320 Ulisse Aldrovandi, History of Monsters

...brought? On the contrary, a man who possesses strength beyond the human measure, serving as a singular example of fortitude, is also called a monster. In this sense, the ancients referred to Hercules as a monster, for his brave deeds in taming other monsters are celebrated throughout the entire world.

Furthermore, since a monster is defined as something that exceeds the ordinary limits of its kind to the great wonder of everyone, we can undoubtedly describe a man distinguished by extraordinary intellectual dexterity as a monster. According to this understanding, Saint Thomas Aquinas—whose intellect was unsurpassed—was deservedly called an "ingenious monster."

Conversely, a man who is the most impious of all on earth, contaminated by every kind of crime, is also named a monster. Nero is held up as the genuine archetype of this—a true portent and monster of the human race. Similarly, Cicero, speaking against Catiline in this same vein, declared that he was about to speak of a "monster of a man." Petrus Crinitus also points to those who composed volumes against true religion and Christ as monsters; among other outrages, they claimed that the prophecies of the ancient seers regarding Christ could be understood as referring to others—opinions that were later debunked with remarkable ease by Saint Augustine, Origen, and Cyprian.

But beyond these wild actions of the soul, there have occasionally lived men who were rightly called monsters because they imitated the physical behaviors of brutes. The famous physician Johannes Langius records that in Austria, there were men who vied with dogs in their barking and swiftness of foot; indeed, they would hunt steadily with them in the forests without being harmed. What more is there to say? Vice itself is by the best right called a monster. Indeed, we are accustomed to say a monster is being "nurtured" whenever we imply some hidden crime, perhaps taking the metaphor from real monsters which, out of shame, are raised in secret places.

Finally, a man to whom everything happens well and prosperously might be called monstrous, according to the trochaic line: "A monstrous thing is the man to whom no evil ever happens." But when horrifying phantoms and erratic dreams appear to some during their rest, they are for very good reasons called "monsters of sleep." Nor should we separate from the name of "monster" those terrifying apparitions that demons present to frighten men dedicated to God. Indeed, the Devil himself seems worthy of the title of monster, since he sometimes assembles his own figure from the various parts of all living creatures; thus, Saint Jerome, for excellent reason, called the Devil the "monster of monsters."

Moreover, monsters are seen to relate to miracles. Ovid, writing about the transformation of Phaethon’s sisters into poplars, mentions that Cygnus, the son of Sthenelus, was present at this miracle: "Cygnus, the offspring of Sthenelus, was present at this monster." A miracle or monster of a similar kind occurs if a stepmother—who is often called cruel, savage, and "monster-bearing" by authors—should embrace her stepson with singular piety and affection. A visitor in a certain city, observing this with wonder, noted it as something monstrous. Likewise, if it should happen that a father is betrayed by his children; for this reason, Ovid called Scylla’s betrayal a monster.

In the same way, any absurdities that exceed the order of nature should be called monsters. The conversion of a woman into a man, and vice versa, seems to belong here; as Ausonius sings: "All wonder at the monster, as a better lamb stood forth from the flock, turned into a tender male." It is also absurd and similarly monstrous if a man marries a man; therefore Juvenal, criticizing the sanctity of hypocrites who should be ranked among the wicked, makes special mention of those who married each other after the fashion of women, contrary to the order of nature, and called this monster a great absurdity: "Indeed, you would think them horrors and greater monsters, if a woman gave birth to a calf, or if a cow produced a lamb." And a little further down: "This monster too was surpassed by Gracchus in his tunic."

Furthermore, medicine is not without its own monsters: whenever a disease is either difficult to recognize