After dinner I always take a short rest, a siesta as they call it in Spain.

Sometimes I sleep a while, sometimes I read a couple of pages in a book from my library.
Most of them I bought myself at Balthasar Moretus' printing shop; some were given to me as a present by this good friend of mine; I do a lot of work for him, being his chief-illustrator.

(Rubens' design for the mark of the Plantin press,
made for his friend Balthasar Moretus,
grandson of Plantin)

The book I'm reading now is a reedition in italian language, written by an historian, called Lodovico Guicciardini, a Florentine who spent most of his life in Antwerp last century.
It's his "Descrittione di tutti i Paesi Bassi", his most famous one, that I'm reading attentively.
As an Antwerp citizen it pleases me mostly that he described my city as being the most active, the richest, the largest of the whole Netherlands. It's true that Amsterdam's importance is growing quickly, but to me Antwerp remains the capital, at least culturally!

Note:

Guicciardini's book "Description of the Low Countries" has been translated in many languages. It's a most important survey of economic, social, cultural (and other aspects of) life in the Netherlands, especially in Antwerp, being the real heart of them at that time.

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