The Digital Ark: Early Modern Collections of Curiosities in England and Scotland, 1580-1700
Gerolamo Cardano (1501 - 1576)
Italian polymath and author with interests ranging from mathematics to astrology to biology Other biography: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerolamo_Cardano Authority - early modernReferences in Documents:
The Parret only, saith e) with the Crocodile,
moves the upper Jaw: Yet the
same is affirmed of the e)
236. S. 1
Hippopotamus, by Lizard, by
and of
the Phænicopter, by
what I have said under the Description of the
Skeleton of
a Crocodile, and in what sense it is absurdly said of them
all. In their Cheeks, saith f) f)
N. I. Occid
on the top of their Heads, in a certain Tumor, there lies,
about August, a thick Worm; all which, in a
little time,
fall out of their own accord, without any sign
left of their
ever being there. They are a gregarious sort of
Birds. (g) g)
118
They breed very numerously in both the
badosh)
out of
Romanus
to set people to watch
their Rice-Fields, least they should
spoil them. (h) The flesh of their Chickens
eats just like a
Pigeon. (i)i)
colour of his Wings. By the
French, Flammant, for
the same
reason. Given by
are an abundance of them in a) a)
Læt
feed in
and
Legs are exceeding long. When
saith, (b) b)
233. S. 2
yet known; he would have said,
the longest. But that
wherein he is most remarkable, is his
Bill. Which I shall
describe more particularly.
The Figure of each Beak, is truly Hyperbolical. The
upper is
ridged behind; before, plain or flat, pointed like a
Sword,
and with the extremity bended a little down.
Within, it hath
an Angle or sharp Ridge which runs all
along the middle. At
the top of the Hyperbole, not
above ¼ of an inch high.
The lower Beak, in the same
place, above an inch high; hollow,
and the Margins
strangely expanded inward for the breadth of above ¼ of
an inch, and somewhat convexly. They are both fur
nished with black Teeth (as I call them from their
use)
sc. slender, numerous and parallel,
as in Ivory-Combs;
but also very short, scarce the eighth
of an inch deep. An
admirable invention of Nature, by
the help of which, and of
the sharp Ridge above mention'd,
this Bird holds his slippery
Prey the faster.
What Phænicopter, That he
moves the upper Jaw or Beak, I have observed, saith
miusa)a)
Homine
cited by
That the cause is not so
manifest, as in the Crocodile:
yet shews not, in what respect. Hereof see Sect. 2.
Chap. 3
As for the Phænicopter, it must needs
be said, That the
shape and bigness of the upper Beak (which
here, con
trary to what it is in all other Birds that
I have seen, is
thinner and far less than the nether) speaks
it to be the more
fit for motion, or to make the appulse, and
the nether
to receive it. But there can be no determination of
these
matters, without Inspection into the Muscules and the
Ar
ticulation of the Bones.