History of Monsters 305

A statue of the city of Rome, carved from porphyry but featuring a bronze head, arms, and feet, is admired at the villa of Pope Julius III. In the same villa are located a statue of an unknown goddess as well as a statue of Hope. In the Capranica house, a marble statue of a Sabine woman can be seen, where there is also a marble Semele. Another statue of a Sabine woman graces the Farnese Palace; yet another is at the home of the Bishop of Aquino, one is in the gardens of Cardinal Carpi, and a Silenus is at the Villa Borghese. A Sibyl with her Sibylline books is found in the gardens of the Grand Duke of Tuscany, while a Satyr teaching a boy beautifies the Cesi house. Finally, a bronze statue of remarkable craftsmanship is seen at the Capitol, along with an unidentified statue at the villa of Margaret of Austria, and another unknown statue at the home of Girolamo de Cupis near the church of Santa Maria dell'Anima.

A statue of the Tiber River can be seen in the Vatican garden; indeed, recent sculptors adapted an ancient marble statue of the Tigris River at the Capitol to represent the Tiber. A marble Thalia and Tyro, the wife of Hercules, are located in the Carpi garden. The goddess Vesta, carved in black marble with hands and feet fashioned from white marble, adorns the villa of Pope Julius III, where a marble likeness of Venus also shines. Lastly, everyone admires the statue of Zethus and Amphion at the Farnese Palace, who threw Dirce into a fountain after binding her hair to the horns of a bull; they are praised for the sheer size of the stone and the singular skill of the work. Apollodorus wrote of this story in his *On the Origin of the Gods*. As a finishing touch to these descriptions, let us add the colossal statues of the Chinese regions. The inhabitants carve these from stone to such an immense height and erect them in open, prominent places consecrated to their idols that they can be seen by travelers from many miles away; an image of one was provided on the previous page.

FAMILY HERALDRY

Family coats of arms seem to have a certain affinity with likenesses and statues, because parts of the human body are sometimes figured in them, and occasionally entire human images—sketched in various ways—are imprinted, usually matching the family names. Indeed, there are many lineages of Bolognese citizens whose crests are decorated with the image of a human head. In some, it is the head of a small child; in others, the curly-haired head of a youth; in others, a head wearing a headband; in others, a human head between the front paws of a lion; and in still others, a woman’s head depicted among the branches of a tree. Furthermore, the illustrious coat of arms of the Bolognetti family—which today boasts celebrated doctors and senators—is beautified by the image of a young girl’s head. Other families delight in the figures of two bald heads as their family insignia, or two heads with tonsured crowns. Likewise, others do not shy away from using the images of two Moorish heads. To these may be added the likenesses of a triple-banded head, a triple Moorish head, and even a triple head with a Turkish cap, this last belonging to the Turci family.

If we consider hands, we find citizen lineages that have acquired their own crests by depicting one, two, three, or even four hands. Furthermore, we sometimes see the depiction of a hand alongside a tree, roses, a banner, a cluster of grapes, an olive branch, or the figure of a cross. However, in the family insignia of the Albani, a hand is depicted holding an open book. In this family, doctors of medicine and jurisprudence have flourished and continue to do so today; among them shines Domenico Albano, an excellent advocate, most learned in both civil and canon law, and highly deserving in all branches of learning.

What more? There are many branches of Bolognese families that bear a human arm painted as their crest. However, some variation is observed in these depictions: one arm is shown with a palm branch, another with a tree, another with lilies, another with roses, another with a sickle, and yet another with a bundle of oats. Sometimes in these