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THE FIRST CHAPTER OF THE FIRST BOOK

OF ULISSE ALDROVANDI,

PHILOSOPHER

AND BOLOGNESE PATRICIAN,

CONCERNING CLOVEN-FOOTED QUADRUPEDS,

WHICH IS CONCERNING THE OX.

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THE RATIONALE OF THE ORDER.

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Decorative drop cap 'M' featuring a figure amidst foliage.

Maximum indeed, and most numerous, are the benefits which we derive from the kind of cloven-footed animals, concerning which this entire volume shall treat; nor am I ashamed to profess that from these alone, the rich and the poor alike are able to live respectably and sumptuously. The utility of cloven-footed animals. For besides the fact that they supply all things which are necessary for the sustaining of human life—namely, meat for food, milk for drink, and wool and leather for the covering of the body—they furthermore assist our labors, both in cultivating the fields and in carrying and dragging any burden whatsoever, as much as any other things do.

Reindeer.

Those called reindeer in certain Northern regions they rear for the use of vehicles, chariots, sleds, and for riding; moreover, they are milked, and every kind of dairy product is fashioned from their milk.

Buffalo.

The one commonly called Ius, although it may be less suitable for wagons and plows, is nevertheless employed in several places in Italy for dragging great weights across the ground, bringing also the greatest convenience, and satiating many with its dairy products.

Camel.

The pack-camel, a beast of burden especially, laden with an incredible weight, traverses immense spans of land. But lest we wander too far (for the camel is known chiefly in the East), these cattle, most well-known everywhere on earth, provide all these things to us;

Sheep. Book 7, chap. 2.

The sheep-flock, to use the words of Columella, protects us especially against the violence of the cold, and provides more generous coverings for our bodies; then also, by the abundance of cheese and milk, it not only satiates the rustics, but also adorns the tables of the refined with pleasant and numerous dishes: indeed, it supplies sustenance to certain nations devoid of grain; for which reason many of the Nomads and Getae are called galaktophagoi [milk-eaters].

Kid.

Isidore believed the kid [hædus] was named from eating [ab edendo], because its flesh is most tender, fatty, and most pleasing to our palate: this animal likewise gives skins in no way cheaper than those of lambs, with which more honorable garments are similarly lined even today.

Deer.

Pig.

Ox.

Both the deer and the buffalo provide most convenient leather against almost all injuries of the weather. Indeed, the Greeks, on the testimony of Varro, used to say that the pig was given by nature for feasting: and so, life was given to the animal itself in place of salt, to preserve the meat. More will be said in its own place concerning the manifold use of ox-hide; here, however, it will have sufficed to have said only this: that leggings and shoes are made from it, with which we arm our shins and feet against water and snow. In the goodness of its meat, it is to be ranked behind none