From the time
I am writing this (1 March 1555), before 177 years, 3 months and 11 days, by
pestilence, long famine, and wars,
and more still by inundations, the world between this day and that, before and after, shall be
diminished, and its population so
reduced that there will hardly be hands enough to attend to agriculture, and the lands
will be left as long without
culture as they have been under tillage.
(Preface to Centuries, ¤26)