Chiron[1] Centaurus pro remedio malidis[2], sive pestilentiae iumentorum praecipit catulum lactantem vivum in [293] aqua ferventi missum, ac depilatum, ita decoqui, ut ossa separentur a carne, quibus diligenter ablatis, eius caro cum aqua, in qua decocta fuerit, liquamine optimo, vino veteri, et oleo, et pipere, cum melle condita usque ad sextarium[3] debere servari, ac singulis animalibus binas cotylas tepefactas, donec ad sanitatem perveniant, et diebus singulis dari per fauces. Vegetius quoque de Gallo Gallinaceo albo eadem, quae de catulo observanda demonstrat.

Chiron the Centaur, as remedy for malanders, that is, for a pestilence of draught animals, prescribes that an alive and still sucking doggy placed into boiling water and depilated is cooked for so a long time that bones separate from flesh, and after they have been carefully removed, its flesh with water in which was cooked, seasoned with very good sauce of fish, old wine, oil and pepper jointly with honey up to reach a sextarius [500 ml], must be preserved, and to each animal two warmed up heminae [500 ml] have to be given until they are recovered, and to give this dose each day through the throat. Also Vegetius gives the same guidelines regarding the doggy, but concerning a white rooster.

NOCUMENTA.

HARMFUL EFFECTS

Caelius Aurelianus[4] author est, quendam a Gallo pugnante leviter laesum in rabiem venisse: tanquam pugnans Gallus, dum ira percitus est, etiam furiat. Sunt qui putent, ova diutissime elixa, et indurata immodice homini venenum fieri. Multis tamen ea placere video. Num autem venenum fiant, ignoro: bene tamen novi plurimum {negocii} <negotii> stomacho facessere.

Caelius Aurelianus writes that a man, slightly wounded by a fighting cock, flew into anger: just as also a rooster while fighting  becomes furious being excited by anger. Some people would think that eggs boiled for very long time and made very hard become a poison for a human being. Nevertheless I realize that lots of people like them. I am not aware if they become a poison indeed: however I just realized that they cause big trouble to the stomach.

A praesepibus equorum removebuntur aves domesticae, atque altiles, quae eas propter reliquias pabuli sectari solent, et in his non solum pinnulas excutiunt, sed etiam stercora deijciunt: atque illae cum gutturis, haec cum alvi periculo ab equis deglutiuntur[5]. De fimo Gallinaceo a bobus, aut equis devorato, et remediis contra eum, plura in quadruped<i>um istarum historiis, Deo dante, scribemus. Illud tantummodo iam dicentes, Hieroclem equo adversus huc fimum devoratum docere auxiliari ipsum fimum Gallinae album, et solidum, quem conteri iubet cum drachma sevi, et cum duobus polentae choenicibus[6], vinoque nigro austero in massas redigi, et equo edendas dari. Caeterum paulo ante[7] etiam ex Plinio diximus adversus fungorum, boletorumque venena dari item ad inflationes, et strangulationes cum si id animal aliud gustaverit, torminibus, et inflationibus afficiatur: quomodo itaque equum iuvabit, si prius noxam induxit?

Domestic and battery birds must be kept away from mangers of horses, since they are accustomed to move into them because of fodder’s remnants, and in their inside they not only shake their little feathers off, but eject dung too: and the former are swallowed by horses with danger for throat, the latter for bowel. God willing, in the chapters regarding these quadrupeds I will write a lot of things about chicken's dung eaten by cattle and horses, and about its remedies. Just to say something already, Hierocles reports that for a horse, against to have eaten this dung, is helpful the white hen's dung itself, and hard, and he suggests to crumble it together with a drachma [3,41 g] of fat, and to make dough of it with two chenics [around 2 l] of barley polenta and dry black wine and to give it to the horse to be eaten. Furthermore a little while ago we have also said drawing it from Pliny that it must be given against poisons of mushrooms and boletus - Boletus satanas - as well as against swellings and suffocations – muscarinic syndrome, while if another animal had to taste it would be hit by intestinal pains and swellings: thus how will it help the horse if before injured him?

USUS IN CIBO.

USE AS FOOD

Gallinaceum genus in cibi usum cedere quis ignorat? Hoc pene uno in repentino, ac inopinato amicorum hospitumve adventu iuvamur, huic omnem mensae lautae, mediocris, tenuisque splendorem acceptum referre debemus. Si lautam necessitas postulat, carnes hinc habetis laudatissimas, easque cum elixas, tum assas, praeterea ova reliquarum avium ovis praestantiora, quae varia etiam tibi praestabunt fercula: Si mediocrem, ut in diebus, quibus carnium esus lege sacra est interdictus, sola ova tibi suffecerint: sin tenuem, et aegris convenientem, unde quaeso tutior, iucundiorque victus queat, quam hinc peti?

Who doesn’t know that the gallinaceous genus is used as food? We use almost only it at the sudden and unexpected arrival of friends or guests, we have to acknowledge as due to it any prestige of a sumptuous, modest and poor table. If there is need for a sumptuous table, you get from it very appreciated meats, both boiled and roasted, besides the eggs which are better than the eggs of other birds, and the latter will also ensure various courses. If a modest table is necessary, as in the days when the eating of flesh is forbidden by sacred law, the eggs alone will suffice for you: if on the contrary it has to be poor and suited for sick people, I ask you, whence a safer and most pleasant food could be gotten?

Quare merito iure apud Columellam, et alios, qui de avibus ex professo scripserunt, Gallinaceum genus principem semper locum obtinet. Unde etiam Horatii[8] commentatores, ubi ita canit:

Accipe, qua ratione queas ditescere{,}<.> Turdus,

Sive aliud privum dabitur tibi<,>

privum exponunt non solum privatum quid, et proprium, sed peculiare, et rarum quid ex avium genere quales, inquiunt, apud veteres erant Gallinae, et Turdi, quibus, (turdis) alibi[9] etiam nil melius esse dixit idem poeta. Lampridius[10] in Alexandri Severi conviviis tradit fuisse Gallinas, et ova, sed festis diebus adhibuisse etiam Anserem: maioribus vero festis Phasianum ita ut aliquando et duo ponerentur, additis Gallinaceis duobus{:} <.> Et alibi[11] etiam Heliogabalum {vua} <una> die non nisi de Phasianis tantum edisse refert, alia die de pullis.

Then rightly the gallinaceous genus always holds first place in Columella and the others who expressly have written about birds. Hence also the commentators of Horace, when he sings as follows:

Hear how you can grow rich. A thrush,

or another particular thing will be given you,

they explain privum not only as something of private and your own, but as something special and rare coming from birds genus as hens and thrushes were for ancients, better of which (the thrushes) the same poet in another point also said there is nothing. Lampridius reports that at the banquets of Alexander Severus there were hens and eggs, but that on feast days a goose was also served: but a pheasant on greater feast days so that sometimes even two were served with the addition of two chickens. And elsewhere he also reports that Heliogabalus one day ate only just pheasants, spring chickens another day.

Hinc iam clarum est et perditissimos Imperatores harum avium esu delectatos, sed Gallinas tantum, aut pullos esitasse: Galli enim, et maxime qui admodum salaces sunt, proli magis, quam gulae reservantur. Sin vero Galli tenelli adhuc sunt, nempe pullastri, eorum caro inter volucrum carnes, quae mediam quandam extenuandi, et crassefaciendi naturam praestant, connumeranda est, a Galeno tantopere praedicatas. Facile enim concoquitur, laudabilem sanguinem generat, appe<te>ntiam conciliat, quibuscunque temperamentis convenit, praecipue si moderate pingues fuerint, et nondum coierint, aut cucu<r>rierint. Coeuntes enim, et canentes iam siccescere incipiunt, exacuiturque siccitate ea calor, ac fit illorum quamprimum dura fibrosaque caro, usque eo ut salsugineum saporem elixatione reddant pro vetustate maiorem semper, etiam leniendae alvo efficacem. Quare ante id tempus ad castrationem deveniendum erit: alioqui procul dubio praeferendae pullastrae, utpote frigidioris temperamenti: ac idcirco pullastris maribus in febricitantibus praelatae: in reliquis alimentum idem boni, laudatique succi non excrementi{i}, non morantis diu in progressu, descensuque in intestina:

Hence it is now clear that also the most dissolute emperors took pleasure in eating these birds, but that they ate only hens or spring chickens too: for the roosters, and especially those who are very strong fuckers, are reserved rather for offspring’s production than for throat pleasures. But if roosters are still fairly tender, that is when they are spring chickens, their flesh is to be counted among the flesh of birds offering a property midway between slenderizing and thickening, so much praised by Galen. In fact it is easily digested, generates a praiseworthy blood, fosters the lust, is suitable for whatever temperament, above all if moderately fat, and the roosters didn’t yet begin to mate or to crow. For when they mate and crow they begin to grow dry, and the body’s heat is sharpened by such a dryness, and their flesh shortly becomes hard and fibrous, to such a degree that, with boiling, it produces a salty taste which is more and more intense as they grow old, also effective in making more fluid the crap. Then before this period it will be necessary to resort to castration: otherwise without any doubt it is necessary to prefer the pullets, since they are of a colder temperament: and for such a reason in case of feverish patients they are preferred to spring chickens: in the other sick persons the latter represent a food of good and appreciated taste which doesn't relish excrements, which doesn’t linger for a long time in progressing and in descending into the bowel: