Dura ad coquendum sunt difficilia, tarde descendunt, crassiusque alimentum corpori tribuunt, quinimo et [301] viscosum: alvum constipant, adeo ut Brasavolus referat, monachum quendam Franciscanum, cum in festo Paschatis collecta a se eiuscemodi ova alba, et rubra ad saturitatem edisset, astricto ventre, ut neque clysteribus, neque medicamentis cederet, obiisse[1]. Nostri eiusmodi ova testis suis exuunt, et in partes aliquot secant, ut alterius vitelli, ac albuminis segmentis lances acetariorum coronent. Idem Germanos tam superiores, quam inferiores factitare audio.

Hard-boiled eggs are more difficult to be digested, they go slowly along the bowel and supply the body with a food rather thick as well as sticky: they constipate the bowels, so that Antonio Brasavola reports that a Franciscan monk, after had eaten to satiety such white and red eggs which he himself had gathered at the feast of Easter, had his bowel constipated so that he didn’t react neither to clysters nor medicines, and died. Our people strip such eggs of their shells and cut them in a certain number of slices in order to adorn the dishes of vinegar seasoned salad with fragments of yolk and white alternatively arranged. I hear that both north and south Germans usually do the same thing.

Ova assa, vel tosta, quae nempe in calidis cineribus coquuntur, vel potius assantur, Galeno, et aliis ὀπτά ἤ ὀπτηθέντα nuncupantur. Cavendum dum assantur, ne dissiliant, quamobrem perfundi frigida solent. Ita cocta parum laudantur: colorem enim ab igne acquirunt, et gravem odorem itaque magis siccant, minusque refrigerant, et ingratioris longe saporis sunt, quam elixa in aqua. Sed cum duobus modis assentur, in cineribus nempe, et inter carbones, Isaac ea quae in cineribus assantur, deteriora esse scribit: quoniam cum calor ignis circumeat ipsa, fumosos eorum halitus exire prohibet, quod super carbones non contingit.

Roasted or toasted eggs, that is, cooked in hot ashes, or better, roasted, by Galen and others are called optá or optëthénta. We must take care that they don't break when roasted, hence they are usually immersed cold – in ashes. Eggs cooked in this way are not much praised: for they acquire a coloring from fire and an unpleasant odor and therefore they get dry more and refresh less, and have by far a less pleasant taste than eggs cooked in water. But since they are roasted in two ways, that is, in ashes and among charcoals, Isaac Iudaeus writes that eggs roasted in ashes are worst: since, being that the heat of the fire surrounds them, it doesn’t allow the escape of their smoky exhalations, a thing which doesn't happen on charcoals.

Postremo τηγανιστὰ dicuntur ova in sartagine spissata, oleo scilicet, vel butyro fricta: nam teganon Graecis patellam, vel sartaginem significat. Nostri vulgo vocant ova nella teglia. Germani, teste Ornithologo eyer in ancken. Haec pessimum omnibus modis nutrimentum habere Galenus, et Symeon Sethi volunt, quoniam dum concoquuntur in nidorem, hoc est, ructus fumosos convertantur, ideoque non modo crassum, sed etiam pravum succum gignere, atque excrementium{:}<.> Et rursus alibi Galenus, Ova frixa, inquit, tarde descendunt, mali succi sunt, et corrumpunt etiam secum admixtos cibos, et inter deterrima earum rerum habentur, quae concoqui nequeunt. Isaac insuper mox in nidorem, et cholericos, seu biliosos humores, ac putredinem verti tradit, ideoque fastidium, et nauseam parere. Eiusmodi ovis vulgus plerunque vescitur, neque etiam nobiliores ab iis abstinent, sed in purum vas, idque stanneum, plerumque evacuant, dissoluto in eo prius butyro, ne fundo adhaereant, coquunt autem, donec album densari supra vitellos, et albescere coeperit. Haec meo iudicio Brasavolus perperam ova pnicta vocavit, inquiens: Ad ova pnictà coquenda Galenus oleo utitur, nos butyro; nam haec pnictà non esse ex praedictis patere arbitror.

Finally, the eggs hardened in frying pan are said tëganistà, obviously fried with oil or butter: in fact for Greeks tëganon means saucepan or frying pan. Our people usually call them uova nella teglia, eggs in roasting-pan. As the Ornithologist reports, the Germans call them Eyer in Ancken – eggs in butter. Galen and Simeon Sethi think that these eggs have the worst nourishment in comparison with all preparation’s manners, since while digested they change into an evil-smelling odor, that is in smoky belches, hence often they produce not only a heavy taste, but also bad and faecal. And further Galen says elsewhere: Fried eggs go slowly along the bowel, have a bad taste and also modify the mixed foods, and they are thought as the worst things among those we cannot digest. In addition Isaac Iudaeus reports that they are immediately transformed into an evil-smelling odor and exhalations which smell gall, that is bile, and into putrefaction, and that therefore they produce lack of appetite and nausea. Common people mostly feed on such eggs, and neither more moneyed people are abstaining from them, on the contrary, they usually pour them in a clean and tin vessel, after they first dissolved butter inside so that eggs don't stick to its bottom, and they cook them until the albumen thickened above the yolks and began to become white. These are the eggs which in my opinion Brasavola wrongly called pnictá - smothered, when saying: Galen is using oil to cook pnictá eggs, we use butter; so I think that according to what has just been said it is glaringly obvious that these eggs are not pnictá.

Sed antequam ad apponenda ea in mensa tempus, ac rationem accedam, superioribus velut pro epilogo hocce Baptistae Fierae epigramma adijcere visum est: est autem tale.

Flent leve cocta, tremuntque, et vix coeuntia mandi

Nollent, nata modo, si sapis, ova bibe.

{Vuid:} <Uda[2]> sunt, celerisque cibi flammaeque tepentis,

Sed durata time, nec requieta velis.

Pectus alunt, tussimque levant, sunt prandia raucis.

Insanoque thoro[3] prandia grata parant.

Demulcent renes, stomachumque alvumque dolentem,

Vesicam mira sedulitate fovent.

Sed moneo: haec marcent facile, et tot commoda perdunt,

Ut nihil ex omni parte beare solet.

But before to get ready to speak about when and how we have to serve them, I thought it proper to quote as epilogue of what we formerly said this epigram of Giovanni Battista Fiera: and it sounds as follows:

They weep when slightly cooked, and tremble, and when are about to grow hard they wouldn’t to be bitten, if you are a little wise swallow just laid eggs. They are damp, and are a quick food and a heating flame, but beware those which become old and don’t desire those which rested. They nourish the breast and relieve the cough, are foods for people with hoarse voice. And they provide flavorful snacks for mad sperm. They caress kidneys as well as stomach and painful bowel, treat the bladder with marvelous promptness. But I warn you: they easily grow rot and lose any utility, as from any point of view the nihility usually gives happiness.

Praeter iam dictos simplicis coctionis modos, unus superest, quo Babylonios venatores usos Caelius testatur: is autem est talis: Ova cruda fundae imponebant, et tam diu rotabant, donec ex eiusmodi motu coquerentur.

Besides the just mentioned methods of simple cooking, there is one which Lodovico Ricchieri. reports to have been used by Babylonian hunters: it consists in this: they placed raw eggs in a sling and spun them for such a long time until they became cooked thanks to such a movement.

Quod modo ad apponendi ova tempus, ac rationem attinet. Athenaeus[4] scribit, bina secundae mensae apud priores solita inferri cum Turdis, etc. Apud Romanos vero, attestante Porphyrio, {coenae} <caenae> initia habeant ova: unde Horatius[5]: Ab ovo usque ad mala citaret <“io Bacche”>. Et in eodem sensu Tullius[6], Integram famem, inquit, ad ovum affero: itaque usque ad assum vitulinum (alias vitellinum) opera ista perducitur. Ubi integram famem ad ovum afferre iuxta Caelium non aliud esse videtur, quam ad secundam usque <mensam>[7] cibi appetentiam producere. Si itaque veteres acetaria in prima mensae apponebant, ova nondum locum mutaverunt, praesertim mollia, et in sartagine cocta, item dura, et assa. Sorbilia, ut diximus, pro ientaculo erant, et nostri paulo ante prandium ea accipiunt.

Now we look at when and how the eggs have to be served. Athenaeus writes that among ancients usually two eggs each were served as second course along with thrushes, etc. In truth, as Porphyrius testifies, among Romans the first courses of a lunch must have eggs: hence Horace says: He would have begun to sing "hurray Bacchus" from egg to apples. And in the same meaning Marcus Tullius Cicero says: I bring the hunger intact up to the egg: and therefore this activity lasts until roast veal (that is, until roast yolk). Where to bring the hunger intact up to the egg for Lodovico Ricchieri seems to mean nothing else than to stretch the food appetite until the second course. If therefore the ancients were placing salad seasoned with vinegar in the first course, the eggs have not yet changed place, especially those soft and cooked in frying pan, and likewise the hard and roasted ones. As we said, sucking eggs served as snack, and our people eat them a little before the lunch.

Quod si sanitatis rationem spectes, ova quoquo modo parata, tum a sanis, tum ab aegris priori loco sumi debent. A duris quidem sanos, et aegros, et hos quoque magis abstinere prorsus convenit, nisi cum alvus solutior est, quam si durius coctis ovis cohibere libuerit, ea quoque ante alios cibos esitari oportet: ut contra etiam si mollire alvum sorbilibus exha<u>riendis statueris, id quoque initio mensae faciendum.

And if you consider health’s reasons, the eggs in whatever way prepared have firstly to be eaten both by healthy and sick people. It is worthwhile that healthy and sick people absolutely abstain from hard-boiled eggs, especially ill people, except when their faeces are rather liquid, and, if we desire to restrain them more strongly with hard eggs, it is necessary that they also are eaten before other foods: on the contrary, even if you decided to soften the faeces by gulping down sucking eggs, also this is to be done at the beginning of meals.

Quemadmodum autem apponendi, ita etiam ova aperiendi modus diversus est. Iudaei enim ea aperiunt parte acutiore, ut si qua illic gutta sanguinis apparuerit, abstineant; nos obtusiore plerumque, Germani in latere.

As far as the way of presenting them is concerned, alike there are also different manners of opening eggs. For the Jews open them at the sharp end, so that if there some drop of blood appears, they can abstain from eating the egg; we Italians mostly at the blunt end, the Germans sideways.

Haec itaque de diversis ovorum cocturis, in aqua, sub cineribus, in sartagine, deque ovis pnictis dicta breviter nobis sufficiant: superest modo, ut de variis eorum apparatibus aliquid, maxime ex Apicio, et Platina dicamus: Ova frixa oenogarata {obelixa} <, ova elixa> liquamine etc. Apicius[8]: ubi {Hemelbergius} <Humelbergius> sic legit: Ova frixa {oenegaro} <oenogaro> (scilicet affuso inferuntur). Ova elixa liquamine, oleo, mero: vel ex liquamine pipere, lasere; In ovis hapalis nucleos infusos: suffundes mel, acetum, {temporibus} <temperabis> liquamine. Ova hapala, inquit Humelbergius vocat Apicius tenera, et mollia, quaeque sine cortice, et putamine cocta sunt in aqua: qualia, et [302] stomachum confortant, authore Scribonio Largo[9].

Therefore these concisely reported information about different ways of cooking eggs, in water, under ashes, in frying pan, and about smothered eggs, have to be enough for us: there remains only to say something about different ways of preparing them, drawing it mainly from Apicius and Platina: Apicius reports Fried eggs seasoned with sauce of wine and fish, cooked eggs with fish sauce etc. Gabriel Hummelberg interprets this passage as follows: Fried eggs with sauce of wine and fish (that is, they are served after have been sprinkled with this sauce). Eggs cooked with fish sauce, oil, pure wine: or seasoned with fish sauce, pepper and silphium; In coddled eggs with kernels inside: you will sprinkle honey, vinegar, you will season with fish sauce. Hummelberg says that Apicius calls hapalà tender and soft eggs cooked in water without membranes and shell: such eggs strengthen also the stomach, as Scribonius Largus reports.