The Diocese of the Church of Seville is contained in that province of Spain which surpasses all others in rich cultivation and a certain fertile and peculiar splendor. The ancients called it Baetica from the River Baetis; more recent ones called it Vandalicia, from the Vandals occupying it in a later age. This convention is rightly judged to be the most fortunate of all the regions and conventions of Spain, both for the frequency and civility of its peoples, and for its riches and a blessed abundance of all things. This is also credited by the poems of the Greeks, who attribute Elysian pleasures and delights to this tract, which is exposed to the western Ocean. This territory stretches far and wide, containing almost two hundred excellent towns, not counting very many villages, so that this one convention is now legally composed of more towns than all four were in that province at the same time: which, on the authority of Pliny, are known to have only granted rights to 175. For how great a part this would be if one were to count the one hundred thousand districts which were received into allegiance by the divine King Ferdinand in the territory of Seville, which the Arabs called the Aljarafe Axarafium, along with the city itself. But those were largely desolate after the Barbarians were expelled. However, as the limits have moved far from the ancient description of the conventions, so they draw closer to the formula of King Wamba prescribed for all the churches of Spain. For this Diocese has the territory of Cordoba from the East, the borders of the Algarve from the West; where it looks to the North, it touches that domain of Lusitania which is called the territory of the magistrate of James, while the rest is closed off toward the South by the convention of Cadiz and the Ocean. There are very many principal towns in it, especially the royal city of Seville itself, placed on the bank of the Baetis with a most ample and pleasant situation, and a most beautiful circuit of walls. The Baetis, rising from the Tygensis forest and flowing past the excellent cities of the adopted province, runs from this most illustrious colony, once called Romulea, in a navigable and fish-rich channel to the Gaditan Ocean for sixty thousand paces, with banks flowering on both sides with olive groves, vineyards, and a wondrous pleasantness of gardens, and fragrant with the most delightful scent of citrus trees.

ANDALUSIA. 12

A detailed copperplate engraved map of Andalusia within a rectangular frame. The map is oriented with West (Portugal) at the left. It depicts the coastline from the mouth of the Guadiana to Cadiz, and inland along the Guadalquivir river. Numerous towns are marked with miniature building icons, including Seville, Cordoba, Cadiz, and Carmona. Geographic features include the Sierra Morena mountains and rivers. A scale of "Spanish leagues" is provided in the lower right corner, numbered 5, 10, 15, 20. The title "ANDALUSIA" is printed at the top center of the map area.