Noah in Austria

Eager to establish ancient, patriotic bona fides for his homeland, the historian Wolfgang Lazius went so far as to claim evidence that Noah himself had settled Austria. The proof is represented in this “facsimile transcription” of Noah’s original Hebrew inscription testifying to the fact, ostensibly carved into a mountain near Vienna. Lazius’s foundation myth appears at the beginning of his larger chronicle of ancient and medieval European tribes, a work that was reprinted well into the 17th century.