SECTIO QUARTA
[Sidenote: Kranzius. Munsterus.] Tam grandis Insula, vt populos multos contineat. Item, Zieglerus. Situs Insulæ extenditur inter austrum & boream ducentorum prope Schænorum longitudine.
Grandis.) Wilstenius quidam, rector Scholæ 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 Islandiæ.] Nostræ verò Insulæ ambitus etsi nobis non est exactè cognitus, tamen vetus & constans opinio, & apud nostrates recepta 144. milliaria numerat per duodecim videlicet promontoria Islandiæ insigniora, quæ singula 12. inter se milliaribus distent, aut circiter, quæ collecta prædictam summam ostendunt.
Populos multos.) Gysserus quidam, circa annum Domini 1090, Episcopus Schalholtensts in Islandia, omnes Insulæ colonos seu rusticos qui tantas facultates possiderent, vt regi tributum soluere tenerentur (reliquis pauperibus cum foeminis & promiscuo vulgo omissis) lustrari curauit, reperítque in parte Insulæ 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.]