Lingua nostra teutónica sonat terram glacialem. In hac vero remote insula ego mihi dispexi dormiendi et somniandi, ut imitarer philosophos in hoc genere scriptionus. Nam et Cicero trajecit in Africam somniaturus, et Plato Atlanticam in océano Hesperio fabricatus est, unde fabulosa virtuti militan subsidia accerse, et Plutarcbus denique libello de facie Lunae post multum sermonem in oceanum exspatiatur describitque nobis situm talem insularum, quem geographus modernus Azoribus et Gronlandiae et terrae Laboratoris, regionibus circum sitis, probabiliter applicaverit.

In our German language this means “land of ice.” Of this truly remote island I have perceived I can sleep and dream, in imitation of the philosophers who wrote of these [things]. For Cicero crossed into Africa when he was going to dream; and Plato invented Atlantis in the western ocean, to summon mythical aids to military valor; and finally, Plutarch, in his small book, The Face in the Moon, after much discussion, describes the location of islands over the ocean that modern geographers would probably apply to the Azores, Greenland and the territory of Labrador, regions around [Iceland].

Quem quidem Plutarchi librum quoties relego, toties impense soleo mirari, quo casu factum sit, ut nostra nobis somnia seu fabulae tam accurate congruerent. Nam ego quidem sat fida memoria repeto occasiones singularum commenti mei partium, quod eae mihi non omnes sint natae ex lectione hujus libri.

In fact, whenever I read Plutarch, I often wonder in amazement that by chance our  dreams or imaginations were so well matched. For with my quite reliable memory, I remember several of the occasions when I invented parts [of my story], and not all originate from reading [Plutarch’s] book.

Exstat apud me charte pervetus, tua clarissime D. Christophore Besolde manu exarata; cum theses circiter viginti de coelestibus apparentiis in Luna ex meis dissertationibus anno 1593 concepisses easque D. Vito Millero, tunc disputationum philosophicarum ordinario praesidi, disputaturus de iis, si ipse annuisset, exhibuisses.

I have a very old document, which you, illustrious Christopher Besold, wrote with your own hand;  when you gave twenty theses on heavenly phenomena on the moon, conceived by means of my dissertation in 1593, to Veit Müller, who ordinarily presided over philosophical disputes, to argue about, if he approved.

Quo quidem tempore Plutarchi opera mihi nondum visa erant. Postea incidi in Luciani libros duos historiae verae, graece scriptos, quos ego libelles mihi delegi, ut linguam addiscerem, adjutus jucunditate, audacissimae fabulae, quae tamen aliquid de totius universi natura innuebat, ut quidem ipse Lucianus monet in exordio.

At that time I had not seen yet the works of Plutarch. Later I came across two books of Lucian’s True History, written in Greek, which I chose to learn the language; I enjoyed this most daring story, which, however, gave intimations of the nature of the entire universe, as Lucian himself had, as he tells us in his introduction.

Atque etiam ille ultra columnas Herculis in oceanum enavigat rapiturque ventorum turbinibus cum ipsa navi sublimis et Lunae invehitur. Haec mihi prima fuere vestigia itineris in Lunam posterioribus temporibus affectati. Graetii primum anno 1595 Plutarchi libellum sum nactus, admonitus de eo ex lectione Commenterii Erasmi Reinholdi in Theorias Purbachii, exque eo Pragae anno 1604 multa in Astronomiae Partem Opticam transtuli.

Indeed, he sails into the ocean beyond the Pillars of Hercules, where he is swept up by whirlwinds, and the boat is carried up to the moon. These were the first steps of a journey to the moon, which I aspired to in later times. At Graz in the year 1595 I first read Plutarch’s book, which was recommended by the commentaries of Erasmus Reinhold on  Peurbach’s Theories; [I quoted] extensively from it in Optical Parts of Astronomy, [written] at Prague, in the year 1604. 

Non dedi tamen hoc insulis a Plutarcho nominatis ex oceano Islandico, quod Islandiam ad hypothesin mei somnii elegi, sed erat haec inter causas, quod id temporis Pragae venalis esset libellus Luciani de navigatione in Lunam, translatus in linguam teutonicam a Rollenhagii filio, junctis narrationibus S. Brandani et de purgatorio Patriciano in subterraneis Islandici montis Heclae ignivomi, cum etiam Plutarcbus ex sententia theologiae gentilium purgatorium animarum statueret in Luna, placuit mihi profecturo in Lunam potissimum ex Islandia solvere.

Nevertheless, it is not because of these islands mentioned by Plutarch in the oceans around Iceland that I chose Iceland for the foundation of  my dream. At that time there was for sale in Prague Lucian’s book about the voyage to the moon, translated into the German language by the son of Rollenhagen, along with the stories of St Brendan, and St Patrick’s Purgatory in the earth beneath the Icelandic volcano Mount Hekla. And as Plutarch, from pagan theology, established the purgatory of souls in the moon, it seemed to me that Iceland was the best [place from which] to depart to the moon.

Major hujus insulae commendatio fuit a narratione Tychonis Brahei, de qua infra. Nec nihil potuit recordatio lectionis historiae de hibernatione Hollandorum in glaciali Nova Sembla, que et ipsa plurima praebet exercitia astronomica a me translata in Astronomiae Partem Opticam anno 1604.

A greater recommendation of this island was a report by Tycho Brahe, of whom [more] below. Nor was of no effect my recollection of reading the account of a winter spent by a Dutchman on icy Novaya Zemlya, [from] which I translated several astronomical exercises in Optical Parts of Astronomy in 1604.

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