LEVVARDEN

A decorative initial L featuring floral and leaf motifs in a square frame.

LEVVARDEN is a city of Western Frisia. The Frisians are generally divided into Eastern and Western groups, with the Westerners retaining their proper and ancient name. They are called West Frisians and reside near the sea on the northern side of Germany. They are divided into four states, the principal of which is that of Groningen. The others are the counties of Oostergo, Westergo, and the Seven Forests, commonly called SEVEN WOLDEN, each having its own towns and villages. Leeuwarden is the chief of said counties, an opulent city adorned with beautiful bourgeois houses and surrounded by moats and waters, possessing a very strong castle well-equipped against all enemy assaults. The Chancery of Frisia has its residence there, judging by decree without the possibility of appeal. The city was also decorated with Episcopal dignity during the last institution of bishoprics, for which the Most Reverend Cunerus Petri of Brouwershaven, a theologian from Louvain renowned for his writings, was designated as the first Bishop. Exiling himself due to the troubles of the Low Countries and retiring to Cologne, he greatly adorned that University through his public disputations and lectures, finally passing away there in the forty-ninth year of his age.

One league from this city is the village of Zwichem, ennobled and renowned for being the birthplace of Viglius, who took his surname from it. He was a knight and doctor of law, so grave and excellent that Europe has had few equals to him. He was a man versed in all doctrine, of very great spirit and counsel, a lover of all virtue, and a singular patron to all who loved it. Having been raised to the highest degrees of honor and dignity for his said virtues, he served until his death as President of the Privy Council of the King of Spain and Provost of Saint Bavo in Ghent.

From here also comes Suffridus Petri, a doctor of law, a man singularly lettered and learned, as the works he transmitted to posterity testify. Among others, these include his seven public orations, of which five declare the utility of the Greek language. The sixth is on the excellence of Roman laws. The seventh contains the reformation of the University of Erfurt. He also translated much from Greek into Latin, namely: THE EMBASSY OF ATHENAGORAS THE PHILOSOPHER TO ANTONINUS CAESAR ON BEHALF OF THE CHRISTIANS; and the last three books of the Ecclesiastical History of Hermias Sozomenus. He entirely recognized and amended the Ecclesiastical History of Eusebius and what is added to it, having compared it to the Greek exemplars, with a declaration of the reasons for his amendment at the end of said work, having further adorned it greatly. He also translated various and several works of Plutarch. He restored Martinus Polonus the chronologer to his primary truth. He likewise brought to light, with his commentaries, the illustrious Doctors of the Church: Saint Jerome, Gennadius, Honorius, Isidorus, Sigebert of Gembloux, and Henry of Ghent. He also wrote notes on all the works of Cicero. Thus, learned men in general are, with good cause, much obliged to him.

FRANICKER.

A decorative initial F featuring floral and leaf motifs in a square frame.

FRANICKER is a city of the County of Westergo, two leagues from Leeuwarden. It is rich and opulent, and many noble personages reside there because it valiantly sustained the siege placed by the rebels against their Prince, who at that time was the Duke of Saxony, and for this cause, it was endowed with greater privileges and immunities than any other city in Frisia.

The soil there is, as in all of Frisia, full of pastures, yet interspersed and separated by ponds, lakes, and marshes into which the tide sometimes enters. Some places are entirely surrounded by water in the form of an island, not being arable for sowing; otherwise, it is very pleasant and fertile, presenting very wide meadows. The remainder serves for extracting peat, clods, or turf to make fire. Many believe that Pliny speaks of these in Book XVI, Chapter II, when he says of the NORTHERN CHAUCI: "They make ropes from swamp grass and rushes from the marshes to tie and stretch their nets for catching fish, and they take mud and mire with their hands, drying it more in the wind than in the sun, and use it to warm their limbs stiffened by the cold brought by their region and the northern wind, and to prepare their food."

The region of Frisia (notably that closest to the Ocean sea) is so low that, with great difficulty, from the beginning of autumn until the full spring, one can hardly travel or walk there other than by boat. Wherefore one sees many villages, farms, and hamlets provided with dikes made of earth and built in higher places. It is so exposed to sea storms that when the wind comes from the West, it is frequently in very great danger, as was seen in the year 1570, for then men and beasts perished by the thousands. It produces little wheat for the aforementioned reasons, because the annual floods (which sometimes occur very early and depart late) would carry away and spoil all the seed. For this reason, they make good provision with great diligence from Denmark and other Mediterranean places.

There are also no vineyards due to the great cold and the stiffness of the winds. But this defect is relieved by the wines brought there from France, Spain, the Rhine, and by the drinking of beer. And although said province has woods and forests, namely those called SEVEN WOLDEN toward the gulf of the Southern sea, they are not, however, sufficient for the necessity of fire. Nature having therefore provided for them by the said turfs and peats, which, hardened in the wind, serve them in place of wood, they have them in such abundance that they send a good portion to neighboring regions. Many among them have also, by art and industry, found another remedy against this lack of wood: burning the dung of cows dried in the wind. And this having drawn us further out of our subject concerning