Aristotle [ca. 350 BCE] (De animalibus Book 2, chapter 2.4): The wild [buffaloes] differ as much from domesticated oxen, as wild hogs from tame ones; for they are black, and of great strength; their nose is curved like an eagle's beak, and their horns lie backwards - [Cresswell translation, 1887]

Gaius Julius Solinus [3rd century CE] (De mirabilibus mundi / Polyhistor, Chapter 20.4-5): [Chapter 20.4] In this tract and certainly in the whole northern region, bison are extremely common. These wild beasts are similar to cattle, with shaggy necks and bristly manes. They run more swiftly than bulls. When captured, they cannot be tamed. [Chapter 20.5] There are also aurochs, whom the ignorant multitude call “bubali”, although bubali, which look almost the same as deer, are native to Africa. Those creatures we formerly called aurochs grow bull-like horns, which extend to so great a size that they are cut off for reason of their conspicuous largeness, and are made into draught-carriers for royal tables. - [Arwen Apps translation, 2011]

Thomas of Cantimpré [circa 1200-1272 CE] (Liber de natura rerum, Quadrupeds 4.10; 4.106; 4.107; 4.111): [Thomas describes the buffalo under four names: bubalus, urin, vesontes and zubrones.] [Quadrupeds 4.10] Bubalus, says the Liber rerum, is an animal bigger than an ox and taller in body, black in color. It has long and crooked horns, a long neck, a huge head, slender limbs, a small tail, a kind and simple appearance, but it is extremely destructive and cruel when provoked to anger. It is most suitable for human uses. It is of the greatest strength. As the Experimentator says, buffalo milk easily softens the stomach, heals fresh wounds, and benefits those who have drunk poison. The buffalo is patient with labor, has few hairs, a terrible voice, and a very rough forehead; it scatters the ground with its foot. Its bile is medicinal because it heals the scars of wounds; a rich mixture soothes earaches. It has a very hard skin. A silver ring with a cord is placed in the nose of this animal, so that it will more easily yield to the work that has been imposed on it; but if a task has been imposed on it beyond its will, moved by fury it immediately lies down on the ground, and cannot easily be forced to rise by a blow, unless it is relieved of the task with which it was burdened. [Quadrupeds 4.106] Vesontes is a beast like an ox; it has a bristling neck, a mane like a horse, and is so fiercely destructive that it can never be tamed or controlled when captured by men. [Quadrupeds 4.107] Urin is an animal whose horns, like those of a bull, grow to such an extent that, cut down for their remarkable capacity, they become the goblets of kings among the royal tables. [Quadrupeds 4.111] Zubrones are wild beasts that belong to the genus of wild bulls. This beast is the largest of these, being fifteen cubits in length. It has black hair. Its horns are three cubits, and are large and wide beyond measure, so that they became vessels of rich drinks at the tables. This animal is found in Bohemia. Zubrones, as has been said, are the largest animals, and of such speed, that the dung which they have ejected with a rush, they receive backward in their horns, and throw it farther behind. This dung, when used very liberally, kills and weakens the pursuing dogs, and renders them utterly useless. When it comes across a man or a dog, it picks him up in its horns, and throws him aloft for a long time, and then takes him up again in his horns, until it kills him completely. The hunter deceives the beast by this artifice, as there is no other way of hunting it, by which it can be easily taken: being at first weary of the hounds and the hunters, the hunter confronts him with a large spear around a tree, and as the beast sees the dogs, rushes to the tree. The foolish beast thinks that it can overwhelm the hunter with its horns, but it cannot because the hunter is always protected by the tree. Meanwhile the hunter pierces the side of the beast with the spear and thus defeats the one who was thought to be invincible. There is another kind of zubro, which the Poles call thurones; it is smaller in form, but more advanced in speed. - [Badke translation/paraphrase]

Bartholomaeus Anglicus [13th century CE] (Liber de proprietatibus rerum, Book18.15): The Bugle is called Bubalus, and that noune Bubalus is diminitive of Bos, Bovis. And the Bugle is called Bubalus for he is lyke to an Oxe, & is a fierce beast, and is not gladly tamed, nor taketh gladly the yoake on his necke. In Affrica be Bugles: and in Germania be wilde Oxen with so long horns, that ye Kings boord is served with drink thereof: for he holdeth so much, as Isi[dore] saith. And is a beast of great strength, and may not be trained but with an yron ring put through his nosethrill, by the which ring he is led about: and is black or red, and is thin haired, with hornes: and his forhead is beclypped with full strong hornes, and his flesh is good, not onely to meate, but also to medicine. For as Plin[y] saith lib. 28. cap. 10. Bugle flesh sod or rosted, healeth mans biting: his marrow taken out of the right leg doth away haire of the eye lyds, and is medicine for evills of eyen: his bloude taken with vineger, healeth wonderfully them that cast bloud: his hoofe with Mirra fastneth wagging téeth: and Bugle milke helpeth against fretting and gnawing of the guttes, for it softeneth them, and easeth with his fatnesse, and helpeth against the bloudye flure: and is full good against smiting of serpents & of Scorpions, and against venimme of the Creket, and of the Worme that is called Cicada, and heleth new wounds: and Bugle dirt heated, healeth harde postumes, and softneneth the mallice there of: his gall helpeth against dimnesse of eyen. Also some wilde Oxen be wonfull great, and neverthelesse most quiver and swifte, insomuch that the dirte that they shite in turning about falleth on theyr hornes, or ever it may come to the ground. These Bulls hate all thing that is redde: and therfore hunters cloath them in redde, to make these Bulles pursue them, and when the hunter séeth yt this beast is nigh him, then he starteth behinde a strong trée, and the Bull in his wrath réeseth with the hornes strongly, and pitcheth his hornes into the trée, & is so helde in the trée by his horns, and destroyed and throwen downe by hunters dartes. [At this point Bartholomaeus describes the antelope and the bonnacon as kinds of wild bull; these descriptions have been moved to the antelope and bonnacon pages.] Also libro. 10. Aristotle speaketh of the wilde cowe and sayth, That when hir time of Calving commeth, manye of them come about hir, and make of dirte as it were a wall, and this maner beast hath much dirte, as Aristotle sayth, and Avicen[na] also. - [Batman]