ABOUT THIS PROJECT

In 1642, Ulisse Aldrovandi's Monstrorum Historia was published posthumously in Bologna—a massive illustrated compendium of monsters, marvels, and biological anomalies. It represents the late Renaissance attempt to catalog everything strange in the natural world: conjoined twins, mythological creatures, deformed animals, fantastical beasts from travelers' reports, and genuine medical curiosities, all rendered in extraordinary woodcut illustrations.

For nearly 400 years, if you wanted to read it, you needed to read Latin. No complete English translation existed. Now one does.

What We've Built

A full English translation of Monstrorum Historia, freely available online. The original illustrations appear in their correct positions, interleaved with the translated text exactly as Aldrovandi intended. You read it the way a 17th-century reader would have—text and image together, each informing the other. The book, readable, as a book.

Translation Method

The translation was produced using frontier AI models (Claude Opus 4.5, Gemini 3 Pro, Gemini 3 Flash). Clear, contemporary English that preserves Aldrovandi's meaning and tone.

Why This Book Matters

Aldrovandi was one of the great naturalists of his era—his collections formed the basis of Bologna's natural history museum. He had read everything. He corresponded with the leading minds of Europe. He was driven, rigorous, and genuinely curious about how the world worked.

He also believed in dragons.

Monstrorum Historia captures a moment when astronomy and astrology hadn't yet divorced, when a scholar could catalog a two-headed calf alongside a hydra with equal methodological seriousness, when the boundary between observation and myth was still being negotiated. These were not credulous fools—they were the smartest people alive, working with the information they had, trying to make sense of a world that kept surfacing wonders.

There's something funny about it, and something moving. And maybe something familiar. We're in another moment where the tools have suddenly outpaced our frameworks, where smart people are making confident claims about territory no one fully understands yet. Perhaps an age of wonder is returning, with everything that comes with it.

Why I Made This

AI has given everyone a longer lever. I'm trying to make good use of mine. Translating a 400-year-old Latin monster book that nobody else was going to translate felt like a good use. Some people will hopefully enjoy it.

Contribute

This is an open project. If you spot errors or can improve the translation, contributions are welcome.