On Animals (De Animalibus)

among the books of history have I thought this should be placed; but if it is to be placed anywhere, in my own judgment it should be joined to the books on generation. You might wish to inspect and read these books individually, most noble prince, as far as your occupations allow, so that with the matter explored you may judge, and if there is any pleasure in reading the works of nature, you may be delighted. For I do not think I shall offend your ears, although I do not use my native Greek, but a foreign language. You will not desire to understand from the Greek exemplar what is said by the interpreter; the Latin discourse itself will so explain the sense of Aristotle that you will not miss the Greek at all; it mingles nothing, it does not force anything. It names the genera of animals by the usage of the most approved ancient authors. If it imposes anything new, it will have done so in such a way that it may seem familiar and related. If it calls anything by a Greek name, it does not strike the ear as harsh; for it is either customary and, if I may say so, current among the Latins, such as the name of the dolphin, the camel, the elephant, the crocodile, the ichneumon, the asp, the salamander, and the rest of the same genus; or it sounds in such a way that it seems no less Latin than Greek. For why should we not call the "tetricem" bird, or the "crecem," or the "clarem" by this same name, if not as a common Latin [term]?

Since it is as if it were Latin, so it fits. Who, calling that ambiguous beast the "latacem," or the "balerum" the river-fish, will see that it sounds foreign? Nor indeed is the common people sometimes to be despised if it calls something by its own name which has not yet been named by professors of letters, such as the "brucum," a genus of terrestrial locust, which the Greeks call the "attelabum"; or the "martem," a genus of rustic weasel, which the Greeks call the "ichtida," although there are many genera of it. Nor would I say it was done rashly if someone encompasses them under the name of "viuerra" [ferret], for we will teach more clearly if we call it "martem" or "viuerram." Let the name "mustela" [weasel] remain only for that which the Greeks call "mygalem," and in the same way, if we name the other genus of that terrestrial locust "locusta," and the other "brucum." But indeed, the Latin tongue suffices for each word or sentence of the Greek discourse, although some attribute to the poverty of the Latin language those things which they cannot express in Latin