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 1^st, but in cold places in the same month after the ides - January 13^th, 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.