GALLIA. France

Whatever lands are enclosed from the Rhine through the Ocean, the Pyrenees mountains, the Mediterranean sea, and the Apennine mountain up to Ancona are called by the common name of Gallia Gaul by the Latins. For it is enclosed by the Pyrenees ridges to the West and separated from Spain; to the North and the Boreas North Wind, by the Gallic and British Ocean; to the East, the Rhine bounds it with almost equal spaces, and the Alps, by which the Pyrenees ridge runs from the internal sea to the external one, where it looks to the South, the Narbonense sea stretches toward it. Gallia is named from the whiteness of the people. For the mountains and the rigor of the climate exclude the heat of the sun from that part, which causes the fair bodies not to be colored. Hence the Greeks call the Gauls Galatas Galatians because of the milky color of the nation: for γαλα gala to them is what milk is to us; from which name the Latins derived Galli Gauls, and divided their region into Cisalpine and Transalpine. They called that Cisalpine which today we generally call Lombardy, which is a part of Italy; Transalpine is that which is bounded by these five limits: the Rhine, the Ocean, the Pyrenees mountains, the Mediterranean sea, and the Alps. This Gaul, with Caesar as witness in his Commentaries, the ancients made threefold: Belgica, Celtica, and Aquitanica. Belgica, which is enclosed by the Ocean, the Rhine, and the rivers Matrona Marne and Sequana Seine, today uses the Teutonic language for the greater part and is called Lower Germany. Celtica or Lugdunensis, which is contained by the rivers Garumna Garonne, Matrona, Sequana, and Rhodanus Rhône. This is now called Francia. For the Celts, having been subjugated by the Franks of Germany, began to be called Western Franks, from whom the province itself is named. Aquitanica, previously called Aremorica: which extends from the Garonne to the Ocean and the Pyrenees mountains. Indeed, from the Circian or North wind, it has the Ocean toward the West, which is called the Aquitanian Gulf, Spain from the West, the Lugdunensis province from the North, and the Narbonensis from the South; it differs from the others in the bodies of men and in language, and today it is called Gasconia.

GALLIA.

A woodcut map of France (Gallia) and surrounding territories. The map shows regional divisions and major cities. Labeled areas surrounding France include "Part of England" to the northwest across the channel, "Part of Germany" to the north and east, Switzerland and "Part of Italy" to the southeast, and "Part of Spain" across the Pyrenees to the southwest. Interior regions of Gallia are labeled: Brittany, Normandy, Picardy, Flanders, Luxembourg, Champagne, Lorraine, France (the region around Paris), Anjou, Poitou, Berry, Burgundy, Bourbonnais, Guyenne, Limousin, Gascony, Languedoc, Dauphiné, and Provence. Major cities identified with pictorial icons include London, Dover, Calais, Amiens, Antwerp, Metz, Coblentz, Trier, Strasbourg, Besançon, Basel, Geneva, Lyon, Toulouse, Narbonne, Marseille, Nice, Bordeaux, Orléans, and Paris.