Holinshed Chronicles: England, Scotland, and Ireland. Volume 1, CompleteHolinshed, Raphael
History
Holinshed Chronicles: England, Scotland, and Ireland. Volume 1, Complete
Holinshed, Raphael
Great Britain -- History -- To 1485; Great Britain -- History -- Tudors, 1485-1603
Now to come vnto our christian writers. For though the authorities
alreadie alleged out of the word, are sufficient to confirme my
purpose at the full; yet will I not let to set downe such other notes
as experience hath reuealed, onelie to the end that the reader shall
not thinke the name of giants, with their quantities, and other
circumstances, mentioned in the scriptures, rather to haue some
mysticall interpretation depending vpon them, than that the sense of
the text in this behalfe is to be taken simplie as it speaketh. And
first of all to omit that which Tertullian Lib. 2. de resurrect.
[Sidenote: _De ciuitate Dei lib._ 15. _cap._ 9.]
saith; S. Augustine noteth, how he with other saw the tooth of a man,
wherof he tooke good aduisement, and pronounced in the end that it
would haue made 100. of his owne, or anie other mans that liued in his
[Sidenote: _Iohannes Boccacius._]
time. The like hereof also dooth Iohn Boccace set downe, in the 68.
chapter of his 4. booke, saieng that in the caue of a mountaine, not
far from Drepanum (a towne of Sicilia called Eryx as he gesseth) the
bodie of an exceeding high giant was discouered, thrée of whose teeth
did weigh 100. ounces, which being conuerted into English poise, doth
yeeld eight pound and foure ounces, after twelue ounces to the pound,
that is 33. ounces euerie tooth.
He addeth farther, that the forepart of his scull was able to conteine
manie bushels of wheat, and by the proportion of the bone of his
[Sidenote: A carcase discouered of 200. cubits.]
thigh, the Symmetricians iudged his bodie to be aboue 200. cubits.
Those teeth, scull, and bones, were (and as I thinke yet are, for
ought I know to the contrarie) to be seene in the church of Drepanum
in perpetuall memorie of his greatnesse, whose bodie was found vpon
this occasion. As some digged in the earth to laie the foundation of
an house, the miners happened vpon a great vault, not farre from
Drepanum: whereinto when they were entred, they saw the huge bodie of
a man sitting in the caue, of whose greatnesse they were so afraid,
that they ranne awaie, and made an outcrie in the citie, how there sat
a man in such a place, so great as an hill: the people hearing the
newes, ran out with clubs and weapons, as if they should haue gone
vnto a foughten field, and 300. of them entring into the caue, they
foorthwith saw that he was dead, and yet sat as if he had been aliue,
hauing a staffe in his hand, compared by mine author vnto the mast of
a tall ship, which being touched fell by and by to dust, sauing the
nether end betwéene his hand and the ground, whose hollownesse was
filled with 1500. pound weight of lead, to beare vp his arme that it
should not fall in péeces: neuerthelesse, his bodie also being touched
fell likewise into dust, sauing three of his aforesaid teeth, the
forepart of his scull, and one of his thigh bones, which are reserued
to be séene of such as will hardlie beleeue these reports.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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