRVACENSI c. ORDINIS EQVESTRIS S. IACOBI PRIMO A STABVLIS ATQVE A CVBICVLIS SERENISSIMI DVCIS BRABANTIAE EIVSDEMQVE IN BELLICIS CONSILIIS ASSESSORI ORDINARIO DVCATVS LIMBVRGENSIS TOTIVSQVE REGIONIS VLTRAMOSANAE GVBERNATORI VIGILANTISSIMO OMNISQVE ERVDITIONIS ASYLO VNICO HANC TABVLAM GEOGRAPHICAM NOVISSIMIS DIMENSIONIBVS A SE AD EXACTISSIMAM REDACTAM PERFECTIONEM AEGIDIVS MARTINI ANTVERPIENSIS IN VTROQVE IVRE LICENTLATVS ET MATHEMATICVS FECIT ET DEDICAVIT ANNO M.DCIII AN EPISTLE OF HVMFREY LHOYD VVRITTEN TO ABRAHAM ORTEL COSMOGRAPHER TO PHILIP the Second King of SPAINE wherein at large and learnedly he discourseth of the
by reason of the champion plaines and commodiousnesse of the marine coasts are farre the more pleasant and better so North-Wales Borealis Venedotia is knowen to haue many countries and places farre more strong and better fortified by nature and situation many more goodly braue men euerie where to haue much better and more fertile ground For like as Snowdon hilles are thought to be able to finde pasture for all the cattell in Wales if they were all driuen thither so it is reported that the I le Mona Anglisea may for a time finde all Wales bread-corne such is the woonderfull store of wheat that it doth yeerely yeeld What man is he that is so blockish and void of vnderstanding that shall read and consider these arguments and allegations that will make any doubt whether Polydore's Anglisea be the true Mona that ancient seat of the Druides so renowmed by the Romane warres and oft mentioned in their histories Moreouer who can doubt whether that other Iland which the Welshmen call Manaw and the English Man which he and some other learned men chusing rather to drinke puddle water from a neere channell than to seeke farther for a cleere streame or pure fountaine haue falsly named Mona or whether we ought not rather with Ptolemey to call it Monaria or Monaida Eubonia with Gildas Menauia with Beda and Henrie Huntington or Mania with Gyraldus Many more arguments and testimonies of learned men I could in this place haue alleaged but lest I should be too tedious and troublesome to the Reader I will at this time with these content my selfe nothing doubting but these to any learned man or any one well acquainted with the Welsh histories shal be thought sufficient to stop the mouth of the scandalous aduersary and to answer all the cauils of the malitious enuiours of the Britons glory Therefore I must entreat thee most learned Ortell for that thy kindnesse and humanity which thou art wont to shew to others to take this in good part and in that thy goodly Theater to set out this our Mona in the ancient colours to the publicke view of the world And I hope before it be long to send you a more absolute description not only of this our Mona but also of all Wales illustrated both with the ancient names vsed by the Romans and Britons and also with the moderne English whereby they are knowen at this day of that nation Moreouer I haue a Geographicall Chart or Map of England described according to the moderne situation and view with the ancient names of riuers townes people and places mentioned by Ptolemey Pliny Antonine and others that those grosse and shamelesse lies of Hector Boothe may by that means the easilier be descried against which Hector Boothe our Leland that famous and learned Antiquary wrote this most worthy Epigramme Hectoris historici tot quot mendacia scripsit Si vis vt numerem Lector amice tibi Me iubeas etiam fluctus numerare marinos Et liquidi stellas connumerare poli Would'st haue me gentle Reader tell I he lies that Hector Boothe did write I may aswell count sand of sea Or starres of heauen in cleerest night I haue also a very exact description of the marine tract or sea coast of Scotland all which when I shall come vp to London which God willing shall be before the end of April next I will send vnto you Whereby the manifest and palpable errours of certeine learned men shall be discouered who in their Geographicall Chart trusting too confidently to certeine vnlearned mens relations and writings haue most falsly and erroneously set downe the names of diuers places cities and riuers to the great preiudice and danger of such as shall giue heed vnto them In the meane time I bid you heartily farewell beseeching you of all loues if there be any thing wherein I may pleasure you not to entreat it but to command it by the law of friendship and league of learned scholars Richard Clough a verie honest man and one that was the cause and procurer of this our loue and acquaintance aswell your friend as mine shall both bring your letters from you to me and mine to you that interest I know we both haue in him Againe farewell most kinde ORTELL from Denbigh in Guynedh or North-Wales this fifth of April in the yeere of our Lord God M.D.LXVIII Thine to his vttermost power HVMFREY LHOYD of Denbigh in Wales LONDON Printed for IOHN NORTON and IOHN BILL 1606.
FRance fol. xj The Foundation of the Empire fol. xxxviij xxxix France fol. xliijj G. GEographia Sacra fol. j. The Geography of Holy Writers fol. j. The Geography of the Ancients fol. vj. Goodwins sands fol. ix Gallia described by Strabo fol. xj xij Gallia described by Caesar fol. xiij Germany fol. xv xvj Great Greece fol. xxij Graecia fol. xxvij Great Britaine fol. xlij Galizia fol. xliij H. THe Holy land fol. ij Hibernia fol. ix Hellas fol. xxvij I. IVdaea fol. iij. Iewry fol. iij. Israël fol. iij. Ireland fol. ix Illyris fol. xvij Italy fol. xviij Italy of the Gaules fol. xix Isole de Trimite fol. xxij Icaria fol. xxviij Ilands of the Ioniā sea fol. xxix Iasons voyage fol. xxxv Ireland fol. xlj K. The Kings Monastery f. xl L. THe Low countreis fol. xiiij Latium fol. xxj Lesbos fol. xxviij Lemnos fol. xxviij Limbourgh fol. xlv M. MAn fol. ix Monte Circello fol. xxij Magna Graecia fol. xxij Moesia fol. xxiiij Mar Maiore fol. xxv Mona fol. xlvj N. THe Nauigation or voyage of Aeneas fol. xxxiij O. THe Orkeney iles fol. ix The Oracle of Iupiter Ammon fol. xxxij P. PAlestina fol. ij The Peregrination of S. Paul fol. iiij The Peregrination of Abraham fol. v. Pannonia fol. xvij Pontus Euxinus fol. xxv The Peregrination of Vlysses fol. xxxiiij The Paradise of Thessaly fol. xxxvj The Paradise of Antiochia in Syria fol. xxxvij R. THe Roman world f. vij The Roman empire f. vij Rhodus f. xxviij Rhenia f. xxviij S. SHepey fol. ix Spaine fol. x. Sicilia fol. xxiij Samos fol. xxviij Sardinia fol. xxix Sardegna fol. xxix T. TEnet fol. ix Tuscia or Tuscane fol. xx Trinacria fol. xxiij Thrace fol. xxvj Tempe Thessalica fol. xxxvj V. THe Voyage of Alexander the Great fol. xxxij The Voyage or nauigation of Aeneas fol. xxxiij W. The West Iles. fol. ix Spectandum dedit Ortelius mortalib orbem Orbi spectandum Galleus Ortelium Papius Α Χ Ρ Ω VITAE SCOPVS A DESCRIPTION OF THE WHOLE WORLD THIS Map next ensuing containeth and representeth the portraiture of the whole earth and of the maine Ocean that enuirons compasseth the same all which earthly Globe the Ancients who were not as then acquainted with the New world not long since descried diuided into three parts namely Africa Europe and Asia But since that discouery of America the learned of our age haue made that a fourth part and the huge Continent vnder the South pole a fifth Gerardus Mercator the Prince of moderne Geographers in his neuer-sufficiently-commended vniuersall Table or Map of the whole world diuides this Circumference of the earth into three Continents the first he calles that which the Ancients diuided into three parts and from whence the holy Writ beares record that mankinde had their first originall first was seated the second is that which at this present is named America or the VVest Indies for the third he appoints the South maine which some call Magellanica as yet on very few coasts thorowly discouered That this orbe or masse of the earthly Globe containes in circuit where it is largest 5400 German or 21600 Italian miles antiquity hath taught late Writers haue subscribed to their opinion And these so manifold portions of earth sayth Plinie in the 11. booke of his Naturall historie yea rather as some haue termed them the pricke or center of the world for so small is the earth in comparison of the whole frame of the world this is the matter this is the seat of our glorie Here we enioy honours here we exercise authoritie here we hunt after riches here men turmoile and tire themselues here we moue and maintaine ciuill dissensions and by mutuall slaughter make more roome vpon the earth And to let passe the publike tumults of the world this in which we force the borderers to giue place and remoue farther off and where we incroch by stelth vpon our neighbors lands as he that extends his lands lordships farthest and cannot abide that any should seat themselues too neere his nose How great or rather how small a portion of earth doth he enioy Or when he hath glutted his auarice to the full How little shall his dead carcase possesse Thus far Plinie The situation of this earth and sea the disposition of the seuerall regions with their inlets and gulfs the maners and inclinations of the people and other memorable and note-worthy matters are described by men of ancienter times such as follow PTOLEMEY of ALEXANDRIA CAIVS PLINIVS 2 3 4 5 and 6 books of his Natural history ARISTOTELES DE MVNDO written and dedicated to Alexander the Great STRABO in 17. books SOLINVS POLYHISTOR POMPONIVS MELA DIONYSIVS APHER and his Expositor EVSTATHIVS APVLEIVS in his booke of the World DIODORVS SICVLVS in his fiue former books MARTIANVS CAPELLA PAVLVS OROSIVS in the beginning of his History AETHICVS and another of that name surnamed SOPHISTA not yet printed IVLIVS the Oratour called by Cassiodore PRIMVS BEROSVS described the antiquitie of the World ANTONIVS AVGVSTVS if the title be true set downe the Iournals of the Romane empire SEXTVS AVIENVS the sea-coasts STEPHANVS the cities VIBIVS SEQVESTER in an Alphabeticall order the Riuers Fountaines Lakes Woods Hilles and Nations thereof TYPVS ORBIS TERRARVM QVID EI POTEST VIDERI MAGNVM IN REBVS HVMANIS CVI AETERNITAS OMNIS TOTIVSQVE MVNDI NOTA SIT MAGNITVDO CICERO HOMINES HAC LEGE SVNT GENERATI QVI TVERENTVR ILLVM GLOBVM QVEM IN HOC TEMPLO MEDIVM VIDES QVAE TERRA DICITVR Cicero EQVVS VEHENDI CAVSA ARANDI BOS VENANDI ET CVSTODIENDI CANIS HOMO AVTEM ORTVS AD MVNDVM CONTEMPLANDVM Cicero HOC EST PVNCTVM QVOD INTER TOT GENTES FERRO ET IGNI DIVIDITVR O QVAM RIDICVLI SVNT MORTALIVM TERMINI Seneca VTINAM QVEMADMODVM VNIVERSA MVNDI FACIES IN CONSPECTVM VENIT ITA PHILOSOPHIA TOTA NOBIS POSSET OCCVRRERE Seneca EVROPA WHy Europe should be so called or who was the first Authour of this name no man as yet hath found out vnlesse sayth Herodotus in his fourth booke we should thinke that the whole region borrowed this name from Europa daughter to the King of Epyrus This Plinie calleth the Nurse of the victorious and conquering people of all other nations of the world most beautifull and farre surpassing the rest and so it is sometimes compared to Asia and Africa not for his greatnesse and compasse but for his might and power Certaine it is that this part being most plentifully inhabited is for multitude of nations inferiour to neither of the other The North and Westerne sides hereof are bathed by the Ocean the South coast is disioyned from Africa by the Mediterranean sea Then Eastward by the Aegaean sea now called Archipelago by the Euxin sea named at this present Mar Maggiore by the lake of Maeotis now termed Mar delle Zabacche by the riuer Tanais commonly called Don and by the Isthmus or straight of the maine land