The Scandinavian peninsula

The scroll reads: "Norway, Gotia, Sweeden and Finland and the other northern parts shown in this painting (today all included under the name of Scolandia) were known to the ancients. Scolandia means happy land, so called for the great fertility and for the presence of good pastures for livestock, abundance of wild animals and fish, for the convenience of many seaports and for mines of all kinds of metals. The inhabitants are very tall, bellicose and very good in the arts of hunting and fishing. They eat mostly fish that is very abundant and though the sea is in many parts frozen, nevertheless they ingeniously break it and fish through those holes." Photo: Rabatti & Domingie