Gallus a castratione vocatus est. nam inter aves caeteras huic soli testiculi adimuntur. veteres autem abscissos vocabant gallos, Isidorus[1]. Ne nimis exhausto macresceret inguine gallus, | Amisit testes: nunc mihi gallus erit, Martialis lib. 13. sub lemmate Capo[2]. Et mox de eodem, Succumbit sterili frustra gallina marito, | Hanc matris Cybeles esse decebat avem. id est, haec potius et proprie debebat vocari gallus. Capus videri posset dictus quasi captus testibus, ut captum oculis et auribus dicimus, pro visu et auditu privatum. ut caper etiam dicitur proprie de hoedo vel hirco castrato[3]. sed syllabae primae quantitas prohibet, quae producitur. Alius coactos non amare capones, Martialis lib. 3[4]. est autem senarius scazon. Ex recentioribus quidam capum gallinaceum dixit per pleonasmum. Capum enim dixisse sat est. Gallus spado[5] pro capone, apud Petronium Arbitrum. ¶ Barbur vocem Hebraicam aliqui capum interpretantur. Vide in: Gallinaceo A[6]. Italice nominatur capon vel capone. Gallice chappon. Germanice Kappun/ Kapaun/ Kaphan. Anglice capon.

The rooster took the name from castration. In fact among all other birds only to him the testicles are removed. In truth, the ancients called castrated the roosters, Isidore. The cock, lest he should grow too thin having dried up the lower belly, | gave up his testicles, now he will be for me a Gallus – a priest of Cybele, Martial book 13^th of epigrams, at the entry Capon. And soon after: In vain the hen is subjected to the sterile husband, | it was worthwhile that this bird was of the mother Cybele. That is, this bird that had to be more properly called rooster. It could seem that the capon has been so called as being devoid of testicles, as we say devoid of eyes and ears to say that a person is devoid of sight and hearing. As also is properly said caper - the he-goat - for the kid or for the castrated billy goat. But the quantity – long or breve - of the first syllable (of capus) prevents this, being long. Another - offers - capons forced to not love, Martial book 3. In fact it is an iambic senarius scazon. Someone among the most recent people said rooster capon by a pleonasm. To tell the truth it is enough to have spoken about capus. In Petronius Arbiter gallus spado is found for the capon. ¶ Some people translate with capon the Hebrew word barbur. See in the paragraph A of the rooster. In Italian it is said capo or capone. In French chappon. In German Kappun/ Kapaun/ Kaphan. In English capon.

B.

B

De alectoria lapide, leges in Gallinaceo B. circa finem[7].

About the alectoria stone you can read in the chapter of the rooster, paragraph B, toward the end.

C.

C

Capi etiam epilepsiae obnoxii feruntur, Aloisius Mundella[8]. Plura quae partim huc referri poterant, partim ad D. leges mox in E.

They say that also the capons are subject to epilepsy, Luigi Mondella. A lot of things which partly could be reported in this paragraph, partly in a paragraph D, you will read them soon in the paragraph E.

E.

E

Castrantur gallinacei parte novissima suae alvi, quae cum coeunt, concidit. hanc enim si duobus aut tribus ferramentis adusseris, capos facies, quod si perfectus est qui castratur, crista pallescit, et cucur<r>ire desinit, neque coitum venereum repetit. sed si adhuc pullus est, ne inchoari quidem ex iis quicquam potest, cum accrescit, Aristot.[9] Desinunt canere castrati: Quod duobus fit modis, lumbis adustis candente ferro, aut imis cruribus, mox ulcere oblito figulina creta. Facilius ita pinguescunt, Plin.[10] Gallos castrant ut sint capi, candenti ferro inurentes calcaria ad infima crura, usque dum rumpantur (ignea vi consumantur, Columel.[11]) atque extet ulcus, quod obliniunt figlina creta, (dum consanescant, Colum.) Varro[12]. E gallis apud nos evulsis testiculis per posteriora modico vulnere capones fiunt, Grapaldus. Vulnus quidem tantum fit, quantum digito immittendo et testibus singulis extrahendis sufficit, quo testes lumbis superius adhaerentes inquiruntur sub intestinis galli supini, inventique digiti summitate revelluntur. iis extractis vulnus filo consuitur, et cinis infricatur, tum etiam crista resecatur, ut virilitas omnis absit. Sunt qui in cristae abscissae locum calcar e crure exectum inserant, quod coalito vulnere etiam crescere solet. Galli castrati forma quidem maris sunt, sed animo foemineo praediti. pinguescunt ita citius, etiamsi fartura non obesantur. videasque quosdam in eam plenitudinem corporis perductos, ut de magnitudine cum ansere facile certent, Gyb. Longolius[13]. Cum gallinis pascuntur: sed non defendunt eas, non cantant, nec horam diei vel noctis discernunt, ad nihil praeter cibum utiles, Author libri de nat. rerum.

The roosters are castrated in the extreme part of their abdomen, that one which goes down when they mate – nearby cloaca, underneath uropygium. Then, if you will have cauterized this part with two or three irons, you will get capons, and if he who is castrated is properly castrated, his comb turns out pale and he stops singing, nor looks longer for mating. But if he is still a young chicken, no one of these things can start while he grows, Aristotle. They stop singing when castrated, which happens in two ways, after the loins have been cauterized with an incandescent iron, or the lowest part of the legs have been cauterized, and soon after the wound is smeared with clay of potters. They fatten up more easily in this way, Pliny. They castrate the roosters, so that they become capons, by burning with an incandescent iron the spurs in the lowest part of the legs until the formers come off, (until they are burnt down by the force of the fire, Columella) and an ulcer results, which they smear with clay of potters (until they recovered, Columella), Varro. Among us from the roosters are gotten capons after their testicles have been removed through the rear with a small wound, Francesco Mario Grapaldi. Truly, a wound is made which has to be wide enough to introduce a finger and to extract the testicles one by one, by the finger we hunt for the testicles which above adhere to the lumbar region and are lying below the bowels of the rooster who is supine, and after they have been located are torn away with the tip of the finger. After they have been extracted, the wound is sutured with thread and ash is rubbed, then also the comb is cut off so that no sign of virility is present. Some insert a spur excised from the leg where the comb has been cut off, since usually when the wound has healed it would also lengthen. Actually the castrated roosters have the conformation of a male, but they are endowed with a female character. This way they fatten up more quickly, even if through the fattening they don't become obese. And you could see that some have been led to such a degree of corpulence that in size they could easily compete with a goose, Gisbert Longolius. They go to graze with hens: but don't defend them, they don't crow, neither subdivide the hours of day and night, useful to nothing but as food, the Author of the treatise on nature of things.

¶ Capos et gallinas saginare ligur<r>itores ipsi invenere, quo unctius ac lautius devorarent, Platina. Pinguescunt capi milii farina cum melle, praesertim et turundis in cibo datis. nam {Plinius} <Varro>[14] eo nomine vocat bucceas, quibus farcire saginareque gallinas, anseres et capones solemus, Grapaldus. Sunt apud nos qui capos saginant hoc modo. includunt eos loco angusto, et e farina milii turundos faciunt, magnitudine fere et longitudine articuli digiti mediocris: e quibus ab initio circiter denos eis in fauces inserunt: et per aliquot deinceps dies quotidie plures paulatim aucto numero. qui postea minuitur etiam paulatim. dandum est autem eis plus minus pro concoctione, quae tactu explorata ingluvie animadvertitur. Debent autem turundi mox inserendi prius in aquam aut lac immitti ut facilius descendant, et leniter digitis per collum premendo deduci. In defectu milii, furfur cum pauca de frumento farina et milii etiam pauca, in turundos redigitur. Sic fere viginti diebus obesantur, mero quidem milio quatuordecim. Sunt qui gallinas et capones brevi pinguescere scribant, si cerevisia eis bibenda apponatur pro aqua. Capus gliscens, lo capone impastato, nutrito de pasta, Scoppa in Dictionario Latinoitalico[15]. videtur autem pastae nomine turundos intelligere. De gallina farcienda privatim scribemus infra in Gallina E. Videtur autem ratio eadem farciendis utrisque convenire.

¶ They have been the gluttons themselves who invented the fattening of capons and hens, in order to gorge themselves in a more delicious and sumptuous way, Platina. The capons fatten up by using flour of millet with honey, above all feeding them also on mashes. For Varro calls with this name the bites by which we usually cram and fatten hens, geese and capons, Grapaldi. Among us some people fatten capons as follows: they shut up them in a narrow place and make small bites almost of size and length of the phalanx of a medium-sized finger: at the beginning they ram in their mouth ten of these bites each sitting: and subsequently for some days they are giving quite a lot of them each day, gradually increasing the number. Which later on is gradually decreased too. In fact the bites have to be given more or less according to the digestion, which is detected by tactile exploration of the crop. The bites which are about to be given, first must be placed in water or milk so that they go down more easily, and they have to be helped in going down by gently pressing with fingers along the neck. If the millet is scarce we have to make bites of bran and a little wheat flour as well as a little millet flour. Thus they fatten up within twenty days, but within fourteen with millet only. Some people write that hens and capons fatten up shortly if they are given beer in place of water to drink. Capus gliscens – the capon becoming heavier, the capon full of dough, fed on dough, Lucio Giovanni Scoppa in Dictionarium Latinoitalicum. For it seems that he means bites by the word dough. About the hen to be fattened I will write separately later on in the paragraph E of the chapter about hen. Really it seems that the same method is befitting the fattening of both.

¶ Capus ventre et pectore deplumatus et perfricatus urticis, pullos fovere et pascere solet, etc. ut recitavimus in Gallo D. Sunt qui hoc modo affectum, non pullos modo curare, sed ova etiam incubare dicant: praesertim si pane vino madente inebrietur, et mox ebrius in loco obscuro ovis imponatur. sic enim cum ad se redierit, ova propria existimantem, perficere aiunt. ¶ Fabae semina Graeci asserunt capi sanguine macerata adversantibus herbis liberari, Ruellius. Ego in Geoponicis adhuc nihil tale reperi.

¶ The capon, after has been plucked at abdomen and breast and has been rubbed with nettles, usually warms and raises the chicks, etc., as I wrote in the paragraph D. regarding the rooster. Some affirm that, after he has been treated in this way, he not only takes care of the chicks, but that also sits on eggs: especially if inebriated with bread soaked in wine, and as soon as drunk is put on the eggs in a dark place. For they say that so, when he recovered consciousness, judging the eggs as his, he hatches them.  ¶ The Greeks affirm that the seeds of  broad bean soaked in blood of capon are freed from harmful weeds, Jean Ruel. Till now in geoponics I didn't find anything of similar.

F.

F

In Gallinaceo F.[16] permulta a nobis recitata sunt, quae omni gallinaceo generi tum salubritatis in cibo tum apparatus ratione communia sunt: hic ea quae ad capos privatim pertinent afferemus. Omnium avium laudes, quantum ad obsonia pertinet, una caro gallinacea comprehendit. Quid enim popinis afferunt reliquae altiles, quod non unus capus in se habeat, sive elixum, sive assum velis? Huius avis patina stomachum iuvat, pectus lenit, vocem sonoram facit, corpus obesat, Platina. Capi in cibis gratiores sunt, utpote remoto Veneris usu facti pinguiores, et salubrioris nutrimenti, Grapaldus.

In the paragraph F regarding the rooster I reported a lot of things in common with the whole gallinaceous genus both about their salubriousness as food and the way of preparing them: at this point I will report only what is specifically concerning the capons. As far as foods is concerning, the meat of chicken alone gathers in itself the praises of all the birds. In fact what are supplying to inns the other breeding birds that already is not possessing a capon, either you want him boiled or roast? A dish prepared with this bird does well to stomach, relieves the spirit, makes resonant the voice, fattens up the body, Platina. The capons as food are more savory, since having put aside the sex they became chubbier and turned into a healthier nourishment, Grapaldi.