Pascitur et dulci facilis gallina farina, | Pascitur et tenebris. ingeniosa gula est, Martialis sub lemmate Gallina altilis[1]. Interdictum est lege C. Fannii consulis, ne quid volucrum poneretur, praeter unam gallinam quae non esset altilis, Plin.[2] Capos et gallinas saginare ligur<r>itores ipsi invenere, quo unctius ac lautius devorarent, Platina. Gallinas saginare Deliaci coepere: unde pestis exorta, opimas aves et suopte corpore unctas devorandi. Foeminae quidem ad saginam non omnes eliguntur, nec nisi in cervice pingui cute. Postea culinarum artes, ut clunes spectentur, ut dividantur in tergora, ut a pede uno dilatatae repositoria occupent. Dedere et Parthi cocis suos mores, Plinius[3]. Hyeme melius quam aestate saginatio fiet, probabiliorque erit fartura, Platina. Gallinae et capi impinguantur cito, si cerevisia eis in potu apponatur pro aqua. Vide plura superius in Capo E.

The hen is easily nourished  also with the sweet meal, | she is also nourished by darkness. The palate is ingenious, Martial at the item Hen to be fattened. By the law of Caius Fannius was forbidden of putting in table any bird except for only a not fattened hen, Pliny. They have been the gluttons themselves who invented the fattening of capons and hens, in order to gorge themselves in a more delicious and sumptuous way, Platina. They have been the inhabitants of Delos who began to fatten the hens, whence arose the very bad practice of eat fat poultry basted in its own greasy. To say the truth, not all the hens are chosen for being fattened, but only if they have fat skin on the neck. Afterwards the culinary arts got involved so that the legs were looking well, so that they were bending at the sides of the back, so that stretched beginning from a leg they were filling the whole dish of course. Even the Parthians gave their customs to the cooks. The fattening will take place better in winter than in summer, and they will become fat more probably, Platina. The hens and the capons fatten quickly if beer is given to drink in place of water. See more data in what has been said previously in the paragraph E of the capon.

Pinguem quoque facere gallinam, quamvis fartoris, non rustici sit officium, tamen quia non aegre contingit, praecipiendum putavi. Locus ad hanc rem {desyderatur} <desideratur> calidus maxime, et minimi luminis, in quo singulae caveis angustioribus, vel sportis inclusae pendeant aves, sed ita coarctatae, ne versari possint. Verum habeant ex utraque parte foramina. Unum, quo caput exeratur: alterum, quo cauda, clunesque, ut et cibos capere possint, et eos digestos sic edere, ne stercore coinquinentur. Substernatur autem mundissima palea, vel molle foenum, id est cordum. Nam si dure cubant, non facile pinguescunt. Pluma omnis e capite, et sub alis atque clunibus detergetur. Illic ne pediculum creet, hic ne stercore loca naturalia exulceret. Cibus autem praebetur ordacea farina, quae cum est aqua conspersa et subacta, formantur offae, quibus aves saginantur. Eae tamen primis diebus dari parcius debent, dum plus concoquere consuescant. Nam cruditas miranda est maxime, tantumque praebendum, quantum digerere possint. neque ante recens admovenda est, quam tentato gutture apparuerit nihil veteris escae remansisse. Cum deinde satiata est avis, paululum deposita cavea dimittitur, sed ita ne vagetur: sed potius, si< >quid est, quod eam stimulet aut mordeat, rostro persequatur. Haec enim fere communis est cura farcientium. Nam illi, qui volunt non solum opimas, sed etiam teneras ave{i}s efficere, mulsa {recente} <recenti> aqua praedicti generis farinam conspergunt, et ita farciunt. nonnulli tribus aquae partibus unam boni vini miscent, madefactoque triticeo pane obesant avem, quae prima luna (quoniam id quoque custodiendum est) saginari coepta, vigesima pergliscit, Columella[4].

Also to fatten a hen, although this is a task of he who by profession fattens them and not of the farmer, nevertheless, since it is not a hard work, I reckoned proper to teach it. For this purpose is required a very warm place and with very little light, in which the hens have to stay individually hanging and shut up in rather narrow cages or in baskets, but kept in the narrow so that they cannot move. However they must have available holes at two extremities. A hole through which the head is let out: the other through which the tail and the buttocks escape, in such a way that they are able both to take food and to expel that digested without fouling themselves with dung. Very clean straw has to be spread under them or soft hay, that is,  late. In fact if they lie down on hard they don't easily fatten. All the feathers from the head have to be removed, from under the wings and from buttocks: in the first two places so that they don't give birth to lice, in the latter place in order to not create with the dung ulcerations in the region roundabouts the cloaca. As food is given barley meal which, after has been wetted and kneaded with water, is shaped in pellets by which the hens are fattened. However in the first days they have to be given with a certain parsimony, until when the hens don't get used to digest a greater quantity of them. In fact we have to watch out a lot for indigestion and to give them just enough they are able to digest. And new food has not to be given before we won't be sure, by feeling the crop, that there old food has not remained. When then the hen is satisfied,  the cage is lowered and she is allowed to go out for a little bit, without allowing her to go away, but only so that she can chase with the beak something, if there is, bothering or pestering her. In fact this is roughly the way in which have to act the fatteners. In fact those people who want not only to make fat the hens, but also tender, wet the meal of the above-mentioned kind with fresh water mixed to honey, and they fatten them in this way. Some mix a part of good wine with three parts of water and after they wetted bread of wheat they fatten the hen, who, having started to be fattened at the beginning of the new moon (in fact we have also to consider this), after twenty days she comes at the end of the fattening, Columella.

Gallinae saginantur maxime villaticae. Eas includunt in locum tepidum, et angustum, et tenebrosum, quod motus earum, et lux pinguitudini inimica, electis ad hanc rem maximis gallinis, nec continuo his, quas Melicas appellant, cum Medicas deberent, Varro[5]. Antiquissimum est maximam quanque avem lautioribus epulis destinare. Sic enim digna merces sequitur operam et impensam, Columella. Amplas omnes e villaticis, evulsis (pennis extremis, Florentinus) ex alis pinnis, et cauda, farciunt turundis hordeaceis partim admistis ex farina loliacea, aut semine lini ex aqua dulci: (Alii tritici pollinem miscent. Sunt qui his omnibus infundant vinum, Florentinus.) Bis die cibum dant, observantes ex quibusdam signis, ut prior sit concoctus, quam secundum dent. Dato cibo, tum perpurgant caput, ne quos habeant pedes, et rursus eas concludunt. Hoc faciunt usque ad dies viginti quinque. Tum denique pingues fiunt. Quidam ex triticeo pane intrito in aquam, mixto vino bono et odorato farciunt, ita ut diebus viginti pingues reddant ac teneras. Si in farciendo nimio cibo fastidiunt, remittendum in datione pro portione, sic ut decem primis processit, in posterioribus ut diminuat eadem ratione, ut vigesimus dies et primus sit par, Varro. Si fastidiet cibum, totidem diebus minuere oportebit, quot iam farturae processerint: ita tamen, ne tempus omne opimandi quintam et vigesimam lunam superveniat, Columella.

Above all are fattened the courtyard's hens. They shut up them in a lukewarm, narrow and dark place, since their moving and the light are enemies of the obesity, and for this purpose the larger hens have to be chosen, and not necessarily those they call Melicae, while they should be called Median, Varro. It is a very ancient custom to assign any very large hen to the more sumptuous banquets. In fact so a right profit is coming hence for the carried out work and the sustained expense, Columella. They fatten all the bulky courtyard's hens, after they removed the feathers from the wings (the peripheral feathers, Florentinus) and from the tail, with mashes of barley partly mixed with meal of darnel or with flaxseed in sweet water (others mix superfine flour of wheat, some pour wine in all these ingredients, Florentinus). They feed twice a day, keeping in mind some signs, that the previous food has been digested before giving the next one. Once the food has been given, then they polish up the head so that they don't have any lice, and newly they shut up them. They do this for 25 days. Then finally they become fat. Some fatten them with wheat's bread soaked in water mixing good and perfumed wine, so to make them fat in the turn of 20 days, and tender. If during the fattening they are finicky because of too much food, it has to be proportionally reduced, in such a way that as it has been increased in the first 10 days, the same it must be decreased in the following days, so that the twentieth and the first day are corresponding, Varro. If the hen will become finicky towards the food, it will be advisable to reduce it for so many days already passed from when we started to fatten them: nevertheless in such a way that the fattening time doesn't go beyond the 25^th day of the moon, Columella.

Caeterum maior pars milio alunt gallinas, Florentinus. Gallinas et anseres sic farcito: Gallinas teneras, quae primum parie{ri}nt, concludas, polline, vel farina ordacea conspersa, turundas facias: eas in aquam intinguat, et in os indat: paulatim quotidie addat, et ex gula {consyderet} <consideret>, quod satis fiet. Bis in die farciat, et meridie bibere dato. nec plus aquam ante (in vase appositam) sinas quam horam 1 {j}. Eodem modo anserem alito, nisi prius dato bibere bis in die, et bis escam, Cato[6].

On the other hand, the generality feeds the hens with millet, Florentinus. Fatten hens and geese in the following way: you have to shut up the young hens as soon as they will start to lay, prepare mashes by wetting superfine flour or meal of barley: dip the mash in water and shove it into the mouth: add it bit by bit every day and judge according to the crop if it will be sufficient. Stuff them twice a day, and gives them to drink at midday. And don't allow them to have in front water (put in a container). for more than a hour. Nourish in the same way the goose, but only having first given her to drink twice a day, and twice the food, Cato.

¶ Febrientibus magis conveniunt gallinae castratae, quanquam veteres castrationis earum non meminerunt. ego castratas domi alo, quarum caro albior, melior et friabilior est. Facile et cito coquuntur, et tenerae fiunt et gratae palato, Mich. Savonarola[7].

¶ For those people having fever the castrated hens are more suitable, although the ancients didn't make mention of their castration. In my house I am raising castrated hens and their meat is more white, better and friable. They easily cook and quickly, and become tender and pleasant to the palate, Michele Savonarola.

¶ Si cibus deesse sentiatur apibus, ad fores earum posuisse conveniet crudas gallinarum carnes, et uvas passas, etc. Plinius[8].

¶ If you were under the impression that the bees lack food, near the entry of their nest it will be worthwhile to have put raw meat of hen and raisin, etc., Pliny.

¶ Albuminis usus. Aurum marmori et iis quae candefieri non possunt, ovi candido illinitur, Plinius[9]. Candidum ex ovis admixtum calci vivae glutinat vitri fragmenta, vis vero tanta est ut lignum perfusum ovo non ardeat, ac ne vestis quidem contacta aduratur, Plin.[10] Aurum ovatum ex Grammaticis quidam dictum volunt, quoniam ovi albo antea illito, aera ac marmora auri et argenti laminis decorarentur. Papaver candidum panis rustici crustae inspergitur affuso ovo inhaerens, etc. Plinius. Pharmacopolae ut serapia et alias potiones clariores reddant, ovi albumine, aliquando etiam testis pariter utuntur, decocto interim agitando inijcientes. Ovi albumen ex aqua frigida scopulis agita, donec in spumam abeat, quam particulatim syrupo, vel alteri decocto ferventi inspergas: et ubi nigruerit, cochleari foraminulento deradas, novam inspergas: id fac donec erit syrupus clarior. [Iac. Sylvius]

¶ Use of the albumen. The gold is smeared on marble and on those things which cannot be made incandescent, by the use of egg white, Pliny. The white obtained from eggs mixed with quicklime joins the fragments of glass: in truth the strength in it is so great that a wood piece sprinkled with egg doesn’t burn, and even a clothing smeared with it doesn’t catch fire, Pliny. Some grammarians are thinking that eggy gold took the name from the fact that bronzes and marbles were decorated with gold and silver leaves after egg white was first smeared. The seeds of the white poppy - Papaver alpinum - are sprinkled on the crust of homemade bread after egg has been shed on it to which they glue, etc, Pliny. The apothecaries to make more clear syrups - see serapium - and other potions use egg white and sometimes the shells too, plunging them into meanwhile are mixing up the decoction. Shake with small brooms the egg white in cold water until became a foam which you add little by little to a syrup or another decoction while boiling: and when it darkened they remove the foam with a perforated spoon, add some new foam: continue to do so until the syrup became more clear, Jacques Dubois.