Text (translated from the 1579/1580L2Add, 1579 Latin, 1580/1589 German, 1581 French, 1584 Latin, 1587 French, 1592 Latin, 1595 Latin, 1598 French, 1601 Latin, 1602 German, 1602 Spanish, 1603 Latin, 1606 English, 1608/1612 Italian, 1609/1612/1641 Spanish and 1609/1612 Latin edition)
120.1.{1579/1580L2Add{The liberties of the city of VERONA.
120.2. {1581F, 1587F & 1598F only{VERONA}1581F, 1587F & 1598F only} THis is the city of the Cenomanes situated in Gallia Cisalpina or as they now call it Lombardy, within the jurisdiction of the Venetians. [It is] a city most stately built on both sides of the river Adese, but joined by four fair bridges. The same river which divides it into two parts also surrounds the city on all sides, so that it is not only a commodity to the city, but also a defence and an ornament to it. The soil of this area is excellent, yielding many necessary and profitable goods, such as a great amount of [olive] oil and corn, {not in 1606E{a variety of excellent wines and an abundance of all kinds of apples}not in 1606E}, {1595L only{bringing every year great profit to the people who sell and transport it to other nations}1595L only}.
120.3. [Its] wool in fineness excels above the other sorts of Italy. The city is most excellently and pleasantly situated, beautified with fair and excellent buildings, public as well as private. It has many famous monuments from antiquity worth looking at, amongst which is the Amphitheatre, which the common people call Arena, {1606E only{[that is] The Sand}1606E only}; of all those [amphitheatres] which have survived in Italy or in other places of Europe [this is] the most complete [one], and least affected by the injuries of time or the rage of barbarous nations.
120.4. Moreover, [there is] a triumphal arch, in whose inscription this city is termed COLONIA AVGUSTA VERONA NOVA GALLIENIANA {1602G only{new Verona, august Gallic colony}1602G only}. There are also other monuments, which for the sake of brevity we must omit.
120.5. The privileges or ground belonging to this city [measures] in length from the little town of Baruchello unto Riua (which is on the farther side of Lago di Garda) sixty-five Italian miles. In breadth, it begins at Turre del confine unto Riuoltella forty miles, and it contains in all 1,443,378 fields (this is what the common people of Italy call the name by which they measure their land; {1603L, not in 1609/1612/1641S{Scardeonius interprets it [as] Acres)}1603L, not in 1609/1612/1641S} of which 1,223,112 are fertile, and 220,266 are barren, which, notwithstanding [this], are daily made more fruitful {1579/1580L2Add, 1579L, 1580/1589G, 1581F, 1584L, 1587F, 1588S, 1592L, 1595L, 1598F, 1601L, 1602G, 1602S, 1606E, 1608/1612I & 1609/1612/1641S only(by the industry and diligence of the farmers}1579/1580L2Add, 1579L, 1580/1589G, 1581F, 1584L, 1587F, 1588S, 1592L, 1595L, 1598F, 1601L, 1602G, 1602S, 1606E, 1608/1612I & 1609/1612/1641S only).
120.6. There is in this area a very high mountain (the Map places it between Lago di Garda and the river Adese) which they call Mount Baldo. This hill is very well known to Herbalists {1606E only{and Apothecaries}1606E only}, who flock together there from all quarters, and who gather many kinds of herbs and roots, necessary for a good Physical [condition], and good and wholesome for the use by man.
120.7. There is also here in a certain valley called Policella a place called Negarina, where a very hard stone can be seen, in which two nipples have been carved in the correct fashion and proportion of a woman's breasts, out of which water continuously drips and flows. And if a nurse or woman who is nursing [a child] and who is no longer giving milk, having dried up by sickness or any other accident, washes her breasts [with this water], she will have milk again.
120.8. There are also other springs in this country, provided by the benefit of nature, both pleasant and profitable. But the studious Reader desiring to know more about this territory, let him read Blondus and Leander the Italians, and he shall be fully satisfied, I boldly affirm. Torellus Sarayna has written an entire book about the antiquities, origins, government and policy and about the famous men of the city of Verona.
120.9. Georgius Iodocus Bergamus has described Lago de Garda {1606E only{or lake Benake}1606E only} in verse in five books}1579/1580L2Add}. {1602S{Iulius Cæsar Scaliger has proclaimed the praise of the city of Verona and lake Benacke in his funeral address}1602S}.
120.10. (1608/1612I only{Here Pigafetta notes that above, in the description of the Earldom of Tirol, you also find the city of Verona, which may be an error in his memory, since for this city as well as Trento are Italian, as Ptolemæus notes. We should also be aware that the plains of Verona, with a length of about 20 miles, and a width which is not much less, used to be untilled because of the sandy soil, full of pebbles, yielding nothing but miserable ferns, and unfit for anything but pasture, and barely even that, so that a large piece of land was essentially useless.
120.11. But when Lord Iacomo Foscarini in the year 1569 became mayor of Verona at the time when there was a terrible famine, he brought alleviation to the plight of its citizens at his own expense by providing corn from the surrounding areas. And through subtle cunning, he convinced the land owners of those plains to cultivate them, instructing them to dig ditches, to separate good soil from stony soil and throw these stones into the ditches or to pile them up to free the soil from them, so that seeds can grow, water can be drained, and to plough and plant using some manure. And this was accomplished, so that now you see something quite different from that sandy desert, because it has been turned into fertile grounds, for which they were very grateful to this wise Lord}1608/1612I only}. © Marcel van den Broecke ©.