Ab [437] aliquibus difficulter coquunt, Libro I. de locis affectis. Ab ovorum uso multo seni cavendum, Libro 5. de sanit. tuenda. Languentibus dari consueverunt, De victu in morb. ac.[1] In febri cum syncope ex tenuibus succis Galenus ova (ovorum vitellos) dedit ante quartum diem, et post ova etiam carnem, Methodi 12. Purgatis tuto exhibentur, In praesagio experim. confirm.[2] Haec omnia Galenus.

By some people they are digested with difficulty, book I of De locis affectis. An elderly person has to abstain from an excessive consumption of eggs, book V of De sanitate tuenda. Habit has been taken to give them to sick persons, De diaeta in morbis acutis secundum Hippocratem. In the fever joined with fainting due to little thick liquids, Galen has given eggs (yolks of egg) before four days had passed, and after the eggs also meat, book XII of Methodus medendi. They are given without problems to those people who have been purged, Praesagitio omnino vera expertaque. Galen says all these things.

¶ Cibi qui viscosum aliquid habent, ut ova, acrocolia[3], cochleae, edacitatem prohibent, (περιγράφει τὴν πολλήν βρῶσιν,) quod diutius in ventriculo immorentur, et inhaerendo humores (alimentum, chylum[4]) secum detineant, Athenaeus[5]. Sunt bona, sed facile et subito tamen ova putrescunt, Sic nihil ex omni parte iuvare potest, Bapt. Fiera. De ovorum usu in tenui victu et quod aliquando prohibeantur non quia calidiora sint, sed quia plenius nutriant, pulchre disserit Aloisius Mundella dialogo secundo Medicinalium.

¶ The foods having a certain stickiness, as eggs, legs, snails, curb the greed (perigráphei tën pollën brôsin) since they remain for rather a long time in the stomach, and by sticking they retain with themselves the humors (the food, the chyme), Athenaeus. The eggs are good, but nevertheless they rot easily and quickly, so they cannot be good for anything under whichever point of view, Giovanni Battista Fiera. About the employment of the eggs in the light feeding and why sometimes they are prohibited not because they are warmer, but because they nourish excessively, Luigi Mondella has disserted in an outstanding way in the second of ten Dialogi Medicinales.

¶ Pars III. De ovorum salubritate pro diversa cocturae ratione. Coctura ovorum quae in aqua fit, melior est caeteris: et quae in calidis cineribus, melior quam quae in sartagine, nempe si eiusdem generis semper inter se conferas, dura duris, mollia mollibus. nam mollia in cineribus, duris in aqua coctis praeferre oportet, Brasavolus. Ovum molliculum plus alit sorbili, et durum plus molli, Dioscor. Quantum sane ovo cocturae accesserit, tanto τροφιμάτερον fiet, hoc est tantum in nutriendo virium illi accrescet, Marcellus {Vergilius} <Virgilius>. ¶ Ovum sorbile cibus est levissimus, Galenus de dynamidiis[6]. Boni succi est, non calefacit, vires potest reficere acervatim, antiquitus sumebatur cum garo, lenit gutturis asperitates, Galenus in libris de compos. sec. locos. et alibi. Ovum sorbile boni succi est, pituitam crassiorem facit, imbecillissimae materiae est (id est minimum alit. ut durum valentissimae) ovum molle vel sorbile: eadem minime inflant, Celsus[7]. Ut sapidiora sint et citius e ventriculo descendant, modicum quid salis addendum est, Nic. Massa.

¶ Section 3 - On the salubriousness of the eggs depending on the different way of cooking. The cooking of the eggs occurring in water is better than others: and that done in hot ashes is better than that in frying pan, provided that you make a comparison within those of the same kind, the hard with the hard ones, the soft with the soft ones. In fact the soft ones cooked in ashes are to be preferred to those hard-cooked in water, Antonio Brasavola. A coddled egg nourishes more than one à la coque – or soft-boiled - and a hard one more than a soft one, Dioscorides. As much the egg increases when cooking, so much it will become trophimáteron, that is, so much it will increase in nourishing power, Marcello Virgilio Adriani. ¶ The egg à la coque is a very light food, Galen in De alimentorum facultatibus. It is endowed with good taste, doesn't warm, can completely restore the energies, in past times it was taken with sauce of fish, it assuages the irritation of the throat, Galen in De compositione medicamentorum secundum locos and in other treatises. The egg to be sipped has a good taste, makes the catarrh fatter, the soft egg or to be sipped is made up by material entirely deprived of energies (that is, it nourishes very little; while the hard one is made up by very energetic material): the soft eggs or to be sipped practically don't give swelling of belly, Celsus. In order that they are tastier and go down more quickly  beyond the stomach we have to add very little salt, Nicola Massa.

Multos vidi qui ex sorbilibus ovis molliorem ventrem habuere: et nonnullos qui uno etiam exhausto, quinquies vel sexies deiicerent, Brasavolus. Ova mollia omnium praestantissima sunt ad nutriendum. sorbilia minus nutriunt, sed facilius subducuntur, et gutturis leniunt asperitates, Galenus et Symeon Sethi. Salubris est usus ovorum recentium fractorum (effusorum) in aquam (bullientem) et mollium, Elluchasem, Arnoldus de Villanova, et Simeon Sethi. Ova elixa in aqua cum testis suis, peiora sunt quam fracta in aqua. quia crassos et fumosos halitus testa cohibet. unde ex frequente eorum esu inflatio oritur, et stomachi ventrisque gravatio, Isaac. Et rursus, Ova in aqua fracta meliora sunt elixis in testa, quia calor aquae temperate penetrat, et crassas ovi partes subtiliat, et gravitatem odoris aufert. Et alibi, Ova in aqua sine testa cocta, naturalem suam humiditatem servant, et sui odoris gravitatem exuunt. Sed aliqui magis appetunt in testa sua cocta quam effusa, ex quorum numero se etiam fuisse scribit Ant. Gazius. Vitanda sunt ova cocta in ventribus gallinarum, et involuta (nescio quid sibi velit haec vox) et frixa, Arnoldus de Villanova.

I have seen quite a lot people that after the eggs à la coque showed a looser bowel: and some who had discharges for five or six times after drunk even only one, Antonio Brasavola. The coddled eggs are the best of all from a nutrient point of view. Those à la coque nourish less, but are digested more easily and give relief to irritations of the throat, Galen and Simeon Sethi. The employment of fresh eggs broken (poured) in water (hot boiling water) and of the coddled ones turns out to be beneficial, Elimithar Elluchasem, Arnaldus from Villanova and Simeon Sethi. The eggs cooked in water with their shell are worse than those broken in water. Since the shell keeps the thick and smoky exhalations. Then from the fact of frequently feeding on them an abdominal swelling and a weight of stomach and bowel spring from them, Isaac Judaeus. And still: the eggs broken in water are better than those boiled with the shell, since the heat of the water penetrates with a moderator effect and makes fluid the thick parts, and eliminates the heaviness of the smell. And in another point: the eggs cooked in water without shell preserve their natural damp and strip themselves of their heavy smell. But some prefer them cooked in their shell rather than poured in water, and Antonio Gazio writes to have belonged to this group of persons. The eggs cooked in the belly of the hens are to be avoided, and wound (I don't know what means this word) and fried, Arnaldus from Villanova.

Crassi succi sunt ova, quae vel elixa vel tosta, penitus densata sint. frixa etiam mali succi, fumosaeque in stomacho cocturae sunt, secum etiam admistos cibos corrumpentis. quapropter inter deterrimas earum rerum habentur, quae concoqui nequeunt. Mediocriter vero cocta, quae ideo tremula appellantur, ad concoctionem, digestionem, nutritionem, bonique succi generationem praestantiora, Galenus in libro de cibis boni et mali succi. Ova non obdurata multum alunt, Psellus. Molle ovum stomacho aptum est, Celsus.[8] Ova dura (ἑφθά καὶ ὀπτά, id est dura tum elixa tum assa) et ad coquendum sunt difficilia, et tardi transitus, (descensus,) crassiusque alimentum corpori tribuunt, Galenus et Symeon. Tarde et paulatim nutriunt, Galenus. Valentissimae materiae sunt, (id est plurimum alunt si concoquantur,) Celsus[9]. Crassum et viscosum alimentum praebent, R. Moses. Ova obdurata, assa et frixa, difficulter concoquuntur, Psellus. Duris in aqua coctis peiora habentur quae sub cineribus calidis induruerint. nam si quid habent humidi exiccatum est. et rursus his quoque peiora, quae in sartagine cocta induruere, Brasavolus. Ova dura vel fastidium movent, vel non cito descendunt, Elluchasem. Ova in aqua durata sunt fugienda in epilepsia, Galenus de puero epilept.

They have a heavy taste those eggs which. boiled or roasted, barely thickened. Also those fried have a bad taste, and being full of smokes, at stomach's level are of difficult digestion, which deteriorates also the intermingled foods. Insofar they are regarded as worse among the things we cannot succeed in digesting. But those slightly cooked, which therefore are said trembling, are better from a digestive, peptic, nourishing point of view and in order to produce good blood, Galen in the treatise De probis pravisque alimentorum sucis. The not hard-boiled eggs nourish quite a lot, Michael Psellos. The coddled egg is proper for the stomach, Celsus. The hard eggs (hephthá kaì optá, that is hard, both boiled and roasted) are difficult to be digested and slow to run (to go down), and supply the body with a rather thick food, Galen and Simeon Sethi. They nourish with delay and slowly, Galen. They are composed by very energetic material (that is, they nourish a lot if they are digested), Celsus. They provide a thick and viscous food, Rabbi Moses. Hard-boiled, roasted and fried eggs are digested with difficulty, Michael Psellos. Those hardened under hot ashes are regarded worse than those cooked in water. In fact if they have some damp, this dried up. And still: they are also worse than these eggs those which, cooked in frying pan, then hardened, Antonio Brasavola. Hard eggs either provoke nausea, or don't quickly go down along the digestive apparatus, Elimithar Elluchasem. The eggs hardened in water are to be avoided in case of epilepsy, Galen in Pro puero epileptico consilium.

Monachus quidam Franciscanus cum in festo {paschatis} <Paschatis> collecta a se ova ad duritiem cocta, alba ac rubra (albumina et vitellos: solent enim eo tempore incisae minutatim utraeque hae partes in patinis digeri)[10] ad saturitatem edisset, astricto ventre ut neque clysteribus neque medicamentis cederet, obijt, Brasavolus.

A Franciscan monk, after on the occasion of Easter's festivity ate to satiety the eggs he picked up and which had been hard-cooked, whites and red (the egg whites and the yolks: in fact in that period is usual to arrange in the dishes both these parts cut up into small pieces), since his bowel constipated so that it was not responding neither to clysters nor drugs, he died, Antonio Brasavola.

Duris <Dura> in aqua coctis  <cocta> tardius permeant: et crassioris sunt succi quae calidis cineribus assantur, (nimium assantur, Symeon. ὑπεροπταθέντα,) Galenus. Ova assata sub cinere, ab igne calorem suscipiunt, ut fumosum quoque et gravem odorem. itaque magis siccant minusque refrigerant quam elixa in aqua. Isaac. Ova cum duobus modis assentur, inter carbones et in cinere, Isaac ea quae in cinere assantur deteriora esse scribit. quoniam cum calor foci circumeat ipsa, fumosos eorum halitus extre [extra] prohibet: quod super carbones non fit, Ant. Gazius. In sartagine vero cocta, (spissata,) pessimum habent omnibus modis alimentum. nam interim dum concoquuntur in nidorem (ructus fumosos) vertuntur: et non modo crassum succum, sed etiam pravum gignunt atque excrementitium, Galenus et Sethi. Et alibi Galenus, Ova frixa tarde descendunt, mali succi sunt, et corrumpunt etiam secum admixtos cibos, et inter deterrima earum rerum habentur quae concoqui nequeunt. Mox in nidorem et cholericos humores ac putredinem vertuntur. quare sunt causa fastidii et nauseae, Isaac.

Those hard cooked in water cross the intestinal wall with a greater slowness: and those roasted in hot ashes (excessively roasted, Simeon Sethi; hyperoptathénta) are of thicker structure Galen. The eggs roasted under the ash receive heat from the fire, as well as smoky and heavy smell. Insofar they dehydrate more and refresh less than those cooked in water, Isaac Judaeus. Since the eggs are roasted in two ways, in the middle of the carbons and in ash, Isaac writes that those roasted in ash are worse. Since, being that the heat of the fire surrounds them entirely, it prevents their smoky vapors to escape: a thing which doesn't happen on carbons, Antonio Gazio. But those cooked (hardened) in frying pan have a nutrient power which is the worse in comparison with all other manners. In fact sometimes while are digested they turn into stench (belches scenting of smoke): and not only they make a thick blood, but also bad and fecaloid, Galen and Sethi. And in another passage Galen says: The fried eggs go down with slowness along the digestive apparatus, they have a bad taste and also adulterate the intermingled foods, and are regarded as the worse among the things we don't succeed in digesting. They immediately turn into stench and exhalations scenting of bile and become rot: insofar they give rise to inappetence and nausea Isaac Judaeus.

¶ Ova pnicta elixis (duris in aqua coctis) et assis sunt meliora, Galenus: ut supra recitatum est. Videntur quidem pnicta tanquam in diplomate cocta, cum sapidiora esse, idque condimentorum quoque ratione, tum magis [438] lenire ac mitigare, quam quae in vase statim igni imposito parantur, quae facilius empyreuma[11] aliquod trahunt.

¶ The drowned eggs are better than the hard-cooked (hard cooked in water) and roasted ones, Galen, as I told previously. Really the drowned ones seem cooked like in bain-marie, and being tastier, and this also because of the seasonings, they have a greater lenitive and refreshing power than those prepared in a vase suddenly put on the fire, which more easily bring along some residual.