The historie of the vvorld: commonly called, The naturall historie of C. Plinius Secundus. Translated into English by Philemon Holland Doctor of Physicke. The first [-second] tome

THE FOVRTEENTH BOOK OF [unspec A] THE HISTORIE OF NATVRE, [unspec B] (Book 14)

WRITTEN BY C. PLINIVS SECVNDVS.

Containing the Treatise of Trees bearing Fruit. The Proeme. (Book 14)

THus far forth haue we discoursed of all forreine and strange trees in a manner, such I meane as [unspec C] know not how to liue in any other places but where they naturally first did grow, and which wil∣lingly go not into other countries, nor can abide their soile or aire. Good leaue may I now haue to write of Plants and Trees common to all lands, and namely, to ours of Italy, which may seeme to be the very Hort-yard and naturall garden that bare them all. This onely would I aduertise the Readers and Learners to remember, that for this present we purpose to describe their natures and vertues onely, lea∣ving out the manner of husbandrie that belongeth vnto them: albeit in their tending and keeping appea∣reth the greatest part of their properties, and of Natures workes. And verily, I cannot chuse but maruell still and neuer giue ouer, how it comes to passe, that the remembrance, yea, and the verie names of some trees which antient Writers haue deliuered in their bookes, should be quite gone and abolished. For who would not thinke, that our life should ere this haue gained much by the Maiestie of the Romane Empire; haue dis∣couered [unspec D] all things by the meanes of the commerce we haue had with the vniuersall world, by th•…•… •…•…fick, ne∣gotiation, and societie I say that we haue entered into during the blessed time of peace whichwe haue inioyed? considering that by such trade and entercourse, all things heretofore vnknowne, might haue come to light. And yet for all this, few or none (beleeue me) there are who haue attained to the knowledge of many mat∣ters which the old writers in times past haue taught and put in writing. Whereby wee may easily see, that our ancestours were either far more carefull and industrious, or in their industrie more happie and fortu∣nate. Considering withall, that aboue two hundred yeares past Hesiodus (who liued in the very infancie of Learning and good letters) began his worke of Agriculture, and set downe rules and precepts for husband∣men to follow. After whose good example, many others hauing trauelled and taken like paines, yet haue put vs now to greater labour. For by this means we are not onely to search into the last inuentions of later wri∣ters, [unspec E] but also to those of antient time which are forgotten and couered with obliuion, through the supine neg∣ligence and generall idlenesse of all mankind. And what reasons may a man alledge of this drowsinesse, but that which hath lulled the world asleepe? the cause in good faith of all, is this and no other, Wee are readie to forgoe all good customes of old, and to embrace nouelties and change of fashions: mens minds now a daies are amused and occupied about new fangles, and their thoughts be rolling; they wander and roue at randon; their heads be euer running; and no arts and professions are now set by and in request, but such as bring pence into our purses. Heretofore whilest Kings and Potentates contained themselues within the Domi∣nion of their owne Nations, and were not so ambitious as now they bee, no maruell if their wits and spirits kept still at home: and so for want of wealth and riches of Fortune, were forced to employ and exercise the gifts of their minde: in such sort as an infinite number of Princes were honoured and renowned for their [unspec F] singular knowledge and learning. Yea, they were more braue in port, and carried a goodlier shew in the World for their skill in Liberall Sciences, than others with all their pomp or riches: beeing fully persuaded and assured, that the way to attaine vnto immortalitie and euerlasting Fame, was by literature and not

by great possessions and large seignories. And therefore as learning was much honoured and rewarded in [unspec G] those daies, so arts & sciences tending to the common good of this life daily increased. But afterwards when the way was once made to inlarge their territories farther in the world, when princes and states beg anne to make conquests and grow rich and mighty, the posterity felt the smart and losse thereby. Then began men to chuse a Senator for his wealth; to make a judge for his riches; and the election of a ciuill magistrate and mar∣tiall captain, to haue an eie and regard only to goods and substance, to land and liuing: when rents and reue∣nues were the chiefe and onely ornaments that made men seeme wise, iust, politicke, and valiant. Since time that childlesse estate was a point looked into, and aduanced men into high place of authoritie and power, pro∣curing them many fauorites in hope of succession; since time I say that euery man aimed and reached at the readiest meanes of greatest lucre and gaine, setting their whole mind, and rep•…•…sing their full content and ioy [unspec H] in laying land to land, and heaping together possessions; downe went the most precious things of this life, and lost their reputation: all those liberall arts which tooke their name of liberty and freedome (the soueraigne good in this world which were meet for princes, nobles, gentlemen and persons of great state) forwent that prerogatiue, and fell a contrarie way, yea, and ran quite to wracke and ruine: so as in stead thereof, base slaue∣rie and seruitude be the only waies to arise and thriue by: whiles some practise it one way, some another, by flattering, admiring, courting, crouching, and adoring: and all, to gather good and get mony. This is the one∣ly marke they shoot at, this is the end and accomplishment of all their vowes, praiers and desires. Insomuch, as we may perceiue euery where, how men of high spirit and great conceit are giuen rather to honor the vi∣ces and imperfections of others, than to make the best of their owne vertues and commendable parts. And therefore we may full truly say, that life indeed is dead; Voluptuousnesse and Pleasure alone is aliue, yea and [unspec I] beginneth to beare all the sway. Neuerthelesse, for all these enormities and hinderances, giue ouer will not I to search into those things that be perished and vtterly forgotten, how small and base sceuer some of them be; no more than I was affrighted in that regard, from the treatise and discourse of liuing creatures. Notwith∣standing that I see Virgil (a most excellent Poet) for that cause only forbare to write of gardens and hort∣yards, because he would not enter into such petty matters: and of those so important things that he handled, he gathered only the principall floures, and put them downe in writing. Who albeit that he hath made men∣tion of no more than 15 sorts of grapes, three kinds of Oliues, and as many of Peares, and setting aside the Citrons and Limons, hath not said a word of any apples; yet in this one thing happy and fortunate hee was, For that his worke is highly esteemed, and no imputation of negligence charged vpon him. But where now shall we begin this treatise of ours? What deserueth the chiefe and principall place, but the vine? in which [unspec K] respect Italy hath the name for the very soueraignty of Vine-yards: insomuch, that therein alone, if there were nothing els, it may well seeme to surpasse all other lands, euen those that bring forth odoriferous spices and aro•…•…call drugs. And yet to say a truth, there is no smell so pleasant whatsoeuer, that out-goeth Vines when they be in their fresh and flouring time.

CHAP. I.

¶ Of Vines, their nature and manner of bearing.

VInes in old time were by good reason for their bignesse reckoned among trees. [unspec L] For in Populonia, a citie of Tuscan, we see a statue of Iupiter made of the wood of one entire Vine, and yet continued it hath a world of yeares vncorrupt, and without worme. Likewise at Massiles there is a great standing cup or boll to be seene of Vine-wood. At Metapontum there stood a temple of Iuno, bearing vpon pillars of Vine wood. And euen at this day there is a ladder or paire of staires vp to the temple of Diana in Ephesus, framed of one Vine-tree, brought (by report) out of the Island Cypres, for there indeed vines grow to an exceeding bignesse. And to speake a truth, there is no wood more dureable and lasting than is the vine. Howbeit, for my part I would thinke that these singular pieces of worke before-named, were made of wild and sauage [unspec M] Vines: for that these our tame and gentle vines here planted among vs, are by cutting and pru∣ning euery yere kept downe: so as all their whole strength is either drawne without-forth into branches, or els downward into the root for to put out new shoots euer fresh out of the ground: and regard is only had of the fruit and iuice that they do yeeld diuers waies, according to the temperature of the aire & climat, or the nature of the soile wherin they be planted. In the coun∣trey of Campaine about Capua, they be set at the roots of Poplars, and (as it were) wedded

vnto them: and so being suffered to wind and claspe about them as their husbands, yea, & with their wanton armes or tendrils to climbe aloft, and with their ioints to run vp their boughes, [unspec A] they reach vp to their head, yea, and ouertop them: insomuch as the grape-gatherer in time of Vintage, puts in a clause in the couenants of his bargaine when he is hired, that in case his foot should faile him, and he breake his neck, his master who sets him a worke should giue order for his funerall fire and tombe at his owne proper cost and charges. And in truth Vines will grow infinitly: and vnpossible it is to part them, or rather to pluck them from the trees which they be ioined and coupled vnto. Valerianus Cornelius making mention of many properties and singu∣larities of a vine, thought this among the rest worthie of especiall note and remembrance, that one onely stocke of a vine was sufficient to compasse and inuiron round about a good ferme∣house or country messuage, with the branches & pliable shoots that it did put forth. At Rome [unspec B] there is one vine growing within the cloistures of the Portches and galleries built by the Em∣presse Liuia, which running and trailing vpon an open frame of railes, couereth and shadoweth the ouvert allies made for to walke in: and the same Vine yeeldeth one yeare with another a dozen Amphores of good new wine yearely. An ordinarie thing it is, that Vines will surmount any Elms wheresoeuer, be they neuer so tall and lofty. It is reported, that Cyneas the embassador of K. Pyrrhus, wondring at the vines of Aricia, for that the grew and mounted so high; would needs taste of the wine that came of their grapes: & finding it to be hard and tart, merrily scof∣fed and said, That by good right and justice they had done well, to hang the mother that bare such vnpleasant wine vpon so high a gibbet. Beyond the riuer Po in Italy, there is a tree grow∣ing which the peasants there cal Rumbotinus, & by another name * 1.1 Opulus; it puts forth great armes and boughs, and those spread abroad and beare a round compasse; howbeit, the vines that [unspec C] be planted at the root of these trees, do fill and couer the said boughes: for yee shall haue the very old crooked branches of the Vine (bare as they be and naked of leaues) to wind about the armes, and crawle in manner of a serpent or dragon along the broader and flatter base of the boughes, and then the new shoots, top-twigs, and tendrils, wil diuide themselues to the vtmost branches and shoots of the tree, that they will lode and clog her withal. These vines again grow somtime no taller than the ordinary height of a man of middle stature, and beeing supported and vnder propped with stakes and forks, cleaue and cling thick together, and in this order fill whole vineyards. Others also there be, which with their excessiue creeping vpon frames, with their ouergrowne branches, and some artificiall help of the masters hand, spred so far euery way, [unspec D] that they take vp wide and large courts, ouerspreading not only the sides, but the very middest thereof. See what sundry sorts of vines euen Italy alone is able to affoord! But in some prouin∣ces without Italy, ye shall see a vine stand of it selfe without any prop or stay at all, gathering and drawing in her boughs and branches together: thus indeed she groweth but short, howbeit so close couched and trussed round, that the thicknesse makes amends for all. And yet other∣whiles in some coasts the winds are so big and boisterous, that they wil not suffer them thus to grow vpright; as namely •…•…n Affrick, and Languedoc, the prouince of Narbon Vines being thus debarred to run vp in height, resting vpon their owne ioints and branches, and euer like to those that be laid along whiles they are a trimming, by deluing about their roots, and pruning their superfluous branches, traile and creepe too and fro along the ground, as weeds and herbes; and all the way as they spread, suck the humor of the earth into their grapes: by which meanes, no [unspec E] maruell it is, if in the inland parts of Africke there be found some of those grapes bigger than pretty babes. And in no countrie are the grapes of a thicker skin than those of Africk, wherup∣on it may well be, that they tooke the name * 1.2 Duracina (i. hauing hard skins.) For infinite sorts there be of grapes, according to the difference obserued in their quantity and bignesse, in their colour, taste, stones, or kernels: and yet more stil, in regard of the diuers wines made of them. In one place they are of a fresh and bright purple, in another, of a glittering, incarnate, and rosate colour: and ye shall haue them of a faire and liuely greene. As for the white and black grapes, they be common euery where. The grapes Bumasti haue their name, for that they be so swel∣ling and round, like st•…•…utting paps or dugs. The Date-grapes Dactyli, are long, both grape and kernel, fashioned in manner of fingers. Moreouer, Nature seems to take her pleasure and make [unspec F] good sport in some kind of them; where ye shal find among them some that be exceeding great, others again that be as small, howbeit pleasant they are, and as sweet as the rest: and such be cal∣led Leptorrhag•…•…s. Some last al winter long, being knit in bunches together, & so hanged aloft

arch-wise in manner of a vault: with others they make no more adoe, but put them vp presently [unspec G] as they come from the Vine, into earthen pots, whiles they be fresh & in their vigor; and after∣wards they are bestowed, well lapped ouer with their leaues, in other greater vessels ouer them; and for to keep them better, they be stopt close with kernels heaped and piled vpon, sweating round about, to condite and preserue them in their naturall heat. Others they suffer to be dried in the smoke of smiths forges, wherby they get the very tast of infumed wine, so ordered in the smoke. And in truth, Tiberius Caesar the Emperor gaue especial credit & name by his example to such grapes dried in the furnaces of Africk. For before his time, the Rhetian grapes & those that came out of the territory of Verona, were ordinarily serued vp to the table first, for the ve∣ry best. As for the Raisins called Passae, they took that name in Latine of their patience to in∣dure their drying & confiture. Some grapes there be that are condite in Must or new wine, and so they drinke their owne liquor wherein they lie soking, without any other seething. Others a∣gaine [unspec H] are boiled in Must abouesaid, vntill they lose their owne verdure, and become sweet and pleasant. Moreouer, yee shall see old grapes hang still vpon the Vine their mother, vntill new come: but within glasses, that a man may see them easily through: howbeit, to make them to last and continue in their full strength, as well those which be preserued in barrels, tuns, and such like vessels aforesaid, they vse the helpe of pitch or tarre, which they poure vpon the stalks that the cluster hangs to, and wherewith they stop close the mouth of the said glasse. It it not long since that there was a deuise found, that wine of it selfe (as it came naturally from the grape growing vpon the vine) should haue a smack and sent of pitch. And surely this kind of * 1.3 Pitch wine, brought the territory about Vienna into great name reputation: & before that this vine was known, those of Auern, Burgundy, and the Heluij, were in no request at all. But these deui∣ses [unspec I] as touching vines & wines, were not in the daies of the Poet Virgil, who died about 90 yeres past. But behold what I haue to say more of the Vine tree: the vine wand is now entred into the camp, and by it our armies are ranged into battalions: nay, vpon the direction thereof depends the main estate of our soueraigne Empire: for the Centurion hath the honour to carry in his hand a Vine-rod: the good guidance and ordering whereof aduanceth after long time the cen∣teniers (for a good reward of their valorous and faithfull seruice) from the leading of inferior bands, to the captainship of that regiment and chiefe place in the army, vnto which the maine standard of the Aegle is committed: yea, and more than that, the Vine wand chastiseth the tres∣passes and lighter offences of the souldiers; who take it for no dishonor nor disgrace to be thus punished at their Centurions hand. Ouer and besides, the planting of Vineyards hath taught [unspec K] martiall men how to approach the wals of their enemies, to giue an assault vnder a frame deuised for the purpose, which therupon took the name of Vinea. Lastly, for medicinable vertues in phi∣sick, the Vine is so profitable to mans health, that the vse of it alone is a sufficient remedy for the distemperature of mans body, caused by wine it selfe.

CHAP. II.

¶ Of the diuers kindes of vines.

DEmocritus was the onely Philosopher euer known, who made profession to reduce all the sorts and kinds of vines to a certaine number, and indeed he vaunted and made his boast [unspec L] that he had the knowledge of all things that were in Greece. All others besides himselfe and those comming neerer to the truth (as shal appeare more euidently by the variety of wines) resolutely haue set downe, that there be infinit sorts of Vine-trees. Looke not therefore at my hands, that I should write of them all, but onely of the principall: for that in truth there bee in manner as many and as sundry kinds of them, as are of grounds. Wherefore I will content my selfe, and thinke it sufficient to shew those that be singular and most renowned among them, or such as haue some secret propriety wortlradmiration. And first to begin with the Aminean Vines, all the world giueth them the chiefe praise and greatest name; as wel for their grapes, of so lasting and durable a nature, as for the wine made thereof, which in all places continues long invigor, & is euer the better for the age. And hereof there be fiue sundry sorts. Of which, the [unspec M] kindly Vines named Germanae, haue both lesse grapes and grains within, but they burgen and bloom better than others: and after the floure is gon, they can abide both rain and tempest: but the second kind (which is the greater) is not so hardy: howbeit, lesse subiect to wind and wea∣ther

when they be planted to run vp a tree, rather than to creepe vpon a frame. A third sort are called Gemellae, for that their grapes grow double like twins. & they be very harsh and in taste [unspec A] vntoothsome, howbeit their vertue and strength is singular. The smaller sort of these take harm by the South wind: but all other winds nourish them, as we may see in the mount Vesuvius, and the little hils of Surrentum: for in all other parts of Italy, ye shal neuer finde them but wedded to trees, and growing vpon them. As for the fift kind of these Amminean vines, they be called Lanatae, so freezed they are with a kind of down or cotton, insomuch as we need not wonder any more at the Seres or Indians for their cotton and silken trees. The first kind of these Ammine∣an grapes come soonest to their ripenesse and perfection, and most quickly do they rot & putri∣fie. Next to these Amminean vines, those of Nomentum are in most account: and for that their wood is red, some haue called them Rubellae. These grapes yeeld no great plenty of wine, but in stead thereof their stones and kernels, and other refuse remaining, grow to an exceeding big [unspec B] cake: howbeit, this property they haue. The frost they will indure passing well, lesse harme they take also by raine than drought and thriue better in cold than heat: and therefore in cold and moist grounds they excell and haue no fellow. Of these vines, they are more plentifull which beare grapes with smaller stones, and leaues with lesse cuts and iags indented. As touching the Muscadell vines, Apianae, they tooke that name of bees, which are so much delighted in them and desirous to settle and feed of them. Of two sorts they are: and both carry cotton & down. Howbeit, this difference is between them, that the grapes of the one wil be sooner ripe than the other, and yet there is neither of them both but be hasty enough. These Muscadell grapes like wel and loue cold countries: and yet none sooner rot than they, if showers take them. The mus∣cadell wines are at the first sweet: but with age become harsh and hard, yea, and red withal. And [unspec C] to conclude, there is not a grape that ioies more to hang vpon the vine, than it doth. Thus much of the very floure of Vines, and the principall grapes that be familiar and proper vnto our coun∣trey of Italy, as their natiue soile.

The rest be strangers come out of Chios or Thasos. As for the Greeke grapes of Corinth, they be not in goodnes inferior to the Aminean aforesaid. They haue a very tender stone with∣in: and the grape it selfe is so small, that vnlesse the soile be exceeding fa•…•… and battle, there is no profit in planting and tending such vines. The quick-sets of the vine Eugenia were sent vnto vs from the Taurominitane hils in Sicily, together with their syrname pretending a noble & gen∣tle race. Howbeit, they are neuer in their kind with vs, but only in the Alban country: for if you transplant them, they proue very bastards and changelings presently. And in faith, some vines [unspec D] there be that take such an affection and loue to a place, that all their goodnesse and excellency they wil leaue there behind them, and neuer passe into another quarter whole and entire as they be in their own nature. Which euidently is to be seen in the Rhetian vine, & that of Savoy and Daulphnie, of which in the chapter before wee said, that it gaue the taste of pitch to the wine made thereof: for, these Vines at home in those countries are much renowned for the said tast: but elswhere if they be transplanted, they loose it whole, and no such thing may a man acknow∣ledge in them. Howbeit, plentifull such are, and for default of goodnesse, they make amends & recompence in abundance of wine that they yeeld. As for the vine Eugenia, it takes well in hot grounds. The Rhetian likes better in a temperat soile. The Allobrogian Vine of Sauoy and Daulphine delights most in cold quarters: the frost it is that ripens her grapes, and commonly [unspec E] they are of colour black. Of all the grapes aboue rehearsed, the wines that be made, the longer they be kept, the more they change colour, and in the end become white, yea, though they came of blacke grapes, and were of a deep colour at first. Now for all other grapes whatsoeuer, they are reckoned but base in comparison of the former. And yet this is to be noted and obserued, that the temperature of the aire may be such, and the soile so good, that both the grapes wil in∣dure long, and the wine beare the age very w•…•…ll. As for example, the Vine Fecenia, and likewise Biturica, that bloometh with it, which beare grapes with few stones within: their floures neuer miscarry, for they euer preuent and come so timely, that they be able to withstand both winde and weather. Howbeit, they do better in cold places than in hot: in moist also, than in dry. And [unspec F] to say a truth, there is not a vine more fruitful, & yeelding such store of grapes growing so thick together in clusters: but of all things it may not away with variable and inconstant weather: let the season be staied and setled, it matters not then whether it be hot or cold, for wel it wil abide the one & the other alone, hold it neuer so long. The lesser of this kind is held for the better.

Howbeit, in chusing of a fit soile for this vine, it is much ado to please and content it: in a fat [unspec G] ground it soone rots; in a light and lean, it will not grow at all: very choise it is therefore, dain∣ty, and nice, in seeking a middle temper betweene, and therefore it taketh a great liking to the Sabine hils, and there it loues to be. The grapes that it bears, be not so beautiful to the eie, but pleasant to the tooth: if you make not the more hast to take them presently when they be ripe, they will fall off, although they be not rotten. This vine puts forth large and hard leaues, which defend the grapes well against haile-stones.

Now there are besides certain notable grapes of a middle colour between black and purple, and they alter their hue oftentimes; whereupon some haue named▪ them Varianae: and yet the blacker they be, the more they are set by: they beare grapes but each other yeare, that is to say, this yere in great plenty, the next yere very little: howbeit, their wine is the better when they [unspec H] yeeld fewer grapes. Also there be 2 kinds of vines called Pretiae, differing one from the, other in the bignesse of the stones within the grape: full of wood and branches they are both: their grapes are very good to be preserued in earthen pots: and leafed they be like to Smallach: they of Dyrrhachium do highly praise the Roial vine Basilica, which the Spaniards cal Cocolobis. The grapes grow but thin vpon this plant: they can well abide all South winds, and hot wea∣ther: they trouble and hurt the head, if a man eat much of them. In Spaine they make 2 kindes of them; the one hauing a long stone or grain within, the other a round: these be the last grapes that are gathered in time of vintage The sweeter grape that the Cocolobis bears, the better is it thought: howbeit that which was hard and tart at the first, will turne to be pleasant with kee∣ping; and that which was sweet, will become harsh with age: and then they resemble in tast, the [unspec I] Albane wine: and men say, there is an excellent drinke made thereof, to help diseases and infir∣mities of the bladder. As touching the wine Albuelis, it bears most grapes in the tops of trees, but Visula is more fruitfull beneath toward the root: and therfore if they be set both vnder one and the same tree, a man shall see the diuersitie of their nature, and how they will furnish and inrich that tree from the head to the foot. There is a kind of blacke grape named Inerticula, as a man would say, dull and harmlesse; but they that so called it, might more iustly haue named it The sober grape: the wine made therof is very commendable when it is old, howbeit nothing hurtfull * 1.4 for neuer makes it any man drunke: and this property hath it alone by it selfe. As for other vines, their fruitfulnesse doth commend them; and namely aboue all, that which is called Heluenaca; whereof be two kinds; the greater, which some name The long: and the smaller cal∣led [unspec K] Arca: not so plentifull it is as the former, bat surely the wine thereof goes downe the throat more merily. It differs from the other in the perfect and exquisit roundnesse of the leafe, as it were drawn by compasse: but both the one and the other is very slender, and therefore of neces∣sitie they must be vnderpropped with forkes, for otherwise they will not beare their owne bur∣den, so fruitfull they be. They delight greatly to grow neare the sea side, where they may haue the vapors of the sea to breath vpon them: and indeed their very grapes haue a sent and smell of a brackish dew. There is not a vine can worse brooke Italy. Her grapes are small, they hang thin and rot euen vpon her: and the wine made thereof, will not last aboue one Summer: and yet on the other side there is not a vine that liketh better in an hungry and lean ground. Graecinus (who otherwise compiled his worke out of Cornelius Celsus in manner word for word) is of this opinion, That this Vine could loue Italy well enough, and that of the owne Nature it mislikes [unspec L] not the Countrey; but the cause why it thriueth no better there, is the want of skil and know∣ledge to order and husband it as it ought to be; for that men striue to ouercharge it with wood, and load it with too many branches: and were it not that the goodnesse of a fat and rich soile maintained it still, beginning to faint and decay, the fruitfulnesse thereof were enough to kill it. This vine (by report) is never blasted: a singular gift verily of Nature, if it be true, That any plant or tree should be so exempt from the jurisdiction (as it were) of the Heauens, that they had no power to doe it harme. The Vine Spionia, which some call Spinea, feareth no extremi∣tie of heat: her grapes prosper well in Autumne and much abundance of rain: This is the only grape that is nourished with foggie mists, and therfore it likes no place well but the territorie of Rauenna. The vine Venicula (which is counted one of the best for kindly blooming & shed∣ding [unspec M] the floures, and for grapes most meet to be preserued and kept in pots) the Campaines ra∣ther name Sirculus; others Stacula: and they of Tarracina call it Numisiana: and as they say, the grape therof hath no singularity nor vertue in it self, but only according to the soile where

it groweth: howbeit those that grow about Surrentum, haue the most strength, and are excel∣lent [unspec A] to be preserued in vessels; I mean, as far as vp to the hill Vesuvius: for there also is the vine Murgentina, the best of all those that come out of Sicily, which some call Pompeiana, of Pom∣peij, a town within the kingdome of Naples: & being got once into Latium, it beares grapes a∣bundantly: like as the vine Horconia in Campaine, yeeldeth plenty of grapes with the best, but good they are for nothing saue onely to be eaten at the table. As for the grape Maerica, it will last and indure a long time; it feareth neither winde nor tempest, nor any blast of planet: blacke it is, and hath black stones: howbeit the wine that it maketh, waxes red with age, name∣ly, if it be long kept.

CHAP. III. [unspec B]

¶ Of the diuers kindes likewise of Vines, according to the propertie of the places and regi∣ons where they grow.

HItherto we haue treated of the sundry sorts of vines in general: now wil we write of them according to the nature of the places and regions, which are proper and familiar vnto them; or, as they be mingled one with another, by transplanting or graffing. And first and formost, the vine Tudernis; also Florentia (bearing the name of the city Florence) are pe∣culiar to the Tuscans: but about Aretium, there is no talke both for plenty and goodnesse, but of the Talpana, Etesiaca, and Conseminia. The Talpane grape is blacke as the Mouldwarpe, whereof it taketh the name, but yet doth it yeeld a white wine. The Etesiacke vine (so called of [unspec C] the wines Etesiae) is a deceitfull plant, and often misseth and faulteth; but the more grapes it beareth, the better wine it yeeldeth and more commendable: mary this is strange and wonder∣full in it, In the mids of this fruitfulnesse of hers, she giueth ouer suddenly and dieth. The vine Conseminia, bringeth blacke grapes: the wine will not last, but the grapes will keepe and con∣tinue passing long: the vintage thereof is fifteene daies after all other: it beareth ordinarily her full burden, but the fruit is onely good for meat to be eaten, and not for wine to be drunke. The leaues of this vine (in manner of the wilde vine Labrusca) before they fall, become as red as bloud. This property happeneth to some others hesides; but take it for a certaine token of the worst vines. The vine and grape Irtiola, is proper vnto Vmbria, to the territorie of the Meue∣nates, and the Picene countrey: like as that which they call Pumula, to the Amiternine regi∣on. [unspec D] They haue among them also another kinde, named Bannanica: and although it oftentimes doth not take, yet they loue the plant and cherish it. There is a grape which they call the Bor∣rough or Burgeois grape, after the name of the burrough town Pompeij; and yet there is more plenty of them about the city Clusium: the Tiburtins also, named their grapes after their town Tybur: yet of late daies they haue found another sort, which of the resemblance of oliues, is cal∣led the Oliue grape: and in truth, this is the last grape of any account, to this day known to haue bin found out. The Sabins and Laurentines only are acquainted with the grape Vinaciola: for wel I wot, that the vines Gauranae came first out of the territory of Falerij, and thereupon were named Falern•…•…: but transplant them from thence whithersoeuer you will, they wil very quick∣ly degenerat in all places, and proue bastard. Moreouer, some haue made a seueral kind by it self [unspec E] of the Tarentine vine, which brings forth an exceeding sweet grape. As for the grapes called Capnias, Bucconiatis, & Tarrupia, there is no vintage of them in the vineyards of the hils about Thurinum, before the cold frost. As for the citizens of Pisae, they set great store by the grapes Phariae: like as Modenna by thosecalled Prusiniae; which are very black stone & al: yet the wine thereof with 4 yeres wil turn to a paller and whitish colour. A strange thing it is which men re∣port of a certaine grape, that euermore will turne with the Sunne: and thereupon it is called Streptos: as also that we in Italy are delighted with the French grapes: and they in France be∣yond the Alpes, are as much in loue with ours in the Picene countrey. Virgil hath made menti∣on of other grapes, namely, Thasiae, Mareotides, and Lageae, besides many other outlandish plants, not at this day to be found throughout al Italy: howbeit there be yet many vines of good [unspec F] mark & wel accepted of, not for any wine that they yeeld, but only for their grapes which they carry: to wit, Ambrosiaca, and Duracina, which may be kept hanging still vpon the vine, with∣out any vessell to inclose them: so durable be they and hardy, against cold, heat, wind, and raine, or any weather whatsoeuer. As for the vine Orthampelos, it needs neither tree to climb on, nor

forkes to support it, but is able to maintain and vphold it selfe vpright. But the Dactylides (so [unspec G] called for that they beare not wood aboue a finger thicke) cannot so do: for they must be sho∣red and vnderpropped. Of all vines, the Columbines yeeld most gleaning, for that the gatherers leaue behind them greatest store of small grapes: and so do the purple grapes, named also Bi∣mammiae (as one would say, with two teats or bigs) more than the rest; seeing that they beare not small grapes, but put forth new great ones indeed, after the other be gathered and gone. In like manner, the vine Tripedanea, which took that name of the measure of 3 foot. Semblably the vine Scirpula, the grapes wherof seem as if they were Raisins of the sun, dried already. More∣ouer in the maritime Alps toward the sea-side, there is a kind of Rhetian vine, but far inferior to that other aboue-mentioned and so much commended for the rellish of pitch that it giueth to [unspec H] the wine made of her grapes: for these about the Alps be little and small; and albeit they beare grapes thick, yet the wine thereof comes far short of the other, and is more degenerat: howbeit the skin of the grapes is of all other the thinnest, hauing but one kernel within, which they call Gigarton, and the same very small; and a man shall not find a bunch, without one or two pas∣sing great grapes aboue the rest: there is also a kind of black Aminean grape, which some name Syriaca: likewise the grape of Spain, which of the base and common kinds carries the greatest credit, and is most commended. As touching both vines and grapes that run and traile vpon frames; there be those which are called Escariae, good only for to eat, and namely those which haue grains or stones like to Ivie berries, as well white as black. Grapes resembling great dugs, named therupon Bumasti, both black and white, are carried vpon frames in like sort. But al this [unspec I] while we haue not spoken of the Aegyptian and Rhodian grapes, ne yet of the Ounce-grapes, whereof euery one weighes a good ounce, and thereupon tooke that name. Item, the grape Pu∣cina, the blackest of all others: the Stephanitis also, wherein Nature hath seemed to disport her selfe, for the leaues run among the grapes in manner of a garland plaited with them. Moreouer, the market-grapes called Forenses, they grow and are ripe with the soonest; vendible at the very first sight, and sold with the best, and most easie to be carried from market to market. But con∣trariwise, the ash-coloured grape Cinerea, the silk-russet grape Ravuscula, the asse-hued grape Asinisca, please not the eie, but are presently reiected: and yet the Fox-tailed grape Alopecis, (for that it resembles Rainards taile) is not so displeasant nor so much discommended as the [unspec K] former. About a cape or crest of the hill Ida, which they call Phalacra, there is a vine named A∣lexandrina, smal of growth, and puts forth branches of a cubit in length: the grapes be black, as big as beans; the pepin or kernell within, soft, tender, and exceeding small; the bunches are croo∣ked, full of grapes, passing sweet; and finally the leaues little, round, and not cut or iagged at all. Within these seuen yeres last past, about Alba Eluia, a city in Languedock or the prouince of Narbon, there was found a vine, which in one day both floured and shed her floures: by which meanes most secured it was from all dangers of the weather. They call it Narbonica, or the vine of Languedock: and now it is commonly planted all that prouince ouer, and euery man desireth to store his vineyard therewith.

CHAP. IIII. [unspec L]

¶ Notable considerations about the husbandrie and ordering of Vineyards.

THat noble and worthy Cato, the first of that name, renowned among other dignities for his honorable triumph, and the incorrupt administration of his Censorship, and yet more fa∣mous and renowned to posterity for his singular knowledge and learning: and namely for the good precepts and ordinances tending to all vertues and commendable parts, which he left in memory for the people of Rome: & principally touching agriculture [as he was by the com∣mon voice and generall accord of that age wherein he liued reputed for an excellent husband∣man, [unspec M] and one who in that profession had neither peere nor second that came neere vnto him.] This Cato (I say) hath in his workes made mention but of a few kinds of vines: and yet some of them already be growne out of knowledge, so as their verie names are quite forgotten. Yet neuerthelesse his opinion and judgement would be set downe in particular, as it may be gathe∣red out of his whole treatise: to the end that we might both know in euery kind of vine which were of most account in his daies (to wit, in the 600 yere after the foundation of Rome, about

the time that Carthage and Corinth were forced and woon, when he departed this life:) and [unspec A] also learn how much we haue profited and proceeded in good husbandry and agriculture, from his death vnto this present day; namely for the space of 230 yeares. As concerning vines and grapes therefore, thus much hath Cato deliuered in writing, and in this manner following. All places or grounds (quoth he) exposed to the Sun-shine, and which in other regards shall be found good for to plant vineyards in, see they bee employed for the lesse Aminean, for both the Eugenian Vines, and the smaller Heluine. Item, In euery tract that is more grosse, thicke, and mistie, looke that you set the greater Aminean, or the Murgentine: the Apician also, and the Lucane Vine. All other vines, and the com∣mon mingled sort especially, will agree well enough with any ground. The right keeping of grapes, is in a small thinne wine of the second running. The grapes Duracinae, and the greater Amineans, are good to be hanged, or else dried before a blacke-smithes forge, and so they may be well preserued and goe [unspec B] for Raisins of the Sun. Loe what the precepts of Cato be; neither are there any of this argument more antient, left vnto vs written in the Latine tongue. Whereby we may see, that we liue not long after the very first rudiments and beginnings of knowledge in these matters. [But by the way, the Amineans last named, Varro calleth Scantians.] And in very truth, few there be euen in this our age, who haue left any rules in forme of Art, as touching the absolute skill in this behalfe. Yet such as they be, and how few soeuer, we must not leaue them behinde, but so much the rather take them with vs; to the end it may be knowne, what reward & profit they met with, who trauelled in this point of husbandry: reward, I say, and profit, which in euery thing is all in all.

To begin therefore with Acilius Sihenelus [or Stelenus,] (a mean commoner of Rome, descen∣ded from the race of Libertines or Slaues newly infranchised) he attained to the highest glory [unspec C] and greatest name of all others: for hauing in the whole world not aboue 60 acres of land l•…•…ing all in vineyards within the territory of Nomentum, he plaied the good husband so well ther•…•…n, that he sold them again at the price of 400000 Sesterces. There went a great bruit and fame likewise of one Verulenus Aegialus, in his time a man but of base condition by birth, and no bet∣ter than the former, (namely, come of the stocke of freed-men) who by his labor & husbandry, greatly inriched a domain or liuing at Liternum in Campaine: and the more renowned he was by occasion of the fauour of so many men affectionate vnto Africanus, whose very place of ex∣ile he held in his hands and occupied so well: for vnto Scipio, the aboue said Liternum, apper∣tained. But the greatest voice and speech of men was of Rhemnius Palaemon (who otherwise by profession was a famous and renowned Grammarian) for that he by the means and helpe of the [unspec D] foresaid Sthenelus, bought a ferme within these twenty yeares for 600000 Sesterces in the same territorie of Nomentum, about ten miles distant from Rome, lying somewhat out of the high way. Now is it well knowne farre and neare, of what price and account all such fermes are, and how cheape such ware is lying so neere to the city side: but amongst the rest, this of Palaemons in that place was esteemed most cheap and lowest prised, in this regard especially, That he had purchased those lands, which through the carelesnesse & bad husbandry of the former owners, lay neglected and fore-let, & were not of themselues thought to be of the best soile, chosen and piked from among the worst. But being entred once vpon those grounds as his owne liuelode and possession, he set in hand to husband and manure them, not so much of any good mind and [unspec E] affection that he had to improue and better any thing that he held, but vpon a vaine glory of his own at the first, whereunto he was wonderously giuen: for he makes fallows of his vine-plots anew, and delueth them all ouer again, as he had seen Sthenelus to do with his before: but what with digging, stirring, and medling therewith, following the good example and husbandry of Sthenelus, hee brought his vineyards to so good a passe within one eight yeares, that the fruit of one yeares vintage was held at 400000 Sesterces, and yeelded so much rent to the lord: a won∣derfull and miraculous thing, that a ground should be so much improoued in so small a time! And in very truth, it was strange to see what numbers of people would run thither, onely to see the huge and mighty heaps of grapes gathered in those vineyards of his: and ill idle neigh∣bors about him, whose grounds yeelded no such increase, attributed all to his deepe learning, and that he went to it by his book, & had some hidden speculation aboue other men; obiecting [unspec F] against him, that he practised Art Magicke, and the blacke Science. But last of all, Annaeas Se∣neca, esteemed in those daies a singular clerke, and a mighty great man (whose ouermuch Lear∣ning and exceeding power cost him his ouerthrowing in the end) one who had good skill and

judgement in the world, and vsed least of all others to esteeme toies and vanities, brought this [unspec G] ferm into a greater name and credit: for so far in loue was he of this possession, that hee bought out Palaemon, and was not ashamed to let him go away with the pricke and praise for good hus∣bandry, and to remoue him into other parts where he might shew the like cunning: and in one word, paid for these foresaid vineyards of his fourfold as much as they cost, not aboue ten yeres before this good husbandry was bestowed vpon them. Certes, great pity it is, that the like indu∣stry was not shewed and imploied in the territories about the hils Cecubus, & Setinus, where (no doubt) it would haue well quit all the cost, considering that many a time afterwards, euery acre of vineyard there, yeelded seuen Culei, that is to say, 140 Amphores of new wine one yere with another. But lest any man should thinke, that wee in these daies haue surpassed our ance∣stors [unspec H] in diligence, as touching good husbandrie; know he, that the aboue named Cato hath left in writing, How of an acre of vineyard there hath arisen ordinarily * 1.5 ten Culei of wine by the yeare. Certainly these be effectuall examples and pregnant proofes, that the hardy and aduen∣turous voiages by sea, are not more aduantageous; ne yet the commodities and merchandise, and namely Pearls, which be fet as far as the red sea and the Indian Ocean, are more gainefull to the merchant, than a good ferm and homestall in the countrey, well tilled and carefully hus∣banded.

As touching the wines in old time, Homer writes, that the Maronean wine made of the grapes growing vpon the sea coasts of Africk, was the best, & most excellent in his daies. But my mea∣ning is not to ground vpon fabulous tales & variable reports, as touching the excellency or an∣tiquitie [unspec I] of wine. True it is, that Aristaeus was the first, who in that very nation mingled honey with wine; which must needs be a passing sweet and pleasant liquor, made of two natures so sin∣gular as they be of themselues. And yet to come againe to the foresaid Maronean wine, the same Homer saith, That to one part therof, there would be but 20 parts of water: and euen at this day, that kind of wine continues in the said land of the same force, and the strength thereof will not be conquered nor allaied. For Mutianus who had bin thrice consul of Rome, & one of those that latest wrote of this matter, found by experience (being himselfe personally in that tract) that euery sextar or quart of that wine, would beare 8 of water: who reports moreouer, that the wine is of colour blacke, of a fragrant sweet smell, and by age comes to be fat and vnctious. Moreouer, the Pramnian wine (which the same Homer hath so highly commended) continueth [unspec K] yet in credit and holds the name still: it comes from a vineyard in the countrey about Smyrna, neere to the temple of Cybele the mother of the gods. As for other wines, no one kind apart ex∣celled other.

One yere there was, when all wines proued passing good; to wit, when L. Opimius was Consul, at what time as C. Gracchus a Tribune of the Commons (practising to sow sedition within the city among the common people) was slaine: for then such seasonable weather happened, and so fauorable for ill fruit, that they called it (Coctura) as a man would say, the ripening time; so beneficiall was the Sun to the earth: and this fell out in the yere after the natiuity and founda∣tion of the city of Rome, 634.

Moreouer, there be some wines so durable, that they haue beene knowne to last two hundred [unspec L] yeares; and are come now by this time to the qualitie and consistence of a rough, sharpe, and austere kind of hony: and this is the nature of all when they bee old: neither are they potable alone by themselues, vnlesse the water be predominant; so tart they are of the lees, and so mu∣sty withall, that they are bitter againe. Howbeit a certaine mixture there is of them in a very small quantity with other wines, that giues a prety commendable tast vnto them. Suppose now that according to the price of wine in those daies of Opimius, euery Amphore were set but at an hundred Sesterces, yet after the vsurie of six in the hundred yearly (which is the ordinary pro∣portion and a reasonable interest among citizens, for the principall that lieth dead and dor∣mant in stock) by the hundred and sixtieth yere after the said Amphor was bought (which fell [unspec M] out in the time that C. Caligula Caesar the son of Germanicus was Emperor) no maruell if an ounce in measure of the same wine (to wit, the twelfth part of a Sextarius) cost * 1.6 so many Sesterces: for as we haue shewed by a notable example, when we did set downe the life of Pomponius Secundus the Poet, and the feast that he made to the sayd Prince Caligula, there was not a * 1.7 Cyathus of that wine drawne, but so much was paied for it. Loe what a deale of mony lieth in these wine∣cellars, for keeping of wine! And in very truth, there is nothing more gainfull nor groweth to a

better reckoning than it, for twenty yeres space after it is laid vp: neither is there greater losse [unspec A] againe by any thing, if ye passe that terme; by reason that the price will not grow and arise ac∣cordingly: for seldom hath it bin knowne to this day (and neuer but at some excessiue riot and superfluous expence of wine) that an Amphore hath beene sold for a thousand Sesterces. True it is indeed, that they of Vienna only haue made better reckoning of their wines, and sold them deerer; I meane those that giue a taste of pitch (the seuerall kinds whereof wee haue deliuered before:) but they are thought so to do among themselues only, and for the loue of their coun∣trey, that it might haue the names of wines, so deere and costly. To conclude, this wine of Vi∣enna, is reputed colder than the rest; when the question is of cold drinke, and that the body is to be cooled.

CHAP. V. [unspec B]

¶ Of the Nature of Wine.

THe nature and property of wine, is to heat the bowels within, if it be drunke; and to coole the exterior parts, if it be applied outwardly. And here it shall not be amisse to rehearse in this very place, that which Androcydes (the noble, sage, and wise Philosopher) wrote vnto K. Alexander the Great, for to correct and reforme his intemperate drinking of wine, whereto he was very prone and ouermuch giuen. My good Lord (saith he) remember when you take your wine, that you drinke the very bloud of the earth: Hemlock (you know sir) is poison to man, euen so is wine to Hemlock. Now if that Prince had bin so wise as to haue obeied these precepts of his, certes, he could ne∣uer haue killed his best friends as he did, in his fits of drunkennesse. In sum, this may be truely [unspec C] said of wine, that being taken soberly and in measure, nothing is moreprofitable to the strength of the body; but contrariwise, there is not a thing more dangerous and pernicious, than the im∣moderate drinking thereof.

CHAP. VI.

¶ Of kindly Wines made of the best Grapes.

WHo doubteth, that some Wines be made more pleasant and acceptable than others? nay out of the very same vat ye shall haue wines not alike in goodnesse, but that some go before their brethren, pressed though they be at one time, and from the same kinde [unspec D] of grape: which may be long either of the vessell whereinto they be filled, or of some acciden∣tall occasion: and therefore as touching the excellency of wine, let euery man be his own taster and judge. The Empresse Iulia Augusta would commonly say, That she was beholden to the Pu∣cine wine for liuing as she did 82 yeares: for she neuer vsed to drink any other. This wine came of the grape that grew along the Adriaticke sea, or Venice gulfe, vpon a stony and raggie hill, not far from the source or spring of the riuer Timavus, nourished with the vapors breathed from the sea; and many Amphores there were not drawne thereof at a vintage: and by the iudgement of all men, there is not a wine more medicinable than it is. I would thinke verily therefore, that the wine Pyctanon (which the Greekes so highly praise) is the very same; for it commeth from the coasts of the Adriaticke sea. The Emperor Augustus Caesar preferred the Setine wine before [unspec E] all others: and after him in manner, all the Emperors his successors, for the ordinary experience they found thereby, That lightly the liquor of that wine would not hinder digestion nor breed raw humors in the stomack: and this wine commeth of the grape about the towne Forum Ap∣pij. Before that time, the wine Caecubum was in best account; and the vines which yeelded it, grew to the Poplars in the marish grounds within the tract of Amyclae. But now is that Wine cleane gone, as well through the negligence of the peisants of that countrey, as the streights of the place: and so much the rather, by reason of the ditch or trench which Nero caused to be made nauigable, beginning at the lake or gulfe Baianus, and reaching as far as to Ostia. In the second degree of excellency, are ranged the wines of the Falerne territorie, and principally that which came from the vineyards Faustian: and this excellency it grew vnto by passing good order and carefull husbandry. How be it this wine also in these daies beginneth to grow out of name and [unspec F] request, whiles men loue rather to haue plenty from their vines, than otherwise lay for the good∣nesse thereof. Now these Falerne vineyards, begin at the Campaine bridge on the left hand as men go to the city-colony erected by Sylla, and lately laid to Capua, & vnder the iurisdiction

therof. But the Faustian vineyards lie about 4 miles from a village neere Cediae, which village [unspec G] is from Sinuessa six miles distant. And to say a truth, this Faustian wine is inferiour to none in reputation: so piercing and quicke it is, that it will burne of a light flame; a propertie that you shall not see in any other wine. Three sorts there be of these Falerne wines: the first be hard and harsh; the second sweet and pleasant; the third, thin and small. But some haue distinguished them in this wise: those that come from the top of the hills, be called Gaurane wines; from the mids, Faustian; and last of all from the bottom and foot thereof, the Falerne. But by the way this would not be forgotten, That the grapes whereof be made these wines so singular and ex∣cellent, are nothing pleasant to the tast for to be eaten. As touching the Albane wines from a∣bout Alba neere the city of Rome, they reach to the third ranke in goodnesse, for a certain va∣rietie they haue in their tast: sweetish they be, and yet otherwhiles they haue an vnripe & harsh rellish of the wood, & tast like the hedge-wine. In like maner the wines of Surrentum, & name∣ly [unspec H] those of grapes growing only in vineyards, are excellent good for weak persons that be new∣ly recouered of sicknesse; so small they are, and wholesome withal. And in truth, Tyberius Caesar was wont to say, That the Physitians had laid their heads together, and agreed to giue the Sur∣rentine wine so great a name; for otherwise it was no better than a very mild and pleasant vine∣ger: and C. Caligula (his successor in the Empire) vsed to say of it, That for a wine that had lost the heart and was a going, it was very good. The Massike wines, which come from the Gaurane hils looking toward Puteoli and Bajae, come nothing behind the rest, but striue to match them euery way. For as touching the Statane vineyards, that confine and border vpon the Falerne, their wines doubtlesse are now come to be the principall and chiefe of all the rest: whereby it is [unspec I] euidently seen, that euery territory and vine-plot hath their times and seasons, like as all other things in the world, one while r•…•…se and another while fall. For in times past the Calene wines made of the grapes growing hard by Rome, were wont to go before all others: as also the Fun∣dane vines had their time, as well those that are planted in vineyards, as they which runne vpon trees: like as those of the other side, neere also to the city of Rome, & namely from Veliternum and Priuernum. For as touching the wine of Signia, it is held for a medicine only; and by rea∣son of an astringent verdure that it hath, it is excellent good to stay the flux of the belly. In the fourth place of this race of vines, Iulius Caesar (late Emperor of famous memory) hath raunged, (for to serue the publick and solemne feasts of the city) the Mamertine wines, from about Mes∣sana in Sicily: for he was the first (as appears by his letters missiue) that gaue credit and autho∣rity vnto them. And of those, the Potulane wines (so called of them who first planted the vines [unspec K] whereof they came) are most commended, and namely those that are vpon the next coast of Ita∣ly. Within the same Sicily, the Taurominitane vines are highly esteemed, insomuch, as many times they go for Messana wine, and are so sold by whole pottles. Now for all other wines from about the coast of the Tuscane sea Northward, good reckoning is made of the Praetutian and such as come from Ancone: also of the Palmesian wines, which haply tooke that name, for that the first plant of that vine came from a palme or Date tree. But in the midland parts of Italie within the firme land, good regard there is of the Cesenatian and Mecaenatian wines. Within the territory of Verona, the Rhetian wine carrieth the price: which Virgill ranged next after the Falerne wines. Anon you come to the wines Adriane, and those that grow far within the tract of the Venice gulfe. Now from the nether sea about Lions, ye haue the Latiniensian, the Gra∣uiscane, [unspec L] and the Statonian wines. Throughout all Tuscane, the wines about Luna beare the name: like as those of Genes, for Liguria. Betweene the Pyrenean hills and the Alpes, Massiles hath the commendation for wines of a double taste: for the vines there, do yeeld a certain thick and grosse wine, which they call Succosum, [i. full of juice and liquor] good to season other wines, and to giue them a prety tast. When ye are passed once into France or Gaule, the wine of Beterrae is in chiefe request. As for the rest within Languedoc and the Prouince of Narbon, I am not able to auouch any thing for certainty, such a brewing and sophistication of them they make, what with fuming, perfuming, and colouring them: and would God they put not in some herbes and drugs among, that be not good for mans body. For certaine it is that they [unspec M] commonly buy Aloe togiue the wine both another tast and also a counterfeit color. Moreouer in the farther and more remote coasts of Italy toward the Ausonian sea, there be wines which are not without their praise and commendation, and namely those of Tarentum, Seruitium, and Consentia: likewise of Tempsa, Bauia, and Lucania: howbeit the Thurine wine goeth be∣fore

them all. As for the wines of Lagaria, which be made of the grapes not farre from Gru∣meritum, [unspec A] there goes a right great name of them, by reason that Messala vsed ordinarily to drink thereof, and thereby was supposed to preserue his health so well. Of late daies there be certaine wines in Campaine growne into credit (like as they haue gotten new names) by good ordering and husbandrie, or by chance, I know not whether; namely, those of Tribellia, foure miles from Naples, of Caulium neare to Capua: and last of all, the Trebulaine wines within theirown ter∣ritorie: for before time they were euer counted no better than common wines for euery man to drink, no more than the Trifolines, from whence they vaunt of their descent. As for the wine of Pompeij, a towne in the kingdome or Naples, neither it nor the vine wherof it commeth, will last aboue ten yeres at the most: after which tearme, the elder they both be, the worse they are. Besides, they are found by experience to cause the head-ach, insomuch, as if a man drinke [unspec B] thereof ouer-night, he shall be sure not to haue his head in good tune vntill noone the morrow after. By which examples aboue rehearsed, it is plaine in my conceit, that the goodnesse of the wine standeth much vpon the soile and the climate, and not in the grape: so as a needlesse and endlesse matter it is to reduce all kind of wines to a certaine number, considering that one and the selfe same Vine planted in diuerse places, hath sundrie operations, and maketh varietie of wines. Now as concerning the wines of Spaine, the Laletane vineyards are much spoken of for the plentie and abundance of wine that they yeeld: but those of Tarracon, Arragon, and Lau∣rone, are much praised and renowned for the fine and neat wines which they make. As for the wines that come out of the Islands, and namely, the Baleares, they are comparable to the very best in Italie.

I am not ignorant, that most men who shall read this Treatise, will thinke that I haue omit∣ted [unspec C] and ouerpassed many wines: for euery man likes his own; and as ones fancie leadeth, so goes the voice and the cry, and there runs the Hare away. It is reported, that one of Augustus Caesars freed men (reputed for the finest taster that he had about his court, and who knew best what would content his pallat, and please his tooth) vpon a time when he tasted the wine that was for the Emperors bourd, at what time as he made a feast, said to one of the guests at the table, That the said new wine indeed had a new and strange tast, and was none of the best, and those that were inname, howbeit (quoth he) this is for the Emperors cup, and willingly wil he drink of no other, notwithstanding it be but a homely wine made hereby in the countrey, and not far fetched. And now for a finall conclusion of this matter, I cannot denie but that there bee other [unspec D] wines which deserue to be numbred among those that are right good and commendable, howbeit, suffice it shall to haue written of these, which by the common opinion and consent of the world are held for the better.

CHAP. VII.

¶ Of Wines beyond-sea.

IT remaineth now to speake of outlandish Wines beyond the sea. First and formost therfore next to those wines renowned by the Poet Homer, and whereof we haue written before, best esteemed alwaies were the wines of the Islands Thasos and Chios: and namely that of Chios [unspec E] which they call Arusium or Aruisium. Erasistratus the most famous Physician of his time, mat∣ched with these the Lesbian wine; and his authoritie gaue credite vnto it: and this was much a∣bout the six hundred yeare after the foundation of Rome. But in these daies there is nowine to that of Clazomene, euer since that they began to put therto lesse sea-water for to season it, than their custome was. As for the wine of Lesbos, it hath a sent and relish of the salt water natural∣ly of it selfe. Neither is the wine that comes from the hil Tmolus in any regard, as a wine to be drunke alone, but it serues as a sweetcuit to mingle wiith other wines that be hard: for thereby their greene verdure wil seeme more mild and pleasant, yea, and withall to haue their ripeage: for no sooner is it tempered therwith, but they tast presently elder than they be. Next to these in goodnes, follow in their course the wines of Sycione, Cypres, Telmessus, Tripolis, Berytus, Tyrus, and Sebennys. As for this wine last rehearsed, it is made in Aegypt, a countrey much re∣nowned [unspec F] for three kinds of grapes there, to wit, Thasia, Aethalos, and Peuce. Next in price & ac∣count be these following, the Hippodomantian, the Mystick, Cantharite, & the Gnidian wine of the first running and vnpressed, also that of Catacecaumene, a region so called, for that it see∣meth

all burnt; of Petra, and Mycone. As for the wine Mesog•…•…es, it is knowne to make head∣ach: [unspec G] neither is the wine of Ephesus holesome and healthfull, because it is sophisticated with a kind of cuit hal•…•… sodden, called Defrutum, and sea-water. As for the wine of Apamea, by report it comes very neare to a kind of Mede, and will very well agree withall, like as Praetutium in I∣taly. For otherwise, this is the property in generall of al sweet wines, that they will not well sort together, & be good still. Touching the wine Protagium, it is now grown out of remembrance: and yet the Physicians of Asclepiades his sect and schoole, gaue praise vnto it next the Italian wines. The learned Physician Apollodorus, in his treatise that he compiled of good wines, which he recommended vnto King Ptolomaeus for to drinke, as meet for the health of his person, (for default of Italian wines then vnknown) highly praised the wines in Pontus, & principally that which is called Naspercenties: next to it the Oroeotik; the Oeneates, that of Leucadia, of Am∣bracia; [unspec H] and (which he preferreth aboue all the rest) the wine of Peparethus: and yet he said, that there went the lesse name and opinion of it, because after sixe yeares it loseth the strength and pleasant tast that it had.

CHAP. VIII.

¶ Seuen kinds of salt wine.

THus far forth haue we discoursed of the very floure of good wines, according to the regi∣ons where naturally they come of the grape. Now are we to treat of wines compounded. And first, among such wines is that, which they call Biaeon (an inuention of the Greeks) [unspec I] which aboue all others is most esteemed: and great reason, for deuised it was for the cure of ma∣ny maladies, as we shall shew hereafter in our treatise of Physick. The making wherof is in this manner: Take grapes gathered somwhat before they be ripe: let them lie to drie and parch in the hot Sunne for three daies, and be turned duly thrice a day: vpon the fourth day presse them forth for wine, put the liquor vp in barrels, and so let it worke in the Sun. How beit, hereto they put a good quantity of salt sea-water. But this deuise was learn'd first of a false theeuish knaue who hauing robbed his maister and drunk vp a good deale of his wine, filled vp the vessel again and made just measure with sea-water. White wine if it be ordered in this sort, is called Leuco∣chrum by the Greekes: but in other nations the like wine so made is named Tethalassomenon. As for Thalassites, it is a kind of wine so called, for that the vessels when the wine is new tun∣ned, be cast into the sea, and there let to remaine for a time, by which means the wine will soon [unspec K] seeme old and readie to be drunke. Furthermore, Cato also here among vs hath shewed the way how to make the Greekish Wine Coum, of our owne Italian Wine: but aboue all he hath set down an expresse rule, to let it first take the maturitie and perfection 4 yeres in the Sun. As for the wine of Rhodes, it is much like to that of Coos. But the Phorinean wine is more salt than the wine of the Isle Coos. Finally, all transmarine or beyond-sea wines are thought in seuen or six yeares at the least, to come vnto their middle age.

CHAP. IX.

¶ Fourteene sorts of sweet wines.

ALwaies the sweeter that they be in tast, the lesse fragrant & odoriferous they be: the thin∣ner [unspec L] and smaller that they be, the more euer they smell to the nose. Of wines there be four principall colours, white, yellow, red, and blacke. As for Psythium and Melampsythium, they be certaine kinds of cuit, hauing a seuerall tast apart by themselues, not resembling wine indeed. And for Cicibelites made in Galatia, it tasts alwaies like new wine: so doth Halyntium in Sicily. For as touching Syraeum, which some call Hepsema, & we in Latine Sapa [i. Cuit] it is a meer artificiall thing, the deuise of mans wit, and no worke of Nature: namely, when new wine is sodden away a third part: for when it boiles to the halfe, we then call it Defrutum. And in very deed, all these be inuentions to sophisticate and counterfeit honie. But those before na∣med retaine the naturall tast of the grape and the soile whereof they doe consist. Next to these [unspec M] cuit-wines of Candie; those of Cilicia, Affrick, Italy, and the prouinces confronting therupon, are held for the best. Certain it is, That they be made of one grape, which the Greekes call Sti∣ca, and we Apiana [i. the Muscadell] and of another named Scirpula: the which haue been suf∣fered

a long time to hang in the Sunne vpon the Vine vntill they be scorched and parched: or [unspec A] else ouer the vapor of scalding oile. Some there be that make them of any sweet grapes whatso∣euer, so that they be let to concoct before in the Sun, vntil they be white and drie, so farre forth, as little lesse than half of their weight be consumed: which done, they stamp them and so gent∣ly presse them. Then looke how much liquor they haue pressed foorth, so much pit water they put to the cake that is pressed, that thereof they may haue a cuit of a second running. But they that be more curious & take vpon them to make a daintier cuit, dry the grapes in maner afore∣said, but they take forth the stones and graines within: they strip them also from the steeles and railes that they hung by▪ and so after they be well drenched and infused in some excellent wine vntill they be swelled and plumpe, they presse them. And certainly this fashion is simply the best of all others. Put to the cake thereof, water as before, and after the same manner yee shall haue a cuit of a second sort. Now there is a kind of wine which the Greeks call Aigleuces, that [unspec B] is to say, always sweet like new wine, of a middle nature between the common simple wine and the sweet: and this commeth not vnto it by kind, but by heed taken in the boiling; for it is not suffered to seeth and work: and this is the term, whereby is signified the alteration of new Must into wine. To hinder therfore that it work not, (as naturally it will) they haue no sooner tunned or filled it out of the Vat, but immediatly they dousse the vessels full of new Must in the water, and let them there continue till mid-December be past, and that the weather be setled to frost and cold, and likewise the time expired of the working within the said vessells. Moreouer, there is another kind of wine naturally sweet, which in Prouance and Languedoc is called Dulce [i. sweet] & namely, in the territorie of the Vocontians. For this purpose they let the grapes hang a long while vpon the Vine, but first they wryth the steele that the bunch hangs to. Some make [unspec C] incision into the very Vine branch, as far as to the pith and marrow within (to diuert the moi∣sture that feeds the grape:) others lay the clusters a drying vpon tile-houses: and all this is done with the grapes of the Vine Heluenaca. There be that range in a ranke of these sweet wines, that which they cal Diacyton. For which effect, they drie the grapes against the Sun (howbeit in a place well enclosed) for 7 daies together, vpon hardles, 7 foot likewise from the ground: in the night season they saue them from all dewes, and so on the eight day they tread them in the wine presse: and thus they draw forth a wine of an excellent sauor and tast both. A kind of these sweet wines, is that which they name Melitites, [in manner of a Braget, Meade, or Metheglin.] Howbeit, different it is from the mead or honied wine which the Latines call Mulsum, made [unspec D] of old wine that is hard, and a little honie: whereas the foresaid Melitites consists of 5 gallons of new tart wine still in the verdure, whereto is added one gallon of honie, and a * 1.8 cyath of salt, and so boiled all together. But I must not forget to place among these sundry kinds of drinke, the liquor Protropum, for so some call new wine running it self from the grapes, before they be troden and pressed. But to haue this good, and so to serue the turne, so soon as it is put vp into proper vessells for the purpose, it must be suffered to work: and afterwards to reboile and work againe for fortie daies space the Summer following, euen from the very beginning of the dog daies, and so forwards

CHAP. X.

¶ Of weake and second Wines, three kinds. [unspec E]

THe second wines, which the Greeks call Deuteriae, Cato and we Romans name Lora) can∣not properly and truly be called Wines, being made of the skins and seeds of grapes stee∣ped in water: howbeit, reckoned they are among course houshold wines for the hines and meinie to drinke. And three kinds there be of them. For somtime to the tenth part of the new wine that hath beene pressed out, they put the like quantity of water, and suffer the foresaid re∣fuse of the grapes to soke therin a day and a night: which done, they presse it forth againe. A se∣cond sort there is, which the Greeks were wont to make in this manner: They take a third part of water in proportion of the wine that was pressed forth, and after a second pressing, they seeth [unspec F] it to the wasting of the third part. The third is that which is pressed out of the wine lees, and this Cato cals Phoecatum, [i Wine of lees.] But none of these wines or drinks will endure aboue one yeare.

CHAP. XI. [unspec G]

¶ What neat wines began of late to be in request in Italie.

IN this treatise of wines I cannot omit this obseruation: That whereas all the good wines, properly so called and known in the whole world, may be reduced in fourscore kinds or ther∣abouts; two parts of three in this number, may well be counted wines of Italie: which in this regard farre surpasseth all other nations. And hereupon ariseth another thing more deepely to be noted, That these good wines were not so rife nor in such credit from the beginning, as now they be.

CHAP. XII. [unspec H]

¶ Obseruations touching wine.

TO say a truth, Wines began to grow in reputation at Rome, about sixe hundred yeares after the foundation thereof, and not before. For king Romulus vsed milk when he sacrifi∣ced to the gods, and not wine: as may appeare by the cerimonial constitutions by him or∣dained, as touching religion; which euen at this day be in force, and are obserued. And king Numa his successor made this law Posthumia in his later daies, Let no man besprinckle the funer all fire with wine. Which edict no man doubteth, but he published and enacted in regard of the great want and scarsitie of wine in those daies. Also by the same Act he expressely did prohi∣bite to offer in sacrifice to the gods, any wine comming of a Vine plant that had not beene cut [unspec I] and pruned: intending by this deuise and pretence of religion, to enforce men to prune their Vines, who otherwise would set their minds on husbandrie only and plowing ground for corne, and be slow enough in hazarding themselues for to climbe trees, whereunto Vines were plan∣ted. M. Varro writeth, That Mezentius the king of Tuscane aided the Rutilians of Ardea in their warres against the Latines, for no other hire and wage but the wine and the vines which then were in the territorie of Latium.

CHAP. XIII.

¶ Of the ancient vsage of wine: and the wines in old time. [unspec K]

IN ancient time, women at Rome were not permitted to drink any wine. We read moreouer in the Chronicles, That Egnatius Mecennius killed his owne wife with a cudgell, for that hee tooke her drinking wine out of a tun; and yet he was cleared by Romulus, and acquit of the murder. Fabius Pictor in his Annales reports, That a certaine Romane dame, a woman of good worship, was by her owne kinsfolke famished and pined to death, for opening a cupbord, wher∣in the keis of the wine-sellar lay. And Cato doth record, that hereupon arose the manner and cu∣stome, That kisfolk should kisse women when they met them, to know by their breath whether they smelled of Temetum: for so they vsed in those daies to tearme Wine: and thereof drun∣kennesse was called in Latine Temulentia. Cn. Domitius (a judge in Rome) in the like case pro∣nounced sentence judicially against a woman defendant, in this forme, That it seemed she had [unspec L] drunke more wine without her husbands knowledge, than was needfull for the preseruation of her health, and therefore afterward definitiuely, That she should lose the benefit of her dowrie. Certes, the Romanes for a long time made great spare of wine. L. Papyrius lord Generall of the Romane ar∣mie, when he was at the point to joyne battell with the Samnites, made no other vow, but this, That he would offer vnto Iupiter a little cup or goblet of wine, in case he atchieued the victorie and woon the field. Ouer and besides, we find in histories, that among donatiues and presents, certaine sextars or quarts of milke haue beene many times giuen, but neuer any of wine. The fame Cato abouenamed, after his voiage into Spain (from whence he returned with a notable victorie, and in a triumphant manner) in a solemne speech that hee made vnto the people, protested in these words and said, No other wine I haue drunke since I went, than the very marriners [unspec M] hauc. How farre vnlike was he to men in these daies, who sitting at the table, haue their cup of strong wine by themselues, and giue vnto their guests, for the most part, other small wines to drinke: or if they suffer them to drinke all one and of the best at the beginning of the feast, they

will be sure to change and to serue them with worse soon after. In old time, the best wines vsed [unspec A] at feasts were aromatised and spiced with sweet Myrrh, as appeares in the Comedie of Plautus, entituled Persa. And yet it should seeme there, that sweet Calamus was to be added besides. And hereupon it commeth, that some haue thought, how our forefathers in times past tooke most delight in such spiced cups and Ippocras wines. But Fabius Dorsenus the Poet sufficient∣ly declareth and decideth this point in these verses, when he saith,

Mittebam vinum pulchrum, Murrhinum.

I sent neat wine, Which hight Myrrhine.

And againe in his Comedie Acharistio: [unspec B]

Panem & Polentam, vinum Murrhinam.

Both bread and grewell I did present, And Myrrhine wine of pleasant sent.

I see moreouer, that Scaevola, Laelius, and Atteius Capito were of the same mind. For in the Co∣medie of Plautus entituled Pseudolus, thus it is written:

Quod si opus est vt dulce promat Indidem, ecquid habet? (Char.) Rog as? Murrhinam, passum, Defrutum, mella. [unspec C]

Of dulcet wine if there be need, What hope is there from thence to speed? Char. Why aske you that? he furnish'd is With Murrhin, Cuits, and Meade ywis.

By which a man may see euidently, that Murrhina was not onely counted a wine, but recko∣ned also among the sweet and delicate wines.

CHAP. XIIII. [unspec D]

¶ Of wine store-houses: and of Opimian wine.

THat there were wine sellars at Rome, and that they vsed there to tun vp Wine in the 633 yeare after the foundation thereof, appeareth plaine by a good proofe of the Opimian wine: and euen in those daies Italy knew her owne good, and what it was to maintaine vineyards. Howbeit, as yet were not those wines in credit, which now are so rife and in so great account. And therfore it is, that all the wines of that time bear the only name of that one Con∣sull, and be called Opimian. And thus afterwards also in processe of time, the wines that came from beyond the seas for a long space, were in much request, euen vntil our grandfathers daies: yea, and after that, the Falern wines were in name and called for, as may appeare by that Verse [unspec E] of the Comicall Poet;

Quinque Thasij vini inde depromam, Falerni bina.

To measures fiue of Thacian wine, I will draw twain of Falerne fine.

In the 675 yeare after the foundation of Rome, Pub. Licinius Crassus, and L. Iulius Caesar, Censors for the time being, published an Edict, and proclaimed, That no man should sell any Greek wine, or Aminean, but after eight Asses the Amphor or Quadrantum. For these be the verie ex∣presse [unspec F] words of the said Edict. Now was Greeke Wine of so great price and estimation, that a man was but allowed one draught thereof at a meale, were the cheare neuer so great, and the feast right sumptuous. But what wines were in request ordinarily at the boord, M. Varro doth shew in these words: L. Lucullus (quoth hee) while he was a boy, neuer saw at his fathers bord

Greeke wine serued vp but once at a meale, how good soeuer the fare was otherwise. Howbeit, [unspec G] himselfe when he returned out of Asia, in a congiarie or largesse that he gaue vnto the people, made a dole and distribution of more than an hundred thousand measures of gallons apiece. C. Sentius, whom of late daies we saw Pretor of Rome, testified, that he neuer saw any wine of Chi∣os brought into his house, before the Physition prescribed and set it down for the Cardiaca pas∣sio, or the trembling of the heart, whereto he was subiect. But contrariwise Hortensius when hee died left aboue ten thousand barrels full of that Wine vnto his heire. And thus much out of M. Varro.

CHAP. XV.

¶ Of Caesars bountic and liberalitie in Wine. [unspec H]

BVt what should we say of C. Iulius Caesar Dictator? In that solemne feast of his which hee made at his triumph, did not he distribute among his guests Falerne wines by whole bar∣rels, and Greek wine of Chios by the rundlets? After his returne out of Spain with victo∣rie and triumph, he likewise gaue away a largesse of wine as well Chian as Falern. But at the royall dinner which he made when he entred vpon his third Consulship, he caused all the Hall to be serued thorowout with Falern, Chian, Lesbian, and Mamertine wines: which was the first time that euer any man saw the seruice of 4 seuerall wines at one feast. Now in farther proces of time, and namely about 700 yeares after Rome cities foundation, all other Wines began to beare a name and come in request.

CHAP. XVI. [unspec I]

¶ Of Artificiall or made Wines.

COnsidering all that hath bin written, I nothing maruel at such an infinite number of com∣pound and artificiall wines deuised in old time, all for the vse of Physick, wherof we will now treat in more ample maner. To begin therefore with wine-Verjuice, called Ompha∣cium, how it should be made, for perfumes and odoriferous ointments, we haue shewed in the former booke. As for the wine named Oenanthinum, it is made of Labrusca, that is to say, the wild Vine, in this wise: Take two pound of the floures of the wild vine aforesaid, let the same be steeped in a measure of new wine containing about 12 * 1.9 gallons, for the space of 30 dayes, [unspec K] and then be changed out of that vessell into another. Moreouer, the root and grapes of the sayd wild Vine are good for curriers to dresse their leather. The same grapes a little after they haue done blooming are taken to be a singular remedie for to coole those that be troubled with hot and ardent diseases, for naturally they be, as men thinke, exceeding cold: and indeed many of these grapes die in the hot time of Summer before the rest which are called Solstitiales: but all of them neuer come to full and perfect ripenesse. Now if you would keep Pullein from pec∣king grapes, take these of the wild Vine before they be throughly ripe, mingle and seeth them with their meat: for this will take away all their appetite that way, and breed a loathing after all grapes.

To come now vnto the artificiall wines beforenamed: the first of them, namely that which [unspec L] they call Adynamon [i. without strength] is made of very wine in this sort: Take of new white wine 20 Sextars [i. quarts:] of water halfe as much: let them boile together vntill the measure of water beforesaid be consumed. Some take of sea water ten Sextares, of raine water as much: and when they be mingled together, suffer them to worke in the hot Sun for the space of fortie daies. This drinke they vse to giue vnto patients, for such maladies as they feare wine would be hurtfull to. A second made wine there is called Millet Wine, after this sort: Take of Millet feed that is ripe, huske, head, and all, a pound and a quarter, put it into two gallons of Must, or new wine: after that it hath lien there infused seuen moneths, let the liquor run from it into a∣nother vessell, and keepe it for your vse. As touching the wines of Lotus, as well the tree and shrub, as the herbe, we haue shewed sufficiently how they ought to be made. Moreouer, there [unspec M] be many wines made of sundry fruits, which we will write of hereafter more at large: with a supplement and addition of such interpretations only as be necessarie. And in the first place commeth the date wine, which the Parthians, Indians, and all the Nations of the East in ge∣nerall

do ordinarily vse. A Modius or pecke of ripe and sweet dates, which they call Chideae, [unspec A] they let lie to steep in 3 gallons of water, and so presse for a liquor for the Date wine. Also the Fig-wine Sycites, of the fig which some cal Palmiprimum (as a man would say, Dates fellows, or next to Dates) others Catorchites, is made after the same fashion. But if a man list not to haue it so sweet, in stead of water they vse to put so much of the stones, skins, & seeds of grapes. Of the Fig of Cypres there is an excellent Vinegre made, yea and a better than it of the Alex∣andrine Figs, to wit, growing vpon the Sycomore. Likewise a wine is made of the fruit in Sy∣ria called Siliquae; as also of peares and all kind of apples. As for the wine of Pomegranates, the Greeks name it Rhoites: besides the fruit of the Corneil or wild Cherry tree, Medlars, Ser∣uices, dry Mulberries, and Pine-nuts, doe yeeld seuerall sorts of wine. As for those pine nuts, they must lie steeped in new wines, before the wine be pressed out of them. The rest all be plea∣sant [unspec B] enough of themselues, and will serue alone for to make wines. The maner of making Myr∣tle wine, according to the receit and prescription of Cato, we will declare soon hereafter. For the Greekes haue another way of their owne, to wit, when they haue sodden in white Must or new wine the tender branches of the Myrtle, together with the leaues, and then stamped the same, they put a pound thereof in three gallons more of Must, and cause it to boile vntill such time as a third part of the wine be consumed. Now that which is made after the same maner of the wild Myrtle berries, they call Myrtidanum; and this will colour and staine ones hands blacke.

Furthermore, the herbs of the garden do afford vs many wines, namely Radish, Sperage, Sa∣vory, & Majoran, Origan, Smallach seed, Southernwood, wild Mints, Rue, Nep, or Calaminth, [unspec C] running Thyme, or Horehound. To make these wines, take of the herbes abouesaid two hand∣fulls, and when they be stamped, put them into a little barrell of new Wine containing twelue or thirteen gallons, together with a wine quart of Cuit sodden to the thirds, and a pint of sea∣water. But for the wine of Navews, you must take eleuen drams of them, and two quarts of new wine, and so put them together in maner aforesaid. In like sort also the wine Squilliticum is made of the root of Scilla, or the sea Onion.

To proceed vnto wine made of floures, you haue first and formost wine Rosat, after this man∣ner: Take the weight of 40 deniers [i. fiue ounces] of Rose leaues well stamped, put them into a linnen cloth, together with a little weight, that they may settle downward, & not flote aloft; let them hang thus in 20 Sextars [i. three gallons] and two wine quarts of Must; keep the ves∣sell [unspec D] close stopped in any case for 3 moneths, then open it and strain the said floures vnto the li∣quor. In like maner is there a wine made of the Celtick Spikenard, as also of the Nard sauage. I find also, that they vse to make a kind of spiced wine or Ipocras, not for sweet perfumes and ointments only, but also for to drinke. At first (as I haue shewed) they made these aromaticall wines with myrrh only, but soone after they added thereto Nard Celticke, sweet Calamus, and Aspalathus, either slicing these drugs, or putting them by gobbits into new Must or some dul∣cet wine. Some aromatise their wine with Calamus, Squinanth, Costus, Spikenard, Amomum, Casia, Cinamon, Saffron, Dates, and Azara-bacca, put therto in like maner by gobbets. Others take Spikenard and Malabathrum, of each halfe a pound to two gallons of new wine. Much af∣ter the same maner we spice our wines now adaies also, but that we adde pepper and hony ther∣to: [unspec E] which some call Condite, others Pepper wines. Moreouer, there is deuised a Wine called Nectarites, made of Elecampane, named by some Helenium, of others Medica, Symphyton, Idaea, Orestion: and there be also that term this herb Nectarea. Now the order of it is to take of the root forty drams, to six Sextars of Must or new wine, and hang it in a cloth together with a weight in maner aboue said. Moreouer, there be wines made of other herbs, to wit, of worm∣wood, in this sort: Take of Ponticke Wormwood one pound, seeth it in forty Sextars [about six gallons and a halfe] of new Wine, vntill a third part be consumed: or without boiling, put certain handfulls or bunches thereof into a vessell of Wine, and so let it lie infused. After the same sort is Hyssop wine made, to wit of three ounces (which is a quarter of a pound) of Cili∣cian Hyssope cast whole as it is into two gallons of Must, and so let them worke together: or [unspec F] else stampe the Hyssop, and so put it into wine. But both these wines are made another maner of way, namely by sowing or setting wormwood & Hyssop at the very root of the Vine-plant: for so Cato teacheth vs to make Elleborewine, of blacke Ellebore or Beare-foot growing at the Vine root. And in like maner also is made the Scammonite wine. A wonderfull nature and

propertie these vines haue, to draw and sucke into them the very taste of other herbs and plants [unspec G] that are set neere vnto them: for euen so all the grapes about Padua haue a rellish of the Wil∣lows and Osiers that grow there in the marish grounds. Thus the men of Thasos do plant and sow either Ellebore, or wild Cucumber, or els Scammonea, about their Vines, to make thereof their diuellish wine Pthorium, so called, because it causes a sleep, and procures vntimely birth. Of more herbs besides there be other wines made, the vertues of which herbs we wil set downe elsewhere in place conuenient: and namely of Stoechos, the root of Gentian, of Tragoriga∣num, of Dictamum, Asarabacca, of Daucus, or yellow Carot, Sauge, Panace, Acorus, or Galan∣gal, Conyza, or Cunilago, Thyme, Mandragoras, and Squinanth. More such wines there were yet, which the Greeks called Scyzinum, Itaeomelis, and Lectispagites; but as they be growne now out of vse, so the manner of making is vnknown. [unspec H]

As touching wines made of trees & shrubs, their maner was to seeth the berries of the green wood of both the Cedars, the Cypres, the Bay, Iuniper, Terebinth, Pine, Calamus, and Lentisk, in new wine. In like maner, the very substance of Chamelaea, Chamaepithys, and Germander. Last of all, the floures also of the said plants serue to make wines, namely, by putting into a gal∣lon of new wine in the vat, the weight of ten deniers or drams of the floures.

CHAP. XVII.

¶ Of Hydromel and Oxymel, [i. Honied water, and Honied vineger.]

THere is a wine called Hydromel, made of water and hony onely: but to haue it the better, [unspec I] some do prescribe rain water, and the same kept fiue yeares for that purpose. Others who are more wise and skilfull herein, do take raine water newly fallen, and presently seethe it vntill a third part be boiled away: then they put therto a third part also of old hony in propor∣tion to it: and so let them stand together in the Sun for forty daies together, from the rising of the Dog-star. Others, after they haue remained thus mingled and incorporate together ten daies, put it vp & reserue it close stopped, for their vse; and this is called Hydromel, which be∣ing come to some age hath the very tast of wine, & no place affords better than Phrygia.

Moreouer, Vineger was wont to be tempered with hony, [See how curious men haue bin to try conclusions in euery thing!] which they called Oxymel; and that in this manner: Recipe, of hony ten pounds or pints: of old vineger fiue pints; of sea salt one pound; of rain water fiue Sextares [i. a gallon within one quart:] boile them al together at a soft fire, vntil they haue had [unspec K] ten plawes or walmes: which done, poure them out of one vessell into another, and so let the li∣quor stand and settle a long time vntil it be stale. All these wines & compositions thus brued, Themison (an Author highly renowned) hath condemned and forbidden expressey to be vsed. And to say a very truth, it seems that the vse of them was neuer but in case of necessity: vnlesse a man would beleeue and say, that Ipocras, spiced wines, & those that be compounded of oint∣ments, are Natures work; or that she brought forth plants and trees to no other end, but that men should drink them down the throat. Howbeit, the knowledge surely of such experiments be pleasant and delectable vnto men of great wit and high conceit, whose noble spirits cannot be at rest, but euer inuentiue and searching into all secrets. Now to conclude this point, certain it is and past all question, that none of all these compositions, vnles it be those which come to [unspec L] their perfection by age and long time, will last one yeare full out, nay most of them will not keep good one moneth to an end.

CHAP. XVIII.

¶ Certaine strange and wonderfull sorts of wine.

WIne also hath prodigious and miraculous effects: for, by report, in Arabia there is a wine made, which being drunk will cause barren women to beare children; and con∣trariwise driue men into madnes. But in Achaia principally about Carynia, the wine makes women fall into vntimely trauell: nay if a woman great with childe do eat but the verie [unspec M] grapes, they will slip the fruit of their wombe before their time: and yet both grape and wine differ not in tast from others. They that drinke the wine comming from the cape Troezen, ate thought vnable for generation. It is reported, that the Thasiens do make two kinds of wine of

contrarie operations; the one procures sleep, the other causeth watching. Among them there [unspec A] is a vine called Theriace, the grape whereof, as also the wine, cureth the stings and biting of ser∣pents, as it were a most especiall Treacle. As for the vine Libanios, it carrieth the odour and smell of Frankincense, and therefore is vsed in sacrifices to the gods. But contrariwise another named Aspendios is vtterly condemned for that purpose, and no wine thereof is imployed at the altar: they say also that no fowle will touch the grapes thereof. There is a kind of grape in Egypt which they call Thasia, exceeding sweet it is, and looseth the belly. But contrariwise there be in Lycia that binde as much and cause costiuenesse. The grapes Ecbolides in Egypt if they be eaten, cause women with child to be deliuered before their time. Some wines there be that as they lie in the very cellar will turn and proue soure about the rising of the Dog-star; but afterward wil recouer their verdure and become quick and fresh again. In like maner there be wines which vpon the sea will change: howbeit the agitation thereof causeth those Wines [unspec B] which endure it to the end to seem twice as old as they be indeed.

CHAP. XIX.

¶ What Wines they be that may not be vsed in sacrifices: and what waies there are to sophisticate new wines.

FOrasmuch as our life stands much vpon religion and diuine seruice, wee are to vnderstand, That it is held vnlawfull to offer vnto the gods before sacrifice, the Wine of any vine that hath not bin cut and pruned; or that hath bin smitten or blasted with lightening, or stan∣ding neere to a jebbit or tree whereon a man hath hanged dead; or the grapes whereof haue bin [unspec C] troden by men whose legs or feet haue been wounded; neither is that wine allowable for this purpose, which hath bin pressed and run from the refuse of grape stones and skins once bruised and crushed in the presse; or last of all, if the grapes haue bin filed by any ordure or dung fal∣len from aboue thereupon. Moreouer, Greeke Wines are reiected from this holy vse because they haue water in them. Furthermore, the vine it self is holden good to be eaten, namely, when the burgens and tendrils be first sodden, and afterwards preserued and kept in vineger, brine, or pickle. Ouer and besides, it were very meet and conuenient to speake also concerning the man∣ner of preparing and ordering of wine, seeing that the Greeks haue trauailed in that point seue∣rally, and reduced the rules belonging therto, into the form of an Art; and namely, Euphronius, Aristomachus, Coniades, & Hicesias, are therein great professors. The Africans vse to mitigate and [unspec D] allay the tartnesse of their wines with plastre, yea and in some parts of their country with lime. The Greeks contrariwise do fortifie and quicken them with clay, with pouder of marble, with salt or sea water: and in some places of Italy they vse to the same effect, the shauings and scra∣pings of stone-pitch. Also it is an ordinary thing in Italy and the prouinces thereto confining, for to condite their new wines & to season them with rosin: yea and in some places they min∣gle therewith the lees of other old wine or vinegre. Oftentimes also they make sliber-sauces of it selfe without any other mixture; namely, when they boile new wine sufficiently to the pro∣portion of the strength, vntill the hardnesse do euaporate, and that it wax mild and sweet: but being thus ordered, it will not last, they say, aboue one yere. In some countries they vse to seeth their new wine to the consumption of a third-part, and make it Cuit, with which they are wont [unspec E] to delay the sharpnes and strength of other wines, & make them pleasant. But both in this kind of wine and in all other, the vessels ought to be prepared for the purpose, & seasoned with pitch: the treatise of which we will put off vnto the next booke, where we purpose to treat thereof, and the manner of making it.

CHAP. XX.

¶ Of diuers kinds of Pitch and Rosins: the manner of the seasoning and confecture of new Wines. Also of Vineger and salt.

AMong trees that yeeld from them a liquid substance, some there be in the East countries, [unspec F] and others in Europ, which ingender Pitch and Rosin. Asia likewise between both, hath of either side it some such trees. As for the East, the Terebinths put out Turpentine, the best and cleerest Rosin of all others: next to them, the Lentiskes also haue their Rosin, which

they call Mastick. After which, the Cipres brings forth a third rosin, but it is of a most sharpe [unspec G] and biting taste. All these trees (I say) carry rosin only, and the same thin and liquid: but the Cedar sendeth forth a thick substance, and good to make pitch & tar. As for the rosin or gum Arabick, it is white in colour, strong of smell, vntoward and troublesom to him that shall boile it. That of Iury is harder, yea, and of a stronger sauor than Turpentine. The Siriack gum resem∣bleth the hony of Athens. The Cyprian excelleth all others: of a fleshy substance it is, & like in colour to hony. The Colophonian is deeper of colour, and reddish: beat it to pouder in a mortar it proueth white: but it carieth a strong smel with it, which is the reason that the per∣fumers and makers of ointments haue no vse thereof. As for that which the pitch trees of Asia do yeeld, it is passing white, and the Greeks call it Spagas. All rosins generally will dissolue in oile. Some think verily, that Potters clay will likewise do the same. But I am abashed & asha∣med [unspec H] to report, how in these daies the same pitch whereof we speake, should be in so great ac∣count as it is, for making of pitch plaisters, to fetch off the haire of mens bodies, & all to make them more smooth and effeminat. Howbeit, the maner of seasoning new Must therewith (that when it is perfect wine, it may smell of pitch, and bite at the tongues end) is to bestrew it with the pouder of pitch at the first working, the heate whereof is commonly past and gone in nine daies. And some think that the wine will be the stronger, if the raw and green floure of the Ro∣sin, as it issueth fresh out of the tree, be put therein; for it will quicken a small and weak wine. Now this mixture and medicine of wine [called Crapula] made thus of rosin, hath contrary ef∣fects: for if the wine be ouer-heady and strong, it allaieth & mortifieth the hurtful force ther∣of: but if it be too weak, or drink dead & flat, it reuiueth againe, and giueth it a strong taste. In [unspec I] Liguria, and principally along the Po, they vse to season their wines, and bring them al to their seuerall perfections in this maner. If the wine when it is new be mighty and strong, they put in the more of this medicine or confection called Crapula: if it be mild and small, then the lesse goes into it: and keeping this gage with their hand, they make both good. Some would haue one wine brued with another, the weaker with the stronger, and so (forsooth) there must needs arise a good temperature of both together: and verily there is not a thing in the world againe which hath in the nature thereof so great varietie.

In some countries, if new wine worke of it selfe a second time, it is thought to be a fault and means to corrupt it: and indeed vpon such a chance & vnhappy accident, it loseth the verdure and quick tast: whereupon it gets the name of Vappa, and is clean turned to be dead or soure: in which regard also we giue a man that name by way of scorne and reproch, calling him Vappa, [unspec K] when he is heartlesse, void of reason and vnderstanding. If it were vineger indeed it were ano∣ther matter: for surely though wine degenerate into it by way of corruption and putrefaction, yet a vertue and force it hath good for many speciall vses, and without which it were not possi∣ble to liue so delicatly at our table as we do. Moreouer, the world is so much giuen to keepe a bruing, tempering, and medicining of wines, that in some places they sophisticate them with ashes, as it were with plaister: in other, they fortifie, recouer, and make them againe by such de∣uises as are before specified. But to this purpose they take the ashes to chuse, of vine cuttings, or of the oke wood, before any other. And forsooth if there be occasion to occupie sea water for this purpose, they prescribe them to fetch ir far from land in the deep sea; & kept also from mid-March or the Spring Equinox, or at leastwise from mid-Iune, or summer Sunne-stead, and [unspec L] drawn in the night, & when the North wind blowes: but if it be got neere the time of vintage, then it ought to be wel boiled before it wil serue the turn. As for the pitch in Italy, that of Bru∣tium or Calabria is reputed for the best, to trim those vessels which are to keep wine. There is made of the rosin of the tree Picea (as also in Spain there comes from the wild Pines) a certain pitch which is the very worst; for the rosin of those trees is bitter, dry, & of a strong sauor. The difference and sundry kinds of pitch, as also the manner of making the same, we will declare in the book next following, in the treatise of wild and sauage trees. The faults and imperfections of pitch, ouer and besides those euen now rehearsed (to wit, bitternes, drynes, & strong sent) are known by the sournesse, stinking smoke, and the very adustion thereof. But ye shall know good pitch by these experiments, if the pieces broken from it do shine, if between the teeth it relent [unspec M] and be clammy like glew, and haue a pleasant sharpnes and soure tast withall of the vineger. In Asia the pitch is thought best which comes of the trees in mount Ida. The Greeks esteem the trees of the hil Pieria chief for this purpose: and Virgil commends that of Narycia before all.

But to returne againe to our brewing and sophistication of wines, they that would seeme to [unspec A] be cunninger, or at leastwise more curious than their fellowes, do mingle therwith blacke Ma∣sticke, which is engendred in Pontus, and is like to Bitumen; and therto adde the root of Iris or the floure de luce, and oile. For this is found by experience, That if the vessells be sered with wax, the wines therin will not hold, but turne soure quickly. Moreouer, we daily see, that better it is to put vp wine into those vessels, wherin vinegre hath been kept afore, than into such as had dulcet or honied wine. Cato sets downe a receit to trim and concinnate wine (for that is the ve∣ry tearme which he vses) in this manner: Take of lie ashes sodden with cuit boiled to the halfe; one fortieth part, temper it with a pound and a half of penniroyall, or salt: and otherwhiles with marble braied & beaten into pouder among. He makes mention also of brimstone, but rosin he names with the last. But aboue al he wills to refresh and renue the wine when it now begins to [unspec B] come to maturity and perfection, with new wine which he calls Tortivum; and I take it, that he means that which ran last out of the wine-presse: which he prescribeth also to be put vnto new wines for to get them a fresher color, as the very tincture of wine: and so it wil be also of a more fattie substance, and goe down more glib and merrily. See, see, how many deuises of medicines and slibber sauces the poore wine is forced to endure, and all to please our pallat, our eye, and other sences: and yet ywis we marue•…•… that it is so hurtfull to our bodies. Well, would you haue an experiment to know when wine is going, or enclining to be dead and soure; dip therein a thin plate of lead; if it change color, take it for a signe, that it is in the way of decaying. Of all liquors, wine hath this propertie to vinew, to pal, & into change in vinegre. But a thousand me∣dicines it doth affoord, and books of Physick are full thereof. Moreouer, wine lees being dried, [unspec C] will serue as a match to keep fire: and without any other fewell to feed it, ye shall haue it burne and flame of it selfe. The ashes thereof is of the nature of Nitre, and hath the same vertues: and in this regard somewhat more, for that it is found to be more fattie and vnctuous.

CHAP. XXI.

¶ Of wine-cellars.

NOw when wine is made and tunned vp in maner aforesaid, there is as great difference and diuersitie in the bestowing of it in cellars. They of Piemont about the Alpes, doe put vp their wines in woodden barrels, bound well with hoopes, for warmth: and moreouer, if the [unspec D] winter be very cold, they make fires in their cellars or butteries, to keep them for being frozen. I will tell you a strange wonder, yet true and to be verified, not by hearesay but plain eiesight. There were seen vpon a time whole heaps & huge lumps of wine congealed into ice, by occasi∣on that the hoopes of the hogsheads burst that contained the wine: and this was held for a pro∣digious token. For indeed wine of it owne nature will not congeale and freeze, only it will lose the strength, and become apalled in extremitie of cold. In warmer climats and more temperat, they fil their wines into great stands and steanes of earth, which they set into the ground, either ouer the head all whole, or else by halfe; deeper or shallower, according to the situation & tem∣perature of the region. Likewise they giue the wine open aire in some places: whereas in other they keep it close within house in tauernes and cellars. And thereto belong these and such like [unspec E] rules. First, that one side of the wine-cellar, or at leastwise the windows, ought to stand open to the North, or to the East in any wise, where the Sunne riseth at the time of the Aequinoctiall. Item, that there be no muckhils nor priuies neer: no roots of trees, nor any thing of a strong and stinking sauor: for that wine is of this nature, to draw any smell very quickly into it: and aboue all, Fig trees (as well the wild as the tame) be hurtfull to wine-cellars. Item, as touching the or∣der of placing the wine-vessels, they ought to stand a pretty distance one from another: for fear of contagion, for that wine is alwaies most apt to catch infection very soon. Moreouer, it mat∣ters much of what proportion and fashion the pipes, tubs, and such vessels be made. Those with great bellies and wide mouths, are not so good. Also they must be nealed with pitch, presently vpon the rising of the dog-star: afterwards doused and washed all ouer either in the sea or else [unspec F] salt water, then to bee seasoned and strewed with vine ashes or cley, and being scoured, they ought to sweeten them with a perfume of Myrrhe; which were good to be done also to the very cellars oftentimes. Furthermore, if the wines be weak and smal, they had need to be kept in tubs and hogsheads, let downe within the ground: but the strong and mighty wines may lie aboue

ground in the open aire. Prouided alway, that wine vessels be neuer filled top full: but the void [unspec G] part that is left, and stands aboue the wine, would be thoroughly dightwith thicke wine made of withered grapes, or sodden wine to the halfe, and saffron mingled withall, yea, and old pitch, together with cuit. Thus also ought the lids and bungs of the vessels to be ordered, with an ad∣dition besides of mastick and pitch. In the deep of Winter they must not be vnstopped and o∣pened in any case, vnlesse the weather be faire and cleare: Neither when the wind is Southerly, or the Moon in the full. This also is to be noted, that the floure or mantle which the wine casts vp to the top, is good when it is white, if it be red, it is a very bad signe, vnlesse the wine it selfe be of that color. Moreouer, if the vessels be hote, or the lids do sweat, it is no good signe. Note also, that the wine which soone begins to mantle and cast vp a floure incontinently, or to veeld another smell than the own, wil not continue long good. As for the cuits, whether they be sod∣den [unspec H] to the half or the thirds, they ought to be boiled & made when the skie is without a Moon, that is to say, in the change, and vpon no day else. Moreouer, the decoction must be in leads, and not in coppers; with walnuts among to receiue al the smoke, which otherwise might infect the cuit. In Campaine they let their best wines lie abroad in vessells, euen in the open aire, to take the Sun, the Moone, raine, and wind, and all weathers that come: and this is thought to bee best for them.

CHAP. XXII.

¶ Of auoiding Drunkennesse.

IF a man marke and consider well the course of our life, we are in nothing more busie and cu∣rious, [unspec I] nor take greater paines, than about wine: as if Nature had not giuen to man the liquor of water, which of all others is the most wholsom drink, and wherwith all other creatures are wel contented. But we thinking it not sufficient to take wine our selues, giue it also to our Hor∣ses, Mules, and labouring beasts, and force them against Nature to drink it. Besides, such pains, so much labor, so great cost and charges we are at, to haue it, such delight and pleasure we take in it; that many of vs think, they are borne to nothing else, & can skill of no other contentment in this life: notwithstanding, when all is don, it transports & carries away the right wit & mind of man, it causes fury and rage, and induces, nay, it casts headlong as many as are giuen thereto, into a thousand vices and misdemeanors. And yet forsooth, to the end that we might take the more cups, and poure it downe the throat more lustily, we let it run thorough a strainer, for to a∣bate [unspec K] and gueld (as it were) the force thereof: yea, and other deuises there be to whet our appe∣tite thereto, and cause vs to quaffe more freely. Nay, to draw on their drinke, men are not afraid to make poisons, whiles some take hemlocke before they sit downe, because they must drinke perforce then, or els die for it; others, the powder of the * 1.10 pumish stone, & such like stuff, which I am abashed to rehearse and teach those that be ignorant of such leaudnesse. And yet wee see these that be stoutest and most redoubted drinkers, euen those that take themselues most secu∣red of danger, to lie sweating so long in the baines and brothel-houses for to concoct their sur∣fet of wine, that otherwhiles they are carried forth dead for their labour. Ye shall haue some of them again when they haue been in the hot house, not to stay so long as they may recouer their beds, no not so much as to put on their shirts: but presently in the place, all naked as they are, puffing & laboring still for wind, catch vp great cans and huge tankards of wine (to shew what [unspec L] lustie and valiant champions they be) set them one after another to their mouth, pour the wine downe the throat without more adoe, that they might cast it vp againe, and so take more in the place; vomiting or revomiting twice or thrice together that which they haue drunke, and still make quarrell to the pot: as if they had been borne into this world for no other end but to spill and mar good wine: or, as if there were no way els to spend and wast the same, but thorow mans body. And to this purpose, were taken vp at Rome these forreine exercises, of vaulting and dan∣cing the Morisk; from hence came the tumbling of wrastlers in the dust and mire together; for this, they shew their broad breasts, beare vp their heads, and carrie their neckes far backe. In all which gesticulations, what do they else but professe that they seek means to procure thirst and take occasion to drink? But come now to their pots that they vse to quaffe and drink out of: are [unspec M] there not grauen in them faire pourtrais think you of adulteries? as if drunkennesse it self were not sufficient to kindle the heart of lust, to pricke the flesh, and to teach them wantonnes. Thus is wine drunke out of libidinous cups: and more than that, he that can quaffe best and play the

drunkard most, shal haue the greatest reward. But what shal we say to those (would a man think [unspec A] it?) that hire one to eat also as much as he can drink, and vpon that condition couenant to yeeld him the price for his wine drinking, and not otherwise. Ye shall haue another that will inioine himselfe to drinke euery denier that he hath won at dice. Now when they are come to that once and be throughly whitled, then shall yee haue them cast their wanton eies vpon mens wiues; then fall they to court faire dames and ladies, and openly bewray their folly euen before their jealous and sterne husbands; then (I say) the secrets of the heart are opened and layed abroad. Some ye shal haue in the mids of their cups, make their wils, euen at the very board as they sit: others againe cast out bloudy and deadly speeches at randon, and cannot hold but blurt out those words which afterwards they eat againe with the swords point: for thus many a man by a lauish tongue in his wine, hath come by his death and had his throat cut. And verily the world is now growne to this passe, That whatsoeuer a man saith in his cups, it is held for sooth; as if [unspec B] Truth were the daughter of Wine. But say they escape these dangers: certes speed they neuer so well, the best of them all neuer seeth the Sun-rising, so drowsie and sleepy they are in bed e∣uery morning; neither liue they to bee old men, but die in the strength of their youth. Hence comes it, that some of them looke pale, with a paire of flaggie blabd-cheekes; others haue blea∣red and sore eies: and there be of them that shake so with their hands, that they cannot hold a full cup, but shed and poure it downe the floore. Generally they all dreame fearfully (which is the very beginning of their hell in this life) or els haue restlesse nights: & finally, if they chance to sleep (for a due guerdon and reward of their drunkennesse) they are deluded with imaginary conceits of Venus delights, defiled with filthy and abominable pollutions: and thus both slee∣ping and waking they sin with pleasure. Well, what becomes of them the morrow after? they [unspec C] belch soure, their breath stinketh of the barrell, and telleth them what they did ouer night; o∣therwise they forget what either they did or said, they remember no more, than if their memo∣ry were vtterly extinct and dead. And yet our iolly drunkards giue out and say, That they alone inioy this life, and rob other men of it. But who seeth not, that ordinarily they lose not onely the yesterday past, but the morrow to come? In the time of Tiberius Claudius the Emperor, about 40 years since, certaine out-landish Physitians and Monte-banks, who would seem to set them∣selues out by some strange nouelties of their own, & so get a name, brought vp at Rome a new deuise and order, to drink fasting, and prescribed folk to take a good hearty draught of wine be∣fore meat, and to lay that foundation of their dinner. Of all nations, the Parthians would haue the glory for this goodly vertue of wine-bibbing: and among the Greeks, Alcibiades indeed de∣serued [unspec D] the best game for this worthy feat. But here with vs at Rome Nouellius Torquatus a Mil∣lanois, wan the name from all Romans & Italians both. This Lombard had gone. through all honourable degrees of dignity in Rome; he had bin Pretor, and attained to the place of a Pro∣consull. In all these offices of state he woon no great name: but for drinking in the presence of Tiberius, three gallons of wine at one draught and before he tooke his breath again, he was dub∣bed knight by the syrname of Tricongius, as one would say, * 1.11 The three gallon knight: and the Emperor, sterne, seuere, and cruell otherwise though he was, now in his old age (for in his youth∣full daies he was giuen ouermuch to * 1.12 drinking of wine) would delight to behold this renowned and worthy knight, with great wonder and admiration. For the like rare gift and commendable qualitie, men think verily that C. Piso first rise; and afterwards was aduanced to the Prouostship [unspec E] of the city of Rome, by the said Tiberius; & namely, for that in his court being now emperor, he sat 2 daies and 2 nights drinking continually, and neuer stirred foot from the boord. And veri∣ly Drusus Caesar (by report) in nothing more resembled his father Tiberius, than in taking his drink. But to return again to noble Torquatus, herein consisted his excellency, That he did it ac∣cording to art (for this you must take withall, there is an art of Drinking, grounded vpon certain rules and precepts.) Torquatus (I say) drank he neuer so much, was not known at any time to fal∣ter in his tongue, neuer eased himself by vomiting, neuer let it goe the other way vnder boord: how late soeuer he sat vp at the wine ouer night, he would be sure to relieue the morning watch & sentinel. He drunk most of any man at one entire draught before the pot went from his head: [unspec F] and for smaller draughts besides, he went before all other in number; his winde he neuer tooke while the cup was at his mouth, but iustly obserued the rule of drinking with one breath; he was not known to spit for all this: & to conclude, he would not leaue in the cup, so much as would dash against the pauement, & make the least sound to bee hard: a special point and precise law

to preuent the deceit of those that drinke for a wager. A singular glory no doubt in him, and a [unspec G] rare felicity. Tergilla challenged M. Cicero the younger, son to that M. Cicero the famous Orator, and reproched him to his face, that ordinarily he drunk 2 gallons at once: and that one time a∣boue the rest when he was drunke, he flung a pot at M. Agrippa his head. And truly this is one of the fruits and feats of drunkennesse. But blame not young Cicero, if in this point yet he desired to surmount him that slew his father, M. Antonius I mean; for he before that time strained him∣selfe, and stroue to win the best game in this feat, making profession thereof, as may appeare by a booke that he compiled and set forth with this title, Of his owne drunkennesse: wherein hee was not ashamed to avow and justifie his excesse and enormities that way: and thereby approoued (as I take it) vnder pretence and colour of his drunkennesse, all those outrages of his, all those miseries and calamities that he brought vpon the whole world. This treatise he vomited and [unspec H] spued out a little before the battell of Actium, wherein he was defeated: whereby it may ap∣peare very plainly, that as he was drunken before with the bloud of citizens, so still hee was the more bloud-thirsty. For this is a property that necessarily followeth this vice, That the more a man drinketh, the more he may, and is alwaies dry. And herein spake to good purpose a certain Embassadour of the Scythians, saying, That the Parthians the more they drunke, the thirstier they were.

As touching the nations in the West part of the world, they haue their drinks also by them∣selues made of * corn steeped in water, whereof they will drinke to the vtterance, and be drunk: * 1.13 and namely in Spaine and France, where the manner of making the same is all one, how soeuer [unspec I] they haue * diuers names: and in Spain they haue devised means that these drinks (Ale or Beer) * 1.14 wil abide age, & continue stale. In Egipt likewise they haue inuented such kind of drinks made of corn: so that no part or corner of the world there is, but drunkennesse reigneth. And verily these liquors how soeuer they be named, they vse to drinke entire as they bee, and made of the very strength of Malt: neuer delaying the same with water, as we dowines. But it may be sayd, That Nature hath endowed & inriched those countries with abundance of corn, and therefore they may wel do it. Oh how industrious we are to maintain our vices! There is a deuise found, (would euer any man haue thought it?) how water also should make men drunke. Two liquors there be, most pleasing and acceptable to mens bodies, wine within, & oile without. Both pro∣ceed from two speciall trees, howbeit, of the twaine, Oile is necessary, and Wine may be better [unspec K] spared. And verily, men haue not bin idle in the making of good oile: how beit, they haue beene more addicted and giuen to make Wines for drink; as may appeare by this, that reckoning but the generall kinds thereof, a man may find 195 sorts of wine: but if a man would subdiuide and destribute those heads into their branches, he should meet almost with twice as many: but of Oyles there bee not so many kindes by farre. Whereof we purpose to treat in the booke next following.

Notes

• * 1.1

  Opiet•…•…
• * 1.2

  Quasi du∣ris acini•…•….
• * 1.3

  〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉. Plutarch.
• * 1.4

  Amethystos, Cg•…•…mell,
• * 1.5

  15 according to Ful. Vrsinus.
• * 1.6

  Bud. 22. Sest.
• * 1.7

  i. an ounce and a halfe:
• * 1.8

  an ounce and a halfe.
• * 1.9

  12 congios.
• * 1.10

  Vide lib. 36. Cap. 21•…•…
• * 1.11

  not the thrice gallant knight
• * 1.12

  Whereupon he was called Biberius Mero, for Tiberius Nero.
• * 1.13

  i. Malt.
• * 1.14

  Z•…•…us and •…•…urm, Ale •…•…nd Beere.