History of Serpents and Dragons

Ulysses Aldrovandi

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Afterward, the liver, like the liver of a pike original: "lucipiscis," literally "light-fish," often used for the pike, was extended in length. Next, the intestines were filled with white fat, which proceeded from the jaws all the way to the anus in the manner of fish intestines; below the liver on both sides next to the intestines, a fibrous vein descended in a long path, to which eggs covered in white membranes were attached, just as one may see in hens, but distinct in their placement because they are led in a long row. The number on each side was thirty-two eggs; for which reason, by account of the heart, the lung, and the rough arteryThe arteria aspera, an old term for the trachea or windpipe, the Serpent is very similar to birds. By account of the liver, the intestines, and the abdomen, the Serpent agrees with fish. But afterward, by account of the gallbladder and the arrangement of the eggs, the Serpent differs from both—namely, from birds as well as from fish.

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NATURE AND MANNERS.

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Venom like dew.

Where it hides.

Nature has implanted this in Serpents: that among other living creatures they display a certain sharpness of the senses; for this reason it is read in Genesis: The Serpent was more subtle than any of the beasts of the earth. Genesis 3:1 From here, perhaps, flows their implacable fury; for as soon as they feel even a slight injury, they do not rest at all until they have either projected venom into the injurer or have been exhausted by their own rage. For this reason, Holy Scripture shows implacable fury through a Serpent entwined in many coils and flashing with triple-forked tongues. It is read in the fifty-eighth Psalm: Their fury is like the fury of a Serpent Psalm 58:4, because they always have venom ready, since it hides behind their teeth. Although some write that the venom lies in the tail of the Serpent, and that it is afterward drawn into a certain bladder adhering to the mouth, which being burst, the snakes are said to lack venom; but in the brief space of a natural day, the venom proceeds anew to refill the bladder so that they may infect other animals, and especially man. When a man is struck, according to the mind of Pliny Pliny the Elder, a Roman natural philosopher, the Serpent thereafter hates its own caverns, and thus wandering about, it pays the penalty. To this matter, Aelian A Roman author of On the Nature of Animals relating it, they assert that the Serpent cannot enter its hiding places because the earth rejects it from its own bosom, as if into exile; whence in summer and winter time it spends a calamitous life under the open sky. G Since, however, in the beginning of the world's creation nothing harmful was found in the Serpent, but it walked mild, gentle, and tall, intended to obey man before it fell into crime—as Basil Saint Basil the Great, a 4th-century bishop remarked—not without reason, since all things which God had created were "very good," as the Sacred Page teaches.
In the sermon on Paradise.

Genesis, Book 1.

Furthermore, snakes have this inherent from nature: that as winter approaches, just like other animals of a cold temperament, they betake themselves to caverns until the Sun, warming the air again, restores a kind of new life to them. Aristotle, therefore, wrote not without cause that for the four coldest months Serpents remain hidden and eat nothing, at which time, due to the coldness of the air, they participate in less venom and are handled with impunity—not because they lack venom entirely, but because they are sluggish, since the immensity of the cold dulls their strength and spirits. That they are impatient of the cold is proven by a very fine story from Lucius Marineus Siculus A Sicilian humanist and historian, where these words are read: For a horrid winter was raging with great and constant rains; for so great was the magnitude of that winter that a huge number of Serpents, struck by the frosts, came out from the nearby woods and mountains and crawled to the stations and camps. H Conversely, in summer, and especially when the dog starThe "canicula" or Sirius; the "dog days" of summer were thought to provoke madness or heat in animals. is pressing, Serpents are violently hot, and seem to be agitated by such a fury that, according to Galen An influential Greek physician, they can rest for only a tiny moment of time.
History of Spain, Book 16.

On the Affected Parts, Book 2.

Book 8, chapter 17.

But, at the beginning of Spring, the snake coming forth from its hiding places puts off its old slough original: "exuuias," shed skin, which some call syphar A Greek term for a wrinkled skin or cast-off skin, others senium or senectutem Terms meaning "old age", others, according to the mind of Pliny, vernationem The spring shedding. Aristotle taught all of this in his History of Animals: namely, that when Serpents leave their old age behind, they begin first from the head, so that the falling slough seems to blind them in a way, but finally in the space of a natural day, the whole spoil is taken away from head to tail, in the same manner as a fetus is freed from its membrane wrappings. Then, having tasted fennel—as Nicander A Greek poet and physician would have it—the Serpent appears young to human sight. Reusner Nicolaus Reusner, a German jurist and poet hints at this in his Poetic Paradise when he sings:
Fennel, the Serpent's remedy.

The snake himself casts off his age along with his skin,
And stains his features with a vigorous bloom.

He sings the same thing again in these verses: