Alii ubi ex bullis clarius decoctum vi ignis factum animadvertunt in id tepidum (nam calidius decoctum albumen coqueret, in frigidiore minus prompte et parcior spuma elicitur) albumina [434] singulis libris singula, sed etiam pluribus pauciora iniiciunt, scopulis agitant, ut spumescat, {saccharum} <saccharon> in particulas confractum coniiciunt, recoquunt: ubi spuma subsedit, igni aufertur, calidum, si crassum est vix colatur. si facile colatur, sed turbidum, tepidum vel frigidum colatur, per manicam[1] Hippocratis, melius autem per pannum clavis quatuor, angulis quatuor firmatum. Colatur autem ter quater si non satis claruerit: si ne sic quidem albumen separatim in aqua agitatum, scopulis inspergitur decocto igni reddito, spuma illa usta, alia iniicitur, idque toties donec bullae clarum satis produnt. tunc colatur quoties est necesse, Iac. Sylvius[2]. Surrentina vafer qui miscet faece Falerna | Vina, columbino limum (id est faecem) bene colligit ovo, | Quatenus ima petit volvens aliena vitellus, Horatius Serm. 2. 4.[3]

Others, when through the bubbles realize that the decoction became clearer thanks to the power of the fire, when it became lukewarm (in fact a warmer decoction would cook the albumen, in a more cold one the foam is produced less quickly and in less quantity) they add an egg white to each pound [327.45 g] of decoction, but add even less than an egg white to several pounds, they shake with small brooms so that it foams, put in finely minced sugar and boil again: when the foam lowers, it is removed from fire when still hot, if it is thick it strains with difficulty: if it strains easily but is turbid, is strained through a conic flannel sleeve of Hippocrates, even better through a cloth fixed at its four corners by four nails. For it is strained three or four times if didn’t become clear enough: if it is not thus, on the decoction put back on fire by small brooms is poured egg white beaten apart in water, when this foam has consumed, other is added, and this is done time after time until the bubbles reveal that it is clear enough. Then it is strained as many times as necessary, Jacques Dubois. The sly fellow mixing wines of Sorrento with dregs of the Falerno, carefully collects the deposit (i.e. dregs) with a dove’s egg, since the yolk wrapping up the foreign substances goes towards the bottom, Horace, Sermones II,4..

Vinum ut pellucidum confestim fiat: Alba ovorum coniice in vas quotquot suffecerint, et vinum quoad spumat concutiatur. cum vino et modicum salis albi tenuis, et fit album, etc. Nic. Myrepsus. Quoniam vitellus ovi naturam habet cognatam cum faece vini et albugo cum vino: ideo est quod cum ova immittuntur vino (turbato per aestatem propter calorem austrinum) cum harena et calce clarificatur vinum. nam harena et calx perforant (penetrant) v<i>ni substantiam, et vitellus attrahit faecem, Albertus in Aristot. de generat. anim. 3. 2.

In order that the wine becomes clear very quickly: Put in a vessel as many egg whites as enough and the albumen is beaten until it foams. Along with the wine also put a little bit of fine white salt, and the wine becomes white, etc. Nicolaus Myrepsus. Since the egg yolk has a composition having affinity with wine dregs and the egg white with wine: and therefore it happens that when the eggs are put in wine (which in summer is turbid because of heat due to southern winds) along with sand and lime, the wine becomes clear. For sand and lime pierce (penetrate) the wine’s constituents and the yolk attracts the dregs. Albertus Magnus in the commentary to De generatione animalium of Aristotle III,2.

¶ Vitelli usus. Cum aqua decoquitur in salem, non constat sal, qui terrestris est naturae, nisi per ova vel sanguinem. quia sanguis, et vitellus in ovis, eiusdem sunt naturae, Albertus. De usu vitelli ad vinum faeculentum purificandum, iam proxime dictum est. quoniam idem fere albuminis etiam ad claritatem medicatis potionibus conciliandam usus esse videtur. Vitellus ovi in plenilunio exclusi, sordes panni abstergit. si vero alio tempore exclusum sit, id efficere non potest. huius causam dicunt quidam esse, quia media saginata (sic habet codex impressus. forte sanguinea) gutta in vitello, prima quidem generatione existens, calorem penetrantem et dividentem maculas ex multo lumine lunae humidum movente tunc concipit, quod alio tempore facere nequit, Albertus.

¶ Use of the yolk. It is boiled with the water until to reduce it to a salt, the salt being of terrestrial nature doesn't last for a long time except thanks to eggs or blood. Since the blood and the egg yolk are of the same nature, Albertus. About the use of the yolk to purify the wine rich in dregs I have just spoken. In fact it seems that the yolk is practically used as the egg white also for conferring transparency to medicinal potions. The yolk from an egg laid in full moon time removes the dirtiness of a cloth, but if it has been laid in another time it cannot do this. Some people say that the reason of this lies in the fact that the central fattened drop in the yolk (so reports the printed text, perhaps it stands for bloody) which grows up at the beginning of the conception, then is producing a warmth which penetrates and dissolves the stains thanks to the big amount of moon light which budges the dampness, a thing which it cannot do in another period of time, Albertus.

¶ Gallinarum pennae culcitris imponuntur, Crescentiensis.

¶ The feathers of the hens are put in the pillows, Pier de' Crescenzi.

¶ Maio mense caseum coagulabimus {syncero} <sincero> lacte, coagulis vel agni, vel hoedi, vel pellicula quae solet pullorum (gallinaceorum scilicet) ventribus adhaerere, Palladius[4].

¶ In the month of May we will curdle the cheese using pure milk, with rennet of lamb or of kid, or with that membrane usually sticking to the stomach of the chicks (that is, of the chickens) - the coilin membrane of the gizzard or muscular stomach, Palladius.

¶ Cavendum est ne ad praesepia boum gallina perrepat. nam hoc quod decidit immistum pabulo bubus affert necem, Columella[5].

¶ We have to watch out that the hen doesn't slip in the mangers of the oxen. In fact what is expelled, mixed to the forage, causes the death to the oxen, Columella.

¶ Avienus Arati interpres Latinus inter pluviae signa ponit, pectora cum curvo purgat gallinula rostro. Gallinae si ultra solitum se concutiant in arena: vel segregentur plures earum in uno loco simul, et in pluviae principio quaerant locum opertum ubi a pluvia protegantur, signum est magnae futurae pluviae, Gratarolus.

¶ Avienus, translator into Latin of the Phenomena of Aratus of Solis, puts among the premonitory signs of the rain when the little hen is cleaning up the breast with the bent beak. If the hens shake themselves more than usual in the sand, or quite a lot of they sets apart together in one place, and when starting to rain they look for a sheltered place where to be able to protect themselves from the rain, this is a sign of a future big rain, Guglielmo Grataroli.

F.

 F

DE  OVORUM APPARATU AD CIBUM, ET SALUBRITATE,
Tractatio septem partium.

About the preparation and salubriousness
as food of the eggs,
List of the seven sections.

Pars 1. De ovorum diversis nominibus secundum cocturae differentiam.
2 De ovorum salubritate simpliciter.
3 De eadem pro diversa cocturae ratione.
4 Electio ad cibum.
5 De vitello et albumine seorsim quod ad salubritatem, etc.
6 Apparatus diversi.
7 Primo ne an ultimo loco mensae sumenda.

Section 1 - The different denominations of the eggs according to the different manner of cooking.
2 - Only about the salubriousness of the eggs.
3 – About the salubriousness of the eggs according to the different way of cooking.
4 - Choice as food.
5 - The salubriousness of yolk and albumen separately analyzed, etc.
6 - Different ways of preparation.
7 - If they must be eaten firstly or lastly.

De ipsius gallinae in cibo usu, satis dictum est supra in Gallo F. hic de ovis tantum agemus, quae etsi ex aliis etiam nonnullis avibus in cibum veniant, de gallinaceis tamen maxime et praecipue quaecunque hic adferemus accipi debent.

About the use of the hen as food I said enough previously in the chapter of the rooster at the paragraph F. In this paragraph we will only speak of the eggs, which, in spite of being considered as food also those of many other birds, nevertheless whatever thing I will report in this paragraph has to be intended as referred above all and mainly to those of hen.

¶ Febrientibus magis conveniunt gallinae castratae, Savonarola[6].

¶ For those people having fever are more proper the castrated hens, Michele Savonarola.

¶ Ova diversis modis coqui et ad cibum parari solent, aut simpliciter: aut cum aliis mista, sive praecipuo ipsa loco, sive condimenti duntaxat. Par est autem ut de iis quae parantur simpliciter primo dicatur. Coquuntur autem haec vel in aqua, vel sub cineribus calidis, vel in sartagine. Et quanquam quovis horum modo magis minusve liquida et dura fiant pro coctionis modo, de iis tamen quae in aqua elixantur maxime sentiunt authores cum sorbilia, mollia durave aut similibus ova nominibus appellant. licebit autem horum proportione comparationeque de iis etiam quae alio coquendi modo magis minusve cocta fuerint, quid sentiendum sit iudicare.

¶ It is custom to cook the eggs and to prepare them as food in several ways, or alone, or mixing them with other ingredients, either as principal course or only as side dish. It is the same thing if we firstly speak of those prepared in a simple way. These are cooked or in water, or under hot ashes, or in frying pan. And although in any of the aforesaid ways they become more or less liquid or hard according to how much they are cooked, nevertheless the authors express a very positive opinion for those cooked in water, and they call the eggs or as to be sipped, or soft, or hard or with equivalent names. But making analogies and comparisons, a judgment can be expressed on what we have to think also about those more or less cooked, by using another way of cooking them.

¶ Pars 1. De ovorum diversis nominibus secundum cocturae differentiam. Sorbilia, Graece ῥοφητὰ, ova dicuntur, quae dum coquuntur excalfiunt (incalescunt) tantum, Galenus lib. 3. de alimentorum facult. Et in libro de alimentis boni et mali succi, sorbilia prodesse scribit gutturi exasperato, si modus in coctione adhibeatur, ita ut liquidum (albumen) adhuc coactumque non sit. Brasavolus etiam sorbilia interpretatur, quae vix densari coepere coctura, his (inquit) non utimur, nisi cum ova sunt recentissima, ut naturalem gallinae calorem adhuc servent. Tragus haec Germanice interpretatur ganz laurer gesotten oder gebzaten. Sed elixa in aqua apud authores sorbilia vocantur, potius quam aliter parata. videnturque etiam ea potius intelligi quae e testis suis sorbentur, non autem e testis evacuata. etsi quod consistentiae modum attinet idem fere in utrisque forsan observari posset.

¶ Section 1 - The different denominations of the eggs according to the different way of cooking. They are said to be sipped, rhophëtà in Greek, those eggs which during the cooking only get warm, Galen book III of De alimentorum facultatibus. And in the treatise De probis pravisque alimentorum sucis he writes that those to be sipped are effective in case of irritated throat if during the cooking we do so that (the egg white) is still liquid and not hard-boiled. Also Antonio Brasavola means as eggs to be sipped those which just started to become hard with cooking, and he says: we don't use them but when the eggs have been just laid, so that they still keep the natural warmth of the hen. Hieronymus Bock called Tragus translates them in German with ganz laurer gesotten oder gebzaten. But by the authors those cooked in water are said to be sipped rather than those prepared in another way. And it also seems that with this name are meant those directly drunk through their shell, without making them to escape from the shell. Although, as far as the consistence's amount is concerning, perhaps in both cases we can remark that it is almost alike.