Note 19 — Chapter VI
Reading edition
“¡Cierto cosas de ver!” exclaims Las Casas, who saw them with the Emperor Charles V. in Seville, in 1520. “Quedáron todos los que viéron aquestas cosas tan ricas y tan bien artifiçiadas y ermosísimas como de cosas nunca vistas,” etc. (Hist. de las Indias, MS., lib. 3, cap. 120.) “Muy hermosas,” says Oviedo, who saw them in Valladolid, and describes the great wheels more minutely; “todo era mucho de ver!” (Hist. de las Indias, MS., loc. cit.) The inquisitive Martyr, who examined them carefully, remarks, yet more emphatically, “Si quid unquam honoris humana ingenia in huiuscemodi artibus sunt adepta, principatum iure merito ista consequentur. Aurum, gemmasque non admiror quidem, quâ industriâ, quóve studio superet opus materiam, stupeo. Mille figuras et facies mille prospexi quæ scribere nequeo. Quid oculos hominum suâ pulchritudine æque possit allicere meo iudicio vidi nunquam.” De Orbe Novo, dec. 4, cap. 9.