Albuminis ovorum singularis ubique fere terrarum usus est ad agglutinandum, quemadmodum item apud veteres, [304] uti ex Plinio in primis habemus: Aurum, inquit[1], marmori, et iis quae candefieri non possunt, ovi candido illinitur: Et alibi[2]. Candidum ex ovis admixtum calci vivae glutinat vitri fragmenta. Vis vero tanta est, ut lignum perfusum ovo non ardeat, ac ne vestis quidem contacta aduratur. Et rursus[3]: Aurum ovatum ex Grammaticis quidam dictum volunt, quoniam ovi albo antea illito, aera, ac marmora auri, et argenti laminis decorarentur. Quinim<m>o Cardanus tradit ad {lithostrata} <lithostrota> conficienda (qualia vulgo musaica vocant opera) ex frustulis lapidum diversorum colorum glutino tenaci invicem iunctis, fieri maltham (glutinum) perpetuam ex calce, et suillo adipe, vel pice, aut ovi candido.

Almost everywhere on earth the use of egg white as adhesive is outstanding, and we can learn firstly from Pliny that also ancients used it for the same purpose: he says: The gold is smeared on marble and those things which cannot be made incandescent, by the use of egg white. And elsewhere: The egg white mixed with quicklime glues the fragments of glass. In truth its strength is so great that the wood sprinkled with egg doesn't catch fire nor a cloth dampened with egg succeeds in burning. And the Ornithologist adds: Some grammarians are thinking that eggy gold took the name from the fact that bronzes and marbles were decorated with gold and silver leaves after egg white was first smeared. Or rather Gerolamo Cardano reports that an eternal mortar (a glue) is done using lime and pig’s fat, either pitch or egg white, to assemble floorings (as those works of art they commonly call mosaic work) made by fragments of stones of different colors kept together by a strong glue.

Pharmacopolae longe ad alium usum albuminibus ovorum utuntur, ut scilicet serapia, et alias potiones clariores reddant: quod ita praestant{;}<:> albumina ex aqua frigida agitant scopulis, donec in spumam abeant, quam particulatim syrupo, vel alteri decocto ferventi inspergunt, et ubi {ferbuerit} <nigruerit>[4], cochleari foraminolento deradunt, novam inspergunt, id faciunt, donec sit syrupus clarior. Alii ubi ex bullis clarius decoctum vi ignis factum animadvertunt, in id tepidum (nam calidius decoctum albumina coqueret, in frigidiore minus prompte, et parcior spuma elicitur) albumina singulis libris singula, sed etiam pluribus pauciora inijciunt, scopulis agitant, ut spumesca{n}t[5], {saccharum} <saccharon> in particulas confractum conijciunt, recoquunt: ubi spuma subsidit, igni aufertur, <colatur[6]> per manicam[7] Hippocratis, melius autem per pannum clavis quatuor, angulis quatuor firmatum. Colatur autem ter, quater si non satis claruerit: si ne sic quidem{;}<,> albumen {separatum} <separatim[8]> in aqua agitatum scopulis inspergitur decocto igni reddito, spuma illa usta, alia inijcitur, idque toties donec bullae clarum satis produnt. Tunc colatur quoties est necesse.

The apothecaries use egg whites for just other employ, that is, to make syrups - see serapium - and other potions more clear: and they do this as follows: with small brooms they shake egg whites in cold water until became a foam which they add little by little to a syrup or another decoction while boiling, and when it darkened they remove the foam with a perforated spoon, add some new foam, and continue to do so until the syrup became more clear. 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 egg whites, 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, 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 is poured egg white beaten apart in water by small brooms, 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.

Antiquitus etiam vina sua albuminibus ovorum clarificabant: Hinc apud Horatium[9] legimus:

Surrentina vafer, qui miscet faece falerna

Vina, Columbino limum bene colligit ovo,

Quatenus ima petit volvens aliena vitellus.

In ancient times they fined their wines with egg whites. Hence in Horace we read:

The sly fellow mixing wines of Sorrento with dregs of the Falerno, carefully collects the deposit with a dove’s egg, since the yolk wrapping up the foreign substances goes towards the bottom.

Vinum, inquit Nicolaus Myrepsus, ut pellucidum confestim fiat: Alba ovorum conijce in vas, quotquot suffecerint, et albumen quoad spumat, concutiatur<.>[10] cum vino, et modicum salis albi, tenuis, et fit album. Cuius rei Albertus[11] hanc rationem assignat, nempe quoniam vitellus ovi naturam habet cognatam cum faece vini, et albugo cum vino, ideo fit, inquit, quod cum ova immittuntur vino (turbato per aestatem propter calorem austrinum) cum arena, et calce clarificatur vinum: nam arena et calx perforant (penetrant) vini substantiam, et vitellus attrahit faecem. Utrum vero vitello ea vis sit, subdubito, etsi id Ornithologus alioqui etiam affirmet, ac Albertus rursum alibi vitellum panni sordes abstegere scribat, sed nisi in plenilunio exclusi ovi, et non aliter, si diis placet: at quid obsit, quaeso, quod vel in crescente Luna, vel in decrescente nati ovi vitellum praestare prohibeat? Nunquam enim mihi persuaserim veram esse rationem, quam ex aliis idem Albertus adducit; nempe 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.

Nicolaus Myrepsus says: So 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. With wine also put a little white table’s salt, and the wine becomes white. Albertus Magnus ascribes the following reason to such a phenomenon, in saying: clearly since egg yolk has a composition having affinity with wine dregs and 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. But I have some doubt about the fact that the yolk is endowed with such a power, although also the Ornithologist is however affirming this, and Albertus in his turn writes elsewhere that the yolk removes the dirtiness of a cloth, but only if it comes from an egg laid in full moon time, and not otherwise, if gods are willing: but please, what there is which prevents a yolk of an egg laid while the moon is increasing or waning from being successful? For never I have been persuaded that the reason brought forward by Albertus himself is true, drawing it from others, and that is, since the central fattened up 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 heat which penetrates and dissolves the stains thanks to the big amount of moon light which moves the dampness, a thing which it cannot do in another moment.

Qui colore picturam illustrant, ovi candidum spongia frangunt, donec prorsus tenue, et aqueum fiat: quod ita fractum coloribus suis admiscent, ut vulgares etiam pictores. Olim ad ornandos, crispandosque capillos albi liquoris ovi usus erat etiam pro iuvenibus, qui nunc puellis tantum relinquitur.

Those who embellish an image with color, shatter egg white with a sponge until it became quite thin and watery: after shattered it thus, they mix it to their colors, as also common painters are doing. Once the egg white was also used by young people to arrange and frizzle hair, a use which now is left only to girls.

INSIGNIA. ICONES. NUMISMATA.

EMBLEMS - IMAGES - COINS

Pausanias[12] prodidit in arce Elidis Minervae fanum fuisse, signumque auro, et ebore fabricatum idque Phidiae opus extitisse: Deae vero cassidi Gallinaceum Gallum insistere: quod, ut opinor, haec avis omnium volucrum pugnacissima sit, vel quod Minervae cognomento Erganae sacra habeatur. Tradit item aliter[13]. Idomeneum Minois nepotem a Pasiphaë Solis filia oriundum in scuto Gallum Gallinaceum pro insigni usum fuisse. Et quamvis Pausanias eum id factitasse credat, ut originem iactitaret suam a Deo Apolline nimirum, cui Gallus quoque ut docuimus, erat consacratus, quod cantu suo Solis ortum annunciet, quis tamen haud inepte coniecerit, alitis pugnacitatis, et magnanimitatis imitandae causa ducem illum, cuius praestantiam in bello decantat Homerus, eiusmodi insigne in scuto tulisse: quod Danos, Alanosque non factitasse duntaxat diximus[14], sed sibi nomen etiam ab ipso Gallo desumpsisse. Cyrum insuper narrat Alex. ab Alexandro[15] aureum Gallum lanceae affixum militi in acie pro vexillo ex<h>ibuisse, haud dubio, ut alitem sequeretur, cui unicus scopus est in praelio victoria potiri, et pro libertate dimicare. Sed Plutarchus[16] Artaxerxem Persarum regem attestatur Cyri Iunioris percussori ex Caria virtutis tale contulisse praemium, ut in prima acie Gallum aureum in hastae gestaret apice. Unde factum est, ut Cares [305] omnes Gallos[17] pro conis haberent, ut idem Plutarchus ibidem scribit.

Pausanias handed down that on the acropolis of Elis there was a temple of Minerva and a statue made of gold and ivory and that it was a work of Phidias: and on the helmet of the goddess a rooster was standing: since, in my opinion, this bird is the most pugnacious of all birds, or because it is thought sacred to Minerva nicknamed Ergana - ergánë, the industrious. Likewise elsewhere he tells that Idomeneus, nephew of Minos and descendant of Pasifaë Sun’s daughter, used a rooster as emblem on his shield. And although Pausanias is believing that he did this to make boast of his origin, obviously from the god Apollo, to whom the rooster, as we reported, was sacred too, since with its crowing announces the rising of the sun, nevertheless who would not have been able to infer in a quite correct way that that leader, whose talent in war Homer is extolling, brought on the shield such an emblem because of the combativeness of the bird and to imitate its courage: we said that Danes and Alans not only were usual to do this, but that they took their name from the rooster itself. Moreover Alessandro Alessandri tells that Cyrus the Younger during the battle exhibited as banner to a soldier a gold rooster fixed to a lance, no doubt so that he would imitate the bird, whose sole aim in battle is to attain the victory and to fight for freedom. But Plutarch testifies that Artaxerxes II king of Persians to that Carian fellow, who had wounded Cyrus the Younger, conferred as prize for his cleverness to bring in the first formation’s ranks a gold rooster on the point of his spear. Hence it happened that all Carians had roosters in place of helmet’s crests, as Plutarch himself is writing in the same work.