Text : None. All copies of this map have no text, except for the 1588S edition mentioned above and for the 1613 Dutch Theatrum at the university library of Amsterdam, which has the Dutch text also occuring in the 1571/1573 and 1598 Dutch Theatrum for map Ort34, which follows below.
35.1. {1571/1573/1613D{France.
35.2. France is in Latin called Gallia, but under that name it was much larger than France is nowadays, for what was once called Gallia was all that is found between the Pyrenee mountains, the French and English sea, the river Rhine, the Italian mountain range, and the Mediterranean, as also all of Lombardy, which was called Gallia Cisalpina. But now France includes only what is under the jurisdiction of the King of France, that is, all the Land between the Rhine at Strasbourg upwards, to the Italian mountains or the Alps and along this mountain range to the sea, and along the Pyrenee mountains to the other sea, and along all its coasts to Calais, and from there the border is a line drawn back to Strasbourg.
35.3. But we draw this line without any prejudice, and only roughly, because this land is not clearly separated from our own lands, which belong to the House of Burgundy. Also Savoye lies at this side of the mountains which belongs to the King of Piemont, as also part of Lorraine and Switzerland &c., but because this is only a small part, compared to the whole, it therefore does not seem to be much.
35.4. To describe this France in some more detail, we list the following parts:
Provence, Dauphine, Bresse, Bourgogne, Champagne, Picardy, Normandy, Bretagne, Angiers, Poictou, Santoigne, Gascoigne, &c. These are the outlying districts all around. Inside these, you find: France, Beaune, Gastinois, Niuernois, Bourbonois, Forest, Languedoc, Auergne, Limosin, Touraine &c.
35.5. All these regions belong to the Crown of France, (as they are), and together constitute the {not in 1598D{best}not in 1598D} Kingdom of Christianity. It is a very pleasant and fertile land, with navigable rivers, such as the Seyne, Loire, Garonne, Saone and Rhone, traversed by rivers and ornated with many cities.
35.6. Its inhabitants are by nature frivolous and light-hearted, but somewhat prone to quarrel, so that they may easily turn to court on an insignificant matter (which a Dutchman would hardly do for a more grave matter). As a result, there are more lawyers and solicitors (as Villanova writes) than in ten Germanies or Spains. This is also why there are so many High Courts of Justice which they call Parliaments, such as in Paris, Rouen, Toulouse, Bordeaux, Grenoble &c., to the decisions of which there is no further appeal.
35.7. There are two miraculous things in this Kingdom. One is the Holy Oil, with which all Kings are anointed during their coronation in Reims, and which, (as Histories relate), has come from heaven under the reign of their first Christian King Clodoueo, and which does not diminish. The other is that Kings, by only the touch of their hand, heal an illness which they call Escruelles, which is a scrofulous tumour at the side of the neck}1571/1573D} © Marcel van den Broecke ©.