Gallinae, ut Theophrastus refert, ovo {a}edito, religione quadam [416] excutiunt se, et circumactae purificant, aut festuca aliqua sese et ova lustrant, pericarphismum Plutarchus vocavit[1], Caelius. Gallina post coitum se excutit, eo scilicet quod per libidinem incitatur in ea vapor, faciens extensionem, in ea sicut et in homine pandiculatio[2] fit quando languet desiderio coitus, et tum confricando se aliquoties festucam ore apprehendit tamquam nidum componens. In nido etiam sedens saepe rostro convertit paleas, ut et aliae aves, Albert. ¶ Gallinae etiam ex phasianis concipiunt, ut copiose scribetur in B.

The hens, as Theophrastus* writes, after laid the egg, for a sort of ritual they shake and purify themselves going round and round, or clean up themselves and the eggs with a straw, and Plutarch* called this perikarphismós - to cover themselves with straw, Lodovico Ricchieri*. After coitus the hen shakes herself, obviously because through the lust is stirred in her the vital heat which extends the limbs, and in her as well as in a human being a stretching of the limbs like during a yawn happens when he craves to have sexual intercourse, and then rubbing herself some times she seizes with the mouth a straw as nesting. Also when is crouched in the nest she turns often the straw with the beak, as also other birds do, Albertus*. ¶ The hens are also fertilized by pheasants*, as I will write in abundance in the paragraph B.

¶ Gallinae avesque reliquae, sicut Cicero ait[3], et quietum requirunt ad pariendum locum, et cubilia sibi nidosque construunt, eosque quam possunt mollissime substernunt. Fabas si comedant gallinae, intercipitur eis generatio ovorum, Avicenna et Crescentiensis. Gallinas aiunt ex assiduo fabarum esu sterilescere, Didymus. Si frequenter edant cortices fabarum, steriles fiunt: quae etiam arboribus novellis ad radices appositae eas exiccant, Clemens 3. Stromat. Quo tempore arbores florent, gallinas potissimum pinguescere audio, floribus vescentes: sed tum ova earum etiam praecipue cito corrumpi et putrescere.

¶ The hens and all other birds, as Cicero* says, forage for a quiet place to lay the eggs, as well as they built dens and nests, and cover the latter in a softest way. If the hens eat broad beans*, the production of eggs stops in them, Avicenna* and Pier de' Crescenzi*. They say that the hens become sterile for a continuous feeding on broad beans, Didymus - a geoponic*. If they often eat the peel of broad beans become sterile: moreover if the latter are put close to roots of seedlings, dry up them, Clement of Alexandria* Stromata 3. I hear that when the trees are blooming the hens fatten up a lot because eat the flowers: but then also their eggs rot and putrefy in a hurry.

DE OVIS: ET PRIMUM DE IPSORUM FORMATIONE, PARTIBUS,
natura, sexu, deinde de geminis, et subventaneis, aliisque corruptis aut monstrosis.
Item de incubatione eorum, et pulli generatione exclusioneque.

THE EGGS: AND FIRST OF ALL ON THEIR FORMATION, THEIR PARTS,
their constitution, then twin and windy eggs,
and the others rotten or monstrous.
Moreover on their incubation, the generation of the chick and his birth.

Quae de ovis eorumque natura deinceps afferemus, pleraque omnia non ad gallinas modo sed genus avium universum pertinent, et ad quadrupedes quoque Oviparas aliqua ex parte: sed quoniam ea omnia in gallina magis conspicua sunt, familiari prae caeteris nobis alite, ad eius potissimum historiam referre libuit. Dicentur etiam nonnulla de avium generatione ex ovis, in communi avium historia; sed paucissima aut nihil fortassis, quod hic quoque annotatum a nobis non sit.

The bulk of all the things I will report in succession on eggs and their constitution doesn't concern only the hens but the whole class of Birds as in some respect also the oviparous quadrupeds: but since all these things are more showy in the hen, a bird familiar with us in comparison with others, I have chosen to report them above all in hens' description. In the collective description of the birds I will also say some things on the generation from the eggs but little things or perhaps nothing I didn't already report in this chapter.

Ovi formatio. Ovum est animal potentia, ex ovificantis productum superfluo, Aggregator[4]. Ovum gallinae consistit a coitu, et perficitur decem diebus magna ex parte, Aristot.[5] A coitu decem diebus ova maturescunt in utero, vexatae autem gallinae et columbae penna evulsa, aliave simili iniuria diutius, (tardius,) Plin.[6] Ovum e semine galli conceptum, ut plurimum undecimo die paritur. citius quidem in iuvenca, et regione calida, et nutrimento calido utente, quam in contrariis. Alius autem est conceptus, quando semen galli in matrice invenit materiam ovi venti, aliqua ex parte aut omnino, propter pellem et testam, completam. huic enim coniungitur, et foecundat totum ovum: et prout materia in matrice magis minusve praeparata fuerit, tardius citiusve eandem perficit, Albertus. Incoepta ova si adhuc parvis desierit coitus, non accrescunt. sed si continuetur, celeri incremento augentur, iustamque magnitudinem implent, Aristot. et Albertus. Huius rei causam inquirit Aristot. de generat. anim. lib. 3. cap. 1. [7]

Formation of the egg. The egg is a living power, produced by what is superfluous for whom is begetting the egg, Symphorien Champier*. The egg of the hen is formed by coition, and mostly is carried out within ten days, Aristotle*. After mating the eggs come to a head in uterus within 10 days, but more slowly (later) if the animals are tormented, if some feather is pulled out from the hen and the dove, or if some other similar violence is done to them, Pliny*. An egg conceived with the semen of the rooster is mostly delivered on eleventh day: but more early in the young hen and in a warm region and in that feeding on a warm food in comparison with opposite situations. The conception indeed is different when the semen of the rooster finds in the genital apparatus the matter of the egg entirely or partially full of wind because of egg's membranes* or of the shell. In fact the semen joins the wind and fertilizes the whole egg: and according to the fact that in the genital apparatus the matter is more or less ready, earlier or later brings it to a end, Albertus. If to sketchy and still small eggs the coition stops, they don't grow, but if it continues, they quickly increase in size and reach an appropriate size, Aristotle and Albertus. Aristotle investigates the reason of this in De generatione animalium 3,1.

Concipit foemina quae coierit ovum superius ad septum transversum: quod ovum primo minutum et candidum cernitur: mox rubrum cruentumque, deinde increscens luteum et flavum efficitur totum. Iam amplius auctum discernitur, ita ut intus pars lutea sit, foris candida ambiat. Ubi perfectum est, absolvitur atque exit putamine, dum paritur, molli, sed protinus durescente, quibuscunque emergit portionibus, nisi vitio vulvae defecerit, Aristot.[8] Avis hypenemia gerens ova, si coeat nondum mutato ovo ex luteo in album, foecunda ex subventitiis redduntur, item si conceperit ex coitu ova, si eis adhuc luteis existentibus cum alio mare coivit, simile eius quo cum postea coivit, provenit omne genus pullorum, Aristot. in libris de hist. et de genere anim. Gallinae parere a bruma incipiunt. optima foetura ante vernum aequinoctium. post solstitium nata non implent magnitudinem iustam, tantoque minus quanto serius provenere, Plin.[9] Confecta bruma parere fere id genus avium consuevit: atque earum quae sunt foecundissimae, locis tepidioribus, circa Calen. Ian. ova edere incipiunt: frigidis autem regionibus eodem mese post Idus, Columella[10].

The female who paired off conceives the egg in the upper part of the abdomen nearby the transverse septum: and this egg at the beginning appears small and candid: afterward red and bloody, then increasing in size becomes wholly yellow and golden. At this point it appears more huge, so that the yellow lies in the inner part, the white surrounds it outwardly. When accomplished, it is freed, and while is laid it comes out with a soft shell, but which quickly becomes hard, and comes out with all its parts unless is defective because of a malformation of the uterus, Aristotle. The bird bringing windy eggs, if mating when the egg not yet turned from yellow into white, the eggs from windy become fertile, also if she will conceive some eggs because of the coition, if while they are still yellow she mated with another male, all the chicks become similar to the one with which lastly mated, Aristotle in De historia and De generatione animalium. The hens begin to lay from winter solstice. We have the best clutches before spring equinox. The eggs hatching after summer solstice don't give chicks fitting in size and as lesser as later they are born, Pliny. Mostly this kind of birds got a habit of laying when the winter is over: and in mildest regions the most fertile of them start to lay eggs about January calends - January 1st, but in cold places in the same month after the ides - January 13th, Columella*.

In ovo pelliculae ex umbilico tentae sunt: et reliqua quae de puero dicta sunt, sic se habere in ovo volucris reperies ab initio ad finem, Hippocrates in libro de natura pueri[11]. {E :}<Et> rursus, Volucris ex ovi luteo nascitur, hoc modo. Incubante matre ovum calescit, et quod in ovo inest a matre movetur: calescens autem id quod in ovo inest, spiritum habet, et alterum frigidum ab aere per ovum attrahit. Ovum enim adeo rarum est, ut spiritum qui attrahitur sufficientem ei quod intus est transmittat: et augescit volucris in ovo, et coarticulatur modo eodem consimili velut puer. Nascitur autem ex luteo ovi volucris: (hoc dicitur contra omnium sententiam, Graece legitur Γίνεται δὲ ἐκ τοῦ χλωροῦ τοῦ ὠοῦ τὸ ὄρνεον. Τροφήν δὲ καὶ αὔξεσιν ἔχει τὸ λευκόν, τὸ ἐν τῷ ὠῷ. Τοῦτο ἤδη πᾶσιν ἐμφανές ἐγένετο, ὁκόσοι προσέσχον τὸν νοῦν. Et paulo ante, τὸ ὄρνεον γίνεται ἐξ τοῦ ὠοῦ τοῦ χλωροῦ.) alimentum vero et augmentum habet ex albo, quod in ovo est. Ubi autem deficit alimentum pullo ex ovo, non habens id sufficiens unde vivat, fortiter movetur in ovo, uberius alimentum quaerens. et pelliculae circum dirumpuntur, et ubi mater sentit pullum vehementer motum, putamen excalpens ipsum excludit, atque haec fieri solent in viginti diebus<, et manifestum est quod ita se habent.>[12]. Ubi enim excusa est volucris, nullus humor in ovi testis inest, qui sane memorabilis existat, expensus est enim in pullum, Haec ille.

In the egg, little membranes stretch from the umbilical cord, and the rest of what has been said about the child you will exactly find in a bird’s egg from start to finish, Hippocrates*. And still: A bird is born in the yellow of the egg in this way. When the mother is incubating the egg gets warm, and that which is in the egg is moved by the mother: while the contents of the egg are getting warm, they have a breathing, and through the egg they attract the other cold air from the atmosphere. For the egg is so porous that it can transmit the air which is attracted in sufficient quantity for what is inside: and the bird grows in the egg, and he moves his joints exactly and quite likewise as a child does. Furthermore the bird is born from the yellow of the egg: (this is said in opposition to opinion of everybody, and in Greek we read: Gínetai dè ek toû chløroû toû øoû tò órneon. Trophën dè kaì aúxesin échei tò leukón, tò en tô_i øô_i. Toûto ëdë pâsin emphanés egéneto, hokósoi proséschon tòn noûn. And just before: tò órneon gínetai ex toû øoû toû chløroû.) but he has his nourishment and growth from the white which is inside the egg. But when the chick lacks the nourishment from egg, and he does not have enough to live by it, perhaps he stirs inside the egg as seeking for more abundant food, and the membranes around him are broken, and when the mother notices that the chick is moving violently, she hatches him by pecking at the shell, and usually all this happens within twenty days, and it is well-known that this is the case. For when the bird is hatched, in the eggshells there is no noteworthy liquid, for it has been used for the chick, Hippocrates.

Aristoteles de generatione anim. lib. 3. cap. 2.[13] pullum ait non ex luteo, sed ex albumine generari: et non albumen, (ut Alcmaeon Crotoniates et alii plerique putarint, colore affinitate decepti,) sed luteum pulli in ovo veluti lac et nutrimentum esse. Candidum membranae subiectum in ovo principium est, ({Ὡῖ} <Ὧ> διαδίδοται ἀρχὴ ὑπὸ τὸν ὑμένα λευκὸν)[14] in hoc enim semen continetur, et non in eo qui neottos, id est pullus vocatur. sic autem vulgo vocant luteum, quod superfluitas est seminis, decepti sunt enim qui huius opinionis authores fuerunt, [417] Suidas in Νεοττόν.

Aristotle in De generatione animalium 3,2 says that the chick is generated not from the yolk but from the albumen: and it is not the albumen (like Alcmaeon of Croton* and most of others have thought, deceived by the similarity of the color) but it is the yolk representing the milk and the nourishment of the chick in the egg. The white which in the egg is lying underneath the egg's membranes is the generating principle, (Hô diadídotai archë hupò tòn huména leukòn - Here is distributed the principle underneath the white egg's membranes), for in it the semen is hold, and not in that said neottós, that is, chick. In fact they usually call in this way the yellow, where is overabundance of semen, for those people who thought up this theory have been mistaken, the lexicon Suidas* at the entry Neottón - chick, yolk of the egg, accusative.

Et genus omne avium mediis e partibus ovi, | Ni sciret fieri, quis nasci posse putaret? Ovidius 15. Metam.[15] Ova inter animal et non animal veluti ambigere videntur, Caelius. Ova e quibus mares nascentur, gallina gerit in parte ventris dextra: e quibus foeminae, in sinistra, Physiologus. Quonam modo ova in utero increscant, et quomodo adhaereant, explicat Aristoteles lib. 3. cap. 2. de gener. anim.[16] Gallinis porro tertia die ac nocte postquam coepere incubare, indicium praestare incipiunt, (Vide etiam infra ubi de incubatione seorsim agetur.) At maiorum avium generi plus praetereat temporis, necesse est. minori autem minus sufficit. Effertur per id tempus luteus humor ad cacumen, qua principium ovi est: atque ovum detegitur ea parte, et cor quasi punctum sanguineum in candido liquore consistit: quod punctum salit iam, et movetur, ut animal. Tendunt ex eo meatus venales sanguigeri duo tortuosi ad tunicam ambientem utranque, dum augetur. Membrana etiam fibris distincta sanguineis, iam {album liquorem}[17] <luteum> per id tempus {circundat} <circumdat>[18], a meatibus illis venarum oriens. Paulo autem post, et corpus iam pulli discernitur, exiguum admodum primum et candidum, conspicuum capite et maxime oculis inflatis, quibus ita permanet diu. sero enim decrescunt oculi, et se ad ratam contrahunt proportionem. Pars autem inferior corporis, nullo membro a superiore distingui, inter initia cernitur. Meatuum, quos ex corde tendere diximus, alter ad ambiendum album liquorem fertur, alter ad luteum velut umbilicus. Origo itaque pulli in albumine est, cibus per umbilicum ex luteo petitur.

And the whole population of birds is born from the central part of an egg, | who would think this, if he would be unaware that it happens in this way? Ovid* Metamorphosis XV. The eggs almost seem to be midway between a living and not living being, Lodovico Ricchieri*. The hen carries in the right part of the abdomen the eggs from which males will be born: in the left those from which females will be born, Physiologus*. To whatever point the eggs grow in uterus and how they stick to it, Aristotle* explains this in III book 2nd chapter of De generatione animalium. Then in hens - the eggs* - begin to show a sign on third day and night after they began to incubate (see also below, when we will particularly deal with incubation). But in the genus of larger birds there is need for more elapsing time. But less time suffices for a smaller bird. During this period the yellow liquid is moving to the sharp end, where the principle of the egg is located: and the egg is uncovered in that area, and the heart appears like a speck of blood in the white liquid: and this speck still jumps and moves like a living creature. Two winding vein-ducts with blood are detaching themselves from it and while it is growing they go towards both the enveloping membranes. In this moment also a membrane marked with bloody fibers is already surrounding the yolk, arising from those vein-ducts. But a little later it is yet possible to see the body of the chick, quite small at first and white, with a big head, and with very prominent eyes, a condition which lasts for a long time. Since the eyes decrease in size belatedly and contract themselves to their proper size. At the beginning it is impossible to distinguish the lower part of the body from the upper one by no anatomical structure. One of the vein-ducts which I said are detaching themselves from the heart goes to surround the albumen, the other moves towards the yolk like an umbilical cord. Thus the origin of the chick lies in the albumen, its nourishment is sought out of the yolk through the navel-string.

Die iam decimo pullus totus perspicuus est, et membra omnia patent. Caput grandius toto corpore est. oculi capite grandiores haerent. quippe qui fabis maiores per id tempus emineant nigri, nondum cum pupilla. quibus si cutem detrahas, nihil solidi videris, sed humorem candidum rigidumque admodum refulgentem ad lucem, nec quicquam aliud. ita oculi et caput. Iam vero et viscera eo tempore patent: et alvi intestinorumque natura perspicua est. Venae etiam illae a corde proficiscentes, iam sese iuxta umbilicum constituunt. Ab ipso autem umbilico vena oritur duplex. Altera tendens ad membranam ambientem vitellum, qui eo tempore humet, et largior, quam secundum naturam est: altera permeans ad membranam ambientem eam, qua pullus operitur, et eam quae vitellum, humoremque interiectum continet[19]. dum enim pullus paulatim increscit, vitellus seorsum in duas partes secatur. quarum altera locum tenet superiorem, altera inferiorem, et medius humor candidus continetur. nec partem inferiorem a vitello liquor deserit albus, qualis ante habebatur. Decimo die albumen exiguum iam, et lentum: crassum, pallidulum novissime inest. Sunt enim quaeque locata hoc ordine. prima, postremaque ad testam ovi membrana posita est, non testae ipsius nativa, sed altera illi subiecta. liquor in ea candidus est. deinde pullus continetur obvolutus membrana, ne in humore maneat. mox pullo vitellus subiacet, in quem alteram ex venis prorepere dictum est, cum altera albumen ambiens petat. Cuncta autem ambit membrana cum humore, specie saniei. Tum vero membrana alia circa ipsum foetum, ut dictum est, ducitur, arcens humorem. sub qua vitellus alia obvolutus membrana. in quem umbilicus a corde, ac vena maiore oriens pertinet: atque ita efficitur, ne foetus alterutro humore attingatur.

Now on the tenth day the complete chick is visible and all parts of its body are observable. The head is larger than the entire body. The eyes continue to be larger than the head. Larger than broad-beans, at this time they are bulging and black, not yet provided with pupil. If you remove their covering you will see nothing solid, but a snow-white and stiff liquid very shining in the light, and nothing else. Such are eyes and head. Also the viscera are already visible at that time, and the conformation of the stomach and of the intestinal loops is recognizable. Also those veins that branch out from the heart are now placing themselves close to the umbilical cord. A pair of veins arises from the umbilical cord itself. One of them goes to the membrane - allantoid - which wraps up the yolk which in this moment is hydrated and larger than naturally is: the other goes to that enveloping membrane - amnios - by which the chick is wrapped up, and which wraps up that one containing the yolk and the interposed liquid. For while the chick is gradually growing the yolk splits distinctly itself into two parts. One occupying the upper space, the other the lower space, and a snow-white liquid is contained between them. And the albumen is not running out from the lower part of the yolk, such as it was before. On the tenth day by now the white is slight in amount and sticky: thick, and finally somewhat dull. The various parts are arranged in the following order. Set against the eggshell there are a first and a second membrane, the latter not being that belonging to the shell, but being the other lying beneath the first one. There is a snow-white liquid in it. Then the chick is contained, which is wrapped up by a membrane so it is not lying in the fluid. Then beneath the chick there is the yolk towards which I said is going one of two veins, while the other goes towards the surrounding albumen. A membrane with a liquid sticky in appearance envelops all these things. Then, as I said, there is a second membrane arranged around the foetus itself, separating it from the liquid. Under this, enveloped by the other membrane, there is the yolk. Towards which goes the umbilical cord arising from the heart and the larger vein: and so it follows that the foetus is not touched by either liquid.

Vicesimo die iam pullus si quis putamine secto solicitet, movet intus sese, pipitque aliquantulum: et iam ab eodem die plumescit, quoties ultra vicesimum exclusio protelatur. ita positus est, ut caput super crus dextrum admotum ilibus, alam super caput positam habeat, quinetiam membrana, quae pro secundis habetur, post ultimam testae membranam, ad quam alter umbilicus pertendit, evidens per id tempus est, pullusque in eadem iam totus locatur. et altera quoque membrana, quae et ipsa vicem secundarum praestat, vitellumque ambit, ad quem alter umbilicus procedit, latius patet. Oritur umbilicus uterque a corde, et vena maiore, ut dictum est. Fit autem per id tempus, ut umbilicus alter, qui in secundas exteriores fertur, compresso iam animante absolvatur: alter, qui adit vitellum, ad pulli tenue intestinum annectatur. Iam et pullum ipsum multum humoris lutei subit: atque in eius alvo fecis aliquid subsidit luteum. excrementum etiam album eodem tempore pullus emittit, et in alvo quiddam album consistit. Demum vitellus paulatim absumitur totus membrorum haustu, ita ut si pullo decimo die post excluso rescindas alvum, nonnihil adhuc vitelli comperias.

By now on the twentieth day, if the shell is broken and the chick is touched, it moves inside and peeps a little: and already from this day onward it begins to become covered with down every time the hatch goes on the twentieth day. It is so placed that its head is over the right leg which is close to the flanks, it has its wing placed above its head, and the membrane regarded as placenta is also well visible at this time, which lies after the innermost shell’s membrane, and towards which goes one of two umbilical cords, and by now the chick is entirely contained in it. And also the other membrane, which also acts as placenta and surrounds the yolk, towards which the other navel-cord goes, is more largely visible. Both navel-cords arise from the heart and the larger vein, as has been said. It happens at this time that the navel-cord which goes to the outermost placenta tears itself away from the living creature now in cramped conditions: the other navel-cord which goes towards the yolk keeps fastened to the slender intestine of the chick. By this time much of the yolk enters the chick itself: and in its intestine some yellow residue remains. The chick at the same time emits also a white secretion and something white is present in his intestine. At last the yolk is all gradually consumed since it is used by the various parts of the body, so much so that if you cut open the intestine on the tenth day after the chick has been hatched, you will still find some of the yolk in it.

Umbilico vero absolvitur pullus, nec quicquam praeterea haurit. totus enim humor, qui in medio continebatur, absumptus iam est. Tempore autem supradicto pullus dormit quidem, sed non perpetuo, quippe qui excitetur interdum, et movens sese respiciat, atque pipiat. Cor enim eius cum umbilico, ut spirantis reflat et palpitat. Sed avium ortus ad hunc modum ex ovo agitur, Haec omnia Aristot, de hist. anim. 6. 3.[20] Quae etiam Albertus in suis de animalibus libris paraphrasi [paraphrase] reddidit, quam in praesentia relinquo.

The chick becomes detached from the navel cord and it does not receive anything further. For the entire liquid contained within the egg has been already used up. During the period of time mentioned above the chick sleeps, but not continually, for it wakes up now and then, and in moving casts a glance around and peeps. And its heart together with the navel cord lifts up as in a breathing creature, and palpitates. Well, the birth of birds from the egg takes place in this fashion. Aristotle is writing all these things in Historia animalium VI,3. Things paraphrased by Albertus* in his books on animals and which for the moment I leave.

Omnibus ovis medio vitelli parva inest velut sanguinea gutta, quod esse cor avium existimant, primum in omni corpore id gigni opinantes: in ovo certe gutta salit, palpitatque. Ipsum animal ex albo liquore ovi corporatur. Cibus eius in luteo est. Omnibus intus caput maius toto corpore: oculi compressi capite maiores. In crescente pullo, candor in medium vertitur, luteum circumfunditur. Vicesimo die, si moveatur ovum, iam viventis intra putamen vox auditur. Ab eodem tempore plumescit, ita positus: ut caput supra dextrum pedem habeat, dexteram vero alam supra caput. Vitellus paulatim deficit. Aves omnes in pedes nascuntur, contra quam reliqua animalia, Plin.[21]

In all eggs there is like a small drop of blood in the middle of the yolk which people think is the heart of birds, under the opinion that this is firstly generated in whatever organism: in the egg this drop certainly leaps and palpitates. The animal itself is formed from the white liquid of the egg. Its food is in the yolk. In all chicks the head is larger than the entire body while they are still in the egg: the closed eyes are larger than the head. As the chick grows the white is turned to the middle and the yolk spreads around it. On the twentieth day, if the egg is moved, the voice of the living creature can already be heard within the shell. At about the same time the down grows out, and the chick’s position is such that its head is above the right leg and its right wing above the head. The yolk gradually decreases. All birds are hatched breech, contrary to all other animals, Pliny*.

Principio (inquit Aristot. de generat. anim. 3. 2.[22]) corde constituto, et vena maiore ab eo distincta, umbilici duo de vena eadem pertendunt, alter ad membranam, quae luteum continet: alter ad membranam cui secundarum species est, qua animal obvolutum continetur: quae circa testae membranam est.

In the beginning (Aristotle says in De generatione animalium 3,2) when the heart has been formed and the larger vein underwent a differentiation from it, two umbilical cords stretch out from the same vein, one to the membrane containing the yolk: the other to that membrane which looks like a placenta - allantoid - inside which is contained the covered animal: the latter membrane is lying near the shell’s membrane.

Altero igitur umbilico cibum ex [418] luteo assumit: quod quidem calescens humidius redditur, cibum enim humidum esse oportet, qualis plantae suppeditatur. Vivunt autem principio et quae in ovis, et quae in animalibus gignuntur vita plantae, adhaerendo enim capiunt primum et alimentum et incrementum. Alter umbilicus ad secundas tendit, (ut alimentum ex eo hauriat.) ita enim pullum avis uti luteo existimandum, ut foetus vivipari sua parente utitur, etc. Membrana vero exteriore novissima sanguinolenta hic perinde, ut ille utero, utitur, etc. Crescentibus umbilicus primum considet, qui secundis adiungitur. hac enim pullum excludi convenit. reliquum lutei, et umbilicus ad luteum pertinens, post collabitur. cibum enim habeat statim oportet, quod exclusum est, nec enim a parente nutritur, et seipsum statim capere cibum non potest, quapropter luteum subit cum umbilico, et caro adnascitur.[23]

Then the embryo takes the food from the yolk by the first umbilical cord: for the yolk becomes more liquid as it grows warm, for the food must become liquid, as that supplied to a plant. For in the beginning both creatures generated in the eggs and those generated in viviparous animals are living like a plant is living, for by keeping adherent they receive both first growth and first nourishment. The second umbilical cord runs to the placenta - allantoid - (in order to take nourishment from it), for we must think that the chick of a bird makes use of the yolk, as the foetus of viviparous animals uses its mother etc. For the former is using an outer bloody membrane recently developed likewise the latter is using the uterus etc. As the chicks grow, the umbilical cord which is linked with the placenta collapses first: so it is worthwhile that at this point the chick will issue forth. The rest of the yolk and the umbilical cord linked with the yolk disappear later. For the chick must have nourishment as soon as hatched, since it is not nourished by the mother and cannot at once take food by itself, therefore the yolk comes into it with the umbilical cord, and flesh grows around it.

¶ Ova quaedam si aperias diffluunt, vitello praesertim, quod signum est vetustatis, quod si vitellus ovo aperto integer manserit, ac medio eius gutta rubicunda et veluti sanguinea apparuerit (ex qua corda pullorum initio constitui solent) signum est ova esse ad cibum adhuc laudabilia, Tragus. Ego aliquoties in ovis evacuatis semen (das hünle) observavi, et in semine venulam crispam albissimam, quam umbilici loco esse puto, vitello insertam.

¶ Some eggs spread, if you open them, mainly regarding the yolk, which is a sign of old age, since if after the egg has been opened the yolk keeps entire and in its center a reddish drop appears and almost blood in color (from which usually the heart of the chicks originates) this is a sign that the eggs are still suitable as food, Hieronymus Bock*. Sometimes I observed the semen (das hünle) in the eggs after they had been emptied, and in the semen a small extremely white curled vein which I think to be the equivalent of the umbilical cord and inserted on the yolk.

¶ Partes ovi. Ovum ipsum in se suum habet discrimen, quippe quod parte sui acutum, parte latius sit, parte latiore exit cum gignitur, Aristot.[24] Quod ovi pars acutior principium sit, ut quae utero adhaeserit: quodque durior sit parte obtusa, et posterior exeat: et quod ova quasi in pedes conversa, animalia vero in caput prodeant, Aristoteles docet libro tertio de generatione anim. cap. 2.[25] Umbilicus ovis a cacumine inest, ceu gutta eminens in putamine, Plin.[26] Ovum aeque omnium volucrum duro putamine constat: si modo non depravetur, sed lege consummetur naturae. Gallinae enim nonnulla pariunt mollia vitio. Et bicolor quoque ovum avium intus est, luteum interius, album exterius. Semen genitale volucrum omnium album, ut caeterorum animalium est, Aristot. Semen maris perficit ovum usque ad exitum, quod inde patet: Si frangatur ovum perfectum, invenitur semen galli in ovo, triplici differentia distinctum, colore enim albius est, utpote purioris substantiae, et substantia densius{:} quam reliquum albumen, quo firmius retineat calorem formantem ne facile exhalet. quod ad situm, pertingit per albumen totum usque ad vitellum, cui versus partem acutiorem ovi infigitur, nam pulli substantia ex albumine est, nutritur autem e vitello, Albertus. Albedo ovi apud Arabes intelligitur pars albuminis ovi viscosa crassa. Pars vero eiusdem albuminis quae est subtilis, apud eos appellatur alzenbach ovi seu alrachich ovi, And. Bellunensis.

¶ Parts of the egg. The egg itself shows in itself a proper difference, because on one side is pointed, on the other is broader, when laid it comes out with the widest part, Aristotle*. Being that the sharper part of the egg represents the principle, being that which kept adherent to uterus: and since it comes out last being harder at the blunt side: and why the eggs, as turning feetward, while the animals come out with head, Aristotle teaches this in book III, chapter 2 of De generatione animalium. In the eggs the stud is located pointward, like a drop stretching out inside the shell, Pliny*. The egg of all the birds is made by an evenly hard shell: unless goes bad, but is ended through a natural process. In fact the hens lay some eggs with the fault of being soft. And the egg of the birds shows inside two colors too, yellow in the central part, white on outskirts. The fertilizing semen of all the birds is white like that of all other animals, Aristotle. The semen of the male brings to an end the egg until when it's laid, which shows itself by the following: If a by now completed egg is broken, in the egg the semen of the rooster is found, which is countersigned by three different things, for it is whiter in color because composed by a purer substance, and it has a denser consistence than the remainder albumen, so that to be able to hold in a firmer way the deriving heat in order that it doesn't easily go away. As far as its location is concerned, it spreads through the whole albumen up to the yolk, to which it inserts itself from the side of the sharp part of the egg, for that by which the chick is constituted comes from the albumen while it is nourished by the yolk, Albertus*. For Arabs the egg white consists in that part of the albumen of the egg which is viscous and dense. On the contrary that part of the same albumen which is slim, they call it alzenbach of the egg or alrachich of the egg, Andreas Alpago*.

Nostri genituram quae in albumine crassiuscula apparet, nec facile dissolvi potest, avem appellant, den vogel: quod pullus ex ea nascatur. Ova albificat semen, Galenus in Anatome vivorum. In animalibus calidioribus candidum et luteum in ovo distincta sunt: et semper eis (avibus calidioribus et siccioribus) plus candidi syncerique [sincerique] est, quam lutei et terreni. Minus vero calidis et humidioribus contra, plus lutei, idque humidius est, ut in palustribus avibus, Aristot. de gener. anim. 3. 1.[27] Albertus in palustrium ovis duplo plus lutei quam candidi haberi scribit. Grandines dictae, quae initio vitelli adhaerent, nil ad generationem conferunt. quanquam aliqui ita non existimant. has duas esse certum est, alteram parti superiori iunctam, alteram inferiori. Χάλαζαν in ovo Aristot.[28] dixit, pro ea quam mulieres vocant gallaturam, id est, genituram. hae duae sunt: altera maior, quae parti inferiori iungitur, et ad Solem obtegente manu apparet intra putamen. quae vero parti superiori haeret non cernitur, nisi fracto putamine, et inspecta parte lutei infera. est pars superior cacumen. inferior vero pars rotunda huic opposita est, Niphus[29]. Kiranides ovi pelliculam hymena[30] nominat. Ovi tunicae tres sunt. una vitellum continet: secunda albumen, quae est tanquam pia mater: tertia testae adhaeret tanquam dura meninx, Albertus. Et rursus, Prima tunica intra testam ovi substantiam a testa defendit. sub hac alia mollior continet albumen, quae in pulli generatione secundarum loco est, et pullum complectitur. inter has tunicas est humor crudus qui excernitur dum formatur pullus. Vitellus sub albumine tunica propria ambitur, versus partes naturales pulli situs, a spiritualibus eius remotus.

Ours call bird, den vogel, the seminal liquid which has a rather dense aspect in the albumen and which cannot easily be dissolved: they call it in this way since the chick would be hatched from it. The semen makes white the eggs, Galen* in Administrationes anatomicae. In animals of warmer nature the white and the yellow in the egg are separated: and still they (the birds of warmer and dryer nature) have a greater quantity of white and pure substance than yellow and earthy one. On the contrary in those of less warm and more damp nature, there is a greater quantity of yellow, and this is more damp, as in marshy birds, Aristotle De generatione animalium III, 1. Albertus writes that in the eggs of marshy birds there is the double of yellow in comparison with white. Those formations called grains of hail and sticking to the external part of the yolk, don't serve anything for generation. Nevertheless some people don't think in this way. It is certain that the grains of hail are two, one joining the sharp end, the other the blunt one. Aristotle has spoken of chálaza* - hail - in the egg for that formation called by women gallatura, that is, seminal liquid. They are two: one greater joining the sharp end and which it is visible inside the shell looking against sun shielding eyes by a hand. On the contrary that sticking to the blunt end is not visible except after having broken the shell and inspected the inferior part of the yolk. The sharp end is the superior part. On the contrary the round part is located in the opposite side, Agostino Nifo*. Kiranides* calls hymen the membrane of the egg. The tunics of the egg are three. One containing the yolk: the second the albumen and which is likewise the pia mater: the third adhering to the shell like the hard meninx - dura mater, Albertus. And still: The first tunic inside the shell defends the substance of the egg from the shell. Underneath this there is a softer one holding the albumen and which during the generation of the chick plays the role of venue of the placenta and wrapping up the chick. Between these tunics an undigested fluid is created which is secreted while the chick is being formed. The yolk, which is underneath the albumen, is surrounded by a proper tunic - vitelline membrane, is situated toward the vital parts of the chick and lies faraway from its respiratory parts.

¶ Ovi et partium eius natura. Ova integra in aqua dulci merguntur, corrupta innatant, ut dicetur pluribus infra in tractatione de ovis corruptis. Tostum ovum dissilit facile, non dissilit aqua concoctum: ignea siquidem vi, quodam ferrumine copulatur quod inest, humectum ampliusque calefactum exustumque, plures parit spiritus: qui loca nacti perangusta, exitum molientes testam praerumpunt, demumque evaporant. Praeterea flammae vis tunicam circumsiliens putaminosam, amburendo diffringit: quod et fictilibus evenire dum torrentur, evidens est. Quamobrem perfundi prius frigida solent ova. calida siquidem aqua mollicie [mollitie] statim humorem effundit, et raritatem relaxat, Caelius. Vide Aphrodisiensem problem. 1.102. ¶ Ova aceto macerata in tantum emolliuntur, ut per annulos transeant, Plinius[31]. Acetum mollit ovi corticem, ut in angustum urceum (phialam vitream angusti colli), immitti possit, me hoc experto. sed nigrior paulo evadit, aqua vero durescit, Cardanus. Dissolvuntur aceto forti praesertim destillato, vel succo limonum, margaritae, testae ovorum, Sylvius.

¶ Nature of the egg and of its parts. The eggs are dipped whole in sweet water, those who are rotten float, as it will be told more widely ahead about the treatment of the rotten eggs. The toasted egg easily breaks apart, that cooked in water doesn’t break: since because of fire energy what is inside is joined as by a glue, humid and still more heated and burnt it produces many vapors: which lying in a very narrow place, beating about for getting out, break the shell, and at last they evaporate. Furthermore the energy of the flame, attacking from everywhere the tunic of the shell, breaks it, burning it all around: and we can observe that this also happens to terracotta vases when torrefied. That's why eggs at first are usually dipped in cold water. For hot water with its less density immediately brings out the humid and broadens the pores, Lodovico Ricchieri*. See Alexander from Aphrodisia* Physikà Problëmata I, 102. ¶ The eggs soaked in vinegar become soft to such an extent that they pass through a ring, Pliny. Vinegar softens the shell of the egg, so that the latter can be introduced in a narrow pitcher (in a cup of glass with narrow neck), I had experience of this. But it becomes more dark in color, while with the water it hardens, Gerolamo Cardano*. Pearls and eggshells are dissolved in strong vinegar, especially if distilled, or in juice of lemon, Jacques Dubois*.

¶ Firmitas ovorum putaminibus tanta est, ut recta nec vi, nec pondere ullo frangantur, nec nisi paululum inflexa rotunditate, Plinius[32]. hoc vero ita se habere quotidianis et vulgaribus experimentis constat. Cur ovum pressum utroque extremo ambabus manibus frangi nequeat: pressum latere facile frangitur? Quoniam per angulos tantummodo suos manibus renititur opprimentibus. est enim angulus quod quaque in structura validius constet. adde quod pressum per extrema, parte minima [419] sentit. pressum per latera parte ampla conflictatur ut facile possit destrui, Aphrodisiensis problematum. 2. 45.

¶ Eggshells have so much solidity that lengthwise are not broken by whatever force or weight, but only if the bent part has been slightly tilted, Pliny. Really from daily experiments, and within everybody's reach, it results that the things are this way. Why an egg pressed at both extremities and with both hands cannot be broken: pressed side on it easily breaks? Because thanks only to its extremities it opposes resistance to the hands crushing it. For it is the extremity the reason why in whatever structure lies the bigger force. You add the fact that, compressed at the extremities, it doesn't suffer in the least. Compressed on sides it seriously takes the risk to be easily destroyed, Alexander from Aphrodisia Physikà Problëmata II, 45.

Cur vertigo surgenti potius accidat quam sedenti? An quoniam quiescenti humor universus unum in membrum se colligit: ex quo cruda etiam ova nequeunt circunverti, sed protinus decidunt. Moventi autem humor se aeque expandit, etc. Aristot. in problemat. 6. 4. Si ovum filo circumligatum super igne aut candela accensa teneas, filum non comburetur, nisi forte post multum temporis, exudat enim humor, qui lineum filum humectat. idem linteo aridis vini fecibus circumvoluto accidit. Naturam vitellus ovi, et albumen habent contrariam, non tantum colore, verumetiam virtute. Vitellus enim spissatur frigore, (idem Niphus asserit:) albumen non, sed amplius humet. contra albumen spissatur igne, vitellus non, sed mollis persistit, nisi peruratur. magisque in aqua fervente, quam ad ignem cogitur, atque induratur. Membrana haec inter se discernuntur, Aristot.[33] Sic et Albertus, Vitellus ovi cum assatur, nisi comburatur, non durescit, sed mollitur potius sicut cera. Et quoniam mollescit dum calescit, corrumpitur facile collecto superfluo humore temporis vel loci, si aliquandiu immoretur. Albumen vero non facile congelatur frigore: sed humidius efficitur potius, et cum assatur durius: et in generatione pulli densatur in substantiam membrorum.

Why the dizziness arises in the person who gets up rather than in that who is seated? Perhaps because in that who is standing the whole humor gathers in only a part of the body: that's why also the raw eggs cannot turn over, but suddenly fall down. On the contrary in a moving person the humor is uniformly distributed etc., Aristotle* in Problemata VI, 4. If you held on the fire or a candle an egg wound with thread, the thread won't burn, if not even after quite a lot of time, in fact the humor transpires and goes to moisten the flax thread. The same thing happens for a flax cloth that has been wound around dry dregs. The yolk of the egg and the albumen have an opposite composition, not only for the color but also for their properties. In fact the yolk with the cold becomes thick (Agostino Nifo* reports the same words), the albumen no, but it becomes more damp. On the contrary the albumen thickens with fire, the yolk no, but it keeps soft, unless it is burnt. And it grows thick and hardens mostly in hot water than directly on fire. These two structures are separated each other by a membrane, Aristotle. Also Albertus* is expressing himself in this way as follows: The yolk of the egg when roasted, if is not burnt, doesn't harden, on the contrary, it becomes squashy like wax. And since while getting warm it becomes soft, easily it changes in picking up the overabundance of damp of the climate and of the place if it stands for a certain time. But the egg white is not easily frozen by the cold: on the contrary, it becomes more damp, and when fried becomes harder: and during the development of the chick it grows thick into the substance constituting the parts of its body.

Et rursus eadem Aristoteles de generatione anim. 3. 2.[34] his verbis: Naturam candidum et luteum contrariam habent. luteum nanque gelu duratur et coit, calore contra humescit. quapropter cum vel in terra, vel per incubitum concoquitur, humescit, atque ita pro cibo animalibus nascentibus est. Nec vero cum ignitur assaturque quoniam naturae terrenae est, ut cera. ideoque cum plus iusto calescunt, nisi ex recremento humido sint, saniescunt reddunturque urina. at candidum gelu non concrescit, sed magis humescit. ignitum solidescit. quamobrem cum ad generationem animalium concoquitur, crassescit. ex hoc enim consistit animal. ¶ Si quis rupto putamine ova plura in patinam conijcit excreta, et coquit igne molli et continente, vitelli omnes in medium coeunt: albumina autem circundant [circumdant], et se in oras constituunt, Aristot.[35] ¶ Candidum ex ovis admixtum calci vivae glutinat vitri fragmenta, vis vero tanta est (ovi candido, Hermol.) ut lignum perfusum ovo non ardeat, ac ne vestis quidem contacta aduratur, Plin.[36] Galenus in opere de simplicibus medic. ovorum albumen magis terrenum oleo esse scribit, et similem ei esse secundum humorem oculi. Albumen mixtum est e substantia aerea, terrea et aquea simul, sicut oleum: sed magis terrestre est quam oleum dulce, quare aegre concoquitur, Ant. Gazius.

And Aristotle in De generatione animalium III, 2 still says the same things by these words: The yellow and the white have opposed natures. In fact the yellow hardens in the cold and thickens, on the contrary liquefies with the heat. Therefore it liquefies when undergoes a concoction, both in earth and because of brooding, and in this way it becomes food for the animals when growing. But subjected to fire and cooking it doesn't harden because of earthy nature, like the wax. Insofar when they get warm more than due, unless are constituted by damp material of discard, they become viscous and are made unfertilized. The white, on the contrary, under the influence of the cold doesn't harden, but mostly liquefies. Submitted to the heat it becomes solid. Therefore it thickens when submitted to the concoction of the reproduction of the animals. In fact from it takes origin the animal. ¶ If after the shells have been broken one cooks on a low and continuous heat many eggs set down one by one in a pan, all the yolks gather towards the middle: for the albumens get themselves around and place themselves at the periphery. ¶ The white obtained from eggs mixed with quicklime joins the fragments of glass: in truth the strength in it is so great (in egg white, Ermolao Barbaro*) that a wood piece sprinkled with egg doesn’t burn, and even a clothing smeared with it doesn’t catch fire, Pliny*. Galen* in De simplicium medicamentorum temperamentis et facultatibus writes that the white of the egg is earthier than the oil, and that the ocular liquid is in the second place for similarity. The albumen is a mixture of air, earth and water all together, as the oil: but it is earthier than the sweet oil, that's why it is barely digested, Antonio Gazio*.

¶ Sexus ovorum. Quae oblonga sunt ova, et fastigio cacuminata, foeminam {a}edunt. quae autem rotundiora et parte sui acutiore obtusa, orbiculum habent, marem gignunt, Aristoteles[37]. eandem sententiam Albertus approbat: reprehendit vero translationem sui temporis tanquam contrariam iis verbis quae nunc recitavimus. Nostri quidem codices Graeci et Gazae translatio eam sententiam habent, quam nunc retuli, et Albertus comprobat. Avicenna scribit ex orbiculari ovo brevique progigni marem: ex oblongis acutisve foeminam. ipsum hoc comprobat experimentum et suffragatur ratio. siquidem virtutis perfectio in masculinis ovis ambit aequaliter, et continet extrema. at in foemininis, a centro longius abit materia in quo est vitalis calor. hoc vero plane imperfectionis argumentum est, Albertus ut citat Caelius. In ovis tam difficile saporum et sexus discrimen est, ut nihil gulae proceribus aeque incertum sit, Marcellus {Vergilius} <Virgilius>. qui cum Columellae et Aristotelis de sexu ovorum discernendo sententias contrarias recitasset: Est sane (inquit) in natura gravis author Aristoteles: Columella tamen villaticam pastionem ex quotidiana observatione et experientia docebat. nec nostrum est inter tam graves scriptores tantas componere lites. Video Plinium quoque cum Columella et Flacco sensisse. Quae oblonga sint (inquit) ova, gratioris saporis putat Horatius Flaccus. Foeminam {a}edunt quae rotundiora gignuntur, reliqua marem. Longa quibus facies ovis erit, illa memento, | Ut succi melioris, et ut magis alba rotundis | Ponere nanque [namque] marem cohibent callosa vitellum, Horatius lib. 2. Serm.[38] Cum quis volet quam plurimos mares excludere, longissima quaeque et acutissima ova subiiciet. et rursum cum foeminas, quam rotundissima, Columella[39]. Ex ovis, praesertim in plenilunio natis, si plenilunii tempore subijciantur incubanda, et ita observetur temporis ratio ut in plenilunio etiam pulli excludantur, omnibus foeminas non mares nasci, quidam apud nos arbitrantur.

¶ Sex of the eggs. The oblong and at apex pointed eggs generate a female. On the contrary those rather round and obtuse in correspondence of the sharp end, and having a circular aspect, generate a male, Aristotle. Albertus is agreeing with this affirmation: in fact he criticizes his contemporary translation as antithetical to these words I just reported. Really our Greek codes and the translation of Teodoro Gaza* contain that affirmation I just reported and with which Albertus is agreeing. Avicenna* writes that from a round and short egg a male is generated: a female from oblong and sharp ones. The experience proves just this and the reasoning bears out. In fact in masculine eggs the perfection of the force wraps up evenly, and contains the deeper portions. While in feminine eggs the matter goes away much more from the center, where the vital heat is located. This in fact is clearly a confirmation of imperfection, Albertus, as Lodovico Ricchieri* quotes. In the eggs it is so difficult to discern the tastes and the sex that for gluttony's teachers nothing is equally uncertain, Marcellus Virgilius alias Marcello Virgilio Adriani*. Who, after related the contrary opinions of Columella* and Aristotle in distinguishing the sex of the eggs, so adds: To tell the truth, Aristotle as far as nature is concerned is an authoritative source: nevertheless Columella taught the breeding in farm founding himself on daily observation and experience. But it is not up to me to compose the enormous divergences existing among so authoritative writers. I see that also Pliny agreed with Columella and Horace*. And he continues as follows: Horace believes that oblong eggs are of more pleasant taste. Those laid rounder produce a female, the other ones a male. Remember to put on the table the eggs with oblong appearance for their flavor is better, and are more rich in albumen than the round ones, for the shell contains a male yolk, Horace II book of Sermones. If someone wishes that very many males are hatched out, he will place under the hen all the longest and most pointed eggs. And if on the contrary he wishes females, the roundest ones, Columella. Some of ours believe that from the eggs, above all from those laid during full moon, if put under hens during full moon, and paying attention to calculate the time so that also the chicks hatch during full moon, from all of them females and not males are born.

de ovis monstrosis, ut geminis
et mollibus, etc. de irritis
vel sterilibus, ut subventaneis. de corruptis, ut urinis, etc.

the monstrous eggs, as twin and those with soft shell, etc.
Those not good or sterile, as those full of wind. Those rotten, as those full of wind, etc.

Ova gemina binis constant vitellis. qui ne invicem confundantur, facit in nonnullis praetenue quoddam septum albuminis medium. aliis vitelli contactu mutuo sine ullo discrimine iunguntur. Sunt in genere gallinarum, quae pariant gemina omnia, in quibus animadversum est, quod de vitello exposui. quaedam enim duodeviginti peperit gemina, exclusitque, praeterquam, si qua essent (ut fit) irrita. Caeteris itaque foetus prodiit, sed ita gemini excluduntur, ut alter sit maior, alter minor: et tandem in monstrum degeneret, qui minor novissime provenit, Aristot.[40] Quaedam gallinae omnia gemina ova pariunt, et geminos interdum excludunt, ut Cor. Celsus au<c>tor est: alterum maiorem, alioquin negant omnino geminos excludi, Plin.[41] Vetus quoque Aristotelis interpres (inquit Vvottonus) ad eundem sensum vertit ex Arabico ita: Et in quolibet inveniuntur gemelli, et unus gemellorum parvus est, et alter magnus: et multoties est parvus monstruosus.

Twin eggs are made up by two yolks. Which, in order to do not merge each other, in some eggs they give rise to like a very thin diaphragm of albumen in between. In other eggs the yolks are joined by mutual contact without any separation. Among the hens there are those laying all twin eggs, in which has been found what I said about the yolk. A hen had laid eighteen twin eggs, and hatched them, except those which (as it happens) were germ-free. From the other eggs hatched a chick, but the hence hatched twins are of that sort that one is larger, the other smaller: and finally the smaller one, last hatched, degenerates into freak, Aristotle. Some hens lay all twin eggs, and sometimes they hatch out twins, as Cornelius Celsus* tells: one of the two chicks is larger, on the other hand they are claiming that twins are no hatching out at all, Pliny. Edward Wotton* says: Also an ancient translator of Aristotle translates with the same meaning from Arabic as follows: And in whatever egg twins are found, one of the twins is small, the other is large: and often the small one is freakish.

Graeca vero Aristotelis exemplaria [420] (nisi mendam subesse iudicemus) ita habent[42]: Τὰ μὲν οὖν ἄλλα γόνιμα, πλὴν ὅσα τὸ μὲν μεῖζον τὸ δὲ ἔλαττον γίνεται τῶν διδύμων, τὸ δὲ τελευταῖον τερατώδες, hoc est, ut ego arbitror: E caeteris itaque gemina foecunda sunt, nisi quibus hoc contingit, ut alter maior fuerit, alter minor. in iis enim tandem in monstrum degenerat qui minor novissime provenit. Utra autem sententia fuerit verior, indicabit experientia. Videtur certe Plinius vel ex professo cum Aristotele hac in re minime convenire, quando Celsum authorem non Aristotelem citet[43]. In quibusdam exemplaribus Plinianis habetur (uti recte annotavit Claymundus) non alioqui, sed aliqui negant omnino geminos excludi, Haec ille. Quaerendum an legendum in Aristotelis verbis non πλὴν ὅσα, sed πλὴν ὅτι: et γίνεται praesens loco praeteriti ἐγένετο accipiendum sit, ut non simpliciter hic de ovis geminis scribat Aristoteles, sed de illius tantum gallinae geminis, quorum historiam hoc in loco recitat hoc sensu[44], Ex ovis octodecim gallinae cuiusdam omnibus geminis, pauca quaedam irrita fuerunt: caetera vero omnia (rite) foecunda: nisi quod e geminis pullus alter semper minor fuit, et ultimus (alter scilicet minor de ovo postremo excluso vel parto) monstruosus. In ovis quibusdam gemelli sunt, sed alter geminorum comprimit alium: et aliquando ruptis telis (tunicis) bicorporeus generatur, Albert.

But the Greek manuscripts of Aristotle* (unless we believe that there a mistake is concealed) have this passage: Tà mèn oûn álla gónima, plën hósa tò mèn meîzon tò dè élatton ghìnetai tøn didýmøn, tò dè teleutaîon teratødes: that is, as I think: Therefore, in comparison with the other ones, the twin eggs are fertile, but to some of them it happens that a twin is larger, the other smaller. In short, of them degenerates then into a freak the smaller one, hatched out as last. Then experience will show which one of two statements is closer to the truth. And doubtless it turns out clear that Pliny* openly in this regard doesn’t agree with Aristotle, being that he quotes Celsus* as reliable source, not Aristotle. In some Pliny’s manuscripts is quoted (as Claymundus* correctly pointed out) not alioqui - on the other hand, but aliqui - some people - negant omnino geminos excludi - affirm that twins are not hatched at all, these words are of Edward Wotton*. We have to wonder whether in the words of Aristotle we must read not plën hósa - except how much, but plën hóti - except that: and whether the present tense ghínetai - hatches - should be read in place of the past tense eghéneto - hatched, since in this passage Aristotle is not merely writing about twin eggs, but only of the twin eggs of that hen, whose eggs he is quoting the history in the following excerpt as follows: Of the all twin eighteen eggs of a hen, only few of them were sterile: doubtless all the others were fertile (as usual): except that, from the twin ones, one of two chicks hatched out always smaller, and the last one (that is, the smaller of the couple, hatched out from the last hatched or laid egg) was freakish. In some eggs there are twins, but one of twins compresses the other: and sometimes after the membranes (the coverings) are ruptured he hatches endowed with two bodies, Albertus*.

Calor fovens gallinae semen illud in fistulas (sic habet codex impressus) paulatim ovi candidum vertit, tum vero et lutei aliquid. nam alae et crura ex luteo fiunt. indicio est, quod pulli, qui ex ovo cuius lutea duo sunt absque sepiente membrana quatuor alis et totidem pedibus nascuntur, arbitranturque prodigium quale olim Mediolani contigit, Cardanus[45]. Atqui nos alibi de anate scripsimus, et rursus de columba, quae tetrapodes tantum, non etiam tetrapteri fuerunt. Monstra (inquit Aristot. de generat. anim. 4. 4.[46]) saepius gignuntur in iis, quorum partus numerosus est, et praecipue in avium genere, earumque potissimum in gallinis, iis enim partus numerosus, non modo quod saepe pariant ut columbae, verum etiam quod multos simul conceptus intra se continent, et temporibus omnibus coeunt. hinc gemina etiam pariunt plura. cohaerent enim conceptus, quoniam in propinquo alter alteri est, quomodo interdum fructus arborum complures, quod si vitella distinguuntur membrana, gemini pulli discreti sine ulla supervacua parte generantur. sed si vitella continuantur, nec ulla interiecta membrana disterminantur, pulli ex iis monstrifici prodeunt, corpore et capite uno, cruribus quaternis, alis totidem, quoniam superiora ex albumine generentur, et prius: vitellum enim cibo iis est. pars autem inferior postea instituitur, quanquam cibus idem <in>discretusque[47] suppeditatur. in ovis quibusdam gemelli sunt. sed alter geminorum comprimit alium: et aliquando ruptis telis (involucris) bicorporeus generatur, Albert. Iam quale certo tempore est ovum in gallina, tale aliquando prodiit luteum totum, qualis postea pullus est. {Gallina}[48] <Gallo> etiam {discissa} <discisso> talia sub septo, quo loco foeminis ova adhaerent, inventa sunt, colore luteo tota magnitudine ovi perfecti: quod pro ostento augures capiunt, Aristot.[49] Audio et trilecitha[50], id est triplicis vitelli ova interdum reperiri: frequentius vero dilecitha, eaque in medio testae plerunque cavitatem habere. Magis nutriunt et subtiliora sunt ova quae duos vitellos habent, Elluchasem.

The warmth of the hen warming that seed gradually turns the egg white into tubular structures (so has the printed code), but also a part of the yellow. In fact the wings and the legs are formed from the yellow. It is a proof of this the fact that from an egg with two yolks without a separating membrane chicks are born with four wings and as many legs, and they are regarded as a portent, like that which once happened in Milan, Gerolamo Cardano*. So, in a passage speaking of the duck, and then of the dove, I wrote that they were born with only four legs, not with four wings too. Aristotle in De generatione animalium IV, 4 says: The monsters are produced more often in that animals whose offspring is numerous, and especially in birds, and very often in hens, for their laying is large, not only because they lay often like doves, but also because the hens contain simultaneously many products of conception within themselves and copulate at all seasons. Hence they lay also several twin eggs. For the products of conception are clinging together, since they are close each other, as sometimes it happens when the fruits of trees are very numerous, but if the yolks are separated by a membrane, separate twin chicks are generated without any exceeding part. But if the yolks are held together nor are bounded by any interposed membrane, from them freak chicks hatch with one body and one head, with four legs and as many wings, since the upper parts are generated from the albumen, and earlier: for the yolk is food for them. While the lower part comes into existence afterwards, although an identical and equal food is supplied. Twins are found in some eggs. But one of the twins compresses the other: and sometimes after the membranes (the wrappers) have broken, a subject with two bodies hatches from them, Albertus. Like in a certain moment the egg is showing itself in the hen, so sometimes - the egg - showed itself entirely as yolk, which later will be a chick. Also when a rooster has been cut up, such eggs, sized like a complete egg yellow in color, have been found under the transverse septum where eggs adhere in the females: which is taken as a portent by augurs, Aristotle. I hear that trilecitha - trilékitha - eggs are found, that is, with three yolks: but more often with two yolks, and that usually they show a cavity in the middle of the shell. The eggs with two yolks are more nourishing and more fine, Elluchasem Elimithar*.

¶ Fiunt et tota lutea quae vocant schista[51], cum triduo incubata tolluntur, Plin. ¶ Ego me aliquando ovum videre memini cuius testa ab altera parte extrema in angustum veluti collum instar cucurbitae se colligebat.

¶ Also those they call schista - split - become entirely yellow when removed after have been brooded for three days Pliny. ¶ I remember to have seen sometimes an egg whose shell at one of two ends got narrower into a narrow neck like that of a pumpkin*.

¶ Gallinae nonnulla pariunt ova mollia vitio, Aristot.[52] Albertus ova sine testa exteriore inter subventanea numerat, ut infra recitabimus. Qui ixiam[53] biberunt, sumptis remediis vomentes, tales fere humores reddunt, qualia sunt ova gallinarum altilium, quae sine putamine reddunt propter ictum aut aliam vim quampiam, διὰ τινα πληγὴν ἤ περίστασιν, Scholiastes Nicandri. Et rursus, Ova sine putamine parit (ῥίπτει, eijcit) gallina, ἤ ἀπὸ πληγῆς ἤ ἐκ πλήθους ἐναποκειμένου αὐτῇ. hoc est, vel propter ictum aliquem, vel propter multitudinem (ovorum nimirum se invicem comprimentium) in ea. Poetae quidem versus hi sunt, Ἄλλοτε μὲν πληγῆσι νέον θρομβήϊα γαστρὸς | Μαρναμένη (scilicet gallina) δύσπεπτον ὑπεκγόνον ἔκχεε γαίῃ.[54]

¶ The hens lay some eggs which are soft because of a defect, Aristotle. Albertus includes among sterile eggs those without external shell, as I will say later. Those people who drank the mistletoe*, when they vomit after take the remedies, send forth liquids just like the eggs of breeding hens they lay without shell* because of a hit or some other violent reason, dià tina plëgën ë perístasin, the commentator of Nicander*. And still: The hen lays (ríptei, flings) eggs without shell, ë apò plëgês ë ek plëthous enapokeiménou autê_i, that is, either because of some blow, or because of the great number (obviously of eggs, crushing each other) present in her. But the verses of the poet are as follows: Állote mèn plëgêsi néon thrombëïa gastròs | Marnaménë dýspepton hypékgonon ékchee gaíëi. - Fighting (i.e. the hen) with the bruised body because of numerous hits, pours to earth the shapeless and raw seed without shell.

¶ Pariunt autem ova nonnulla infoecunda, vel ex iis ipsis, quae conceperint coitu. nullus enim provenit foetus, quamvis incubitu foveantur. quod maxime in columbis notatum est. Sterilitas ovis accidit, vel quia subventanea sunt, de quibus infra dicetur: vel aliis ex causis. corrumpuntur enim fere quatuor modis. Primo, albumine corrupto, ex quo partes pulli formari debuerant. Secundo, propter corruptionem vitelli, unde alimentum suppeditandum erat. itaque formatur pullus imperfecte, et partes quaedam in ipso non absolutae inveniuntur et non coniunctae, sicut in abortu animalis vivipari ante perfectionem lineamentorum foetus. Albumine autem corrupto nihil omnino per incubationem formatur, sed ovum totum turbatur et corrumpitur, sicut corrumpitur humor (sanies) in apostemate, quamobrem perquam foetida redduntur talia ova. (Haec esse conijcio quae Aristoteles et alii urina vocant, de quibus infra copiosius scribetur. nostri putrida ova, sule eyer. quanquam Aristoteles urina non albumine, sed vitello corrupto fieri ait). Tertio contingit ovum corrumpi, membranarum et fibrarum quae per albumen tendunt, vitio. nam corrupta tunica quae continet vitellum, humor vitellinus effluit, et confunditur cum albumine. itaque impeditur ovi foecunditas. Corruptis autem fibris, corrumpuntur venae et nervi pulli, et chordae: et impeditur nutritio, et compago ligamentis destructis dissolvitur, et laesis nervis sensus admittitur. Quarto, per vetustatem, exhalante spiritu in quo est virtus formativa: unde vitellus pondere suo penetrat albumen, et ad testam fertur in eam partem cui incumbit ovum. His quatuor modis ova infoecunda fieri contingit. In secundo quidem modo aliquando accidit, quod humoribus corruptis partes igneae combustae feruntur ad testam ovi, eamque aspergunt: unde ovum in tenebris [421] lucet quemadmodum quercus putrefacta.

¶ Albertus is speaking: In fact they lay some sterile eggs, or alone, or eggs they conceived after coition. In fact no fetus is formed despite they are warmed by brooding. A thing observed overall in doves. To the eggs it happens to be sterile or because they are full of wind, of which it will be spoken later, or for other reasons. In fact they become rotten more ore less according to four manners. First, on account of the corrupt albumen, from which the parts of the chick were to be formed. Second, because of the corruption of the yolk, whence the sustenance of the chick was to be provided. For thus the chick is formed imperfectly, and in it are found certain unfinished parts and not joined together, as in the abortion of a viviparous animal before the perfection of the lineaments of the foetus. But, since the albumen is corrupted, nothing is formed at all throughout the entire incubation, but the whole egg becomes decayed and fetid, as the liquid (the pus) goes bad in an abscess, that's why such eggs become exceedingly fetid. (I think that they are these the eggs called by Aristotle and others as full of wind, about which it will be written more profusely later. Ours call sule eyer the rotten eggs. Nevertheless Aristotle says that the eggs full of wind are formed not from albumen but from gone bad yolk). Third, it happens that the egg deteriorates because of the membranes and fibers which stretch through the albumen. For when the tunic which contains the yolk is corrupted, the liquid of the yolk flows out and mingles with the albumen. Thus the fecundity of the egg is hindered. But when the fibers are corrupted, the veins and nerves of the chick, as well as fibers are also corrupted: its nutrition is hindered, when the ligaments are destroyed the bond between the parts is dissolved and when the nerves are injured the sensitivity is lost. Fourth, because of getting old, since the air in which lies the formative property comes out: hence the yolk by its own weight penetrates the albumen and moves to the shell, in that part where the egg is bending. Therefore it happens that the eggs become infertile in these four ways. In the second manner sometimes it happens that because of an alteration of the liquids the warm parts running into combustion move toward the shell and sprinkle it: that's why in the dark the egg emits light as it happens for a rotten oak - by bioluminescence*.

Et huiusmodi ovum sibi visum in regione Corascena testatur Avicenna. Sunt et alii forte plures corruptionis ovorum modi, qui sub iam dictis facile comprehendi possunt, Haec omnia Albert.

And Avicenna* testifies that such an egg - emitting light by bioluminescence* - has been observed by he himself in the Khurasan* region. Quite a lot of other manners of alteration of the eggs perhaps exist, which can easily be listed in the just described ways. Thus far Albertus*.

¶ Subventanea. Ovorum quae subventanea vel zephyria nominant Galenus meminit lib. 2. de semine, (Ova facientes, inquit, sine mare aves et pisces sunt siccae temperaturae.) et lib. 14. de usu partium, ubi causam adfert cur nihil tale gressilia[55] faciant. In Lusitania ad Oceanum monte Tagro, quaedam e vento certo tempore concipiunt equae: ut hic gallinae quoque solent, quarum ova hypenemia[56] appellant, Varro[57]. Sunt qui hypenemia, hoc est subventaneos illos partus, zephyria nominent: eo quod verno tempore concipiunt aves flatus illos foecundos ex favonio recipere videantur. sed idem faciunt etiam si digito in genitale palpetur, τῇ χειρί πως ψηλαφώμεναι, Aristot.[58] Novimus altiles gallinas sine maris opera, mulierum manibus tantum confotas, ova peperisse; Oppianus in Ixeut. Ova subventitia (etsi partes videantur habere omnes) principio carent, quod a maris semine affertur. quapropter animata non sunt, etc. Aristot. de generat. anim. 2. 3.[59] Et {eiusdem} <tertii> libri capite primo[60], Perdices foeminae (inquit) tum quae coierint, tum quae nondum coierint, quarum usus est in aucupiis, cum olfaciunt marem, vocemque eius audiunt, alterae implentur, alterae statim pariunt, nam ut in homine et quadrupede fit, quorum corpora accensa libidine turgent ad coitum. alia enim cum primum viderunt, alia cum leviter tetigerunt, semen emittunt. sic et perdices sua natura libidinosae, levi egent motu cum turgent, citoque secernunt, (semen emittunt,) ut in iis quae non coierunt, subventanea consistant: in iis quae coierint, ova brevi augeantur et perficiantur. Et rursus in eodem capite: Subventanei conceptus in iis fiunt avibus quae non volaces sunt {ut} <nec>[61] uncae, sed multiparae, quoniam excremento ipsae abundant. uncis in alas et pennas id vertitur, corpusque exiguum siccum et calidum habetur. decessus autem menstruorum et genitura, excrementum sunt.

¶ Eggs full of wind. Galen* mentioned the eggs they call full of wind or zephyrian* in the II book of De semine (he says: The eggs done by birds and fishes without males are of dry constitution.) and in XIV book of De usu partium corporis humani where he puts forward the reason why walking animals don't produce anything of this kind. In Lusitania on mount Tagrus* near the ocean some mares conceive at a certain time for the wind: as here - in Italy - also hens are accustomed to do, whose eggs they call full of wind, Varro*. There are some calling zephyrian the hypenemia eggs, that is those products of delivery full of wind, since it seems that at springtime they receive the fertilizing breaths from Favonius*. But they do the same thing if groped in genital area, tê_i cheirí pøs psëlaphømenai, Aristotle*. I heard that breeding hens laid eggs without intervention of the male, but after have been heated by the hands of the women, Oppian* in Ixeutica. The eggs full of wind (even if they seem to possess all the parts) lack the generating principle which is brought by the male. Thence they are lifeless, etc. Aristotle De generatione animalium II, 3. And in the same book, first chapter, he says: The female partridges* either those who mated, or those who didn't yet mate, and who are employed during bird catching, when are sniffing the male and hearing his voice, the latter are fertilized, the former immediately give birth, in fact it happen as in human beings and in quadrupeds, whose bodies, once the lust is triggered, swell for coition. In fact the former send forth the semen as soon as they did cast a glance, the latter after lightly did touch. So also the partridges, who are naturally libidinous, need a light stimulus when are excited, and promptly lay (they send forth the semen) so that in those who didn't mate the eggs are full of wind: in those who mated, the eggs shortly grow louder and reach completion. And still in the same chapter: The conception of windy eggs happens in those birds who are not flyer nor predators with hooked toenails, but who lay a lot of eggs, since they have plenty of residue. In the birds with hooked toenails it is turned into wings and feathers, and a small body is gotten, dry and warm. In fact the spillage of menstrual material and the sperm represent a secretion.

Et paulo post[62], Fiunt subventanea ova, quoniam materia seminalis in foemina est, nec menstruorum decessio fit avibus ut viviparis sanguine praeditis. Volacibus subventanea non gignuntur, scilicet eadem causa, qua neque multa ab iis ipsis generantur. Uncunguibus enim parum excrementi inest, et marem desiderant ad excrementi commotionem. Gignuntur subventanea ova numero quam quae foecunda sunt, sed minora, ob unam eandemque causam. quod enim imperfecta sunt, minus augentur: quod minus augentur, plura numero existunt. minus etiam suavia sunt, quoniam minus concocta, concoctum enim in quovis genere dulcius est. Sed avium aut piscium ova non perfici ad generationem sine mare, satis exploratum habemus. Et rursus, Avium etiam subventanea ova colorem duplicem obtinent, habent enim ex quo utrunque sit, et unde principium, et unde cibus, sed haec imperfecta sunt et maris indiga. fiunt enim foecunda, si quo tempore ineuntur a mare. Subventanea ova sine coitu gignuntur. et falsum est quod quidam dicunt ea reliquias esse praegressi coitus. satis enim conspectum est in novella tum gallina tum ansere, gigni sine coitu[63], Aristot.

And a little later: Wind-eggs are created because there is the seminal matter in the female, and no menstrual flow occurs in birds, as on the contrary it occurs in viviparous creatures endowed with blood. <...> Wind-eggs are not produced by flying birds, evidently because of the same reason why they do not lay many eggs. For there is little secretion in hook-clawed birds, and they need the male in order to set the secretion in motion. Wind-eggs are produced in number equal to fertile ones, but are smaller because of an only and identical reason. Being defective, they grow less: being that they grow less, are in a greater number. They are also less delicious since are less concocted, in fact in whatever kind of things what is concocted is more pleasant. But we have enough analyzed the fact that the eggs of birds and fishes don't reach conclusion from a reproductive point of view without the intervention of the male. And still: also the windy eggs of birds have two colors, in fact they have what gave rise to both, both what from which the generating principle is coming as well as the food, but they are defective and in need of the male. In fact they become fertile if at a certain point are fertilized by the male. Without coition windy eggs are generated. And what some say is false, that is, that they are residues of a previous coition. In fact it has been observed enough both in young hen and goose that they are produced without coition, Aristotle.

Et rursus[64], Non audiendi sunt qui ova hypenemia dicta a vento, quasi subventanea dixeris, reliquias esse partus, quem coitus fecerit, arbitrantur. Iam enim aliquas gallinarum et anserum iuvencas, expertes adhuc coitus parere hypenemia visum saepius est. Sunt haec sterilia et minora, ac minus iucundi saporis, et magis humida (ut Plinius quoque scribit[65]) quam ea quae foecunda gignuntur, sed plura numero. humor eorum crassescere incubatione avis non potest: sed tam candida, quam lutea pars similis sibi perseverat. Pariunt genus id ovi plures aves, ut gallinae, perdices, columbae, pavones, anseres, (ut Plinius quoque transtulit) et quae ab ansere, et vulpe composito nomine chenalopeces[66], id est, vulpanseres dictae sunt. Ova huiusmodi omnia sunt infoecunda, nec aliud quam ovum, nisi quo alio modo maris opera contingat, Idem. Et alibi[67], Redditur certe ovum subventaneum illud foecundum: et quod iam conceptum per coitum est, transit in genus diversum, si prius coeat, quae vel subventaneum, vel semine maris diversi conceptum fert, quam ovum ipsum a lutea in candidam ambientem partem proficiat. Ita enim fit, ut subventanea ova foecunda reddantur: et quae inchoata a mare priore sunt, specie posterioris proveniant. At si iam candidum acceperunt humorem, fieri non potest, ut vel subventanea in foecunda mutentur, vel quae per coitum concepta gestantur, transeant in genus maris, qui secundus coierit. Graece legitur subventanea ova foecunda futura, si gallina ineatur, πρὶν μεταβαλεῖν (τὸ ὠόν) ἐξ τοῦ ὠχροῦ εἰς τὸ λευκόν:

And still: We have not to listen to those people believing that windy eggs so-called from the wind, as saying full of wind, are residues of delivery which happened in consequence of the coition. In fact it has been possible to observe rather often that some young hens and geese who didn't yet mate lay windy eggs. They are sterile and smaller and of less pleasant taste, and more watery (as also Pliny* writes) than fertile ones, but in a greater number. Their liquid content cannot thicken through the incubation done by the bird: so that both white and yellow components remain unmodified. Quite a lot of birds lays this kind of egg, as hens, partridges, doves, peacocks, geese and those called chenalopeces (as also Pliny translated), that is vulpanseres - shelducks*, through the merging of the words goose and fox. All such eggs are infertile, and are anything else than eggs, unless by intervention of the male it happens otherwise, still Aristotle. And elsewhere: Without doubt that windy egg is made fertile: and that already conceived through the coition passes to another genus if the female bringing inside herself a windy egg, or conceived through the semen of a male of a different species, mates before the same egg moves from the yellow to the white surrounding part. This way in fact it happens that windy eggs become fertile: and those fertilized by the previous male turn into the second species of bird. But if they already received the white liquid, it cannot occur that from windy become fertile, or those brought having been conceived through coition become of the species of the male who last mated. In Greek we read that windy eggs will become fertile if the hen is mounted before transforming (the egg) from yellow to white - prìn metabaleîn (tò øón) ex toû øchroû eis tò leukón.

Niphus vertit, priusquam candidum obtegat luteum. prius enim ova lutea tantum apparent in utero: postea etiam albumen in eis discretum. Ubi autem scribitur ova ex semine maris qui prius coierit concepta, degenerare si alius inierit postea, et posterioris speciem referre: Albertus non recte habet, alterari ea ad sterilitatem ovorum venti. Avis quae ovum coitu conceptum gerit, si cum alio mare coierit, simile eius quo cum postea coivit, excludet omne genus pullorum, quapropter nonnulli ex iis, qui ut gallinae generosae procreentur operam dant, ita mutatis admissariis faciunt, tanquam semen maris sua facultate materiam contentam in foemina qualitate tantum quadam afficiat, non etiam misceatur constitutionemque subeat, Aristot. de generat. anim. 1. 20.[68] Irrita ova, quae hypenemia diximus, aut mutua foeminae inter se libidinis imaginatione concipiunt, aut pulvere, Plinius[69]: qui haec ex authore aliquo Graeco mutuatus videri potest. Graeci quidem ἁφήν tum pulverem vocant, tum tactum sive contrectationem. concipiunt autem gallinae huiusmodi ova etiam manu contrectatae, ψηλαφώμεναι, ut Aristoteles scribit[70]. Contra afferri potest, ἁφήν non simpliciter pulverem, sed illum quo palaestritae post unctionem inspergebantur significare, ut Budaeus annotavit: et cum pulveratrices [422] sint gallinae, et pulveratio quoque contrectatio quaedam et affricatio sit, hoc quoque modo sterilia huiusmodi ova ab eis concipi posse.

Agostino Nifo* translates: before the white covers the yellow. In fact at first in uterus - in ovary - the eggs are only of yellow color: subsequently in them also the white is seen. In fact there is written that the eggs conceived through the semen of the male who mounted as first degenerate if another male mounts afterwards, and that they resemble to the latter species: Albertus doesn't agree that they change to such an extent to become sterile like windy eggs: The bird carrying an egg conceived by coitus, if will mate with another male, she will hatch a variety of chicks similar to that one she mated with afterwards, and therefore some people bestirring in order that prolific hens are generated, with the change of mounting males spare no efforts to obtain as result that the semen of the male by its faculty affects the material contained in the female only with regard to a certain kind of quality, not even mixing with it too and taking place of its composition, Aristotle De generatione animalium I, 20. They conceive the sterile eggs we called hypenemia because of a mutual and reciprocal libidinous imagination, or through the dust, Pliny: it can seem that he borrowed these things from some Greek author. For the Greeks call haphën both dust and touch or palpation. Since the hens conceive such eggs when felt by hand, psëlaphømenai, as Aristotle writes. Nevertheless one can object that haphën is not simply meaning dust, but overall that one which wrestlers were sprinkling on themselves after rubbing with oil, as Guillaume Budé* annotated: and since hens are dust-bathers and also a dust-bath is a kind of touching and rubbing, it is likely that also in this way such sterile eggs can be conceived by them.

¶ De eisdem subventaneis ovis quae apud Albertum observavi adiiciam. Ova venti (inquit) in avibus concipiuntur ex vento maxime. rara enim corpora habent, et aerea, et locum {aui} <ani>, per quem concipiunt, vento expositum. itaque vento ad libidinem moventur, sicut etiam mulieres austro matricem aperientes delectantur, unde menstruus sanguis attrahitur. Fit autem hoc frequenter in avibus propter volatum et continuum caudae motum, propter quem etiam attrahitur semen ad matrices earum. Foeminae enim avium testiculos[71] habent super caudam, et exteriori parte corporis: mares vero interius, ubi aliis animalibus sunt renes. Et rursus, Zephyria ova concipiunt autumno, flante austrino vento[72], hic enim aperit corpora avium, et humectat, et foecundat. Autumno autem abundat in eis sicca ventositas. Aliae vero ova venti concipiunt vere, receptione venti austrini. item ad tactum manus supra anum, et per confricationem.

¶ I will add what I have found in Albertus* still apropos of windy eggs. He says: Windy eggs in birds are conceived especially by the wind. For they have light bodies and full of wind, and the position of the anus through which they conceive is exposed to the wind. That’s why they are stirred by the wind to lust, as also women delight to open their wombs to the Austral wind*, whence their menstrual blood is compelled to go out. This frequently happens in birds because of flight and the continual motion of tail, by which the semen is also attracted to their wombs. In fact the females of birds have the testicles - the ovaries - upon the tail and outside the body: on the contrary the males have them inside, where in other animals the kidneys lie. And still: In autumn they conceive the zephyrian eggs, when the Austral wind blows, which in fact opens the bodies of birds, and moistens them, and fecundates them. In fact in autumn a dry windiness abounds in them. But other birds conceive windy eggs at springtime, by receiving the Austral wind. Likewise by contact of the hand above the anus, and by rubbing.

Et alibi[73], Ova venti dicuntur, eo quod calor (incubantis avis) resolvere quidem ipsa potest in ventum: sed non formare in pullum. haec tamen ova coagulabilia sunt hepsesi et optesi[74], sed non formabilia, proprio formante destituta. ita enim se habent ut seminis foeminae permixtio cum sanguine menstruo, (sine semini viri,) unde nihil generari potest. Si ova subventanea gallinae subijcias incubanda, nec albugo nec vitellus immutabuntur: sed utrunque colorem suum servabit. unde apparet errasse Galenum cum dixit, semen foeminae quoque coagulare in generatione et formare: etsi minus id efficiat quam semen maris. Inveniuntur quaedam ova venti absque albumine (absque vitello, forte) qualia fiunt quando in materia coitus abundant gallinae ex aliquo cibo singulariter materiam coitus operante. tunc enim absque vitello testa albumini circunducitur: et figura ovi datur et producitur. Vidi ego ovum prorsus sphaericum, duabus testis intectum, una intra alteram, cum albumine aquoso tenui inter utranque absque vitello, et altero etiam albumine intra interiorem testam[75]. quod vero vitellum solum haberet subventaneum ovum visum nullum adhuc est. hic enim pro alimento duntaxat est, membrana discretus ab albumine, quod est sperma foeminae vi matricis et testium[76] attractum ad ovi substantiam. Inveniuntur praeterea quaedam ova venti, quae non habent testam exteriorem, sed membranam tantum quae testae subiici solet. quod fit, quoniam talia ova humida sunt et aquosa: et non habent calorem satis validum: praesertim si cibo humido sperma augente alantur gallinae, Hucusque Albertus.

And elsewhere: They are called wind-eggs since the warmth (of the brooding bird) is able to dissolve them in wind: but not to turn them into chick. Nevertheless these eggs can become hard if boiled and roasted, but they cannot take a form being unprovided with the forming principle. In fact they are constituted like the mixture of the semen of the female with the menstrual blood (without the semen of the male), therefore nothing can be generated. If you will give a hen windy eggs for hatching, neither albumen nor yolk will be modified: but both will keep their color: so it is clear that Galen* was wrong when said that also the semen of the female coagulates during the generation and that it moulds the fetus: even if does this to a smaller extent than the semen of the male. Some windy eggs are found without albumen (perhaps without yolk) as they become when the hens have in abundance material coming from coition thanks to some food producing material of the coition in a special way. Then in fact in absence of yolk the shell distributes itself around the albumen: and the shape of an egg is realizing and producing itself. I have seen a quite spherical egg covered by two shells, one inside the other - matreshka egg*, with watery and not much thick albumen lying within the two shells and without yolk, and with also a second albumen in the most inner shell. Till now no windy egg has been seen having only the yolk. In fact the latter acts only as food, separated by a membrane from the albumen which is female's semen attracted by the strength of uterus and testicles - ovary - toward the substance composing the egg. Besides some windy eggs are found without the outer shell*, but only with that membrane which usually is underneath the shell. This happens because such eggs are damp and watery: and don't have enough intense warmth: above all if the hens are fed on damp food which makes the semen to increase, so far Albertus.

¶ Auctor est in Hexaemero Magnus Basilius, subventanea ova in caeteris irrita esse ac nova, (vana,[77]) nec illis fovendo quicquam excuti: at vultures subventanea fere citra coitum progignere fertilitate insignia. Intelligi vero subventanea seu hypenemia debent, citra coitum concepta libidinis imaginatione, quae ratio molam in foeminis quoque producere creditur, vitae ineptam. quod agens principium ex maris seminio non affuerit, Caelius. Ovum venti est ovum super quod non cecidit tempore coitus ros et virtus de semine maris; et vulgo dicitur ovum venti, quod sterile sit et infoecundum, Bellunensis. Gallinae novellae, quas a Martio mense Germani denominant, pariunt nonnunquam ova subventanea, Eberus et Peucerus. Πλήθουσι γὰρ τοι καὶ ἀνέμων διέξοδοι | θήλειαν ὄρνιν, πλήν ὅταν παρῇ τόκος, Plutarchus Sympos. 8.[78]

¶ Saint Basil the Great* writes in his Homilies on six days of creation that in other birds the windy eggs are sterile and unusual (empty), and that by warming them anything cannot spring: but that on the contrary the vultures lay extremely fertile windy eggs without any coition. In truth we have to mean as windy or hypenemia those eggs conceived without the coition because of libidinous imaginations, and they believe that this is the reason producing also in women the uterine mole* - maternal mole*, which is not vital. Since the active principle coming from the semen of the male didn't arrive, Lodovico Ricchieri*. The windy egg is the egg on which didn't fall the dew and the power coming from the semen of the male during the coition, and is commonly said egg of the wind because it is sterile and infertile, Andreas Alpago*. The new hens, named by Germans from the month of March, lay sometimes windy eggs, Paul Eber* and Caspar Peucer*. Plëthousi gàr toi kaì anémøn diéxodoi | thëleian órnin, plën ótan parêi tókos - In fact they fill also with winds the female bird [the hen], except when the time of the birth is approaching, Plutarch*, book VIII of Symposiakà or Convivial questions.

Ova quae canicularia et urina (κυνόσουρα καὶ οὔρινα) a nonnullis vocantur, aestate magis consistunt, Aristot.[79] interprete Gaza. forte autem ab eo dicta fuerint cynosura, quod aestate et sub Cane magis urina fiunt. alioqui {sydus} <sidus> etiam cynosura[80] vocatur, nempe ursa minor. Depravantur ova (inquit Aristot. de generatione anim. 3.2.[81]) et fiunt quae urina appellantur, tempore potius calido, idque ratione. Ut enim vina temporibus calidis coacescunt, faece subversa. hoc enim causae est ut depraventur. sic ova pereunt vitello corrupto. id enim in utrisque terrena portio est. quamobrem et vinum obturbatur faece permista, et ovum vitello diffuso. Multiparis igitur hoc accidit merito, cum non facile omnibus calor conveniens reddi possit, sed aliis deficiat, aliis superet, et quasi putrefaciendo obturbet. Uncunguibus etiam quamvis parum foecundis, nihilominus tamen idem evenit. saepe enim vel alterum ex duobus urinum fit, sed tertium semper fere. Cum enim calida sua natura sint, faciunt, ut quasi ferveat supra modum humor ovorum. Cum autem plus iusto calescunt, nisi ex recremento humido sint, saniescunt, reddunturque urina. Columbas inquit idem de hist. 6. 4.[82] ut plurimum bina tantum ova parere. et si quando tria pepererint, binos tantum pullos perfici, ovum tertium urinum relinqui.

The eggs by some called of dog days and not fertilized (kynósoura kaì oúrina) mostly appear in summer, Aristotle* translated by Gaza*. In fact perhaps they have been called cynosura by him since in summer and during dog days* - August - become more infertile. On the other hand also a constellation is called Cynosure, and precisely the Ursa Minor*. Eggs are spoiling (Aristotle says in De generatione animalium III,2) and those called unfertilized grow up preferably in the warm season, and this happens for a reason. For as wines grow sour in warm seasons from the shaking-up of lees. In fact this is the reason why they are spoiling. So the eggs turn bad when the yolk is spoiled. For in both cases it represents - they represent - the earthy portion. For this reason they become turbid both wine because of mixed lees and egg because of scattered yolk. Therefore it is natural that this happens in birds laying many eggs, since the proper amount of warmth cannot be easily provided to all eggs, but for some it is insufficient, for others it is too much, and it makes them turbid as though putrefying them. Nevertheless however this also happens in the birds with bent toenails - rapacious - even if they are a little fertile. Often in fact or either become sterile, but the third one almost always. In fact being - these animals - warm for their nature, they do arrange that the liquid part of the eggs warms itself in an excessive way. In fact when they warm themselves more than due, if they are not of damp constitution, they deteriorate and become sterile. He still in Historia animalium VI,4 says that the doves mostly lay only two eggs. And if sometimes they laid three of them, only two chicks are accomplished, the third egg is left sterile.

Urina fiunt incubatione derelicta, quae alii cynosura dixere, Plinius[83]. Ova generationi inepta οὔρια quasi fluctuosa dici legimus. nam οὔρον dicunt ventum[84], quo argumento etiamnum ab Homero mulos dici οὐρῆας coniectant periti, et recenset Eustathius: διὰ τὸ ἄγονον, id est ob insitam non gignendi proprietatem, quod eorum semen sit ἀνεμαῖον id est spiritosum, et proinde foecunditatis nescium[85], Caelius. Unde fit ut τὰ ἀφανισθέντα ὠά καὶ ἐξουρίσαντα[86], hoc est corrupta et urina ova, fluitent? Integra certe καὶ ἀπαθῆ, confestim sidere, manifestum est. Ac ratio quidem erui illinc potest, quod aquescant ac spiritus contabescentia concipiant plurimum. Qua ratione colligitur et illud, cur in aqua pereuntes, primo quidem ima petere: mox ubi computrescere coeperint, emergere ac fluitare soleant, etc. Idem. Ab exhausto ovo facile plenum discernes, si ea in aquam demiseris. hoc siquidem descendet et delabetur, illud vero natabit in superficie, Leontinus. Ovum recens positum in aqua salsa supernatat, in dulci vero submergitur, ut Aponensis in problematis scribit. Aquam marinae similiter salsam reddituri, tandiu salem inijciunt, donec ovum non subsidat.

If the incubation is abandoned they become sterile those - eggs - called by others cynosura, Pliny*. We read that eggs not fitting for procreation are called oúria as they were shaken by waves. For they call a wind oúron - the favourable wind, which is why the experts conjecture that the mules are called ourêas also by Homer*, and Eustathius* expounds with dià tò ágonon, that is, because of an inborn characteristic of infertility, since their semen is anemaîon, that is, windy and therefore unfit to fecundity, Lodovico Ricchieri. What is the reason why tà aphanisthénta øá kaì exourísanta – the rotten eggs and full of wind, i. e., corrupted and sterile eggs keep afloat? On the contrary it is evident that those intact and which didn't suffer damage - kaì apathê - sink at once. The reason, he says, can be drawn from the fact that they become liquid like water and while decaying they take up a lot of air. For this reason it can also be gathered why when steeped in water, first they go to the bottom: as soon as they begun to rot, usually they come up and float, etc., still Lodovico Ricchieri. You can easily distinguish a filled egg from a dried one if you will put them in water. The former in fact will go down and sink, the latter will swim in surface, Leontinus - a geoponic*. An egg just laid put in salty water is floating, while in sweet water sinks, as Pietro of Abano* writes in Expositio problematum Aristotelis. Those people who are about to transform some water so salty like that of sea, add salt to such an extent that the egg is floating.

De ovis [423] quorum albumen corruptum est, sicut humor in apostemate, unde et infoecunda et omnino foetida redduntur, Alberti verba recitavi supra[87]. Videntur autem eadem urina Aristotelis esse: quanquam is urinorum non albumen sed vitellum corruptum esse scribit. ¶ Si incubante gallina tonuit, ova pereunt, Aristot.[88] Si incubatu tonuerit, ova pereunt: et accipitris audita voce vitiantur. remedium contra tonitrum, clavus ferreus sub stramine ovorum positus, aut terra ex aratro, Plinius[89]. Tonitrua incubationis tempore ova concutiunt, unde illa corrumpuntur, et praecipue si iam in eis formati sunt pulli. sed aliarum avium ovis magis haec nocent, aliarum minus: corvorum maxime. itaque videntur corvi partu suo et incubitu tempus tonitrui praevenire, et pullos Martio educare, Albert. Tonitruis vitiantur ova, pullique semiformes interimuntur antequam toti partibus suis consummentur, Columella[90].

Previously I quoted the words of Albertus* about the eggs whose albumen is rotten like the liquid in an abscess, that's why they become infertile and extremely fetid. It seems that they correspond to those full of wind of Aristotle*: even if he writes that it is not the albumen but the yolk to be altered in those full of wind. ¶ If it has thundered while the hen is brooding, the eggs become ruined, Aristotle. If it will thunder during the incubation, the eggs become ruined: and if they have heard the voice of the hawk* go badly. A remedy against the thunder is represented by an iron nail placed under the litter of the eggs, or some earth taken from the plow, Pliny*. The thunders shake the eggs in the period of incubation, that's why they go badly, and especially if in them the chicks already are formed. But these things do harm more to the eggs of some birds, less to those of others. Above all to those of crows. That's why it seems that the crows prevent the period of the thunders through laying and brooding, and that they raise the chicks in March, Albertus. The eggs are altered by thunders, the growing chicks are killed before they are completed in all their parts, Columella*.

¶ Incubatio et exclusio. De incubatione nonnihil superius scriptum est, et scribetur in E. copiose. Gallinae cum incubant, non cum peperint, furiunt, ratione inediae, Aristot. in Problem. 10.37. Ovis triduo incubatis puncti magnitudine apparent viscera, Aristot. Et rursus, Ova gallinarum tertia die ac nocte postquam coepere incubari, indicium praestare incipiunt. maiori quidem avium generi plus temporis praetereat necesse est, minori minus sufficit.[91] Schista[92] ova Plinius appellat tota lutea, quae triduo incubata tolluntur. Causa nominis, ut arbitror, quia dividantur, et discedat vitellus a candido, Hermolaus. In ovo primum apparet caput pulli, Galenus in Anatome vivorum. sed de formatione pulli in ovo plura superius scripta sunt.

¶ Incubation and exclusion. About the incubation something has been previously written and will be abundantly written in the paragraph E. The hens when are broody, not after laid an egg, are furious because of abstinence from food, Aristotle in Problemata 10,37. In the eggs incubated since three days become evident the entrails having the size of a point, Aristotle. And still: The eggs of the hens start to show a sign after third day and third night since started to be incubated. In the birds of greater size it is necessary that a larger period of time is running, in the smaller ones it is enough a briefer time. Pliny calls schista eggs - split eggs - the wholly yellow ones removed at third day of incubation. It seems me that the reason of this name is in the fact that they split up and the yolk parts from the white, Ermolao Barbaro*. In the egg firstly appears the head of the chick. Galen* in Administrationes anatomicae Libri I-IX. But about the formation of the chick in the egg quite a lot has been written formerly.

¶ Excludunt celerius incubantes aestate, quam hyeme. ideo aestate gallinae duodevigesimo (undevigesimo, Plinius) die foetum excludunt: hyeme aliquando vigesimoquinto. Discrimen tamen et avium est, quod aliae magis aliis fungi officio incubandi possunt, Aristot.[93] Aestate locis calidis decimonono die exeunt ova, hyeme vicesimonono, Albertus. Caput pulli ad acumen ovi convertitur[94], et totum corpus ad residuum: et pullus nascitur supra pedes, sicut et caeteri pulli avium, Idem. Et rursus, Exit autem in partu prius pars latior, quae extrorsum in ave vertitur: posterius acuta, quae diaphragma respicit. quare etiam durior est eadem et ex calore nonnihil corrugata in ovis gallinarum. Exeunt ova a rotundissima sui parte, dum pariuntur, molli putamine, sed protinus durescente, quibuscunque emergunt portionibus, Plinius[95].

¶ They hatch more quickly if the hens brood them in summer rather than in winter. Insofar in summer the hens hatch the fetus at 18th day (19th, Pliny): in winter sometimes at 25th. However also a difference exists among the birds, since some can perform the duty of brooding better than others, Aristotle. In summer in warm places the eggs hatch at 19th day, in winter at 29th, Albertus. The head of the chick goes towards the pointed end - not! towards the blunt end - of the egg and the whole remnants of the body go towards the remaining space: and the chick hatches by leaning on feet, as also the other chicks of the birds, still Albertus. And yet: During egg laying first comes out the widest part of the egg, which turns outward inside the bird: lastly comes out the sharp part, which is directed toward the diaphragm. That's why yhis is also the hardest part and in the eggs of the hens is rather wrinkled because of the heat. The eggs while are laid go out showing their more rounded part, with a soft shell, but which quickly hardens with whatever part are going out, Pliny.

D.

D

Gallinae cum mares vicerint, cucur<r>iunt, et exemplo marium tentant superventu coire. crista etiam caudaque erigitur, ita, ne facile praeterea sit, an foeminae sint cognoscere. nonnunquam etiam calcaria parva iis enascuntur, Aristot.[96] ¶ Villaribus gallinis et religio inest. inhorrescunt {a}edito ovo, excutiuntque sese, et circumactu purificant, et festuca aliqua sese et ova lustrant, Plin.[97] De hoc gallinarum pericarphismo, plura leges in C. Ὡς δ’ὄρνις ἀπτῇσι {νεοοσοῖσι} <νεοσσοῖσι> προφέρῃσι | Μάστακ’, ἐπεί< >κε λάβῃσι. κακῶς δ’ἄρα οἱ πέλει αὐτῇ, Achilles Iliad. ι.[98] suos quos pro Graecis subierat labores et pericula prae nimia in eos benevolentia, conferens matricis avis (gallinae nimirum per excellentiam) in pullos affectui, quos illa dum pascit, et cibos subinde collectos ore porrigit, se suamque famem negligit. Citat haec verba Plutarchus in libro de amore parentum erga prolem[99]. Ubi haec etiam eius verba leguntur, {ὅτι} <ὥσπερ> ἡ Ὁμηρικὴ ὄρνις τῷ ἑαυτῆς τρέφει λιμῷ τὰ ἔγγονα καὶ τὴν τροφὴν τῆς γαστρὸς ἁπτομένην, ἀποκρατεῖ καὶ πιέζει τῷ στόματι, μὴ λάθῃ καταπιοῦσα. Gyb. Longolius sic transtulit, Homerica avis sua fame parvulos natos pascit: et nutrimentum quod ventri suo destinaverat, ore retinet, ne eo in ventrem delapso in oblivionem ipsa adducatur. Sed lector {consyderabit} <considerabit>, an sic potius reddi debeant verba posteriora: Ventris sui alimentum ore tenens, abstinet tamen, et ne forte nolens etiam deglutiat, mordicus premit.

The hens, when got the better of the males, do a cock-a-doodle-doo and on the example of males they try to pair off by mounting. Also the comb as well as the tail straighten up, so that afterward it is not easy to realize if they are females. Sometimes also little spurs are sprouting, Aristotle. ¶ In hens of farm also a rituality exists. They ruffle the feathers after laid the egg and shake and purify themselves going round and round, and purify themselves and the eggs with a straw, Pliny. About this perikarphismós - to cover themselves with straw - you will read quite a lot of things in the paragraph C. Ηøs d’órnis aptê_isi neossoîsi prophérë_isi | Mástak’, epeíke lábë_isi. kakôs d’ára oi pélei autê_i - For like the hen offers to featherless chicks | the food after she got it, this fact goes against herself, Achilles* in Iliad IX. His labours and dangers he went towards for Greeks because of an excessive love for them, referring himself to the fondness of the mother bird (who obviously is represented for excellence by the hen) towards the chicks, who while is grazing them and giving with mouth the just picked up foods is neglecting herself and her hunger. Plutarch* quotes these words in the book The love of parents toward offspring. In which his following words are read too: høsper hë Homërikë órnis tø_i heautês tréphei limø_i tà éggona kaì tën trophën tês gastròs haptoménën, apokrateî kaì piézei tô_i stómati, më láthë_i katapioûsa. - as the Homeric bird nourishes their chicks at the price of his own hunger and prevents the nourishment to reach his stomach, he holds it in his beak being afraid of swallowing it without his knowledge. Gisbert Longolius* translated as follows: The Homeric bird feeds his little young with his own hunger and the food he had intended for his own stomach he keeps in his mouth lest when it has descended thither he himself should be led to forget. But the reader will consider if the last words don't owe rather sound in this way: Keeping with the mouth the food destined to his belly, nevertheless he abstains and seizes it in an obstinate way so that unintentionally doesn't swallow it.

Et paulo post[100] in eodem libro: Quid vero gallinae, (inquit Plutarchus,) quas observari nostris oculis quotidie domi conspicamur, quanta cura et sedulitate pullos custodiunt et gubernant: aliis alas, quas subeant, remittunt: aliis dorsum, ut scandant, reclinant. neque ulla pars corporis est, qua non fovere illos, si possent, cupiant: neque id sine gaudio et alacritate, quod et vocis sono testari videntur. Canes et angues (κυνέας καὶ δρακοντίας, forte κίρκους καὶ δράκοντας) cum de se agitur, sibique solis metuunt, fugiunt tum quidem. si vero pullorum agmini ab his periculum verentur, vindicare illud ab iniuria nituntur, et supra quam vires patiuntur saepe dimicant.

And a little ahead in the same book Plutarch says: What to say of the hen, whom we observe each day at home, with what care and solicitude they guard and lead their chicks: for some of them they let down their wings for the chicks to come under: for others they turn back their backs for them to climb up. And there is no part of their bodies with which they do not wish to protect them if possible: nor they do this without joy and enthusiasm, and it seems that are testifying this by the sound of their voice. When they are dealing with themselves and are fearing only for themselves, only then they avoid dogs and snakes (kynéas - dogs - kaì drakontías - and little snakes, perhaps kírkous - hawks - kaì drákontas - and dragons, snakes). But if they fear that from these enemies a danger can follow for their crowd of chicks, they struggle in avenging it for the offence, and often fight beyond their own endurance.

Gallinae avesque reliquae, sicut Cicero ait[101], et quietum requirunt ad pariendum locum, et cubilia sibi nidosque construunt, eosque quam possunt mollissime substernunt, ut quam facillime ova serventur. ex ovis pullos cum excluserunt, ita tuentur, ut et pennis foveant, ne frigore laedantur: et si est calor a Sole, se opponant. Cum autem pulli pennulis uti possunt, tum volatus eorum matres prosequuntur, Gillius. Super omnia est anatum ovis subditis atque exclusis, admiratio primo non plane agnoscentis foetum: mox incertos incubitus solicite convocantis: postremo lamenta circa piscinae stagna, mergentibus se pullis natura duce, Plin.[102] Exeuntes pullos gallina sub alas congregat, defenditque eos a milvo et aliis periculis, Albert. Gallina supra modum diligit foetum suae speciei, adeo ut prae voce nimis acuta qua suum in pullos amorem testatur, aegrescat. Ova quidem quae incubat, unde sint non curat, circa alienum etiam partum solicita. Idem. Gallina ardet studio et amore pullorum: primum enim ut circum avem rapacem supra tectum gyros agere cognoscit, statim vehementer vociferatur, et cervicem iactans, atque in gyrum contorquens, caput in altum tollit, ac omnibus plumis inhorrescit, tum explicatis alis timidos pullos, et sub alato tegmine pipientes protegit, avemque procacem retrocedere cogit: Deinde eos ex [424] latibulo plumeo prodeuntes studiose pascit, Gillius[103].

As Cicero* says, hens and other birds also seek a quiet place in which to lay their eggs and build sleeping places for themselves and nests, and cover them as softly as possible, so that the eggs preserve themselves as easily as possible: so that when chicks came out from eggs are protected in such a way to warm them also with feathers in order that they are not injured by cold: and if the weather is hot, so that they come between the sun. In fact when chicks can use their small feathers, then the mothers follow them in their flies, Pierre Gilles*. Above every other thing there is the extraordinary fact of when the eggs of duck have been put for brooding and hatching under a hen, who at first doesn't recognize at all the chick: then to lie down on him in a uncertain manner and breathlessly calling him: finally her complaints around the stretch of water in which the chicks are swimming under the guide of nature, Pliny. The hen picks up under the wings the chicks coming out of the egg and defends them from kite* and other dangers, Albertus. The hen loves in an exaggerated way the fetus of her species, to the point to get sick because of the extremely acute voice with which she attests her love towards the chicks. In fact she doesn't take care whence are coming the eggs she is incubating, being thoughtful also towards the birth of other females, still Albertus. The hen burns of care and love for the chicks: first of all she is well aware of how to vault around a rapacious bird which is above her shelter, then immediately starts shouting in a deafening way and by lengthening the neck and by twisting all herself she raises the head and gets ruffled with all the feathers, then, after has spread the wings, she protects under the winged protection the timid peeping chicks, and forces the insolent bird to retreat: then she grazes them with care while are coming out from the hideaway of feathers, Pierre Gilles.

Nostri milvum aut accipitris genus a gallinarum praeda vocant den huenerdieb, id est gallinarum furem. Rubetarium esse credo accipitrem illum (inquit Turnerus) quem Angli hen harroer nominant. Porro ille apud nostros a dilaniandis gallinis nomen habet. palumbarium magnitudine superat, et coloris est cinerei. Humi sedentes aves in agris, et gallinas in oppidis et pagis repente adoritur. Praeda frustratus, tacitus discedit, nec unquam secundum facit insultum. hic per humum omnium (accipitrum) volat maxime. Urticarum genera quaedam mortifera pullis, gallina rostro nititur evellere: in quo conatu tantum aliquando laborat, ut rumpatur interius, Albertus.

Ours call the kite* or the genus of the birds of prey as den huenerdieb, that is, hens thief. I believe that the bramble hawk is that sparrowhawk* (William Turner* says) called by English as hen harroer*. For among us he gets the name from the fact that he claws the hens. He is larger than the accipiter palumbarius* - hawk of wild pigeons - and is of an ashen-grey color. The Hen Harrier - Circus cyaneus - suddenly attacks the birds living on ground in fields, and the hens in towns and villages. If disappointed by his prey, he dumbly goes away and never launches a second attack. This one among all (birds of prey) flies mostly along the ground. The hen gets busy with beak upon some species of nettles* deadly to chicks: sometimes she is devoting herself to such an extent in this effort to run into inner rents, Albertus*.

¶ Quae nam animalia gallinis infesta sint, dictum est paulo ante, et supra etiam in Gallo D. diceturque amplius infra in E. Gallinam ferunt eo die quo ovum peperit, a serpente laedi non posse: et tum carnem quoque eius a serpente morsis remedio esse, Albert. Qui serpentium canisve dente aliquando laesi fuerint, eorum superventus gallinarum incubitus, pecorum foetus abortu vitiant, Plin.[104]

¶ In fact what are the dangerous animals for hens has been told a little while ago and also previously in the paragraph D of the chapter about the rooster and I will speak all the more abundantly here below in the paragraph E. They say that the hen cannot be injured by the snake in the day when she laid an egg: and that therefore also her meat represents a remedy for those people bitten by a snake, Albertus. Because of the sudden arrival of those people by chance wounded by the tooth of snakes or of a rabid dog, they make to go bad the hens’ incubations and the livestock’s foetus by abortion, Pliny*.

E.

E

Electio. Mercari porro nisi foecundissimas aves non expedit. eae sint rubicundae vel fuscae plumae nigrisque pennis, ac si fieri poterit, omnes huius, et ab hoc proximi coloris eligantur: sin aliter, evitentur albae, quae fere cum sint molles, ac minus vivaces, tum ne foecundae quidem facile reperiuntur, atque sunt conspicuae. propter quod insigne candoris ab accipitribus et aquilis saepius abripiuntur. sint ergo matrices probi coloris, robusti corporis, quadratae, pectorosae, magnis capitibus, rectis rutilisque cristulis, albis auribus: et sub hac specie quam amplissimae, nec paribus ungulis, generosissimaeque creduntur, quae quinos habent digitos, sed ita ne cruribus emineant transversa calcaria. nam quae hoc virile gerit insigne, contumax ad concubitum dedignatur admittere marem, raroque foecunda, etiam cum incubat, calcis aculeis ova perfringit, Columella[105]. Sint praecipue nigrae aut flavi coloris, Palladius[106]. Gallinarum generositas spectatur, crista erecta, interdum et gemina, pennis nigris, ore rubicundo, digitis imparibus[107], aliquando et super quatuor digitos transverso uno, Plin.[108] Qui villaticas gallinas parat, eligat foecundas, plerunque rubicunda pluma, nigris pennis, imparibus digitis, magnis capitibus, crista erecta ampla[109], hae enim ad partiones sunt aptiores, Varro[110].

Choice. Moreover it is not worthwhile to purchase birds if not fertile. These birds must have red or blackish feathers and black plumes, and if it will be possible all are chosen of this color or of a very similar color. If it is not possible to do otherwise, the white subjects must be avoided, which for the more are not only weak and less long-living, but it is not even easy to find them prolific, and in addition they are well visible. Because of the characteristic of the whiteness they are more often carried away by hawks* and eagles*. The reproducer females are therefore to be of suitable color, of strong build, sturdy, have to possess a wide breast, a big head, the small comb upright and red shining, white earlobes: and in this respect they must have them as biggest as possible, and must not to have even toes, and are held very fertile those with five toes, but must not to have spurs sticking out sideways on the legs. In fact, that one bringing this sign of masculinity, reluctant to joining, is disdainful in accepting the male, and is rarely fertile and then when brooding she breaks the eggs with the spurs of the leg, Columella*. Mainly they must be black or buff, Palladius*. The good breed of the hens is recognized from the upright comb, sometimes double too, from black feathers, red face, toes of different length, and sometimes also from the presence of a toe placed sideways besides the other four, Pliny. He who gets courtyard hens has to choose the prolific ones, and for the more having reddish feathers, black plumes, odd toes, big head, an upright and wide comb, these in fact are more suitable for reproduction, Varro*.

Gallinas educaturus eligat foecundissimas: quas nimirum ex usu rerum et experientia dignoscet: im<m>o vero ex pluribus aliis indiciis. In universum enim quae colore flavescunt, et sortiuntur digitos impares, quaeque magna possident capita (τὰς ὄψεις μεγάλας, oculos magnos, Cornarius[111]) cristamque erigunt: nec non nigriores et corpulentiores. Eae omnes gallinae facile mares ferent: multo erunt praestantiores ad partum, ova maxima {a}edent: ac breviter, generosos excludent pullos, Florentinus[112]. {Mox} <Mos> quoque sicut in caeteris pecoribus eligenda quaeque optima, et deteriora vendenda: servetur etiam in hoc genere, ut per autumni tempus omnibus annis, cum fructus earum cessat, numerus quoque minuatur. Summovebimus autem veteres, id est quae trimatum excesserunt. Item quae aut parum foecundae, aut parum bonae nutrices sunt, et praecipue quae ova vel sua, vel aliena consumunt. Nec minus, quae velut mares cantare, atque etiam calcare coeperunt. Item serotini pulli, qui ab solstitio nati capere iustum incrementum non poterunt. In masculis autem non eadem ratio servabitur, sed tandiu custodiemus generosos, quandiu foeminam implere potuerint. Nam rarior est in his avibus mariti bonitas, Columella[113].

He who will have to raise hens must choose the most fertile: without doubt he will be able to recognize them by practice and experience: or rather, according to many other clues. In fact are generally like so those being buff in color, and receiving odd fingers in lot, and those having a big head (tàs ópseis megálas, big eyes, as Janus Cornarius* translates) and holding the comb upright: as well as those of a darker color and more corpulent. All these hens will easily bear the males: they will be a lot outstanding as far as eggs' laying is concerned, they will lay very big eggs: and in a little while they will give birth to chicks of good quality, Florentinus*. As in other kinds of livestock also in this one we have to keep the custom of choosing the best head and preserving them and to sell the worse ones, so that every year in autumn, when the hence coming profit stops, also their number decreases. In fact we will get rid of old hens, that is, those who overcame three years. Likewise those being few fertile or not many good broody hens, and especially those devouring their or other people's eggs. Likewise those who started to sing as well as to mount like roosters. The same is said about belated young chickens who, born starting from summer's solstice, have not been able to reach a correct growth. For the males the same criterions won't be followed, but we will keep those of good breed up to when they will be able to fertilize the females. In fact in these birds a good quality of the husband is rather rare, Columella.

¶ Gallinarium. Aedicula ista cuius parietibus corbes (quos Varro gallinarum cubilia appellat[114]) affixos vides, in iisque gallinas incubantes, officina cohortalis ob id appellatur, quod non aliter ac in officinis nostris cuncta parantur, quae in usum humanum veniunt, ita istic ova et pulli, quae in cibum. Iste qui in gallinarum scandit, et ova manibus versat, gallinarius curator vel custos recte dicetur, Gyb. Longolius in dialogo de avibus[115].

¶ The hen house. This small building on whose walls you see some hung baskets (Varro calls them nests of the hens), inside which the hens are brooding, is said laboratory of the courtyard since not otherwise than in our laboratories whatever is serving to human beings is prepared, and so here are prepared eggs and chickens serving as food. He who is climbing the hen-pen and turning the eggs by hands, rightly will be called person responsible or custodian of hen-pen, Gisbert Longolius* in Dialogus de avibus.

¶ Non sunt plures quam quinquaginta in uno aviario nutriendae. labefactantur siquidem in angusto arctatae. porro numeri gallinarum pars sexta sint gallinacei galli, Florentinus. Parandi matrices modus est ducentorum capitum, quae pastoris unius curam dispendant: dum tamen anus sedula vel puer adhibeatur custos vagantium, ne obsidiis hominum aut insidiosorum animalium diripiantur, Columella[116]. Si ducentas alere velis, locus septus attribuendus, in quo duae caveae coniunctae magnae constituendae, quae spectent ad exorientem versus, utraeque in longitudinem circiter decem pedes, latitudine dimidio minores (latitudine paulo minus, Crescenti.) et altitudine paulo humiliores. Utriusque fenestrae latitudine tripedali, et co(uno)pede altiores, e viminibus factae raris, ita ut lumen praebeant multum, neque per eas quicquam ire intro possit quod nocere solet gallinis. Inter duas ostium sit, qua gallinarius curator earum ire possit. In caveis crebrae perticae traiectae sint, ut omnes sustinere possint gallinas. Contra singulas perticas in pariete exculpta sint cubilia earum. Ante sit (ut dixi) vestibulum septum, in quo diurno tempore esse possint, atque in pulvere volutari. Praeterea sit cella grandis, in qua curator habitet, ita ut in parietibus circum omnia posita sint cubilia gallinarum, aut exculpta, aut affixa firmiter. Motus enim cum incubant nocet, Varro. Gallinaria constitui debent parte villae, quae hybernum spectat orientem: iuncta sint ea furno, vel culinae, ut ad avem perveniat fumus, qui est huic generi praecipue salutaris. Totius autem officinae, id est ornithonis, tres continuae extruuntur cellae, quarum, sicuti dixi, perpetua frons orienti sit obversa. In ea deinde fronte exiguus detur unus omnino aditus mediae cellae, quae ipsa tribus minima esse debet in altitudine, et quoquoversus pedes septem: in ea singuli dextro, [425] laevoque pariete aditus ad utranque cellam faciendi sunt, iuncti parieti, qui est intrantibus adversus.[117]

¶ In a hen-pen we have not to raise more than fifty of them. In fact being pressed in a narrow place they weaken. Moreover the roosters have to represent the sixth part of hens' number, Florentinus. The quantity of hens we have to provide is of 200 head, which has to keep busy the management of only a keeper: nevertheless when they go around a careful old woman or a little boy are used so that they are not stolen by snares of humans or of animals which lie in ambush, Columella. If you want to raise two hundred birds you need to assign a fenced-in place, in which two large adjacent rooms must be built, facing east, both of them around ten feet long, less than a half in width (Pier de' Crescenzi* says a little less in width), and a little lower in height. The windows of each room should be three feet wide and one foot higher, made of wide weaved wickers, so that they may furnish much light without through them anything usually harming the hens comes in. Between the two rooms an opening must be through which the hen-pen's keeper can pass, who takes care of the hens. In the rooms have to be many perches crossing through so that they can support all the hens. In front of each perch (as I told) there should be nesting places dug in the wall. In front of the pen let there be a fenced-in place where the chickens can walk during the day and wallow in dust. Furthermore, let there be a large cell in which the keeper stays, so that in the walls all around there are all the nests of the hens, either dug or firmly attached. For the movement is harmful when hens are incubating, Varro. The hen-pens must be build in the part of the farm looking at winter east: must be joined to the oven or to the kitchen, so that the smoke reaches the poultry, the former being very healthy for this kind of birds. The construction of the hen-pen, that is of the ornithøn, has to be altogether of three adjoining rooms, with the whole front, as I said, turning toward east. Then on this front only one and small entrance is given to the middle cell, which has to be the smallest of three in height and to measure seven feet in whatever direction: in it, on every single right and left wall have to be made the entrances to both other rooms, adjoining the wall in front of who are coming in, Columella.