Aristotle [ca. 350 BCE] (De animalibus Book 98, chapter 7.1): They say that the wild goats in Crete, when struck with an arrow, seek out the dittany, for this plant assists in working the arrow from their body. [Medieval writers applied this attribute to the stag.] - [Cresswell translation, 1887]

Pliny the Elder [1st century CE] (Natural History, Book 8, 41; 8, 76): [Book 8, 41] goats use ivy and a diet consisting mostly of crabs thrown up from the sea [to cure themselves of sickness]. [Book 8, 76] Mucianus has described a case of this animal's cleverness seen by himself—two goats coming in opposite directions met on a very narrow bridge, and as the narrow space did not permit them to turn round and the length did not allow of backing blindly on the scanty passageway with a rushing torrent flowing threateningly below, one of them lay down and so the other one passed over,treading on top of it. ... according to Archelaus they breathe through the ears, not the nostrils, and are never free from fever: this is perhaps the reason why they are more high-spirited than sheep and hotter in coupling. It is said that goats can see by night as well as they can in the daytime, and that consequently a diet of goat's liver restores sight to persons suffering from what is called night-blindness. ... They say that she-goats in the pastures when the sun is setting do not look at one another but He down with their backs to each other, though at other times of the day they lie facing each other and take notice of one another. ... Their bite kills a tree; they make an olive tree barren even by licking it, and for this reason they are not offered in sacrifice to Minerva. [Book 11, 97] Herds of goats also have their special reputation for cheese, in the case of fresh cheese especially when smoke increases its flavor, as with the supremely desirable cheese made in the city itself; for the cheese of the Gallic goats always has a strong medicinal taste. [Book 28, 42] The horn or hair of she-goats, when burnt, is said to keep serpents away, and the ash from the horn, whether taken in drink or applied, to be efficacious for their bites; as are also draughts of their milk with taminian grapes, or of their urine with squill vinegar; so too an application of goat cheese with marjoram, or of goat suet with wax. Thousands of remedies besides from the goat are given in prescriptions, as will be pointed out; this is surprising to me, because it is said never to be free from fever.. - [Rackham translation]

Aelianus [170-230 CE] (On the Characteristics of Animals, Book 1, chapter 53): The Goat has a certain advantage over other animals in the manner of taking breath, as the narratives of shepherds tell us, for it inhales through its ears as well as through its nostrils, and has a sharper perception than any other cloven-hoofed animal. The cause of this I am unable to tell; I have only told what I know. - [Scholfield translation]

Saint Ambrose [4th century CE] (Hexameron, Book 6, chapter 4.26): A she-goat when wounded searches for a plant called dittany and by this means rids herself of arrows. [Possibly taken from Aristotle; see above] - [Savage translation, 1961]

Isidore of Seville [7th century CE] (Etymologies, Book 12, 1:14-15): The kid (haedus) is so called from eating [edere], for the young ones are very juicy and pleasing in flavor. Whence also ‘eat’ {edere] and foodstuffs [edulia] are named. Some people have said he-goats [caper] and she-goats [capra] are named from their cropping [carpere] of bushes, others because they ‘hold to uneven places’ [captare aspera]. Some say it derives from the creaking [crepitus] of their legs, whence also they are often called crepae. They dwell in the high mountains, and even from a great distance they can still see anyone who is approaching.- [Barney, Lewis, et. al. translation]

Thomas of Cantimpré [circa 1200-1272 CE] (Liber de natura rerum, Quadrupeds 4.18, 4.19): [Quadrupeds 4.18] The goat, as is said in the Liber rerum, is a bearded animal, with long and sharp horns, it grazes in the valley, in the mountains and in the branches of trees, which it can reach with its mouth. It has an abundance of milk, and its milk is the healthiest, but immediately, when it will have curdled, it spoils; for cheese having been made from it (the milk) is nearly useful for nothing. The he-goat of the woodlands is a very perceptive animal, it loves high mountains, it recognizes walking people placed far off, if they be travelers or hunters. Pliny: she-goats have much cleverness, if it should happen upon a very thin and narrow bridge with two goats meeting from different sides that have come across, it does not have passage across nor will it be able to go back returning, thus, with the result that one lies down and the other walks over the one having been trodden upon. They are said to breathe with their ears and not their nostrils nor to ever be without a fever. The breath is more fiery for these ones (goats) and they have more passionate sex than sheep. The she-goats at the setting of the sun in the pastures do look look at each other but they look outward, but in the remaining hours, they look outward and among themselves, as Pliny says. The he-goat is a lustful animal, as Isidore says, and always burning for sex, whose eyes look out from side to side on account of his desire. And they can discern from nighttime as in the day; and therefore the goat liver if eaten, will restore evening sharpness of sight to them, which naturalists call night owls. Nevertheless Aristotle says, because many times they are blinded from the day, as they may not see well of the day; their sight is sharpened truly by the night. As the Experimentator says, the bile of a goat having been placed upon the hairs of the eyelid annihilates them. The burned horn of the she goat, just as the biologists say, if it is held before the nostrils of that person who is truly about to fall, he immediately falls. And also it chases away snakes. The male among the goats is called hircus; the animal is bold and fierce and strong. In its forehead and in its horns is its greatest strength. Its blood hot and recently spilled is of such great virtue, that it breaks adamantine rock [diamond] unconquerable by all metal. Female goats, as Pliny says, live on poisonous plants and do not die; however, they said that they die from drinking honey in life. The bite of them is deadly to trees. They make the olive sterile by licking. She-goats die sometimes licking honey. When in Crete the female woodland goats are pierced by an arrow, they eat the plant of the fleabanes, with the result that they extract the arrow from the body. [Quadrupeds 4.19] [Thomas here uses the name capreola for a kind of goat, but this may be an error; it also the name of the roe deer.] A wild goat is called a capreola or rupicapra, as Pliny says. The beast is not tame compared to its kind, but very timid and tame compared to other beasts. There is discord between males because of females, and this at the time of intercourse. This beast can hardly be caught by the dogs, for it is very swift. But it is captured in this way: when it is pressed by dogs in the plains, it takes refuge in the highest mountains. Then the hunter pursues the fugitive and climbs up behind it. When it comes to the highest peaks of the highest mountains, it has no place to go up higher, and it cannot come down to an easy place, because naturally the descent is difficult for it and the ascent is very easy. He was moved with a sigh of pity, but with his outstretched spear he threw the goat down from the summit among the rocky valleys. It is also true that the doe herself ascends with such difficulty for the sake of the pastures, that she cannot descend; and then by hunger or weariness of standing she is cast down from the highest places. But the hunter himself sometimes pursues the fugitive in such a careless manner, that he himself cannot descend, but dies with the dying goat, and falls into the danger which he has prepared. - [Translation from The Thomas Project]

Guillaume le Clerc [ca. 1210 CE] (Bestiaire, Chapter 22): Beasts there are very foolish and wise; / Some are domestic and some wild. / Ye hold the hare for timid / And ye hold the goat for foolish. / But in the goat notwithstanding / We have an example to be noted. / Buc the male is named in romance. / Beards they have long and hanging / And horns long and sharp, / And their skins exceeding hairy. / In the high mountains they love to stay / In the highest and steepest; / In the valleys near they feed / And eat their fill and grow fat. / Very keen-sighted are they; / When they are up on the mountain top, / Very far they see and high and clear. / When they see folk moving, / At once they can recognize / Whether they are hunters or wayfarers. - [Druce translation]

Bartholomaeus Anglicus [13th century CE] (Liber de proprietatibus rerum, Book18.22; 18.24; 18.35; 18.45): [Book 18.22] The wilde Goate is called Caprea, & hath that name of Carpendo, gathering. Thereof Isidore speaketh; libro. 12. and saith, that they be called Capri & Capree, for they gather braunches & twigs: And some men meane that they have ye name, for they climbe upon hard crags: and some meane, that they have that name of noyse that they make with their legges: and so wilde Goates be called Caprie, for they sée most sharplye. The Gréekes call them Dorko• and they dwell in high mountaines, and sée hunters come a farre. And those same be called Ibices, for they co¯e upward into high places, as it were Birdes, so high that unneth they be séene with mannes eien, as Isidore sayth, libro. 12. And he sayeth, that those beastes dwell in high Rockes and cragges. And if they perceive sometime, that they bée pursued of men or of wilde beastes, they fall downe headlong out of the high cragges, and save themselves harmelesse on theyr owne hornes. And be called also Dame or Damule, as Papias sayth: Looke within in litrea D, de Damula. Also this beast Caprea, the wild Goate, is most swifte in running, most light in leaping, most sharpe in sight, most swéete in tast, most tender & wholsome to meat, & most busie to gather his own meat: for the Goat knoweth diversity of hearbs, of trées, of twigs, of braunches, & of spraies, which they eate and féede themselves of by sight, tast, & smell. Also Plin[y]. saith, that the Leopard drinketh milke of the wilde Goat, and voideth sorrow and woe. [Book 18.24] The Goat is called Capra, and hath that name of Carpendo, gathering, as Caprea, hath the name of the same, for he gathereth the overmost ends of branches and of leaves, and eateth them, as Isidore sayth And Plinius li. 8. ca. 1. speaket of the Goat, and saith: That a Goat eyneth many Kids at once, and but selde foure, and goeth with kid five moneths, as an Ewe doth. Also Goats ware barren by fatnesse before three yeare, & gender lesse profitably, and in age after foure yeare: and conceiveth in November, and eyneth in March or in Aprill, when trées and braunches spring, and have not all hornes, but some have, and in them the growing of knots is token of yéeres. Archelaus meaneth, that the Goats breath at the eares, and not at the nose, and bée seld without feaver, and therefore both in Goates & shéepe is the more fervent and hot working of generation, as he sayth. And we meane not, that Goates sée lesse by night then by day, and the Goat hath under the chin a beard that is called Armitum, and if a man drawe one out of the flocke by the beard, the other be astonied and beholde. And also the same happeneth when one of them biteth a certaine hearbe. Their hiting is most destruction of Olive, for with lyking they make the Olive baren, and for this cause they were not offered to the Goddesse Minerva. When the Sunne draweth to glade, Goates eate not in pasture together; but turne away their faces each fro¯ other and lye downe: and in other times those yt turned each fro¯ other eat together in pasture, & tourne the face each to other. Huc usque Plinius. And Aristotle lib. 3. sayth, that in manye landes Goates have milke without conceiving: but they take Nettles and froat the udders therwith, and then commeth first out bloud, and then as it were matter, and good milke at the last, not worse then the milk of them that eineth. Also libro. 6. Goates live ten yeere or a xi. and use work of gendering until their last age. And sometime the Goate hath two kiddes at once, if they have covenable meat, and namely if the Goate bucke bée well fedde. And if shée conceive afore the Northen winde, shée eyneth males, & if she conceive afore the Southern wind, shee eyneth females. And he telleth, that they turne ye face Northward, when they shall gender. Also li. 7. there he sayth, that Goats & shéepe eate hearbs, but sheep bite hearbs unto the root, and be stedfast in pasture: And Goates passe soone from place to place, & take onely the overmost ends of hearbes and grasse, & conceive better after that they drinke salte water. And when goats be moved after ye under time they drinke the more water, and when they eate Salt before that they drinke, then shall much milke drop out of theyr teates. Also libro. 8. cap. 3. In Goates and shéepe is lyttle wit, insomuch that unneth they can goe to a fielde to léese, or come againe, but they be lead & brought againe. And if a man take a Goate, and reare him up sodeinelye, then the other reare them also, and beholde him sadlye. And the use of Goate & of shéepe is needfull to mankinde, for they féede the hungry with milk and with flesh, and cloath the naked with fell and with Wooll, and amende the lande with urine and with durt. And nothing is in the Goates body, but it is good and profitable to use of meate or cloathing, or else to néedfull use of medicine. For as Plinius saith, libro. 33. cap. 10. Serpentes bée chosed and driven away with ashes of Goates hornes, and with their Wooll burnt. And by remedy of Goates hornes diverse manner kinde of venim is overcome, and superfluitie of dead flesh is fretted, and freshe flesh and new is gendered, and passing running humours be staunched, and by helpe of them rotted woundes fretting and gnawing have remedy, though they be cankered or festered. With new Goats skinnes wounds be holpe and healed. Goats bloud medled with mery and sod excludeth poyson and venimme, biting of créeping wormes, and smiting of scorpions be saved and healed. The hot lung of a Goat laid to a venimous biting draweth out the venimme, and abateth the ach and sorenesse. His gal putteth away dimnesse of eyen, and fresteth webbes and pearles, and sharpneth their sight, & cléereth the eyen. A Goats liver roasted; helpeth against Lepra, if it be oft taken in meatrand his dirt helpeth many sicknesses & evills: For as he sayth, Goates durt helpeth them that have the Podagre, if tallow of the goat buck be medled with ye juyce of Jute. And Goates urine heated & dropped luke warme into the eares, healeth eares that ake. He setteth these properties and many other medicinable properties: and so Plinius setteth a thousand remedyes. And héereby may bée shewed a meaning that one sayd in this manner. Each wonder, that it is not sayde, that it healeth the feavers. And héereto Aristotle sayth, that a certaine beast sucketh Goates milke of the udder and feats, and then the milke is destroyed and wasted, and the Goate wareth blinde thereby. Of the Goate looke more within in littera I de Hirco. [Book 18.35] [Bartholomaeus uses the name damula for the goat in this chapter, probably incorrectly. The following description is probably of the doe (dammula), not the goat; it closely matches the description of the doe, but is highly unusual for the goat.] Damula and Dama also is a wilde Goate, as Papias saith. And libro. 12. Isid[ore] saith, that the wild Goate is called Damula, and is a fearfull beast, and dare not fight, & so cannot defend him but by flight, and in stéede of armour and wepon, this wilde Goate hath ablenesse & lightnesse to runne and to fly. And Marcianus sayth. Dente tuetur Aper, defendunt cornua Ceruum. / Imbelles Damae, quid nisi praeda sumus? The Bore defendeth him with tuskes, and the Hart with hornes, and we wilde Goates fight not, what be we but pray? The wilde Goate loveth mountaines & woodes, and eateth medicinall hearbes & grasse, with good smell, and gathereth and biteth crops and stalkes of twigs, and of and of branches, and when he is wounded, he eateth Dragantea, and taketh so the arrow out of the bodie. The bloude thereof is medicinall, as Plin[y] sayth libr. 28. for it softneth sinews that be shronk, and doth away ache of the joynts, and smiteth and putteth out venime. Serpents hate and flye the wilde Goate, & may not suffer the breath of him, as hée saith. This Goate is most sharpe of sight, and swifte of course and of running. Looke before in eodem, De Caprea agrosti. [Book 18.45] A Kidde is called Hedus, and hath that name of Edendo, eating, and is lyttle and fatte, and his flesh is of good savoure, as Isidore sayeth, libro. 12. his kindlye drynesse is tempered, by moysture of the age, as Isaac sayeth in Dietis. And so the Kidde is better and more according to digestion, and namelye the male, for his flesh nourisheth well, and bréedeth good bloud, and hath strong heat by benefite of the age, and therefore Kid flesh for temperatnesse thereof is good and wholesome to them that recovereth out of sicknesse, and is according to mans kinde, and namelye to them that live delicately in case and rest. And his Wooll is more long and rough then is Lambes Wooll, and his flesh is better and more obedient to digestion for temperatenesse thereof in moysture and in heate. And the Kidde hath full sharpe sight and simple looking, and looketh aside, and knoweth and séeketh his damme with bleating, as Plinius sayeth, libro. 8. capitulo primo. And it is sayde, that his lycour eaten helpeth and healeth dimnesse of eyen in them that he called Noctilupi. Also libro. 28. cap. 10. hée sayth, That skinnes of Kiddes healeth venimous bilings, if they bée layde thereto all hotte, and Kidde Wooll burnt, driveth awaye Serpentes with the smell thereof: and the skinnes of Kiddes bée used to heale woundes, his bloud helpeth agaynst venunme, and his ruenning helpeth against venimous glew dronke or eaten, and also against bloud of a Bull it helpeth, if it bee dronke. Huc usque Plinius. And is a mild beast, and myeth not nor fighteth, he cheweth his cudde, and is cleane, & was ordeined to sacrifice in olde time, he skippeth and leapeth, and is ful swift, and fat within and fleshie, and tough and leane without, and eateth and gnaweth stalkes, twigges, and braunches, and loveth specially leaves of Ivie and of such shrubs. - [Batman]