History of Monsters. 382 / Ulisse Aldrovandi

of nature’s operation, resulting from an abundance, deficiency, position, or shape of the limbs. Elsewhere, the same author attributes monsters to four causes: specifically, a reduction of matter, an excess of it, a poor quality of proportion regarding the matter, and finally, the ill-condition of the containing womb. Furthermore, he adds that monsters are formed through reduction in three ways: either by a reduction in the size of the limbs alone (but not their number), by a reduction in both size and number, or thirdly, by a reduction in number but not in size. Again, he adds that monsters resulting from a reduction in matter—whether in size or number—occur either due to the lack of material or because the formative power is so weak that it can only shape a portion of the matter and rejects the rest. The opposite, he notes, can be said regarding an excess of matter.

Writing on the material cause of monsters, Ambroise Paré notes that it is the opinion of the philosophers who have treated this subject that if an animal that naturally bears one offspring at a time, such as a human, should release more seminal matter during intercourse than is necessary for a single generation, it is impossible for only one animal to be born from the whole amount. Thus, twins or multiple fetuses are born. From this cause arise hermaphrodites (or androgynes) and multiple births.

Regarding this point, Marcin Kromer records that Margaret, the noble wife of Count Wirboslaus, gave birth to thirty-six offspring in a single delivery, and Giovanni Francesco Pico della Mirandola mentions an Italian woman named Dorothea who bore twenty children in two births. However, for more on these cases, one should read the first chapter of this book under the heading "On Childbirth." Nor, in the case of such numerous offspring, should one resort to the idea of multiple chambers in the womb, as this contradicts the truth; indeed, anatomical inspection reveals no such chambers in the uterus. It remains, therefore, that these cases must be attributed to an abundant material cause.

Celsus Mancinus of Ravenna, a learned man, mentions this cause when he attributes the origin of monsters to either a deficiency or an abundance of matter. In the first case, the fetus ends up with either an extremely small stature or the lack of some part. In the second case, it acquires either an excessively large stature overall or a superfluous finger on the hands, and so on. Indeed, with the help of the formative power, an infant is sometimes born with teeth and a beard. Albertus Magnus attributes to this cause the girl who had breasts like an adult woman and, according to her mother, experienced menstruation. Similarly, Albertus recounts that he observed a deformed monster that overflowed with cheeks and twenty-four imperfect lips. From this, many derive the cause of twins—namely, when the seminal matter is divided into two equal parts. But if the matter happens to be split into various portions, then superfluous limbs are generated rather than complete offspring.

The Regents of Paris, who committed to writing their physical inquiries into the doctrine of Aristotle according to the mind of Scotus, also discussed the material cause of monsters at the end of their second book of *Physics*. Following the opinion of Albert, they taught that monsters occur for four reasons. First, because of a reduction in matter, which happens in three ways: either because the formative power cannot shape more than a little matter and rejects the rest (from which the offspring should have been created), leading to animals often being born without arms or complete feet; or the hands, feet, or limbs are rendered so soft that they cannot support the body; or both occur at once. Thus, defects often occur in the whole body or in the principal parts, as happened to a certain girl who was born without eyes and a nose. Secondly, monsters occur from a superfluity of matter, also in three ways: either the defect is in number alone, such as when a human is born with six fingers or three feet; or in size alone, when a limb in some animal exceeds the proportion of the other limbs; or when the limbs of one creature exceed those of others in both number and size.

The forms of monstrous generation arising from a material cause are manifold. The first is the mixture and confusion of seeds, about which Ambroise Paré spoke when he asserted that monsters are born from the confusion of seeds of different species. To this end, the distinguished physician Luis Mercado compared the matter—to draw a comparison—based on the similarity and