The mean temperature of Iceland is said to be 40
degrees.]
SECTIO QUARTA
[Sidenote: Kranzius. Munsterus.] Tam grandis Insula, vt populos multos
contineat. Item, Zieglerus. Situs Insula extenditur inter austrum &
boream ducentorum prope Schanorum longitudine.
Grandis.) Wilstenius quidam, rector Schola OLDENBVRGENSIS Anno 1591. ad
auunculum meum in Islandia Occidentali misit breuem commentarium, quem ex
scriptorum rapsodijs de Islandia collegerat. Vbi sic reperimus Islandia
duplo maior Sicilia,&c. Sicilia autem secundum Munsterum 150. milliaria
Germanica in ambitu habet. [Sidenote: Magnitudo Islandia.] Nostra vero
Insula ambitus etsi nobis non est exacte cognitus, tamen vetus & constans
opinio, & apud nostrates recepta 144. milliaria numerat per duodecim
videlicet promontoria Islandia insigniora, qua singula 12. inter se
milliaribus distent, aut circiter, qua collecta pradictam summam ostendunt.
Populos multos.) Gysserus quidam, circa annum Domini 1090, Episcopus
Schalholtensts in Islandia, omnes Insula colonos seu rusticos qui tantas
facultates possiderent, vt regi tributum soluere tenerentur (reliquis
pauperibus cum foeminis & promiscuo vulgo omissis) lustrari curauit,
reperitque in parte Insula Orientali 700, meridionali 1000, Occidentali
1100, Aquilonari 1200. Summa 4000. colonorum tributa soluentium. Iam si
quis experiatur, inueniet Insulam plus dimidio fuisse inhabitatam.
The same in English.
THE FOURTH SECTION.
[Sidenote: Krantzius. Munsterus.] The Iland is so great that it conteineth
many people. Item Zieglerus sayth: The situation of the Iland is extended
betweene the South and the North almost 200 leagues in length.
So great, &c. One Wilstenius schoolemaster of Oldenburg, in the yere 1591,
sent vnto mine Vncle in West Island, a short treatise which he had gathered
out of the fragments of sundrie writers, concerning Island. Where we found
thus written: Island is twise as great as Sicilie, &c. But Sicilie,
according to Munster, hath 150. Germaine miles in compasse. [Sidenote: 144.
Germaine miles in compasse.] As for the circuit of our Iland, although it
be not exactly knowen vnto vs, yet the ancient, constant, and receiued
opinion of the inhabitants accounteth it l44 leagues; namely by the 12
promontories of Iland, which are commonly knowen, being distant one from
another 12 leagues or thereabout, which two numbers being mulitplied,
produce the whole summe. [Footnote: The exact area is 39,737 square miles.]
Many people, &c. One Gysserus about the yere of our Lord 1090, being bishop
of Schalholten in Island, caused all the husbandmen, or countreymen of the
Iland, who, in regard of their possessions were bound to pay tribute to the
king, to be numbred (omitting the poorer sort with women, and the meaner
sort of the communally) and he found in the East part of Island 700, in the
South part 1000, in the West part 1100, in the North part 1200, to the
number of 4000. inhabitants paying tribute. Now if any man will trie, he
shall finde that more then halfe the Iland was at that time vnpeopled.
[Footnote: In 1875 the population was 69,800.]
SECTIO QUINTA.
[Sidenote: Munst. Frisius, Ziegler] Insula multa sui parte montosa est &
inculta.
