Batman vppon Bartholome his booke De proprietatibus rerum, newly corrected, enlarged and amended: with such additions as are requisite, vnto euery seuerall booke: taken foorth of the most approued authors, the like heretofore not translated in English. Profitable for all estates, as well for the benefite of the mind as the bodie. 1582.

Of Mari magno meditaraneo. Chap. 25.

THE greate sea of middle earth com∣meth out of the West, and out of Occean: and passeth towarde the South, and then goeth toward the North, and then is called y^e great sea. For other seas be little in comparison thereof: and is cal∣led y^e sea of middle earth. For he passeth by the middle of the earth euen to the East, and departeth and dealeth thrée partes of the earth, which be called Asia, Africa, and Europa. Of whom the first coast is called Sinus Iuspauicus, and Hi∣bericus and Balearicus, and the coast that passeth by the coast of Nerbon is called Gallicus: Then followingly in the coast that is called Ligusticus, and passeth by y^e citie of Geen, & is next thereto. After is the coast that is called Tirrenus, that stretcheth to Italy: then the coast that is called Siculus, passeth out of Cecilia to the lande of Crete, and then it stretch∣eth to Pamphilia and to Aegypt. And the coast of Helespontum passeth by di∣uers turnings, and bendeth Northward, and at the last beside Greece and Illiri∣cum, it waxeth narrowe to the straight∣nesse of seauen furlings: And then it pas∣seth the Sea that is called Ponticum, and waxeth straight, and maketh the sea that is called Propontides, that is in the straightnesse of .50. paces: and then he is made and called Bothorus and Tratius,

and that place is called Propontides: for it commeth before y^e sea y^t is called Pon∣ticum: and that same place is called Bo∣phorus, & hath that name of straight pas∣sage & narrow waies of rothexen, as Isi. saith li. 13. And frō thence passeth & sprea∣deth the greatest coast y^t is called Ponti∣cus, & hath behind the marreis y^t is called Paludes Meotides. And for cause of ma∣ny riuers & fresh waters that come ther∣to, that sea is more fresh & more mistie, & hath no great fish but the fish y^t is called Foca, & the fish that is called Delphi∣nus. And as the earth, though it be but one, hath diuers names bicause of diuers places: so this greate sea hath diuerse names in diuers countries & lands. Huc vsque Isid. li. 13.

Great coasts of the Sea be called Si∣nus: and hath diuers names, as of the Sea of middle earth, one coast is called Ionicus, and hath that name of Io, a king of Greece: and men of Athens be called Iones. And therfore the sea that is called Ionicum, stretcheth frō Ionia to Cecilia. And euen in the sea Occean the greatest coasts be Caspius, Indicus, Persicus, A∣rabicus, which is called the red sea. And that sea is called the red sea, for he is co∣loured with red waters and waues, and is not such of kinde, but it is dyed, & ta∣keth such coulour of banks of red grauel or sand, that be nigh therto. For all earth there about nigh to the sea, is red of cou∣lour nigh as bloud. Therin is found most sharp Uermilion: & other diuers colours that serue for Painture. And so for the earth hath such kind, the sea is made red by beating of water & of waues vpon y^e cliffes: And therfore in these cliffes be red precious stones found. For small stones of that ground be wrapped among y^e gra∣uell of that sea & of the ground, & so they kéepe still the coulour. This sea is depar∣ted in two coasts, that one is called Per∣sicus in the East, and the Perses dwell there: And that other in the West side is called Arabicus, and the Arabees dwell there, as Isidore saith li. 13.