Linen with them over and above your bargain Hence none of the meanest things to be seen in Italy, are the Fondaries or Stilling Houses of the Great Duke of Florence, the Speciary or Apothecaries Shops of the Dominicans of S. Marco, and of the Augustins of S. Spirito in Florence; of the Roman College, and of the Minimes of Trinita de Monte in Rome: where even death itself would find a cure in nature, if it were not a curse from the Author of Nature. In fine, it excels in all kind of provisions either for dyet or sport; and I have seen in Rome whole cartloads of Wild Boars and Venison brought in at once to be sold in the Market ; and above threescore Hares in Florence brought in, in one day, by the two Companies of Hunters, the Piacevoli and Piatelli, on a general Hunting day.
An Objection against ItalyYet after all this, some cry out against Italy, for being too hot ; and paint us out its Air as an unwholesome Pestilential Air ; its Sun, as an angry Comet, whose beams are all pointed with Plagues and Fevers ; and the Country itself, as a place where starving is the only way to live in health ; where Men eat by Method and Art ; where you must carry your body steadily, or else spill your life ; and where there are so many Provincial Sicknesses and Diseases; as the Catarrhs of Genoa, the Gout of Milan, the Haemorroids of Venice, the Falling Sickness of Florence, the Fevers of Rome, and the Goistre of Piedmont.
AnswerFor my part, when I am told, that there were in Pliny’s time, fourteen millions of Men inItaly:
