ABSTRACT
ALTHOUGH this picture was drawn and printed on my Gothic map at Venice in the Patriarchate during the year 1539, and covered a long stretch of sea off the shores of the Baltic, there were not as many explanations with it as were needed to make it plain. 1 I have therefore thought it right to present it more fully and with clearer arguments and reasons, to make it better known that warm accommodation for the use of men, or beasts of burden, can be kept firm for quite a long time on the ice, especially since this will hardly seem probable (or even impossible, as the ignorant will say). So, if I give a reliable account of it, this practice, taken from the arrangements of the ancient Götar, will come to be extended to neighbouring coasts as well. For custom has it that when the public roads are blocked in times of storms by the fall of timber, or of whole woods, they are to be repaired with axes and picks at the common expense and by the labour of the community; but when they are choked with thick snow, they are to be opened up by the individuals who pass with beasts of burden or sledges; and by the sea-shores or on the frozen sea itself they must set up signs on the ice and prepare paths for everyone’s use, to leave an unobstructed way open to men’s dwellings. 2
Feeble discernment of ignorant
Public roads to be cleared
Method of clearing roads
Ways on ice for use of all
