[229] EXERCITATIO DECIMATERTIA.
De ovorum differentiis.

13th exercise
The differences of the eggs

OVUM generaliter bifariam sumitur; vel proprie, vel improprie. Ovum proprie dictum appello, cui ovi definitio, ab Aristotele[1] tradita, competit: Ovum est, ex cuius parte animal gignitur, reliquum cibus ei, quod gignitur, est. Improprie vero dictum ovum appello, quod similiter Aristoteles[2] eodem loco definivit, ex quo toto animal nascitur; ut sunt ova formicarum, muscarum, aranearum, quorundam papilionum, et alia id genus perpusilla admodum ova; quae Aristoteles fere perpetuo veritus est ovi voce nuncupare, sed vermiculi nomine ipsa donavit. Haec quidem Fabricius[3]: nobis autem, qui de ovi gallinacei generatione praecipue agimus, omnium ovorum differentias hic universim tradere non est animus; sed gallinaceorum duntaxat dissimilitudines proponere. Ova igitur gallinacea, alia sunt recentia; [230] alia requieta; illa quam haec, albidiora sunt; aetate quippe offuscantur, et praesertim ab incubatione: iisdem etiam cavitas in obtuso angulo exigua est: et, si valde recentia fuerint, ab adhaerente polline aliquantulum scabra sunt: requieta vero, ut cortice obscuriore, ita et laevigato magis constant. Recentia, modo integra fuerint, prope ignem posita sudant; et, prae caeteris, iucundo sapore praedita sunt, plurimumque in deliciis habentur. Imo vero ova, post duorum aut trium dierum incubationem, suavius sapiunt, quam requieta: quasi blando gallinae tepore denuo refocillata, ad naturam atque integritatem recentium reverterentur. Quinetiam, post diem decimum quartum, cum iam pullus plumescere incipit, mediumque ovi possidet, et vitellus fere integer superest, ovum in aqua ebulliente ad duritiem coxi, ut pulli situm exquisitius dignoscerem; cuius posituram, instar proplasmatis, albuminis cavitas expressit: eiusque vitellum grati plane saporis, similisque suavitatis cum recenti ovo itidem indurato, reperi. Vitellus vivente adhuc gallina, a racemo diremptus, statimque comestus, dulcius sapit crudus quam coctus.

«Generally the egg can be called in two ways, proper or improper. I define as egg properly said that to which is suitable the definition handed down by Aristotle. It is an egg that part by which the animal is produced, the rest is food for anybody is produced. On the contrary I improperly call with the name of egg, and Aristotle in the same passage defined it in a similar way, that from whose totality an animal is born, as they are the eggs of ants, flies, spiders, of some butterflies and other eggs of this type extremely tiny. Aristotle is almost always afraid to call them with the name of eggs, but he gave them the name of little worm.» Fabrizi writes these things. But, since I am dealing above all with the generation of hen's egg, I don't intend to report here the differences of all the eggs, but only to report the differences of those of hen. Insofar, some eggs of hen are recent, others are not fresh, the first ones are more white than these, after sometime they darken and above all because of the incubation. Still those recent in the obtuse pole also have the cavity which is small, and if very recent they are a little bit rough because of the sticking dust; on the contrary, those less recent, as they have a darker shell, as many they have it smoother. Those recent, provided that they are intact, put next to the fire they sweat and, in comparison to the others, they are endowed with a pleasant taste and very often are listed among the delights. Moreover, in truth, the eggs, after an incubation of two or three days, are more tasty than the not recent ones: as if, newly refreshed by the light warmth of the hen, they are going back to the characteristics and the integrity of the recent ones. Besides, after the 14th day, when by now the chick starts to fledge and occupies the center of the egg, and the yolk persists almost entire, I cooked an egg in hot water, up to make it to become hard-boiled with the purpose to be able to recognize in a more meticulous way the location of the chick, whose location the cavity of the albumen put in evidence as being a sketch, and I have found that its yolk had a quite pleasant taste and a sweetness similar to that of a recent likewise hard-boiled egg. The yolk removed from the ovary when the hen is still living, and immediately eaten, has a sweeter taste when uncooked than when cooked.

Ovorum etiam a figura discrimen est: alia enim aliis longiora sunt et acuminata magis. Ex oblongis et acutis ovis, auctore Aristotele[4], foeminae generantur: ex iis, quae mucronem obtusum habent, mares. Plinius[5] autem contrarium statuit: Foeminam edunt, inquit, quae rotundiora gignuntur: reliqua marem. Cum eo etiam est {Columella} <Columella>: Cum quis volet, inquit[6], quamplurimos mares excludi, longissima quaeque et acutissima ova subiiciat: et rursus, cum foeminas, quam rotundissima. Aristotelis sententia hanc causam habet: quoniam calidiora sunt rotundiora: est enim caloris congregare et constituere; plusque is calor potest, qui plus operatur. A validiore igitur et perfectiore principio, robustius et perfectius animal exsurget. Tale [231] est mas, foeminae (praesertim gallus gallinae) comparatus. Contra autem, minora ova inter imperfecta recensentur, et minima omnino improlifica habentur. Ideoque Aristoteles ad laudabilem ovorum proventum, frequentem galli coitum laudavit. Sterilia autem, et subventanea ova, minora esse asseruit, minusque sapida; quod talia sint humida et imperfecta. Dicta autem differentia intelligenda est, de ovis eiusdem gallinae: nam cum gallina quaelibet similia semper ova pariat; mares inde omnes, vel foeminas produceret. Aliter si intellexeris, incerta valde fuerit, ex praedictis signis, de mare aut foemina coniectura. Quippe variae gallinae, ova edunt tum magnitudine, tum figura dissimilia: aliae nempe oblonga, aliae rotundiora, parumque a se invicem discrepantia. Licet enim aliquando in eiusdem gallinae ovis discrimen aliquod invenerim; est tamen hoc adeo exiguum, ut, nisi valde exercitatis, non innotescat. Cum enim in eodem utero (in quo cortex adnascitur), ceu proplasmate, singula eiusdem gallinae ova figuram suam pene eandem acquirant (quemadmodum in coli cellulis excrementorum scybala[7]), necesse est, ut magna inter illa reperiatur similitudo; adeo ut ipsemet, non multo negotio, in parva gallinarum caterva, quodnam cuiuslibet gallinae ovum esset, facile internoscere potuerim. Idque alii promptius praestiterint, postquam huic rei diuturnam ac sedulam operam impenderint. Profecto admiratione longe dignius est, quod in venatoribus quotidie experimur. Vivariorum custodes diligentiores, qui cervorum vel damarum complurium curam habent; si forte cornua singulis annis decidua in sylvis aut saltibus repererint; quorumnam cervorum ea fuerint, certissime dignoscunt. Erat pastor stolidus plane et infrunitus, qui ovium numerosum gregem curabat; is singulas adeo internoverat, ut, si quaepiam abesset a grege, licet numerare nesciret, nominatim indicaret quaenam esset, a quo empta, aut unde venisset. Aliquando etiam, tentandi gratia, [232] inter quadraginta agnos simul in ovili conclusos, quem dominus vellet particulatim seligebat, et ad matrem in grege errantem deferebat. Venatores novimus, qui, si cervum aliquem, aut eius cornua, semel duntaxat conspicati essent, aut vestigia eius in luto vidissent: eundem postea, per eadem cornua, aut vestigia (tanquam ex ungue leonem), a caeteris omnibus certo distinguerent atque internoscerent: quinetiam, ex vestigiis iam primum visis, de ignoti cervi magnitudine, obesitate, et vigore iudicarent; nempe, utrum viribus validus, an cursu defatigatus esset; simul, utrum mas an foemina, discernerent. Dicam adhuc amplius; sunt, qui in venatione, ubi quadraginta circiter canes feram insequuntur, omnesque simul elatis vocibus perstrepunt, singulos tamen, etiam eminus, internoscant, atque auditu solo intelligant, quis eorum primus, quis posterior sit; quis recto tramite incedat, quis avius aberret; num fugiat fera, an adstet et cornibus repugnet; utrum longe praecurrat, an recens e cubili suscitata fuerit. Atque haec omnia, in medio canum, hominum, cornuumque strepitu et fragore; idque in ignota, et obscura sylva. Haud magnopere itaque mirabimur, si diutius exercitati, singula ova, a quanam gallina edita sint, intelligant. Utinam profecto aeque in promptu esset, ex filio cognoscere genuinum patrem.

A difference of the eggs exists, also due to the shape: in fact some are longer than others and more pointed. According to what Aristotle writes, «females are generated from oblong and acute eggs, males from those having an obtuse apex». Pliny sentenced the contrary and said that «are giving birth to a female those produced more round, a male the others». Also Columella* joins him and says: «When someone will want a lot of males to be born, he has to put for brooding the more oblong and more pointed eggs, and on the contrary, if he will want females, to put those more round». The affirmation of Aristotle relies on this reason, since those more round are warmer, and in fact it is peculiar of the heat to congregate and to arrange, and a heat has so greater powers as it is more active. Insofar from a stronger and more perfect principle a more vigorous and more perfect animal will be born. Such is the male, if compared to a female (above all the cock compared to the hen). On the contrary the smaller eggs are listed among those defective, and the smallest ones are thought infertile at all. And therefore Aristotle, for a generous production of eggs, praised a frequent coition of the cock. Actually he affirmed that the sterile and windy eggs are smaller and less tasty, since such are those damp and defective. But we have to mean the above-mentioned difference about the eggs of the same hen: in fact since whatever hen always lays eggs resembling each other, then from them she would produce all males or all females. If you will have understood otherwise, according to the aforesaid signs the hypothesis about a male or a female will be extremely uncertain. In fact different hens lay dissimilar eggs both for dimensions and feature: actually some lay them oblong, others rather round and little different each other. In fact, although sometimes in the eggs of the same hen I have found a certain difference, nevertheless it is so small to become evident only to very experienced people. In fact, since in the same uterus, or mark (in which the shell is formed), the single eggs of the same hen almost acquire its same shape (as it happens for the faecal masses - scybala - in the gibbosities of the colon), it is obligatory that a great similarity is found among them, so that I myself, without great effort, succeeded in easily recognizing, in a small group of hens, the egg of whatever hen. Others would do this more quickly after having devoted a prolonged and assiduous care to this thing. It is really very more worthy of admiration what daily we experiment in the hunters. The more careful keepers of the enclosures, taking care of numerous deer or fallow deer, if by chance they find in the woods or in the forests the annually falling horns, they recognize in a quite sure way to what deer belonged. There was an entirely fool and gullible shepherd taking care of a flock of numerous sheep; he knew them one by one to such a point that, if one would be absent from the flock, although he didn't know to count, he pointed out by name which was, who purchased it or whence it had come. Furthermore sometimes, to test himself, he  was choosing with precision, among 40 lambs confined together in the sheepfold, that one desired by the owner, and brought it to the mother wandering with the flock. I have known some hunters who, if they had seen also only once some deer or its horns, or they had seen its marks in the mud, subsequently, through the same horns or marks (as a lion according to a claw) they would have distinguished and recognized it with certainty from all the others. Besides from the marks observed for the first time they were able to express a judgment about the size, the fatness and the vigor of the unknown deer, furthermore, if it were endowed with energy or exhausted by the running, and at the same time if it were a male or a female. I will report more widely. There are some people who during the hunting, when roughly about forty dogs pursue the animal and all of them at the same time shout with high voices, nevertheless also from far away they recognize them one by one, and identify only with the hearing which of them is the first and which the following, which walks according to a rectilinear route and which wanders confused, if the wild animal runs away or is motionless and withstands by fighting with the horns, if it is racing forward since quite a lot of time or if since little time it has been made to go out of the den. And all these things among the racket and the din of the dogs, of the men and of the horns, and in an unknown and dark forest. Insofar we won't marvel a lot if, after having practiced for a rather long time, they are able to understand by what hen each egg has been laid. Perhaps undoubtedly it would be equally easy to recognize the true father according to the child.

Praecipua autem ovorum differentia est, quod alia sint foecunda; alia infoecunda; quae etiam dicuntur improlifica, irrita, hypenemia[8] sive subventanea, et zephyria[9]. Hypenemia dicuntur, quae sine maris coitu edita ad pullationem inepta sunt; quasi a vento prognata forent: quemadmodum Varro[10] testatur, equas in Lusitania vento concipere. Est enim zephyri aura foecundissima, indeque illi nomen, quasi ζωηφόρος vitam ferens.

But the principal difference of the eggs consists in the fact that some are fertile, others infertile, also called not prolific, ineffective, full of wind and zephyrian. They are called windy those that, being laid without the joining with the male, are unfit for produce chicks, almost as generated by the wind, likewise Varro affirms that «the mares in Lusitania conceive because of the wind». In fact the puff of zephyr is very fertile, whence its name, as being zøëphóros, which brings the life.

Ita enim Virgilius:
[233] Zephyrique tepentibus auris
Laxant arva sinus, superat tener omnibus humor,
Parturit omnis ager, etc.

In fact Virgil* writes as follows in the II book of Georgics: The fields open the breast to the lukewarm air of Zephyr, upon all the things the soft humor is located, every field generates, etc.

Hinc antiqui, cum verno tempore, flante hoc vento, viderent gallinas, citra maris operam, ova parere; zephyrum eorundem procreationis auctorem crediderunt. Sunt etiam ova urina[11] et cynosura[12], quae sunt incubatione derelicta; sic dicta quod diebus canicularibus ova saepe putrescant, quia ob aestus nimios ab incubantibus gallinis deseruntur; vel etiam, quia ea anni tempestate crebro tonat. Aristoteles[13] enim asseruit, ova perire, si, gallina incubante, tonuerit.

Therefore the ancients, since in spring, when this wind was blowing, saw that the hens laid eggs without the intervention of the male, they believed that zephyr was the author of their procreation. There also are the eggs called windy and cynosure, which are abandoned by the incubation, so called since in the dog days - August - often the eggs putrefy, since because the excessive heats are abandoned by the brooding hens, or also because in that period of the year it frequently thunders. In fact Aristotle affirmed that «the eggs ruin if it will have thundered when the hen is brooding.»

Ova illa foecunda censentur, quae, ablatis impedimentis extraneis, fotu blando de se pullos producunt. Quod non solum fit a gallinae sive matris incubatione, sed et cuiusvis alterius avis, modo iustae magnitudinis fuerit, ut operiendo foveat et protegat, aut alio quocunque blando calore. Nihilo enim secius, inquit Aristoteles[14], sponte sua in terra, quam avium incubatu perficiuntur. Quemadmodum in Aegypto defodiunt in fimo terra obruto. Et Syracusis prodidere potatorem quendam, ovis sub storea humo stratis tamdiu potare solitum esse, dum ova excluderentur. Livia imperatrix quoque fertur ovum tamdiu in gremio fovisse, donec ex eo foetus redderetur. Hodieque in Aegypto, alibique, in clibanis sive hypocaustis[15], pulli ex ovis generantur. Ovum itaque, ut Fabricius[16] vere asserit, non modo pulli uterus, et locus est; sed id etiam a quo tota pulli generatio pendet; quam ovum perficit, ut agens, ut materia, ut instrumentum, ut locus, et ut alia, si quae concurrunt.

They are thought fertile eggs those which, the external impediments having been moved away, with a light heating produce from themselves some chicks. Which not only happens for incubation of the hen, that is, of the mother, but of any other bird, provided that it is of correct size, so that the bird, by covering, heats and protects, or using any other soft heat. Aristotle says: «In fact spontaneously they reach perfection in the earth without any difference in comparison to what happens for the incubation by birds. Likewise in Egypt they bury them in manure covered by earth. And in Syracuse they handed down that a drinker was usual to drink for so a long time on the eggs covered by earth under a mat, until when they hatched.» They also report that the empress Livia Drusilla* heated so for a long time an egg in breast until when a chick went out. And today in Egypt, and elsewhere, in the furnaces or hypocausts, the chicks are produced from the eggs. As truly Fabrizi affirms: «Therefore the egg is not only the uterus and the house of the chick, but from it also depends the whole formation of the chick that the egg brings to conclusion as agent, matter, instrument, house and other things if some of them are participating».

Certum enim est, pullum ab interno in ovo principio efformari; nihilque ovo perfecto ab incubatione accedere, praeter fotum et tutelam; quemadmodum nec gallina, pullis iam exclusis quidquam amplius tribuit, praeter benignum calorem et [234] curam, quibus a frigore et externis iniuriis eos protegit, victumque facilem suppeditat. Desideratur igitur potissimum gallinae incubatio, ut exclusos iam pullos huc illuc deducat, victum idoneum quaerat et praeparet, alarumque tepore foveat. Quod aliis artibus haud facile praestiteris. Capones, et hybridae apud nos in vivariis ex phasiano et gallina geniti, ova quidem incubant et excludunt; pullos tamen commode deducere, curamque educationis sedulam praestare nesciunt.

In fact it is certain that the chick is formed by an inner principle located in the egg, and that to the completed egg nothing is added because of the incubation, except the heating and the protection, likewise neither the hen gives to the already born chicks something more than a benign heat and a care by which she protects them from cold and external injuries, and supplies them with an easy food. Insofar the incubation of the hen is extremely desired, so that she leads here and there the chicks already born, so that she looks for proper food and prepares it, and heat them with the warmth of the wings. Since with other devices you would not easily do better. Actually the capons, and the hybrids born from pheasant and hen among us in the farms, brood the eggs and hatch them, nevertheless they are not able to drive around the chicks in a suitable way and to offer a thoughtful care to rear them.

Lubet hic mirari (de eadem re postea uberius disceptaturi) quanta sedulitate et patientia, aves foeminae fere omnes, dies noctesque totas nidis suis insideant, seseque macerent ac prae fame propemodum enecent; quantisque periculis sese exponant, ut ova tueantur; quae si aliquando coactae tantillum relinquerint, hem! quanto ardore, et festinatione eadem repetunt, et operiunt? Anates et anseres, interea dum paulisper abfuerint, ova stramine tegunt et occultant. Qua vero magnanimitate, imbelles saepe matres ova sua protegunt? quae tamen fortassis subventanea, aut urina fuerint, aut etiam non sua; imo vero artificialia interdum ova, ex creta aut ebore efficta, pari animi fortitudine defendunt. Stupendus profecto avium amor erga ovum iners, et vita privatum; quod tantae solicitudini nihil commodi aut voluptatis retribuat. Quis non admiretur, affectum illum, aut furorem potius, glocientis gallinae; qui exstingui nequit, nisi aqua frigida obruatur? Durante hoc animi impetu, cuncta negligit; et ceu furibunda, alas dimittit, dum hispidae surrigunt plumae; inquieta et querula obambulat; alias gallinas nido deturbat; ova passim quaerit, quae incubet; nec quiescit, donec aut illa nacta fuerit, aut pullos quos deducat; quos sane miro zelo et ardore convocat, fovet, pascit, et tuetur. Quam lepide risum movet gallina, dum supposititios anatis pullos (quos, pro suis, exclusit) in aqua natantes sequitur, locumque saepe ambiens, cum periculo vadum tentat, invocat, mirisque artibus ad se pellicere satagit?

At this point it is pleasant for me to admire (on the same matter we will discourse later in a more abundant way) with how many assiduousness and patience almost all the females of bird are squatting the whole day and the whole night in their nests, and get exhausted, and almost they kill themselves because of the hunger, and to how many dangers they expose themselves so that the eggs are protected, and if sometimes, alas, forced, they will have abandoned them a little bit, with how many ardor and with how many hurry they recover and cover them? The ducks and the geese, while are absenting for a short time, cover the eggs with the litter and hide them. But with what magnanimity the mothers without weapons often protect their eggs? Perhaps also those windy and sterile, or also those that were not theirs. Or rather, to say the truth, sometimes they defend with the same strength of spirit the false eggs done with clay or ivory. Certainly the love of the birds toward a sterile and lifeless egg is stupendous, since it doesn't reciprocate so many solicitude with nothing useful or pleasant. Who doesn't admire that affection, or better, that fury of a clucking hen, which can be stifled only submerging it with cold water? While this impetuosity of spirit persists, she neglects every thing, and as being furious lowers the wings while the ruffled feathers are rising, she walks on and down uneasy and plaintive, sends away the other hens from the nest, looks everywhere for some eggs to brood them, neither resigns herself until when she obtained them, or obtained the chicks to be raised. Actually with admirable zeal and ardor she rallies, heats, nourishes and defends them. How many is laughable a hen when running after the chicks of duck she hatched (she has given birth to them as being hers) while they are swimming in water, and often turning around the place she tries dangerously to wade it, she calls them, and with marvellous stratagems troubles herself for attracting them to herself?

[235] Ova sterilia pullos non excludunt, auctore Aristotele[17], quia humor eorum ab incubatione non crassescit, neque aut luteum, aut candidum a pristina natura immutatur. Verum de hac re postea in universali generationis contemplatione tractabimus.

The sterile eggs don't give birth to chicks, Aristotle affirms this, because their liquid doesn't condense with the incubation, neither the yellow or the white are modified in comparison to the primitive structure. I will subsequently treat the truth on this matter in the complete examination of the generation.

Mulieres apud nos, ut ova cynosura et irrita a foecundis (quae pullos intus formatos habent) internoscant; post decimum quartum, aut decimum sextum a primo incubatu diem, ova in aquam tepentem molliter demittunt: quae fundum petunt, irrita habentur; foecunda, quae innatant. Si foetus in ovo grandior factus se alacrius moverit, ovum non modo huc illuc volutatur, sed et saltus edit. Et si aurem propius admoveris per aliquot dies ante exclusionem, pullum intus calcitrare, obstrepere, et pippire audies. Similes turbas ubi gallina incubans in nido senserit, ova revolvit, et accommodat, ut sedulae matres inquietos et plorantes infantes in cunis solent, donec pulli, debitam posituram nacti, quieverint.

Among us the women, in order to recognize the sterile eggs from the fertile ones (having inside the formed chicks), after the 14th or the 16th day starting from the beginning of the incubation they gently dip the eggs in lukewarm water: those reaching the bottom are held sterile, those floating fertile. If the fetus become greater inside the egg will rather vivaciously stir, the egg is not only turning here and there, but also jumps. And if for some days before hatching you will approach enough the ear, you will perceive that inside the chick kicks, shouts and peeps. When the hen brooding in the nest will perceive such uproars, she turns the eggs and arranges them, as the thoughtful mothers usually to do in the cribs with the restless and crying babies, until when the chicks will calm down having reached a proper position.

Gallinarum ova numero praeterea distinguuntur. Aliquae enim gallinae, ait Philosophus[18], toto anno pariunt, praeter menses brumales duos. Generosae quaedam, ante incubationis tempus, etiam sexagena pariunt. Quanquam hae minus sunt foecundae, quam plebeiae. Adrianicae gallinae parvae sunt: quotidie pariunt: morosae tamen sunt; et pullos interimunt saepe suos; ac sunt versicolores. E domesticis nonnullae etiam bis die pariunt. Iam vero etiam quaedam ob ingentem foecunditatem brevi interiere.

Besides the eggs of the hens differ according to the number. The Philosopher says: «In fact some hens lay during the whole year except the two winter months. Some of good breed also lay 60 eggs before the time of incubation. Even if these are less fertile than the common ones. The hens of the Adriatic sea* are small. They lay every day, nevertheless they are sullen and often kill their chicks, and are multicoloured. Some of domestic ones lay also twice a day*. In truth some already died shortly because of the high fertility.»

In Anglia, aliquae gallinae quotidie ovum pariunt: sed fertiliores ut plurimum biduo continue pariunt; primum nempe ovum matutino tempore, secundum postridie sub vesperam; tertio autem die feriantur. Nonnullis quoque gallinis, ova sua rumpere, nidosque deserere consuetudo est. Morbo ne id fiat, an vitio, necdum constat.

In England some hens lay an egg every day, but those more fertile mostly lay for two following days, and precisely the first egg in the morning, the second in the afternoon toward evening, the third day they rest. Besides for some hens it is custom to break their eggs and to abandon the nests. It is not yet clear if this happens because of an illness or a vice.

[236] Ab incubatione etiam differentiae capi queunt: siquidem aliae semel, aliae bis terve, aliae multoties incubant. Florentinus auctor est, in Alexandria illa, quae Aegyptum spectat, gallinas quasdam monosiras dici, ex quibus pugnaces oriantur galli, quae bis aut ter incubent, post absolutionem scilicet pullis illis subtractis, seorsumque enutritis. Ita contigit, ut una gallina quadraginta, aut etiam sexaginta, et plures unico incubatu excludat.

Differences can also be gathered according to incubation, since some hens brood only once, others two or three times, other quite a lot of times. Florentinus* is witness that in that Alexandria belonging to Egypt, there are certain hens called monosir*, from which should hatch out fighting cocks, and they should incubate twice or thrice after have been released, that is, after the chicks have been taken away and raised separately. Thus it happens that a hen alone hatches forty or sixty or even more chicks by a single sitting.

Sunt etiam quaedam ova maiora; alia minora; aliqua etiam minima, quae vulgo in Italia centenina dicuntur, et mulieres nostrae hodie, ut et olim, a gallo edita, et basiliscos productura fabulantur. Vulgus, inquit Fabricius[19], putat exiguum hoc ovum esse ultimum gallinarum, cum iam centum ova gallina pepererit; unde centeninum vocant, quod sine vitello est; habet tamen caetera, ut chalazas, albumen, membranas, et corticem. Verisimile enim est, tunc generari, cum vitelli omnes iam in ova migrarunt, neque amplius in vitellario aliquis superest vitellus, qui in ovum evadere possit; ex altera tamen parte, albuminis adhuc modicum superest: ex hoc enim modico credibile est ovulum propositum creari. Mihi autem hoc minus verisimile videtur; quia certum est, absumpto toto ovario, uterum quoque secundum (ita ab eo dictum) pariter extenuari, et in membranam flaccescere; nec quidquam albuminis vel humiditatis in se continere. Addit Fabricius: Ovum centeninum duplex reperitur, alterum sine vitello, et hoc vere centeninum dicitur, quod est ultimum a gallina emissum, cum quo gallina omnino cessat eo anni tempore ab ovis pariendis. Alterum et similiter pusillum ovum, quod vitellum habet, et non est ultimum a gallina editum, sed intermedium, et post illud gallina adhuc sequitur ova parere iustae magnitudinis, sicuti antea: sed deficit in magnitudine, propter diminutam facultatem vegetalem; sicuti accidit persico, et aliis [237] plantis; quae modo quidem plurima iustae magnitudinis, nonnulla autem perpusilla efficiuntur. Potuisset his accensere inclementiam coeli, et soli, atque alimenti penuriam et pravitatem. Ultima autem ova semper perpusilla esse, non libenter concesserim.

Also some greater eggs exist, others smaller, others also very small which commonly in Italy are called centenine – hundredths, and our women today, as also aforetime, tell tales that they are laid by the cock and that they will produce basilisks*. Fabrizi says: «The people think that this small egg is the last of the hens, since the hen already laid one hundred eggs, hence call it centenino - hundredth, which is without yolk; nevertheless it possesses the remaining parts as the chalazae, the albumen, the membranes and the shell. It is likely that it is produced when by now all the yolks passed into the eggs and in the ovary no anymore yolk exists that can turn into an egg, while in the other uterine structure a moderate quantity of albumen still remains: in fact it is believable that the aforesaid small egg is produced from this poor quantity of albumen.» Nevertheless this seems me less likely, since it is certain that, after having removed the whole ovary, also the second uterus (so called by him) likewise gets smaller and becomes a flaccid membrane, hence it doesn't contain in itself nothing of albumen or damp. Fabrizi adds: «Two hundredth eggs are found, one without yolk, and this is rightly said hundredth, since it is the last one laid by the hen, with which the hen stops completely to lay eggs in that period of the year. The other one is likewise a small egg that has the yolk and is not the last one laid by the hen, but it is intermediary, and after this the hen continues in laying eggs of correct size as before; but it is scanty in dimensions because of a reduced life-giving power, as it happens to the peach and other trees: nevertheless those of correct size are a lot, however some grow very small.» He would add to these causes the inclemency of the sky and of the ground, and the shortage and the little goodness of the food. Actually I don't gladly admit that the last eggs are always very small.

Nec desunt ovis sua monstra: Augures enim, ait Aristoteles[20], pro ostento habebant, quando ova tota lutea nascuntur; vel cum, {discissa gallina}[21] <discisso gallo>, talia ova sub septo transverso, ubi foeminis ova adhaerent, inventa sunt magnitudine ovi perfecti.

Neither the eggs are lacking their monstrosities. Aristotle says: «In fact the augurs regarded it as a portent when all yellow eggs were laid, or when a cock was cut up and such eggs, of the size of a complete egg, are found under the transverse septum where eggs adhere in the females.»

Huc quoque referri possunt ova gemellifica, quae duobus vitellis praedita sunt; quale nuper in utero gallinae perfectum, testaque obtectum reperi, cum vitellis, cicatriculis, atque albuminibus crassioribus, omnibus geminis; aderant etiam quatuor chalazae; albumen autem tenuius unicum duntaxat praedicta omnia circumambiebat; quod item membranae duae communes solum investiebant; et singulari cortice integebatur. Enimvero licet Aristoteles dicat, gallinas aliquas eiusmodi semper ova parere; isthuc tamen praeter naturae institutum non contingere, vix crediderim. Et quamvis ex istiusmodi ovis gemini pulli nascantur, ut nobis compertum est, contra quam arbitratur Fabricius: qui ait, ex tali ovo pullum procreari cum quatuor cruribus, duobusque capitibus, aut quatuor alis (qua de re infra aliquid dicetur): non sunt tamen vitales, sed plerumque cito pereunt; idque vel ob loci atque aeris in cortice defectum, vel quod alter alteri impedimento sit, et nocumentum adferat: neque enim fieri potest, ut uterque exclusioni aeque paratus sit, et non alter eorum abortus fiat.

At this point also the twin eggs* can be reported, endowed with two yolks, like that I recently found completed and covered by shell in the uterus of a hen, with the yolks, the cicatricles and the thicker all twin albumens. There were also 4 chalazae, and only one thinner albumen was winding all the above-mentioned structures, and likewise the two common membranes were winding only the albumen covered by a particular shell. In truth, even if Aristotle says that some hens always lay such eggs, nevertheless I would hardly believe that this doesn't happen but for a whish of nature. And although from such eggs some twin chicks are born as it has been by me ascertained, on the contrary of what Fabrizi is thinking, who says that from such egg a chick is generated with 4 legs and 2 heads or 4 wings (about this more will be said later), nevertheless they are not viable, but mostly they quickly die, and this happens or for lack of space and air inside the shell, or because one is an obstacle to the other and damages it. In fact it cannot happen that both are equally ready to hatching and that one of the two doesn't become an abortion.

Ut breviter et summatim dicam: differentiae ovorum sunt potissimum trium generum: alia nempe foecunda sunt, alia irrita: alia marem, alia foeminam productura: alia ex cognati generis parentibus, alia ex diversis oriuntur, et hybridas pullos [238] pariunt; qualia a gallina et phasiano concipiuntur; et vel priorem vel posteriorem ineuntem marem referunt.

To speak shortly and summarily: the differences of the eggs are above all of three types, some are fertile, others sterile, some will produce a male, others a female, some originate from parents belonging to the same species, others from parents of different species and they produce hybrid chicks, as those eggs conceived by the hen and the pheasant, and they attribute them to the first or to the last mating male.

Quippe, auctore Aristotele[22], ovum quod per coitum constitutum est, transit e suo genere in genus aliud; si prius coeat (quae vel subventaneum, vel semine maris diversi conceptum fert) quam luteum in candidum mutetur. Atque ita et hypenemia fiunt foecunda, et foecunda suscipiunt maris formam, qui posterior inierit. Quod si iam in album facta sit mutatio, fieri non potest, ut vel subventanea in foecunda mutentur, vel quae per coitum concepta gestantur, transeant in genus maris, qui secundus coierit. Est enim semen galli, ut facete Scaliger, quasi testamentum, cuius ultima voluntas valet.

In fact, as Aristotle writes: «The egg generated through the coition, passes from its genus into another genus if the hen mates before the yellow turns into white (she carries it or windy or conceived with the semen of a different male). And in this way also those windy become fertile, and those fertile assume the aspect of the male that joined for last. But if the change already happened toward the white, it cannot happen that the windy ones are changed into fertile, or that those brought having been conceived through the coition pass in the genus of the male which joined as second.» In fact the semen of the rooster is as Giulio Cesare Scaligero* jokingly defined it: «it is almost a will, of which the last wish is valid.»

His forsan addere liceat, ova quaedam, prae caeteris, esse robusta, vegeta, et, si fas dicere, animosa: in ovis enim ut anima inest, ita etiam par virtus nidulatur. Quemadmodum enim in aliis animalium generibus, foeminae quaedam libidine adeo turgent, venerisque plenae sunt, ut ab omni, etiam levi, coitu, eodemque semel duntaxat, et ab imbecilliore quoque mare, peracto, protinus tamen concipiant, pluresque foetus ex eodem coitu producant; aliae vero tam torpidae et ignavae sunt, ut, nisi a mare generosiore, cupidinisque spiritu accenso, comprimantur, idque repetito saepius et continuato coitu, prorsus infoecundae maneant: idem quoque similiter in ovis contingit; quorum aliqua licet a coitu concepta fuerint, improlifica tamen sunt, nisi a repetito et continuato coitu perficiantur. Inde fit, ut nonnulla ova celeriter mutentur, et tertio ab incubatione die foetus primordia exhibeant; alia vero vel corrumpantur, vel tarde admodum in pullum proficiant, et ad septimum usque diem nullum futuri pulli specimen edant. Quemadmodum postea, in generatione pulli ex ovo, dicetur.

Perhaps we could add to these things that some eggs, in comparison with others, are strong, vigorous and, if it is allowed to say, full of life: in fact as in the eggs is present a soul, likewise also an identical faculty is nesting. In fact as it happens in other species of animals, some females are so turgid of lust and full of sexual desire, that immediately conceive also after whatever mating even if rapid and single, and even if made by a rather weak male, and they produce numerous fetuses from the same coition. On the contrary other females are so many dull and lazy that if they were not raped by a rather strapping male and inflamed by the cupidity, and with an often repeated and prolonged coition, they would remain completely infertile. In the eggs it also happens something similar, some of which, even if conceived with the coition, nevertheless are sterile if they were not improved by a repeated and prolonged coition. Then it happens that some eggs quickly change and at the third day from the beginning of the incubation show the sketches of the fetus, while others are corrupting or turning very late into chick and until the seventh day don't give any sign of the future chick. As subsequently it will be said in the generation of the chick from the egg.

[239] Atque hactenus de gallinae utero, eiusque officio; de generatione ovi gallinacei, huiusque differentiis et accidentibus, experta tradidimus: quorum exemplo, de reliquis etiam oviparis iudicare liceat.

Until here about the uterus of the hen and its task; I reported some things I observed about the generation of the egg of hen and its differences and characteristics, on example of the latter it must be allowed me to express some judgments also on the other oviparous animal.

Superest, ut de generatione et formatione foetus ex ovo historiam prosequamur. Siquidem, ut supra monui, tota gallinacei generis contemplatio in his duobus sita est; quomodo scilicet ex mare et foemina ovum procreetur; et quo pacto ex ovo gallus et gallina proveniant; istoque circuitu, illorum genus aeternitatem, naturae munere, consequatur.

It remains to continue the description of generation and formation of the fetus from the egg. Without doubt, as I previously warned, the whole analysis of the gallinaceus genus lies in these two things, that is: how the egg is procreated by the male and the female, and how the cock and the hen are born from an egg, and with this cycle their genus succeeds in achieving the eternity for a gift of nature.