Note 669 — Chapter II · NATURAL SCIENCE IN ITALY.
S. G. C. (Samuel George Chetwynd) Middlemore translation
Gio. Villani, x. 185, xi. 66. Matteo Villani, iii. 90, v. 68. It was a bad omen if the lions fought, and worse still if they killed one another. Com. Varchi, Stor. fiorent. iii. p. 143. Matt. V. devotes the first of the two chapters quoted to prove (1) that lions were born in Italy, and (2) that they came into the world alive.