Ova quae coquuntur in aqua, quandoque absque testa, quandoque cum testa imponuntur, et ἐξάφητα a Graecis dicuntur, Brasavolus in Aphorismos[1]. Hermolaus in Corollario exapheta eadem facit quae pnicta. Ego apud Graecos scriptores veteres reperiri hoc nomen non puto, Lexicorum quidem scriptores qui vocabula vel Graece vel Latine exposuerunt, non ponunt. Videntur autem mihi ἐξαφητά (syll. ultima acuta) ova appellari, quae e testis suis effusa coquuntur integra, sive in aquam calidam, ut sorbilia vel mollia coquenda, sive aliter ut pnicta, ut quidam putant. Nam si non integra, sed fracta mistaque liquoribus addendis coquuntur pnicta, (ut mihi quidem videtur, et explicabo inferius,) non putarim exapheta vocanda: Quod ad vocabuli originem certi nihil habeo. His scriptis locum Symeonis Sethi inveni, quem aliis errandi occasionem dedisse video. sunt autem verba haec, ἐπαινοῦνται δὲ τὰ πνικτά ὡσπερ γε καὶ τὰ ὀνομαζόμενα ἐξεφετά (Gyraldus legit ἔξεφθα, quasi ἔξω τοῦ ἰδίου κελύφους ἑψόμενα insinuans. sed hoc nomen apud alios authores non extat. malim ego ἐξαφετά legere, hoc est emissa et effusa, a verbo ἀφίημι. talia autem vocabula non usitata veteribus Graecis, nec analogice composita non pauca recentiores habent a vulgo sumpta,) τὰ ἐπὶ θερμοῦ ὕδατος σκευαζόμενa, hoc est, laudantur quae pnictà dicuntur, et exaphetà, quae in aqua calida coquuntur. quod autem intelligat de iis quae in aqua calidam e testa sua effunduntur, vel hinc patet, quoniam de aliis iam supra egerat, et quod haec ova ab aliis etiam, praecipue Arabibus, quos Symeon in multis sequi solet, probantur: et quod Galenus quoque eorum meminit post pnictà, periphrastice nominans τὰ ἐπιχεόμενα ἄνωθεν ταῖς λοπάσιν, hoc est patellis (calidam scilicet continentibus) infundi solita, infundi autem nisi fracta testa non possunt.

The eggs cooked in water, sometimes are put there without shell, sometimes with the shell, and by Greeks are told exáphëta, Antonio Brasavola In Hippocratis aphorismos commentarii of Galen. Ermolao Barbaro in Corollarium ad Dioscoridem says that the exáphëta and the pniktà are the same. I don't believe that among the ancient Greek writers we succeed in finding this word, since the lexicographers who quoted either Greek or Latin words don't mention it. Really it seems to me that are said exaphëtá (with the acute accent on the last syllable) those eggs which after having made them to escape from their shell are whole cooked, both in hot water, as those cooked for being sipped, or soft, either in different way as the pniktà, as some think. In fact if the pniktà are cooked not whole, but dissolved and mixed with the liquids which have to be added (as it seems to me, and which I will explain more later), I would be of the opinion that they must not be called exaphëtá. As far as the etymology of the word is concerned, I have nothing of certain. Among these writings I have found a passage of Simeon Sethi which I think supplied others with the occasion to be wrong. In fact these words: epainoûntai dè tà pniktà høsper ge kaì tà onomazómena exephetá - those smothered are appreciated as those said exephetá (Giglio Gregorio Giraldi reads éxephtha, almost insinuating that éxø toû idíou kelýphous hepsómena - cooked outside of their own shell. But this word doesn't exist among other authors. I would prefer to read exaphetá, that is made to go out and dispersed, from the verb aphíëmi - I make to go out. In fact such words are not used by ancient Greeks, and more recent ones have composed a lot of them by analogy inferring them from common speaking) they mean tà epì thermoû hýdatos skeuazómena, that is, those said pniktà and exaphetá are praised, cooked in hot water. But that it want to point out those made to go out of their shell into the hot water is clear also from this phrase, since he already disserted about the others previously, and since these eggs are appreciated also by others, above all by Arabs, whom Simeon Sethi usually follows in many points: and since also Galen mentions them after the pniktà, quoting by a periphrasis tà epicheómena ánøthen taîs lopásin, that is, those usually emptied in frying pans (which obviously contain hot water), in fact they cannot be poured there but after the shell has been broken.

Symeon autem cum caetera ex Galeno (lib. 3. de alim. cap. de ovis) mutuatus sit, hanc etiam partem non omissam ab eo esse credendum est. Nostri haec vocant in wasser gefelt/in wasser geflagen; et vel per se edenda, aegris praesertim afferre solent, vel coctis panis segmentis imposita. In his parandis (inquit Galenus) similiter ut in pnictis curandum est, ne supra mediocrem consistentiam incrassentur: sed cum adhuc succum suum retinent, vas ab igne submovendum. Symeon Sethi etiam αὐγοκούλικα ova nominat, quam vocem Gyraldus interpres relinquit, ea forte fuerint quae non ut exapheta extra testa, sive parum sive multum coquantur. Graecus quidem Symeonis textus corruptus videtur: nam post nominata simpliciter sorbilia, mollia, et dura, mox subijcitur: καὶ κοινῶς δὲ τούτων τὰ αὐγοκούλικα, nulla idonea constructione. Graeci quidem hodie vulgo ova vocant αὐγά[2]. culica testas intelligo. nam et culleolam[3] et guliocam (ut Calepinus scribit) nucis iuglandis summum et viride putamen dici invenio.

But since Simeon Sethi deduced other things from Galen (III book, chapter on the eggs, of De alimentorum facultatibus), we have to believe that by him neither this part has been omitted. Our fellow citizens call these eggs in wasser gefelt/in wasser geflagen; and they usually give them to eat above all to sick persons either alone or putting them on cooked slices of bread. In preparing them (Galen says) we have to watch out, as for the smothered ones, that they don't harden too much: but when they still have their liquid we have to remove the pot from the fire. Simeon Sethi also quotes the eggs augokoúlika, a word which the translator Giglio Gregorio Giraldi omits, and perhaps they were those which unlike the exaphetá are cooked both few and a lot without the shell. Really the Greek text of Simeon Sethi seems corrupt: in fact after those to be sipped, those soft and those hard have been mentioned, soon after is added: kaì koinôs dè toútøn tà augokoúlika – and usually of those the augokoúlika, without any appropriate construction. Today the Greeks usually call the eggs augá. For culica I mean the shells. In fact I find written that the most external and green wrap of the walnut is said culleola and gulioca (as Ambrogio Calepino writes).

¶ Ad mediocrem usque consistentiam cocta τρομητά, id est tremula nuncupantur, Galenus et Symeon Sethi. Quod Dioscorides ἁπαλόν, id est tenerum ovum dixit, nos ex Celso molle vertimus, Marcellus {Vergilius} <Virgilius>. Τρομητά, tremula interpretantur nonnulli, ut sint eadem cum iis quae liquida seu mollia, vel hapala etiam dicuntur. tamquam hoc nomine dicuntur Neapolitanis, quae sine testa enascuntur, Caelius. Tenerum, sive liquidum, sive (ut Cornelius) molle, ἁπαλόν Graeci vocant, quod recentiores elixum et semicoctum interpretantur, Hermolaus. Et rursus, Sunt et quae τρομητά, hoc est tremula dicantur. sed haec alii aliter cognominant. et quantum conijcio, tenera et tremula sint eadem. Ego liquida, non ut Caelius et Hermolaus tremula aut mollia dixerim, sed potius sorbilia, quae cum tota adhuc liquida sint, tota etiam exorberi possint. mollibus panis intingi solet, dura manduntur dentibus.

¶ Those cooked until to reach a middling consistence are told tromëtá, that is trembling, Galen and Simeon Sethi. What Dioscorides called hapalón, that is tender, basing ourselves on Celsus we translate with soft, Marcello Virgilio Adriani. Some people believe that the tromëtá, the trembling ones, are nothing but the liquid or soft ones, also said hapalá. More or less with this name are called by Neapolitans those laid without shell, Lodovico Ricchieri. The Greeks call hapalón that which is tender, or liquid, or soft (as Cornelius Celsus says), which the more recent authors translate with boiled and half cooked, Ermolao Barbaro. And still: There are also those called tromëtá, that is, trembling. But others call them with other terms. And as far as I can infer, they are the same thing of those tender and trembling. I would term the liquid ones not as tender and trembling like Celsus and Ermolao, but rather as eggs to be sipped, since being still completely liquid they can be entirely drunk. In those soft it is custom to dip the bread, those hard-boiled are chewed with the teeth.

Sorbile, ῥοφητόν, ovum vocat Dioscor. quod in coctura concepto tantum calore vix densari incoeperit, et liquidum adhuc caleat potius quam coctum sit. Tenerum deinde sive molle, quod ulteriore coctura, densatum quidem, non tamen duratum penitus fuerit, Marcellus {Vergilius} <Virgilius>. Hapalà, id est tenella vel liquida dicuntur ova cocta, ut albumen in coagulati lactis speciem veniat, recentes semicocta interpretantur et elixa, sed an bene, iudicium ferre nolo. sunt autem forte illa quae a Celso capite secundo lib. 2. mollia dicuntur[4]. Quod si adhuc magis coquantur, ut ad mediocrem usque consistentiam veniant, et ita fiant, ut cum e putamine educuntur, tremere videantur, τρομητά, id est tremula dicuntur. Sunt qui velint haec illa esse quae Celsus mollia vocavit. Sed et tremula, et mollia et sorbilia, ac si idem sint accipimus, nec ullam differentiam quae digna notatu sit, facimus, quamvis Galenus sentiat tremula omnium optime nutrire: sorbilia minus, sed expeditius descendere, Brasavolus. Tragus ova mollia vel tremula, interpretatur Germanice totterweiche eyer.

Dioscorides calls egg to be sipped, rhophëtón, that which during the cooking, having absorbed only some heat, just begun to solidify, and the liquid is still warm instead of cooked. Then he calls tender or soft that which by a further cooking has thickened but not hardened completely, Marcello Virgilio Adriani. Hapalà are said, that is a little bit tender or liquid, the eggs cooked in such a way that the albumen shows itself as a coagulated milk, the recent authors translate with half-cooked and boiled, but I don't want to express a judgment if they do this in a correct way. Really perhaps the hapalà are those said soft by Celsus in the II chapter of the II book of De medicina. Since if they are cooked a little bit more so to reach a middling consistence, so that when are made to go out of the shell they seem to tremble, they are said tromëtá, that is, trembling. Some people would be in the opinion that these eggs are those called soft by Celsus. But I think that either the trembling ones or those soft or those to be sipped are the same thing, and I feel that there is no difference worthy of note, even if Galen is in the opinion that those trembling nourish better than any: those to be sipped nourish less, but they go down more quickly along the digestive apparatus, Antonio Brasavola. Hieronymus Bock said Tragus translates in German the soft or trembling eggs with totterweiche eyer.

¶ Ἑφθά et ἑψηθέντα absolute Galeno et Symeoni Sethi dicuntur, non simpliciter elixa, sed ad duritatem aliquam: Ovum σκληρόν, hoc est durum, quod ita sit coctum ut indurescat, videtur autem idem ἑφθόν, Hermolaus. Ἑφθά vocant perfecte cocta, quae vulgo ova apta ut ex pane comedantur, nuncupamus, at si adhuc magis coquantur, dura (σκληρά) fiunt. Galenus tamen hephthà et dura pro iisdem sumere videtur, Brasavolus. Durum sive igne duratum ovum, quod extrema coctura ad eam duritiem pervenerint, ut commanducari et teri dentibus opus sit, Marcellus {Vergilius} <Virgilius>. Nostri huiusmodi ova testis suis exuunt, et in partes aliquot secant, ut alternis vitelli ac albuminis segmentis lances acetariorum coronent. Easdem etiam partes, seorsim utrasque minutim dissectas, duobus in lance intervallis distinguunt, et tertium addunt de carne infumata rubente, donec alternis lanx repleatur, quam sacro die pascali qui ecclesiae Romanae ritus sequuntur, in templum sacerdoti consecrandum afferunt.

¶ If they acquired a little bit of consistence, by Galen and Simeon Sethi are said in no uncertain terms hephthá and hepsëthénta - boiled - and not simply cooked. The egg sklërón, that is hard, since it is cooked in such a way to become hard, seems to be the same thing as hephthón, Ermolao Barbaro. They call hephthá those perfectly cooked, which we usually label as eggs proper to be eaten with bread, but if they were further cooked they become hard (sklërá). Nevertheless Galen seems to mean as equivalent the boiled ones - hephthà - and those hard-boiled, Antonio Brasavola. Is said hard or hard-boiled by fire that egg which by an extreme cooking reached such a point of hardness to have to be chewed and fragmented with teeth, Marcello Virgilio Adriani. Ours strip such eggs from their shells and cut them in a certain number of pieces so to decorate the dishes of salad seasoned with vinegar by fragments of yolk and albumen alternatively placed. And still these fragments, both finely chopped in a separate way, they alternatively place them in the dish and add a third element represented by bloody smoked meat until the dish doesn't come alternatively filled, and in the sacred day of Easter the followers of the rites of the Church of Rome bring it in the church to the priest to be consecrated.

¶ Assa vel tosta, ὀπτά ἤ ὀπτηθέντα, quae in cineribus coquuntur, vel assantur, Galeno et aliis. Tostum ovum dissilit facile, non dissilit aqua concoctum, (ut in C. explicatum est) quamobrem perfundi prius frigida solent ova, Caelius.

¶ Roasted or toasted, optá ë optëthénta, those cooked or roasted in ash, Galen and others. The roasted egg easily breaks, doesn't break that cooked in water (as is explained in the paragraph C), therefore usually the eggs are first of all dipped in cold water Lodovico Ricchieri.