AMong the many effects which this great mother and worke-mistris Nature hath produced in this vnder-world, the ex­cessiue tallnes of Giants hath euer held one of the highest rancks vpon the Theater of wonders. Euen the holy Scrip­ture in sondry places dtoh beare them witnes; And the historiographers in the description of their so huge Collosses & other relations, which the Poets in their Giganto-machies do show the admiration wherein they were had. As also the very Etimology of their name doth inferr the same (for Giant signifieth a Son of the Earth) As though it were not of the nature & possibility of men to be gett such creatures. Hence the verse Iuuenal. Sat. 4.

Seemes to inferre an vncouth and extraordinary linage, as proceeding straungely from the Earth. [Page 2] which is also the cause that som who for their hie for­tunes thought scorne to haue so low a birth, did boldy auouch that their Ancestors were those Angels, which the Greekes & Latines call Demones and Genii: as if it Lactant. Fir. lib. 10. cap. 15. had ben impossible to Nature to haue brought forth such high blood as they thought to be. Or that that great worke-mistrisse should not haue bene able to haue imparted them, both an extreame heate & moi­sture togither, the true causes of this excessiue tallnes; & to bring this sentence to effect,

It is most true then, that there haue ben Giants in this world, & that they haue had men for their fathers, not only before, but also long after the floud. Other­wise from whence should Goliath haue come? from whence Og King of Basan? the first being 6. cubits & a spanne high, & the bed of the other 9. cubits long; the cubit according to the Greekes being 2. foote, & to the Latines one foote & a half, from whence all those Amachins in respect of which the Israelits did seeme but as grashoppers? And from whence all the rest mentioned all along the Scriptures?

Do not the fathers also & almost al Historiographers testify with one consent against all hard beleeuers, that in all ages, since at one time or other, there haue ben men of such great & extraordinary height?

S. Austen rehearseth that a little before the Gothes affliction there was at Rome a woman-Giant whose [Page 3] Parents did not exceede the common stature. Plutarch in vita Sertorii. 3.

Plutarch (the life & soule of truth & Antiquity) wri­teth that Sertorius being entred the Towne of Tingis in Africk, and finding there a mighty, long and huge graue, where then Antheus told him that that famous Antheus of Libia was buried; a hard beleeuer, as ma­ny others, vpon meere incredulity caused it to be o­pened, where finding indeed a mans body full 30. cu­bits long, with much wonder & solemnity did sacri­fice vnto it peace-offrings, & religiously caused it to be shutt againe.

Pliny, most curious in the inquiry of naturall things, saith that in old Creta, now of later yeares called Candia, a great earthquake hauing turned vp a whole mountaine, there vnder was found a dead coarse 46. cubits long, which some did auouch to be the body of Arion.

Philostratus makes mention of 3. others of the same length, one of whose skulls he could not fill with 72. pints of Candia. Some others haue sayd that one of them was 30. cubits high, the second 22. & the third 12. But because he doth only describe that which was found in the Iland of Cos which he saith was 18. foote long, not otherwise medling with that of Imbros, nor of Lemnos found by Menocrates, I am contented with the most verified things.

Finally all historians make report of an infinite num­ber of such other great bodies as of that of Orestes being 7. cubits long which was digged vp by the cō ­maundement of the Oracle; That of whome there are yet some bones to be seen at Valence; As also of a liue woman, which Zonaras saith was a long cubit higher [Page 4] then any of the tallest men of her time. And specially of the Emperor Maximinus, which (as saith Iulius Capitolinus in his life, according to Codrus, did vse his wiues bracelett as a ring to his finger; pulld and drew whole coaches & carts loaden after him, broke & bruysed to dust pouder a Topase between his fin­gers, eate at his meales 50. & 60. pound of flesh, dranke a certaine measure full, called Amphora Capitolina which is no lesse then the eight part of an Hogs-head; & did wearie out 20. 25. & 30. souldiers in wrestling, & beat downe to the ground ten of them at once, with many such & greater deedes that cannot but argue an extraordinary strenght & bignes.

And if we will giue credit vnto Virgil in that great peece of strength he doth attribute to Turnus in his combat against Aeneas, which yet is not likely he would haue fained to grossely, but that he had either read, heard, or seen the like, you may see in the fo­lowing verses, that he alone pulld out of the ground a huge stone & cast it at his enemie, which hardly 12. other men could haue stirrd or lifted vp.

I should neuer end if I would go from time to time relating euery particular which is found in the stories, about Giants. One only, & the same now in hand, (belonging to the King of France, which for some spe­ciall causes he hath most graciously lent to the Printer & bearer hereof) being now in England, is to be seen, as it hath ben already thorough most Protestant Countryes, for a present & ready ey-witnes vnrepro­uable of what aboue we haue sayd.

The same bones Monsieur de Langon, (a worthy Gentleman of Daufine in France) found in a Tombe [Page 5] which lay in a peece of ground of his, called to this day and of olde Giants-ground, where he had occa­sion of building, & therfore of digging, where in by some Tombe was accomplished the Profery of Virgil,

Gradiáque effossis mirabitur ossa sepulchris.

The tombe of these bones, 30. foote long was found some 17 or 18. foote deepe vnder the ground, hard by an old Castle in times past called Chaumont, now Langon, neere a little hillock; And the bones within were some putrified by reason of a certain slow spring which was found there, & what bones soeuer the water or moisture did touch, became as hard as stone, therfore as heauy. Some are yet naturally light and worme-eaten as commonly olde bones are. Some altogether perisht, and turned to dust. But by the prin­cipal peeces that are heere, which are no lesse then 200. waight (the rest being to heauy to carry easily vp and downe) the bones of the thigh and legg sett toge­ther being full 9. foote long, without neither the foot nor the ioint; wherby it may easily be perceiued, that (what soeuer the others were, either Orion of 46. foote, or Antheus of 30.) this our Giant could be no lesse, at the very least then [...]6. foot high; Which yet doth suffice ouer & aboue to rauish with admiration, such as shall see those limbs of his.

For his teeth, whereas S. Austen saith he saw one vpon the sea shore at Vtica, which was a hundred times greater then any of our common ones; I thinke I may concurre to double that number in those we haue 101. hands, to show, whereupon euery body may imagine what an ouen he had for a mouth, what a gulfe for his belly.

[Page 6] And that I may not longer stand vpon euery peece we haue; whereof the beholders shal be more sure & content to trust their owne eyes, then my describing; Ile tell you but a word of the thicknes of his verte­bres, wherby those that haue euen any superficiall skill in Anatomy may easily iudge the whole dimen­sion of our Giant, (according to the proportion of his legge and thigh aforesaid) to haue ben aboue 25. foot, euery one of his vertebres being almost half a footlong, and the number of them in euery man 28. besides those 5. which are called dissimilitudinary, whereupon I durst almost say, he was very neere the whole length of the Tombe it selfe.

But that which is no lesse to be noted then his ex­traordinary height, is his owne name, ranck and qua­lity thus found inscribed vpon his Tombe, THEVTO­BOCVS REX, for he indeed was a King or at least one of the Kings, of that famous Army of Theutons, Tigurines, Ambruns and Cimbrians, which Marius defeated vpon the borders of Fraunce towards Italy, when they were ready to enter and inuade it, in the yeare of the foundation of Rome 642 and before the Incarnation of our Sauiour 105. For his name, quality and height Florus tells it vs in these few words lib. 3. cap. 3.

Certe Rex ipse Theutobocus quaternos, senosque equos tran­silire solitus, vix vnum cum f [...]geret ascendit, proximoque in sal [...] comprehensus, insigne spectaculum triumphi fuit, quippe vir proceritatis eximia super [...]ropha [...] opsa [...]manebat.

King Theutobocus, who was wont to leape ouer 5. or 6. horses, did scarce get vp vpon one, when he fled away; And so being taken in the next wood, was [Page 7] a wonderfull ornament to the Triumph, for he being a man of an excessiue height, was higher then the very trophees for that warr. Orosus lib. 5. cap. 16. doth re­hearse it a great deale more at length, and surely with a great deale more truth then any, saying that these Barbarians came with their huge Army to assayle Marius in his owne camp, neere the falling of the riuer Lisere into the Rosne, with whom hauing had some light skirmishes diuers dayes, at last thinking them­selues strong enough, they diuided their army in three, and so went three seuerall wayes; wherby Marius took time to dislodge, and sett his Campe in a place of more aduantage vpon a little hill, commaunding the enemies; from which falling to battell, he did kill 200000. of them and tooke 8000. prisoners; among the rest making mencion of their king which either by error of report, or of former scribes, or late Prin­ters, he calles Theutobodus, who (saith he) did make the victory more glorious by his death. As also after­ward the very women, who seing they could not ob­tayne from Marius, freedome for their bodies, and li­berty to serue their owne Gods according to their cu­stome, after they had killed, first their owne children, and then the most part one another, the rest did hang themselues at their cart-wheeles, some with ropes, some with their owne hayres.

I know some will say with Plutarch and Florus that Marius did ouerthrow those Barbariaus in another part of France hard by Aix, & Marseilles in a Prouince which is farr enough from Daufiné; And that the Marsilians did inclose their vines with the bones of those that were the slain, so great the discomfiture was.

[Page 8] But the answere is ready, that according to the huge numbers whereof this floud of men was cōpoun­ded, Marius did not ouerthrow them all at once, by reason also that they had diuided themselues, as Oro­sus saith; and that those who were defeated there, we but the third part which went that way rowards I­taly, whome Marius also ouertooke and cut short after he had ouerthrowen these former. And although Flo­rus make but one of the ouerthrowes at Marseilles and the death of Theutobocus; yet since he himselfe doth specifie the height of that king, and we finde him bu­ried in this place, it must needes folow he was not kil­led very farr thence. Finally though we had not those strong likelihoods and proofes we knowe that the first part of these Barbarians with their king Theutobocus were defeated not farre from the place where we haue found his Tombe, yet the modalls of the stamp hereunder represented, that haue ben found therein, marking so cleerely Marius, & being so like to those of the Amphitheator of Oranges, all which is also of Marius, do show howsoeuer and proue without any difficulty, that this our Giant was none els then Theu­tobocus, a King among these Theutons, and other Barbarians, whom Consul Marius ouerthrew vpon the borders of France either in Daufiné or Prouence, brought from wheresoeuer, and vpon what soeuer oc­casions, to be buried where we haue found him.

THe better to verifie that which we report, our Theutobocus of an Almāde race, wee will speake a word of the bones of Giants which are found at this day in Germany and elsewhere. First in the Citty of Wornes, which is thought to be builded by the Gi­ants, there is found the tombe of a Giant called He­rusfephery or Iephem of the Horne, with a certain clouen staffe and a stone wherewith he vsed to salute himselfe; the which staffe is as bigg as one could well brace in his armes as long as thirty ordinary paces, and the stone fower foote high large downwards ten paces & vpward, before in the fashion of a piramyd. And vn­der the Town house there are many bones of diuers sortes of diuers Beasts very huge, as also diuers bones of men, as the broken bones of the arme and thigh of a Giant, which is of the bignesse of a foote round & a foote and a halfe in length, and that of the thigh of the like bignes, but two foote and a halfe long.

At Openhoin there is the whole bone of the thigh of a Giant three foote and a halfe long, and they say hee was borne in the same house where the bone re­maineth, the house is called vntill this day, the house of the Giant and is not solde without this bone.

At Saint Troy there was found within the Rhine An. 1612. the bone of the left thigh of a Giant of the same [Page 10] bignesse that this of Theutobocus, foure foote long, the which is now at Cleues in the house of Monsieur Wiss [...]l, of the bones there were none but the inward part of the Bocace ch. 68. 4 l. del [...] ­genealogie des Dieux. skull besides that of one thigh, yet not altogether whole but somewhat rotten. His teeth were waighed and three of them waighed 100 ounces. The same body was by skilfull men iudged to haue been 200 cu­bites. And those teeth hang to this day with chaines in the Church of Drepano.

In the Hage hard by the wood there is a Gentleman who hath in his house a thigh bone 3 foote in hight, and in thicknes one.

At Rotterdam algardener hath a legg bone two foote long, which he found in an Abbey. Holland.

At Greninghen they holde it for true, of a Church there which hath beene builded by Giants without a­ny Frize. ladder. It is 25 foote in height, round aboue, after the forme of a Drum, and 40 foote in bredth; built vpon huge foure-square pillars, and did serue for a kinde of house and strong defence to them, 500 yeare before Christs comming.

At Francfort there is a iaw tooth or grinder as they tearme them, as big as ones fi [...]t which is in the handes of Monsieur Malepart.

At Darmestat there is in the house of the Prince ma­ny bones of Giants.

At Bona vpon the Rhine, there is to be seene a thigh bone of a Giant fiue foote high.

At Ladebourg fishermen found the bodyes of two Giants the one 30 foote high, the other 22. who tooke away onely the thigh and legg bones of the greatest.

At Manom neere Frankendad, hath been found a hip [Page 11] bone of the bignes of the bullet of a battring Cannon.

The Duke of Bartens hath a bigg bone of a mighty Giants thigh, which hath cost him very deere; And hath beene shewed of late in Paris at the faire of S. Ger­man; being 3 foote and a halfe long.

And in the time of Cesar there liued a merueilous Gi­ant called Druon, fifteene cubites high full of horrible and cruell tiranny, who liued in a very strong Castle in Brabant scituate vpon a marishe by the side of the riuer Schaldis; the which Giant constrained all that past that riuer to leaue there the moyetie of their marchādizes, and if any did faile all was forfeited, and the Marchant lost his hand. Wherefore the place was named Hant­werp, which is as much to say; as cut off the hand, which is now called Anwerp.

With this Giant fought a Knight of Caesars called Brarius and brauely slew him, whence it is likely that the word, braue came Those of the towne of Anwerpe show at this day in their town-house some bones of the said Giant, which are of marueilous greatnes.

At Bruges in the Prison of the towne vnder the gate vppon two Irons, there is a thigh-bone bigg in the middest, of a foote in roundnes, and long three foote and a halfe, and is said to be of a Giant which builded the prison without a ladder.

At Stenan in digging the ditches of the Towne hath been found the whole bones of a Giant 22 foote high in the time that the Duke of Butkion held it, from the Duke of Lorraine

Two yeares since there was found within 3 leagues of Mets the head of a Giant which was as bigg as the barrel of a drum, which was returned to the said Duke, [Page 12] sauing three teeth which some speciall Burgesses of that Citty keepe to themselues.

Bocace affirmeth that in his time in the bottome of a mountain neare the citty of Drepan in Scicily was found the whole Body of a marueilous Giant, in his full pro­portion holding a staffe club, or rather a t [...]ee of the forme of a mast of a ship, the which staffe being touch­ed, went presently to dust, being garnished within with leade, which being melted weighed fifteen quin­tals, euery quintal containing a hundred pound. The Body being likewise touched turned to dust, except some bones and three of his teeth.

In the Castle of Moulins in the prouince of Bourthere is the Picture of an huge bon'd Giant, with a true France▪ shoulder bone of his, which might well serue for a ta­ble to six men.

All which thinges are yet, either to be seene to this day, or read in faithfull Authors: therefore without doubt so true, as they that will gaine say them, must needes be euen lesse then Pigmies in any skill, witt, learning, or iudgement, and more then very Giants in ignorance, rudenesse and brutishnesse.