Tigranes King of Armenia, when he set up the great Tigranocerta enforced a great number of gentlemen and honourable persons, with others of great wealth and substance, to remove themselves thither with all their goods whatsoever, sending forth a solemn proclamation withal that what goods soever were not brought thither should be confiscate clean.
And this is the cause that Venice in short time increased so notably in her beginning. For they that fled out of the countries there adjoining into the islands where Venice is miraculously seated, as it were, were noble personages and rich, and thither did they carry with them all their wealth and substance, with the which, giving themselves through the opportunity of that gulf to navigation and to traffic, they became within a while owners and masters of the city and of the islands thereunto adjoining; and with their wealth and riches they easily ennobled the country with magnificent and gorgeous buildings, and with inestimable treasure, and in the end brought it to that greatness and power in which we do both see it and admire it at this present.
11. Of the residency of the prince
For the very selfsame causes we have a little before declared in the chapter of dominion and power, it doth infinitely avail to the ma g and making cities great and populous the residency of the prince therein, according to the greatness of whose empire she doth increase. For where the prince is resident there also the parliaments are held, and the supreme place of justice is there kept. All matters of importance have recourse to that place, all princes and all persons of account, ambassadors of princes and of commonwealths, and all agents of cities that are subject make their repair thither; all such as aspire and thirst after offices and honours run thither amain with emulation and disdain at others. Thither are the revenues brought that pertain unto the state, and there are they disposed out again. By all which means cities must needs increase apace it may easily be conceived by the examples, in a matter, of all the cities of importance and of name.
The ancientest kingdom was that of Egypt, whose princes kept their court partly in Thebes and partly in Memphis, by means whereof those two cities grew to mighty greatness and to beautiful and sumptuous buildings. Forasmuch as Thebes (which Homer calls poetically the City of a Hundred Gates) was in circuit (as Diodorus writeth) seventeen miles about, and was beautiful with proud and stately buildings both public and private, and also full of people. And Memphis was but little less.
In after ages, other kings succeeding (which were called Ptolemies) they kept their court in Alexandria, which did by that means mightily increase in buildings, in people, in reverent reputation taken of it, and in inestimable wealth and riches; and the other two cities aforesaid, that by the ruin of that kingdom falling first under the Chaldeans and afterward under the Persians were exceedingly decayed, are now utterly defaced.
The Sultans after that forsaking Alexandria drew themselves to Cairo which, even for this very cause became (within a little time to speak of) a city so populous as it hath gotten, not without good cause, the name of the Great Cairo. But the Sultans, because they thought themselves not to be secure in respect of the innumerable multitude, if so great a people should perchance rise up in arms against them, divided it with large and many ditches filled full of water, so that it might appear not one city alone but many little towns united and joined together. At this day it is divided into three towns a little mile distant one from another, whose names are these: Bulak, old Cairo and new Cairo. It is said there are sixteen thousand or (as Ariosto writeth) eighteen thousand great streets in it, that are every night shut up with iron gates. It may be eight miles about, within which compass, for that these people dwell not so at large nor so commodiously for ease as we do, but for the most part within the ground, stowed up as it were, and crowded and thrust together, there is such an infinite multitude of them as they cannot be numbered.
The plague, in a matter, never leaveth them, but every seventh year they feel it most exceedingly. And if it dispatch not out of the way above three hundred thousand, they count it but a flea-bite. In the time of the Sultans that city was accounted to stand to health when as there died not in it above a thousand persons in a day. And let this suffice that I have said of Cairo, which is of so great a fame in the world at this day.
In Assyria, the kings made their residence in Nineveh, whose circuit was four hundred and eighty furlongs about, which comes to threescore miles. And in length it was (as Diodorus writeth) one hundred and fifty furlongs. The suburbs thereof no doubt must needs besides that be very large. For the Scripture affirmeth that Nineveh was great, three days journey to pass it over. Diodorus writeth, there was never any city after that set up of so great a circuit and of so huge a greatness. For the height of the walls was an hundred foot, the breadth able to contain three carts abreast together, towers in the walls a thousand and five hundred, in height an hundred foot, as Vives saith.
The residence of the kings of Chaldea was in Babylon. This city was in compass four hundred and fourscore furlongs, so writes Herodotus. Her walls were wide fifty cubits, high two hundred and more. Aristotle maketh it much greater, for he writes that it was said in his time that when Babylon was taken it was three days ere one part took knowledge of the conquest. The people thereof were such a number as they durst offer battle unto Cyrus, the greatest and the mightiest king for power that ever was of Persia. Semiramis did build it, but Nebuchadnezzar did mightily increase it. When it was ruinated afterward at the coming in of the Scythians and other people in those countries, it was re-edified by one Bugiasar Emperor of the Saracens who spent upon it eighteen millions of gold. Jovius writeth that even at this day it is greater than Rome, if you respect the compass of the ancient walls; but there are not only woods to hunt in and fields for tillage, but also orchards and large gardens in it.
The kings of Media made their residence in Ecbatana, the kings of Persia in Persepolis, of whose greatness there is no other argument than conjecture. In our time the kings of Persia have made their residence in Tauris, and as their empire is not so great as it hath been, so also neither is their city of the greatest. It is in compass, for all that, about sixteen miles, yea, some say more. It is also very long, and hath many gardens in it, but it is without any wall, a thing common, in a matter, to all the cities in Persia.
In Tartary and in the Oriental Asia, through the power of those great princes, are far greater cities than in any parts else in the world. The Tartars have at this day two great empires, whereof the one is of the Mongolian Tartars, the other of the Cathayans. The Mongolian Tartars have in our time incredibly enlarged their dominion, for Mahommed their prince, not contented with his ancient confines, subdued not many years since, in a matter, all that ever lieth between Ganges and Indus. The chief city of Mogora is Samarkand, which was incredibly enriched by the great Tamburlane with the spoils of all Asia, where like an horrible tempest or deadly raging flood he threw down to the ground the most ancient and worthiest cities, and carried from thence their wealth and riches. And to speak of none other, he only took from Damascus eight thousand camels laden with rich spoils and choicest movable goods. This city hath been of such greatness and power that in some ancient reports we read it made out forty thousand horse. But at this day it is not of such magnificency and greatness, through the dominion of the empire. For as after the death of the great Tamburlane it was suddenly divided into many parts by his four sons, so is it likewise in our time divided amongst the sons of Mahommed, who hath last of all subdued Cambay.
And forasmuch as I have made mention of Cambay I must tell you there are in that kingdom two memorable cities: the one is Cambay and the other is called Chitor. Cambay is of such greatness that it hath gotten the name of a province. Some write that it doth contain one hundred and fifty thousand houses; to the which allow, as commonly the matter is, to every house five persons and it will then come to little less than eight hundred thousand inhabitants. But some make it to be much less. Howbeit, in any sort howsoever it is a most famous city, the chiefest of a most rich kingdom, and the seat of a most mighty king, that brought to the enterprise against Mahommed King of the Mongols five hundred thousand footmen and a hundred and fifty thousand horsemen, whereof thirty thousand were armed after the matter of our men-at-arms. Chitor is twelve miles about, and is a city so magnificent of buildings, so beautiful for goodly streets and so full of delights and pleasures that few other cities do come near it, and it is for that cause called by the people that inhabit there, the Shadow of the Heavens. It hath been in our time the city of residency of the Queen Crementina, who, because she rebelled from the said king of Cambay, was with main force deprived thereof in the year 1536.
The emperor of the Cathayan Tartars (commonly called the Great Cham) deriveth himself from the great Genghis, who was the first that three years agone came out of Scythia Asiatica with a valiant expedition and power of arms, and made the name of the Tartars famous. For he subdued China and made a great part of India tributary unto him; he wasted Persia, and made Asia to tremble. The successors of this great prince made their residence in the city of Cambaluc, a city no less magnificent than great, for it is said it is in compass twenty-eight miles, besides the suburbs, and that it is of such traffic and commerce as besides other sorts of merchandise there are every year brought into it very near a thousand carts, all ln with silk that come from China. Whereupon a man may guess both the greatness of the trades, the wealth of the merchandise, the variety of the artificers and arts, the multitude of people, the pomp, the magnificence, the pleasure and the bravery of the inhabitants thereof.
But let us now come to China. There is not in all the world a kingdom (I speak of united and entire kingdoms) that is either greater, or more populous, or more rich, or more abounding in all good things, or that hath more ages lasted and endured than that famous and renowned kingdom of China. Hereof it grows that the cities wherein their kings have made their residence have ever been the greatest that have been in the world. And those are Suntien, Anchin and Panchin. Suntien (by so much as I can learn out of the undoubted testimonies of other men) is the most ancient and the chiefest and the principallest of a certain province which is called Kinsay, by which name they commonly call the same city.* It is seated as it were in the extremest parts almost of the east, in a mighty great lake that is drawn out of the four princely rivers that fall there into it, whereof the greatest is called Pulisanghin. The lake is full of little islands which, for the gallantness of the site, the freshness of the air and sweetness of the gardens are very delightful without measure. His banks are tapestried with verdure, mantled with trees, watered with clear running brooks and many springs, and adorned with magnificent and stately palaces. This lake in his greatest breadth is four leagues wide at the mouth of the river twenty-eight miles, or thereabout. In circuit it is an hundred miles about, with large passages both by water and by land. The streets thereof are all of them paved gallantly with stone, and beautified with very fair benches or seats to sit upon. The chattels of most account are haply fifteen, with bridges over them so stately to behold that ships under all their sails pass under them. The greatest of these channels cutteth through the midst, as it were, of the city and is a mile wide, a little more or less, with fourscore bridges upon it; a sight, no question, that doth exceed all other.
I should be too long if I should here declare all that might be said of the greatness of the walks and galleries, of the magnificent and stately buildings, of the beauty of the streets, of the innumerable multitude of inhabitants, of the infinite concourse of merchandise, of the inestimable number of ships and vessels, some inlaid with ebony and some with ivory, and chequered some with gold and some with silver, of the incomparable riches that come in thither and are carried out continually; to be short, of the delights and pleasures whereof this city doth so exceedingly abound as it deserves to be called proud Suntien. And yet the other two cites Panchin and Anchin are never a whit less than this is.
But forasmuch as we have made mention of China, I think it not amiss in this place to remember the greatness of some other of her cities, according to the relations we receive in these days. Canton, then (which is the most known, though not the greatest) the Portuguese that have had much commerce thither these many years confess it is greater than Lisbon, which yet is the greatest city that is in Europe except Constantinople and Paris. Sanchieo is said to be three times greater than Seville, so that since Seville is six miles in compass Sanchieo must needs be eighteen miles about. They also say Huchou exceeds them both in greatness. Chinchew, although it be of the meaner sort, the Fathers of the Order of St. Augustine who saw it do judge that city to contain threescore and ten thousand houses.
These things I here deliver ought to be not thought by any man to be incredible. For (besides that Marco Polo in his relations affirmeth far greater things) these things I speak are in these days approved to be most true by the intelligences we do receive continually both of secular and religious persons, as also by all the nation of the Portuguese. So as he that will deny it shall show himself a fool. But for the satisfaction of the reader I will not spare to search out the very reasons how it comes to pass that China is so populous and full of such admirable cities.
Let us then suppose that either by the goodness of the heavens or by the secret influence of the stars to us unknown, or for some other reasons else whatsoever they be, that part of the world that is oriental unto us hath more virtue, I know not what, in the producing of things than the West. Hereof it proceedeth that a number of excellent things grow in these happy counties of which others are utterly destitute and void, as cinnamon, nutmegs, cloves, pepper, camphor, sandalwood, incense, aloes, the Indian nuts, and such other like. Moreover the things that are common unto both, to the East, I say, and the West, they are generally much more perfect in the East than the West; as for proof thereof, the pearls of the West in comparison of the East are as it were lead to silver. And likewise the bezoar that is brought from the Indies is a great deal better far than the bezoar that comes from Peru.
Now China comes the nearest to the East of any part of the world, and therefore doth she enjoy all those perfections that are attributed to the East. And first the air (which of all things importeth to the life of man so much as nothing more) is very temperate; whereunto the nearness of the sea addeth a great help, which embraceth, as it were, with arms cast abra great part thereof, and looks it in the face with a cheerful aspect, and with a thousand creeks and gulfs penetrateth far within the very province.
Next, that the country is for the most part very plain and of nature very apt to produce not only things necessary for the use and sustenance of the life of man but also all sorts of dainty thing for man's delight and pleasure. The hills and mountains are perpetually arrayed with trees of all sorts, some wild and some fruitful; the plains manured, tilled and sown with rice, barley, wheat, peas and beans; the gardens, besides our common sorts of fruits, do yield most sweet melons, most delicate plums, most excellent figs, pomecitrons and oranges of divers forms and excellent taste.
They have also an herb out of which they press a delicate juice which serves them for drink instead of wine. It also preserves their health and frees them from all those evils that the immoderate use of wine doth breed unto us.
They also abound in cattle, in sheep, in fowl, in deer, in wool, in rich skins, cotton, linen, and in infinite store of silk. There are mines of gold and silver and of excellent iron. There are most precious pearls. There is abundance of sugar, honey, rhubarb, camphor, red lead, w musk and aloes, and the porcelain earth is known nowhere but there.
More than this, the rivers and the waters of all sorts run gallantly through all those counties with an unspeakable profit and commodity for navigation and tillage. And the waters are as plentiful of fish as the land is of fruits, for the rivers and the seas yield thereof an infinite abundance.
Unto this so great a fertility and yield both of the land and water there is joined an incredible culture of both these elements. And that proceedeth out of two causes, whereof the one dependeth upon the inestimable multitude of the inhabitants (for it is thought that China doth contain more than threescore millions of souls) and the other consisteth in the extreme diligence and pains that is taken as well of private persons in the tillage of their grounds and well husbanding their farms, as also the magistrates that suffer not a man to lead an idle life at home. So that there is not a little scrap of ground that is not husbandly and very well manured.
Now for their mechanical arts, should I commit them here to silence whenas there is not a country in the world where they do more flourish both for variety and for excellence of skill and workmanship? Which proceedeth also out of two causes, whereof the one I have commended before, in that idleness is everywhere forbidden there, and every man compelled to work; no man suffered to be idle, no, not the blind nor the lame nor the maimed, if they be not altogether impotent and weak. And the women also, by a law of Wu-ti King of China, are bound to exercise their father' s trades and arts, and how noble or great soever they be they must at least attend their distaff and their needle. The other cause is that the sons must of necessity follow their father's mysteries, so that hereupon it comes that artificers are infinite and that children as well boys as girls, even in their infancy, can skill to work, and that arts are brought unto most excellent and high perfection.
They suffer not anything to go to loss. With the dung of the bulls and oxen and other cattle they use to feed fish; and of the bones of dogs and other beasts they make many and divers carved and engraven works, as we do make of ivory. Of rags and clouts they make paper; to be short, such is the plenty and variety of the fruits of the earth and of man's industry and labour, as they have no need of foreign help to bring them anything. For they give away a great quantity of their own to foreign countries. And (to speak of no things else) the quantity of silk that is carried out of China is almost not credible. A thousand quintals of silk are yearly carried thence for the Portuguese Indies; for the Philippines they lade out fifteen ships. There are carried out to Japan an inestimable sum, and unto Cathay as great a quantity as you may guess by that we have before declared is yearly carried thence to Cambaluc. And they sell their works and their labours (by reason of the infinite store that is made) so cheap and at so easy price as the merchants of Nova Hispania that trade unto the Philippines to make their marts (unto which place the Chinese themselves do traffic) do wonder at it much. By means whereof the traffic with the Philippines falls out to be rather hurtful than profitable unto the King of Spain. For the benefit of the cheapness of things is it that makes the people of Mexico (who heretofore have used to fetch their commodities from Spain) to fetch them at the Philippines. But the King of Spain, for the desire he hath to win unto familiarity and love, and by that means to draw to our Christian faith and to the bosom of the Catholic Church, those people that are wrapt in the horrible darkness of idolaties, esteemeth not a whit of his loss, so he may gain their souls to God.
By these things I have declared it appeareth plain that China hath the means partly by the benefit of nature and partly by the industry and art of man to sustain an infinite sight of people. And that for that cause it is credible enough that it becometh so populous a country as hath been said. And I affirm this much more unto it, that it is necessary it should be so for two reasons: the one, for that it is not lawful for the King of China to make war to get new counties but only to defend his own, and thereupon it must ensue that he enjoyeth in a manner a perpetual peace. And what is there more to be desired or wished than peace? What thing can be more profitable than peace? My other reason is, for that it is not lawful for any of the Chinese to go out of their Country without leave or licence of the magistrates, so that, the number of persons continually increasing and abiding still at home, it is of necessity that the number of people do become inestimable, and of consequence the cities exceeding great, the towns infinite and that China itself should rather, in a matter, be but one body and but one city.
To say the truth, we Italians do flatter ourselves too much, and do admire too partially those things that do concern ourselves, especially when we will prefer Italy and her cities beyond all the rest in the world. The and figure of Italy is long and strait, divided withal in the midst with the Apennine Hills. And the paucity and rareness of navigable rivers doth not bear it that there can be very great and populous cities in it. I will not spare to say that her rivers are but little brooks in comparison of Ganges, Menam, Mekong and the rest, and that the Tyrrhenian and the Adriatic Seas are but gullets in respect of the ocean. And of consequence our trade and traffic is but poor in respect of the marts and fairs of Canton, Malacca, Calicut, Ormuz, Lisbon, Seville and other cities that bound upon the ocean.
Let us add to the aforesaid that the difference and enmity between the Mohammedans and us depriveth us in a manner of the commerce of Africa, and of the most part of the trade of the Levant. Again, the chiefest parts of Italy, that is, the Kingdom of Naples and the Dukedom of Milan are subject to the King of Spain. The other states are mean, and mean also the chiefest of their cities. But it is time we now return from whence we have digressed long.
The residence of princes is so powerful and so mighty as it alone is sufficient enough to set up and form a city at a trice. In Ethiopia (Francis Alvarez writeth) there is not a town (although the country be very large) that containeth above a thousand and six hundred houses, and that of this greatness there are but few. For all that the king (called by them the Great Negus, and falsely by us the Prester John) who hath no settled residence representeth with his only court a mighty great city, forasmuch as wherever he be he shadoweth with an innumerable sight of tents and pavilions many miles of the country.
In Asia, the cities of account have been all of them the seats of princes: Damascus, Antioch, Ankara, Trebizond, Busra and Jerusalem. But let us pass over into Europe. The translating of the imperial seat hed the glory of Rome and made Constantinople great, which is maintained in her greatness and majesty with the residence of the Great Turk.
This city standeth in the fairest, the best and most commodious site that is in the world. It is seated in Europe, but Asia is not from it above four hundred paces. It commandeth two seas, the Euxine and Propontis. The Euxine Sea compasseth two thousand and seven hundred miles. The Propontis stretcheth more than two hundred miles, even till it join with the Archipelago.
The weather cannot be so foul, nor so stormy, nor so blustering as it can hinder in a matter the ships from coming with their goods to that same magnificent and gallant city in either of those two seas. If this city had a royal and a navigable river it would lack nothing. It is thirteen miles about and this circuit containeth about seven hundred thousand persons. But the plague makes a mighty slaughter every third year amongst them. But to say truth, seldom or never is that city free of the plague. And hereupon is offered a good matter worthy to be considered, how it comes to pass that that same scourge toucheth it so notably every third year like a tertian ague (as in Cairo it cometh every seventh), especially because that city is seated in a most healthful place. But I will put off this speculation to another time, or leave it to be discussed by wits more exercised therein than mine.
There are within Constantinople seven hills; near the seaside towards the east there is the seraglio of the Great Turk, whose walls are in compass three miles; there is an arsenal consisting of more than one hundred arches to lay their ships in. To conclude, the city is for the beauty of the site, for the opportunity of the ports, for the commodity of the sea, for the multitude of the inhabitants, for the greatness of the traffic, for the residence of the Great Turk, so conspicuous and so gallant, as without doubt amongst the cities of Europe the chiefest place is due to it. For the very court alone of that prince maintaineth of horsemen and of footmen not less than thirty thousand very well appointed. In Africa, Algiers, lately become the Metropolitan of a great state, is now by that means grown very populous. Tlemsen when it flourished contained sixteen thousand households, Tunis nine thousand, Morocco an hundred thousand, Fez, which is at this day the seat of the mighty King of Africa, containeth threescore and five thousand.
Amongst the kingdoms of Christendom (I speak of the united, and of one body) the greatest, the richest and most populous is France. For it containeth twenty-seven thousand parishes, including Paris in them. And the country hath above fifteen millions of people in it. It is also so fertile through the benefit of nature, so rich through the industry of the people, as it envieth not any other country. The residence of the kings of so mighty a kingdom hath for a long time hitherto been kept at Paris, by the means whereof Paris is become the greatest city of Christendom. It is in compass twelve miles, and containeth therein about four hundred and fifty thousand persons, and feedeth them with such plenty of victuals and with such abundance of all delicate and dainty things as he that hath not seen it cannot by any means imagine it.
The kingdoms of England, of Naples, of Portugal and of Bohemia, the earldom of Flanders and the dukedom of Milan are states, in a manner, alike of greatness and of power; so that the cities wherein the princes of those same kingdoms have at any time made their residence have been in a matter also alike, as London, Naples, Lisbon, Prague, Milan and Ghent, which have each of them asunder more or less an hundred and threescore thousand persons in them. But Lisbon is indeed somewhat larger than the rest, by means of the commerce and traffic of Ethiopia, India and Brazil, as likewise London is by means of the wars and troubles in the Low Countries. And Naples is within these thirty years grown as great again as it was.
In Spain there is not a city of any such greatness, partly because it hath been till now of late divided into divers little kingdoms, and partly because through want of navigable rivers it cannot bring so great a quantity of food and victual into one place as might maintain therein an extraordinary number of people. The cities of most magnificency and of greatest reputation are those where the ancient kings and princes held their seats, as Barcelona, Saragossa, Valencia, Cordova, Toledo, Burgos, Leon, all honourable cities and populous enough, but yet such as pass not the second rank of the cities of Italy.
Over and besides the rest there is Granada, where a long time the Moors have reigned and adorned the same with many rich and goodly buildings. It is situated part upon the hills and part upon the plain. The hilly part consisteth of three hills divided each from other. It aboundeth of water of all sorts, with the which is watered a great part of her pleasant and goodly country, which is by the means thereof so well inhabited and manured as none can be more.
Seville is increased mightily since the discovery of the New World, for thither come the fleets that bring unto them yearly so much treasure as cannot be esteemed. It is in compass about six miles. It containeth fourscore thousand persons and above. It is situated on the left shore of the river Betis, which some call Guadalquivir. It is beautified with fair and goodly churches, and with magnificent and gorgeous palaces and buildings. The country there about it is as fertile as it is pleasant.
Valladolid is not a city, but for all that it may compare with the noblest cities in Spain, and that by reason of the residence the King of Spain hath long time made there in it, as Madrid is at this day much increased and continually increaseth by the court that King Philip keepeth there. Which is of such efficacy and power as although the country be neither plentiful nor pleasant it doth yet draw such a number of people to it as it hath made that place, of a village, one of the most populous places now of Spain.
Cracow and Vilna are the most populous cities of Poland. The reason is because Cracow was the seat of the Duke of Poland and Vilna the seat of the great Duke of Lithuania.
In the Empire of the Muscovites there are three great and famous cities, Vladimir, the great Novgorod, and Moscow, which have gotten their reputation because they have been all three of them the seats of great dukes and princes of great dominions. The most renowned of them at this day is Moscow, through the residence the Duke holdeth there. It is in length five miles, but not so wide. There is unto it a very great castle that serves for a court and palace to that same prince, and it is so populous that some have reckoned it amongst the four cities of the first and chiefest ranks of Europe, which to their judgments are Moscow itself, Constantinople, Paris and Lisbon.
In Sicily, in ancient times past the greatest city there was Syracuse which, as Cicero doth write, consisted of four parts divided asunder, which might be said to be four cities. And the cause of her greatness was the residence of the kings, or of the tyrants (as they were termed in times past), call them as you will. But when the commerce with the Africans did fail them afterward, through the deluge of the infidels, and that the royal seat was removed to Palermo, Palermo did then increase apace her glory and Syracuse did lose as fast her lustre.
Palermo is a city equal to the cities of the second rank of Italy, beautified with rich temples and magnificent palaces, with divers relics and goodly buildings made by the Saracens. But two things chiefly made of late are worthiest to be noted. The one is the street made throughout the whole city, which for straightness, breadth, length and beautifulness of buildings is such as I know not in what city of Italy a man should find the like. The other is the pier, edified with an inestimable expense and charge, by the benefit whereof the city hath a very large and spacious port: a work in truth worthy of the Romans' magnanimity.
But what mean I to wander through other parts of the world to show how much it doth import the greatness of a city to residence and abode of a prince therein? Rome, whose majesty exceeded all the world, would she not be more like a desert than a city if the Pope held not his residence therein? If the Pope, with the greatness of his court and with the concourse of ambassadors, of prelates and of princes did not ennoble it and make it great? If with an infinite number of people that serve both him and his ministers he did not replenish and fill the city? If with magnificent buildings, conduits, fountains and streets it were not gloriously adorned? If amongst so many rich and stately works, belonging as well to God's glory as the service of the commonwealth he spent not there a great part of the revenues of the Church? And in a word, if with all these means he did not draw and entertain withal such a number of merchants, tradesmen, shopkeepers, artificers, workmen, and such a multitude of people, for labour and for service?
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