AN ELEGY BY JAN BOCHIUS,

SECRETARY OF THE CITY OF ANTWERP, ON THE

GEOGRAPHICAL TREASURY OF ABRAHAM ORTELIUS.

You, traveler, who seek to know the customs and cities of men,
and who seek remote countrysides through heavy labor:
You who trade your home for lands warmed by a different sun,
and whom it does not please to grow old by your ancestral hearth:
Come here; here you may look with a quiet mind.
Come here; by this path you can travel more safely.
Cease your toil; this labor does not require your feet, nor a weary body,
nor does it strain the traveler's side.
If your mind, cultivated in the noble arts, does not fail you, here is
what you seek in foreign lands, Reader.
By this path the whole world lies open to you, stranger,
and the great machinery of the world is hidden in this skillful book.
A new Alcides: another name for Hercules, the mythological hero known for his strength; here it refers to Ortelius carrying the world arises, who has dared
to take such a great weight upon his own shoulders.
He places the great foundations of the sea and the vast earth
here before your eyes to be seen.
He allows you to see Meroë: an ancient city on the Nile in modern-day Sudan from your home, and the sources
of the Nile, overflowing with waters that usually hide from view.
He gives you Hyperion: the sun god, representing the sun's path over the earth coloring the nations with rays,
and the Nabataean: referring to an ancient Arab kingdom in the Middle East kingdoms under the frozen pole.
He allows you to overcome the Scythian frosts and the Tanais: the ancient name for the Don River in Russia
with an unharmed heel, while still on your native soil.
He displays Neptune original: "Neptunumque", the Roman god of the sea, used here to represent the ocean raging in the straits far from the land,
and the sails carried by the swelling south winds.
It is not enough that he has enclosed such a great mass in a volume,
and explained the shifting locations of the lands.
It is not enough to have discussed the immense stretches of regions through research,
nor to have spoken of mountain ridges.
Nor are leafy forests spreading their branches enough,
nor the sea, nor ports, nor straits, nor sluggish lakes.
Not springs, nor the temples of the gods, nor the countless
waters which the sea swallows in its rapid whirlpool.
It is not enough to show citadels reaching the airy clouds,
nor the cities that rule over conquered fields.
He does not only teach how to distinguish peoples by their countless languages,
or explain their customs with easy brevity.
But this book teaches the origins original: "incunabula", literally "cradle," referring to the earliest history or birthplace of a people of a nation,
and the modern names of each place alongside the ancient ones.