There remains, of all those questions which I undertook to treat in this eleventh book concerning the things that were in the ark, that last question, to be explained in a few words: whether the Ark of Noah was sufficient for containing all the provisions that would be enough for feeding all the animals for one year. But without hesitation I would say that the third part of the Ark — above destined and assigned for taking in and preserving the provisions of the animals — was abundantly capacious of all those foods: and this can be briefly demonstrated in this way. Of the terrestrial and quadruped animals, account must especially be taken as regards the quantity of food, on account of their size and voracity: for, in comparison with these, little food and little room in the Ark for food sufficed for the birds and reptiles. The terrestrial animals that entered the ark we established above as, so to speak, one hundred wolves, one hundred and twenty oxen, and likewise one hundred and twenty sheep.¹

But for the sake of plainer teaching, let us reduce all these (as regards their need of provisions) to the measure of oxen, and reckon each single wolf (as regards its need and consumption of food) as one ox; but of sheep, let us reckon four as one ox: so it will come about that the number of all those terrestrial animals is reduced to two hundred and fifty oxen. Let us see whether, for this number of oxen, that part of the Ark could hold as much provisions as would be enough for them for one year. And because among provisions hay occupies the most room, let the other provisions be reduced to the measure and reckoning of this. That for each ox — since they need the most copious food — forty pounds of hay are more than enough for the daily sustenance, is the testimony of Columella, in the sixth book On Agriculture, chapter three. This measure of hay, well compressed in a loft, scarcely fills one ordinary cubit [i.e., cubic cubit]: let there therefore be assigned, to two hundred and fifty oxen for daily sustenance, two hundred and fifty cubits of hay, which, multiplied by the three hundred and sixty-five days of the year, make ninety-one thousand and, besides, two hundred and fifty cubits.²

Let us now weigh the capacity of that third part of the Ark which had to contain that hay: the whole Ark (as was said above) was three hundred cubits long, fifty wide, and thirty high; and its whole capacity was four hundred and fifty thousand [cubic] cubits. But that third part of the Ark was as long and as wide as the whole Ark, but only eight cubits high: wherefore its capacity con[tained]…³

…contained one hundred and twenty thousand solid (cubic) cubits — more, that is, than that whole [quantity of] hay by twenty-seven thousand seven hundred and fifty cubits. Do you see, then, reader, how much more provisions could be contained than was needed? And this reasoning and computation proceeds if we suppose that those animals, during all the time they were in the Ark, used no other food than hay, which occupies the most room. But since whatever animals use fodder feed much more eagerly and wholesomely on grains — such as barley, spelt, vetch, and other similar things — it is more credible that the food was procured for the animals by Noah from these: inasmuch as they, the more freely they are eaten, are contained in the less room.⁴

But because there will perhaps not be lacking those who obstinately contend that the carnivorous animals, while they were in the ark, could be fed by no other food than flesh: come, the truth which we above followed and defended being for the moment set aside, let us grant this to them — that the capacity of the Ark may be the more manifest — we showing that, even if the food of the Carnivores in the Ark had been of flesh, nevertheless room would not have been lacking in the ark for the animals necessary for their feeding. All the carnivorous animals we above reduced to the reckoning and number of one hundred wolves. For each wolf an eighth part of a sheep is enough for daily nourishment: for the daily feeding of one hundred wolves, therefore, twelve and a half sheep were needed; which number, multiplied by the three hundred and sixty-five days of one year, contains four thousand five hundred and sixty-two and a half sheep.⁵

That the ark was capacious of these sheep — besides the one hundred and seventy pairs of animals which we said above entered the ark — one may understand from this: that of the three hundred dwellings provided for the habitation of the animals, one hundred and thirty were left empty, in which a great part of these provision-sheep could be stalled, since each of those dwellings (nine cubits high, six long, and as many wide) was capacious of many sheep. And the sheep that were left over, those it was possible to place in the various vacant places of the Ark, which were many — but especially in the habitation of the men, as being the most spacious and most free. Nor is this not to be noted here: that the number of those provision-sheep would be much diminished day by day, more than twelve sheep daily failing [being used up], which were consumed in the daily feeding of the Carnivorous animals. And these are the things which seemed to us to be disputed and explained concerning the things that were in the Ark of Noah.⁶