Text (translated from the 1606 English edition).
36.1. {1606E{FRANCE
36.2. FRANCE (or GALLIA, as the Romans called it) now one of the most excellent and greatest kingdoms of Europe, in spite of this was much larger in former times than it is now. For in Iulius Cæsar's time it contained all the Western parts of the main land inhabited and possessed by the Belgæ, Aquitani, Celtæ and Helvetij, bound on the North by the Rhine, on the West by the main ocean, on the South by the Pyrenee mountains, and on the East by the stately Alps. For thus he writes in the first book of his Commentaries on the wars with France: GALLIA est omnis divisa in partes tres: Quarum unam incolunt BELGÆ, aliam AQUITANI, tertiam qui ipsorum lingua CELTÆ, nostra GALLI, appellantur. Gallos ab Aquitanis Garumna flumen, a Belgis Matrona, et Sequana dividit. [that is:] All of FRANCE is divided into three parts, of which one is possessed by the Belgæ, the other by the Aquitani and the third by those people who call themselves in their own language Celtæ, and we in our [language] Galli.
36.3. The Galli (or Gauls) are separated from the Aquitanes by the river Garonne, and from the Belgæ by the Marne and Seine. A little further the same [author] says that GALLIA begins at the river Rhône and is bounded by the Garonne, the ocean and Belgium. Moreover, towards the Sequani and Helvetij it borders on the Rhine, [which] bends somewhat Northwards. BELGIUM begins at the outermost borders of Gallia, and from there it continues along the inner side of the river Rhine. It lies North and East from the rest of Gallia.
36.4. AQUITANIA begins at the river Garonne and from there continues to the Pyrenee mountains and the Spanish seas. It lies to the West and North of the rest of France. Next to this division, there was another one, much larger, extending the bounds of France beyond the Alps, including a good part of Italy, and for that reason it was by the Romans called GALLIA CISALPINA, [that is] France on this side of the Alps, or Italia Gallica, [that is] France in Italy. But about this and similar divisions we have spoken before extensively, and therefore we refrain from repeating them again here.
36.5. And we are not ignorant of how much of this large area here described has now been cut off from the crown of France, and has for many years been governed by various lords and princes. A great part of Gallia Belgica namely Flanders, Brabant, Artois, Limburg and other [parts] belongs to the King of Spain. Holland, Zeeland and the rest of the Low Countries are governed by the states. Switzerland, Cleve, Lorraine, Elsas, Savoy, Piemont and some other provinces are held by the emperor, and are subject to their own princes, and not one foot, for all I know, of Italy beyond the Alps now belongs to the crown or kingdom of France.
36.6. The various shires or provinces of this kingdom are very numerous, of which the most important are these: Boulennois, Ponthieu, Caux, Picardie, Normandy, France, Beausse, Bretaigne, Anjou, Le Maine, Poitou, Limoges, Xantoine, Given, Gascoigne, Perigot, Quercy, Champaigne, Berry, Gastinois, Sologne, Auvergne, Nivernois, Lyon, Charrolois, Bourbonois, Maine, Dauphine, Provence, Languedoc, Blois or Blaisois, Forram, Burgundy, La Franche Comté, Vermandois and a few others mentioned on this map.
36.7. The whole land is generally very fertile, and all in all reasonably pleasant and healthy. And thus they used to say that Lombardy is the garden of Italy, and France is the garden of Europe. Yet some places are more fertile in some commodities than others are. Picardie, Normandy and Languedoc are as excellent for corn as any in all Christianity. Some places yield great store of fruits. some have plenty of wood. In some places flax and hemp grow in great abundance, [whereas] in other places they make as great a commodity of their woad [dye].
36.8. The whole country generally in all places produces much wine, but the best is made in Beausse near Orleans. They have some mines with iron, but many with salt. On which La Noiie says that the corn, wine, salt and wood that is from here exported to foreign countries brings in yearly to the subjects and crown of France twelve hundred thousand pounds of current money. And Jean Bodin confirms that such copious streams of corn, salt and wine flow here, that it is almost impossible to empty them or draw them quite dry. Someone else, a country man of ours, a worthy gentleman of as good a judgment as the best, says that in the province of Limousin there is the best beef, around Orleans the best wines, in Auvergne the best porc, and in Berry the choiciest mutton, and the best store of sheep.
36.9. In France there are twelve bishoprics, and one hundred and four suffrages or bishops. Bodin says that there are in France twenty seven thousand and four hundred parish churches, counting only single cities for a parish. The cities and walled towns in this country are very numerous, but of them all PARIS is the chief one, which excels as much above the rest as the lofty cedar does above the lowest shrubs. And I have heard it said, if my memory does not fail me, that the king of France, being asked by an ambassador how many cities there were in the whole country and kingdom, came up with a large number [of them], and amongst them made no mention at all of Paris. And being asked again why he did not account for that one [Paris] among the rest, answered that Paris was a world by itself.
36.10. This town is situated on the Ile de France on the river Seine, in as pleasant and fertile a place as may be found elsewhere in the whole kingdom. It is a very ancient city, called by Cæsar Lutetia, by Ptolemæus Lucotecia, and by Iulianus in his Misopogonus Leucetia. Zosimus calls it Parisium, and Marcellinus Castellum Parisiorum, [that is] the castle of the Parisians. For this province which they now properly call France or Ile de France was the ancient seat and habitation of the Parisians.
36.11. The river Seine (Sequana) splitting itself into two streams, divides this town into three parts, namely the Bourg on the North side, the University on the South side, and the Ville in the middle, on the isle just mentioned, which seems to be the old town mentioned by Cæsar. For this is what he writes in the seventh book of his Commentaries on the wars in France: Id oppidum (he means Lutetia) Parisiorum, positum in insula fluminis Sequanæ, [that is] Lutetia, the town of the Parisians, is situated on an island in the river Seine. It is, as our learned countryman reports, ten English miles in circumference [measured] by its walls. Its university was founded by Charles the Great in the year of our Lord eight hundred.
36.12. For other details I ask you to turn back to what we have written before in general on France, or in particular to [turn to] the various specific provinces of this country. And next to the authors mentioned before, you may add that learned countryman of ours, who not long ago published a text on this kingdom entitled The view of France}1606E ends here}.
Since the text of the 1608/1612 Italian, 1609/1612/1641 Spanish and 1609/1612 Latin edition conform to the text of Ort 34 rather than to the text provided in the 1606 English edition, this text will be presented below:
36.13. {1608/1612I{France.
36.14. The entire track of land from the river Rhine to the Ocean, the Pyrenee mountains, the Mediterranean sea, and mount Appennine as far as Ancona, the Romans call by one general name, Gallia. For Westwards by the Pyrenee hills it is separated from Spain; North it borders on the {1608/1612I only{Greek}1608/1612I only} French and British Ocean; East the river Rhine and the Alps, down to the Pyrenees at a similar distance separating inner sea and outer sea, South it has a peninsular coast by part of the Mediterranean sea over at Provence. It was called Gallia in recognition of the people's white colour, because the high mountains and the heaven's rigour exclude the heat of the sun from this part. That is the reason that their white bodies do not tan. For which reason the Greeks call them Galatas due to their milk-white colour. For [in Greek lettering] Gala in Greek means what we call milk, from which the Romans have called them Galli. Most of the writers agree with this derivation, yet there are some that scorn it, preferring to suppose that they are called after rain, which in Hebrew is Galah, and in the old British language Glau, as if to say: A most ancient nation, [much] rained upon, and drenched in the very flood, as an ancient people.
36.15. This region of theirs was in old times divided into Gallia Cisalpina and Transalpina. Cisalpina is now called Lombardy, now part of Italy. Transalpina is in fact included within the following five bounds, namely the river Rhine, the ocean, the Pyrenee mountains, the Mediterranean sea, and the Alps. This Gallia Transalpina is by Cæsar in his Commentaries divided into three parts: Belgica, Celtica and Aquitanica. Belgica is surrounded by the ocean and the rivers Rhine, Marne, Seine. They mostly speak Dutch [here], and it is presently called the Low countries. Celtica or Lugdunensis is enclosed by the rivers Garonne, Marne, Seine and Rhône. It is now called France, because the Celtæ were subdued by the Franks from Germany so that finally they were called West Franks, from which the province itself derives its name. Aquitanica, earlier called Aremorica extends from the river Garonne to the ocean and the Pyrenee mountains. To the West and the North it is bounded by that part of the ocean which is called the Bay of Aquitane. Westwards it has Spain, North the province of Lyon, and South the country of Provence. It is now called Gascoigne and its inhabitants differ both in stature and language from the remainder of France.
36.16. These are the ancient borders of the Gauls. However, the country of the French, which today bears the title of a kingdom and is commonly called the kingdom of France, has not such a large size. To the North it is so much smaller as is cut off by an imaginary line from Strasbourg on the Rhine to the harbour of {not in 1609/1612/1641S{Iccium, nowadays}not in 1609/1612/1641S} Calais, and it covers all the land which is contained within this line, the ocean, the Pyrenee mountains, the Mediterranean and the Alps.
36.17. Postellus in his book on the whole world lists the specific provinces of this kingdom in the following manner. In the East it has {not in 1609/1612/1641S{Provence}not in 1609/1612/1641S}, Savoie, Switzerland, Bressia, Bourgogne, Lorraigne, Champagne, Henault, Cleve and Flanders. In its North Picardie, Normandy and Bretaigne. In the West Bretaigne, Angiers, Poitou, Xantoigne and Gascoigne. And in the South Gascoigne, Bearne, Roussillon, Dauphine, Vellay, Forest, Auvergne, Limoges, Perigort and Angoulême. East of Poitou lie the provinces of Bourges, Bourbon, Beaujolais, Lyon, the county of Burgundy, Auxerre, Nivernois, Berry, Tours, Vendôme beyond Anjou, le Beaulse, Gastinois, Valois beyond Sens, and not far off le Perche, Druise and le Mans near Bretaigne.
36.18. This is how these provinces are presently named. But although Postellus includes Savoy, Switzerland, Lorraigne, Henault, Cleve and Flanders among the provinces of France, yet they are now not under the government of this kingdom, for all of them have their own princes, not subject to the crown of France.
36.19. Concerning the French king, Villanovanus reports two remarkable things: first, that in the church of Reims there is a vessel full of oil that never decays, sent from heaven to anoint the kings of France at their coronation. Secondly, that these kings heal the disease called goitre by only touching the affected spot.
36.20. The whole of France is described in a large volume by Robert Cnalis. Read also concerning the same matter Gilbert Cognatus Nozorenus, Iohannes Marius, and Chassanæus in his twelfth book De gloria mundi [about the glory of the world]. Postel in his book about the whole world, Aimon at the beginning of his history of the Franks, Sebastian Münster, Belleforest, Thevet and other describers of the world.
36.21. Discussing this region also, as well as the disposition of its inhabitants, you may learn something from the second book of Laonicus Chalcocondylas of Athens. Of the ancient writers Cæsar surpasses everything. Diodorus Siculus in his fifth book, and Am. Marcellinus in his fifteenth book have many notable things concerning this region. Likewise, Claudius Champierius of Lyon wrote in French a treatise about the first appearance of the main towns in all of France. Symphorianus, his father, discusses the rivers and the miracles of waters and fountains in France. The city of Paris is described in verse by Eustathius à Knobelsdorf, and the city of Lugdunum by Champier}1608/1612I, 1609/1612/1641S & 1609/1612L end here}.