414 Ulisse Aldrovandi
...entered into a treaty with the Swiss, according to the account of Paré, a child was born in the year 1517. While his limbs were perfectly formed, another human head protruded from his belly, which was nourished just like the first. The child grew to adulthood, exactly as shown in the illustration; at that time, he traveled as a wayfarer, collecting a generous pittance from curious onlookers.
The nature of this monster sheds light on a case that recently occurred in Parma. The Very Reverend Father Liberatus Magata, a Capuchin, relayed to us a report from the renowned physician Taliaferro concerning a youth of about sixteen. This young man developed a tumor near his false ribs; after being treated with suppurative medicines, it eventually came to a head. When the distinguished surgeon Taliaferro lanced it, a great deal of discharge was released. In the days that followed, pieces of a jawbone and many fragments of a human skull emerged from the opening of the abscess along with the pus. Once the swelling subsided and the wound scarred over, the patient was restored to his former health. When those bones that had exited the tumor were carefully pieced together, they formed a complete human skull. We can only conclude that Nature had produced a monstrous head within the innermost part of this youth from the very beginning of his development, much like she created a second head on the exterior of the belly of the monster described and illustrated above. Consequently, when that internal head died—perhaps due to a bruise or some other cause—Nature managed its expulsion through the abscess.
Just as Nature can produce two-headed monsters, she is equally capable of producing those with three heads. Philostratus records that when Apollonius arrived in Syracuse, a noblewoman gave birth to a remarkable marvel: a three-headed boy. While three necks supported three distinct heads, the rest of the infant's body appeared perfectly formed and healthy. This led many diviners to prophesy that Sicily (which is called Trinacria) would perish. Thus, depending on the circumstances, Nature can generate monsters endowed with even more heads.
IX. I recall reading once of a monster born to an elderly woman in the region of Novara. It possessed the legs and feet of an ox, but the rest of its body was human, featuring seven arms and seven heads all attached to a single torso. The central head was unique, however, being endowed with a single eye and the ears of a goat, as shown in the accompanying illustration.
Others have reported that this seven-headed monster, resembling a Hydra, was born in January 1587 at Eusigi, in the Piedmont region.
Likewise, in the year 1625, a history was printed in Bologna by Nicola Tebaldini concerning a seven-headed monster born, against the laws of nature, to a woman living in the town of Pordenone in the Friuli region. This monster was a terrifying and formidable sight to all who saw it, much like the giant Typhon described by Pindar as having a hundred horrific heads—a creature he called *ἑκατοντακάρανον*, or "hundred-headed." Aristophanes agrees in his play *The Clouds*, referring to the same giant as *ἑκατοντακεφαλωτῷ*. A scholiast later argued that these poets used a specific number to represent an indefinite, large one. However, we consider such accounts to be mere fables when compared to the seven-headed monster presented here.