De Rariorum Animalium atque Stirpium Historia   By: John Caius (1510-1573)

This text is intended for users whose text readers cannot use the "real" (Unicode/UTF 8) version of the file. Greek has been transliterated and shown between marks, and the "oe" ligature has been unpacked into two letters.

The text is taken from the 1912 Cambridge edition of Caius's Complete Works . The editor's general introduction says:

In this volume no attempt has been made to produce a facsimile reprint. Even if such a design had been entertained, the great variety of form in which the original editions were issued would have made it impossible to carry out the re issue with any uniformity. Obvious misprints have been corrected, but where a difference in spelling in the same work or on the same page e.g. baccalarius , baccalaureus is clearly due to the varying practice of the writer and not to the printer, the words have been left as they stood in the original. On the other hand the accents in the very numerous Greek quotations have been corrected.

Numbers in parentheses (2, 2b, 3...) were printed in the gutter; they probably represent leaves of the 1570 original. Sidenotes are shown in brackets.]

IOANNIS CAII BRITANNI

De RARIORUM ANIMALIUM Atque STIRPIUM HISTORIA,

LIBER UNUS.

IOANNIS CAII BRITANNI

De

Rariorum animalium atque stirpium historia, libellus .

Ad Gesnerum.

Aristotelem, virum omnium sæculorum laude celebratum, cum animalium historiam scriberet, & principis ope & multorum opera usum esse, monumentis traditur, quòd nec omnibus cognoscendis sufficere, nec omnibus locis esse, nec omnium operas præstare unus ille potuisset. Idem cum scirem tibi usu venire potuisse honesto opere occupato (Conrade Gesnere doctissime) adhibebamus diligentiam nostram partim sponte naturæ nostræ, partim honestissimis literis tuis excitati, ut quæ istic in nostra Britannia occurrerent, honestum conatum tuum in utilitatem communem inclinatum promoverent. Misimus igitur quædam per intervalla temporum, prout se fortuna nobis obtulerunt. Ea in unum veluti fascem collegimus, & in ordinem revocavimus: tum quòd universam rerum naturam ut nos expressimus tu (1b) non prodidisti, sed detruncatam pro usu tuo: tum quòd quædam intercidisse tibi (ut Brendini anseris descriptionem) in scriptis tuis confiteris. Hæc quòd rarioris generis atque argumenti sunt, tuaque causa scripta, de rariorum animalium atque stirpium historia ad te inscripsimus. Continet enim quadrupedes omnes, volucres, pisces, atque stirpes, quæ aliàs ad te conscripsimus & transmisimus, quæque apud nos in scriptis asservavimus, & aliquot præter ea alia, in quæ vel ex eo tempore incidimus, vel quæ ad te non ante misimus. Ex quibus ea solum prodidimus, quæ rara, & magna ex parte a communi usu sensuque hominum nostri orbis remota nobis videbantur, ab omnibus notis & vulgaribus temperantes. Et quoniam de Britannicis tantum canibus scribere instituimus in libello nostro de canibus Britannicis ad te, externos canes quos ego miserim, tanquam alienos ab illo instituto, in hunc libellum relegavimus. Is, quòd unus solus & Getulus fuit, de eo solo jam dicemus, exordiumque ab eo capiemus, cætera suo ordine prosequentes: sic ut primo de quadrupedibus; mox de avibus; tertio de piscibus; ultimo de stirpibus verba faciamus.

De Cane Getulo.