Praeterea Albertus[1] ovum se observasse tradit prorsus sphaericum [221] duabus testis intectum, una intra alteram, cum albumine aquoso tenui inter utranque absque ullo vitello, et altero etiam albumine intra interiorem testam. Idem refert, hypenemia dari exteriori testa carentia, sed membranam tantum habentia, quae testae subijci solet. Putat autem hoc inde fieri, quoniam talia ova humida sunt, et aquosa, et exiguo calore praedita, maxime si cibo humido Gallinae nutriantur. Sunt qui trilecitha[2], id est, triplicis vitelli ova reperiri dicunt, eaque in medio testae plerunque cavitatem habere, ut {Elluchasim} <Elluchasem> sese intellexisse scribit[3]. Ornithologus[4] enarrat, se aliquando ovum vidisse, cuius putamen ab altera parte extrema in angustum velut collum instar cucurbitae se colligebat. Mihi multa omnino sphaerica visa, et admodum exigua, quae ad Columbarum ova vix accederent: unum etiam quod adhuc in Musaeo reservo, Anserino haud minus, plicis, rugisque insigne, quod illustris Io. Baptista Barbazza Bononiensis mihi olim donavit.

Furthermore, Albertus reports that he observed a quite round egg covered by two shells, one within the other, with a thin watery white substance between each and without any yolk, and with also another albumen within the inner shell. Still he himself is telling that they are found wind-eggs without the external shell but having only the membrane usually laying beneath the shell. Then he thinks this happens because such eggs are humid and watery and furnished with little warmth, especially if the hens are fed on humid food. Some people say that trilecitha – trilékitha - eggs are found, that is, with three yolks, and that often they show a cavity in the middle of the shell, as Elluchasem Elimithar writes that he himself noticed. The Ornithologist reports that sometimes he saw an egg whose shell, at one of two ends, got narrower like the neck of a gourd. I have seen many eggs fully spherical in shape and quite small, which barely were close to doves’ eggs: I saw also an egg I’m still keeping in my museum which is no smaller than a goose egg, marked with folds and wrinkles, which the excellent John Baptista Barbazza of Bologna once gave me.

Sed videamus modo, an Gallus etiam ovum pariat. Etsi enim Aristoteles[5], aliique veteres, quod sciam, nullam huius rei mentionem faciant, idque ex recentioribus Albertus falsum esse scribat, tamen id alios viros doctissimos non credere tantum, sed ex experientia propria id scribere video: {a}edere autem id inquiunt, cum iam decrepitus esse incipit, ac senectute confici, idque nonnullis septimo, nono, aut ad summum decimoquarto aetatis anno evenire pro virium vel robore, vel imbecillitate, aut etiam concumbendi consuetudine, qua nulli non animantium naturae vis deijcitur, atque enervatur: tunc scilicet ex putrefacto intus seminis excremento aut humorum colluvie conflari ovum existimant, {a}edique sub Caniculae exortu, quod tunc maxime ab ambientis calore expultrix languida in alite decrepita iuvetur.

But now let us see whether also a rooster can lay an egg. For although Aristotle and other ancients so far as I know make no mention of this matter, and Albertus, among later scholars, writes that this is false, nevertheless I see that other very learned men not only believe this, but that they write this according to their own experience: for they say that he lays it when he begins to be already decrepit and worn-out by old age, and in some rooster it happens in the seventh, ninth, or at most, the fourteenth year of age in proportion either to power or weakness of strength, or even because of mating habit, by which the physical strength of some living creatures is reduced and weakened: then they think that undoubtedly the egg is formed from a secretion of semen putrefied within or from a rinsing of fluids and that it is sent out at the beginning of dog days - August, because in this moment the expulsion’s power, which is weak in an aged bird, takes plenty of advantage from the surrounding heat.

Taceo modo mihi bis, terve a viris etiam non plebeis, sed fide dignissimis ovum allatum, quod e Gallo natum affirmabant. Sunt qui eiusmodi ova semper rotunda, ac orbiculata esse tradunt. Mihi tamen relatum est apud Ferrantem Imperatum Pharmacopaeum Neapolitanum in celeberrimo eius Musaeo oblongum videri. Ea vero quae mihi visa sunt, erant rotunda, colore modo luteo, buxeo, flavescente, lurido. Item vix ante octiduum nescio quis ruptum ad me attulit, quod vitello omnino carere dixisses. Erat enim totum ferme album: inerat tamen quod media parte aliquo pacto flavesceret: habebat etiam quod iam quasi ad generationem vergeret.

Only just I mention the fact that twice or thrice also men who are not of the common run of humans but most trustworthy brought me an egg which they claimed was born from a rooster. Some people report that such eggs are always round and spherical. Nevertheless, I have been told that at home of Ferrante Imperato, pharmacist at Naples, in his very famous museum, an oblong egg can be seen. But those which I have seen were round, barely yellow in color, pale as boxwood, yellowish, pale yellow. Likewise, approximately eight days ago, someone I do not know brought me a broken egg which you would have said completely lacking yolk. For it was almost entirely white: however there was something in the middle part which was somehow yellowish: it also had something as already verging towards generation.

Quod vero nonnulli dicant testa carere, sed adeo durae pellis esse, ut fortissimis ictibus resistat, id plane fabulosum esse existimo, uti etiam quod vulgus in tota Europa existimat, ex eo basiliscum generari, maxime si a rubeta, vel bufone excludatur[6]. Levinus Lemnius[7] medicus praestantissimus propria sese experientia comprobatum habere tradit, Gallum non {a}edere tantum ovum, sed incubare etiam. Scribit autem in civitate Zirizaea, atque insulae huius ambitu duos annosos Gallos non tantum ovis suis incubasse, verum etiam fustibus aegre ab illo opere abigi potuisse, atque ita, quoniam cives eam persuasionem concepissent, ex eiusmodi ovo basiliscum emergere, ovum {conterisse} <contrivisse>, et Gallum strangulasse.

As to the fact that some say such egg lacks shell but has a skin so hard that it resists the strongest blows, I think this is quite fanciful, as it is also what the common people of whole Europe believe, that is, that a basilisk is generated from it, especially if the egg has been laid by a poisonous toad or an ordinary toad. Levinus Lemnius, a most prominent physician, informs that he has confirmation from his own experience that a rooster not only lays an egg but even incubates it. Further on he writes that in the city of Zierikzee - on Schouwen Duiveland island in Zeeland - and in the territory of this island, two aged roosters not only incubated their eggs but also that by flogging them they were driven away with difficulty from that job, and so, since the citizens conceived the conviction that from an egg of this kind a basilisk would emerge, they crushed the egg and strangled the rooster.

Verum quicquid hic, aliique dicant, ego ne iurantibus quidem crediderim, tantum abest, ut Gallum id in fimo ponere, ut eius calore foecundetur, aut ab incubantibus id rubetis basiliscum generari credam, ut nonnulli etiam nugati sunt. Haud interim negarim Gallum quid ovo simile ex conglobata intus putri concretione, maxime in ultimo eius senio, cum non amplius coit, concipere, ovum integrum una cum testa excludere minime credam. Hoc enim in matrice perfici ratio dictat. Ut autem a viro totum foetum excludi nemo dixerit, ita neque a Gallo, qui cum Philosophorum, tum medicorum dogmatibus edoctus loquitur.

Truly, whatever this man and others may say, I should not believe this even if they swore, being so far from reality that a rooster lays an egg in the mud to be fecundated by heat therein, or that I believe that a basilisk is generated if it is incubated by poisonous toads, as some also said for fun. In the meantime I should not deny that a rooster conceives something similar to an egg thanks to a rolled-together concretion of decayed matter within himself, especially in his last old age when he no longer has coitus, but I should not believe at all that he lays a true egg with a shell. For reason dictates that it is perfected in the female. For on the other hand no one could ever affirm that a complete foetus takes birth from a man, thus he won't even have to affirm that it took birth from a rooster, even though he who is speaking is learned both in philosophy and medicine.

Unde relictis eiusmodi nugis, caetera, quae ad huiusce avium generis procreationem spectant, prosequamur. Supersunt modo, quae ad incubatum, et exclusionem pertinent. In incubatione tria maxime observanda sunt, Gallinarum, ovorumque qualitas, tempus supponendi, et Gallinarii cura. Quod ad Gallinas attinet Columella[8] non omnibus incubationem permittendam esse asserit, quoniam novellae magis {a}edendis, quam excubandis ovis idoneae sunt. Et alibi veteranas ad huiusmodi incubationis munus obeundum eligendas praecipit, easque maxime, quae iam saepius id fecerint, conandumque ut mores earum maxime pernoscamus, quod aliae melius excubant, aliae {a}editos pullos commodius educant.

Therefore, leaving aside such trifles, let me continue with the remaining things which pertain to the procreation of this genus of birds. Only those things concerning incubation and hatching are remaining. During the incubation three items must be especially observed, the quality of eggs and hens, the moment to place them under the hens and the diligence of the person in charge of chickens. As for the hens is concerned, Columella asserts that not all hens should be allowed to incubate eggs since young ones are more suited for laying than for hatching out eggs. Elsewhere he advises that aged hens are to be chosen for take up the task of such incubation, and particularly those who have already done so more often, and that we should also make a special effort to learn their individual habits, because some incubate better, others are raising more appropriately the hatched chicks.

Sunt e contrario nonnullae, quae et sua, et aliena ova frangunt, ac saepe etiam exsorbent, quas velut omnino ineptas quamprimum ab ovis submovere convenit. Varro[9] etiam illas improbat, quae rostra, et ungues acuta habent, et tales ad concipiendum potius, quam ad incubandum commendat. Florentinus[10] illas omnino aspernatur, quae spiculatis calcaribus non secus quam Gallinacei armantur. Item iis ova subijci vetat, quae iam aetate florent, quod tales plerunque plura, quam aliae pariant, quales maxime bimae sunt. Est tamen et iis supponendum, cum ab incubandi cupiditate, quae, teste Columella[11] fere, cum primum partum consummaverint, ab idibus Ian.[12] incipere solet, prohiberi nequeunt. Nam multa pariens, et non incubans frequenter aegrotat, et moritur. Inhibetur vero [222] illa cupiditas pinnula per nares traiecta, et frigidae aspersione.

There are, on the contrary, some hens who break both their own eggs and those of someone else, and often even swallow them, and it is advisable to remove the hens as soon as possible from eggs as quite unfit. Varro condemns also those who have sharp beaks and nails, and commends such hens rather for conception than incubation. Florentinus completely despises those who are armed with spiked spurs like the roosters are. Likewise he forbids us to place eggs under those hens which are flourishing in age, because such hens mostly lay more eggs than others, as are doing those who aren’t more than two years old. Eggs must nevertheless be placed under these hens when they cannot be discouraged from their desire to incubate, which usually begins, according to Columella, approximately from the Ides of January - January 13^th - as soon as they completed their laying. For the hen who lays many eggs and does not incubate, frequently grows ill and dies. But that desire is inhibited by a little feather passed through the nostrils and by sprinkling cold water.