Can any of your readers furnish a list of the different editions of Olaus Magnus? I have lately met with a curious one entitled Historia delle Gente et della Natura delle Cose Settentrionali, da Olao Magno Gotho Arcivescovo di Vpsala nel Regno di Suezia e Gozia, descritta in XXII Libri. Tradotta in Lingua Toscana. In Vinegia, 1565. This edition, in folio, contains a very interesting old map of Scandinavia, and a profusion of little cuts or engravings, representing men, animals, gods, mountains, weapons, religious rites, natural wonders, and everything relating to the people and the country that could be conceived or gathered together. Is there any English translation of Olaus Magnus?
Is there any English translation of Jornandes' Histoire Générale des Goths? It is full of curious matter. The French edition of 1603 gives the following accounts of the midnight sun:—
"Diverses nations ne laissent pas d'habiter ces contrées" (Scanzia or Scandinavia). "Ptolomée en nomme sept principales. Celle qui s'appelle Adogit, et qui est la plus reculée vers le Nord, voit (dit on) durant l'Esté le Soleil rouler l'horizon quarante jours sans se coucher; mais aussi pendant l'Hyver, elle est privée de sa lumière un pareil espace de temps, payant ainsi par le long ennui que lui cause l'absence de cet Astre, la joye que sa longue présence lui avoit fait ressentir."
There is a little old book called Histoire des Intrigues Galantes de la Reine Christine de Suède et de sa Cour, pendant son sejour à Rome. A Amsterdam, 1697. It opens thus:
"Rome, qui est le centre de la religion, est aussi le Théâtre des plus belles Comédies du Monde:"
and after giving various accounts, personal and incidental, of her mercurial majesty, and of her pilgrimage to Rome, recites the following epigram on her first intrigue there, which, to give due precedence to the church, happened to be with a Cardinal, named Azolin:—
"Mais Azolin dans Rome
Sceut charmer ses ennuis,
Elle eût sans ce grand homme