and the monuments of classical antiquity. Philips Galle was an engraver and publisher, whereas Hadrianus Junius was a humanist poet.

Heemskerck's primary source was Pedro Mexía's 1540 Silva de varia lección, as the classical descriptions of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World do not agree on a consistent list. Mexía wrote as follows:

Those who have read the histories, orators, and ancient poets will often have found mention of the Seven Wonders of the World: sometimes of one, sometimes of another, depending on the purpose of what the authors are writing. And because this material is so scattered, as I said, and no one that I know of has compiled or treated it in particular, at least in our common tongue... among the great and excellent ancient buildings, seven are mentioned especially by all, and they were considered marvelous, and thus were called wonders. And on six of them everyone agrees on which they are, and there are no differing opinions; but on the seventh, some list one, and others another, as we shall discuss. There is also variation in the order in which they are listed; but that matters little: I will proceed according to my own preference. Let us begin with the walls of Babylon, which are counted among these wonders... Those I have mentioned are the ones considered the seven miracles; although the last, the tower, some do not include it, and instead list the Hanging Gardens, which we say were in Babylon... Ludovico Celio, in the twelfth book of his ancient lectures, recounts these seven wonders; and instead of including the Lighthouse of Pharos or the Hanging Gardens, he includes the Obelisk of Semiramis.

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