416 Ulisse Aldrovandi

# The Multiplication of Heads in the Offspring of Animals

Julius Caesar Scaliger, in his commentaries on the books *On Plants* attributed to Aristotle, recounts several monsters, among which he mentions a two-headed dog. Indeed, Rhazes testifies to having once seen a three-headed dog. For this reason, the ancient poets—perhaps having seen a similar canine monster—invented the three-headed Stygian dog, which they later called Cerberus, meaning *flesh-devourer* (from the Greek *kreoboros*). Of him, the ancient poets used to sing: "Here the guardian of the infernal cave with three throats, who has three tongues and a triple head."

And although Hesiod in his *Theogony* attributed fifty heads to him, and Horace called him a hundred-headed beast, it should nevertheless be understood that learned men wrote this on account of the innumerable heads of serpents which were said to hang like bristles not only from the three heads but from the entire body. Furthermore, they proclaimed that this monster was sired by another monster—namely, by Typhon and Echidna. But let these incidental remarks suffice.

I. Turning now to more serious matters, we come to a two-headed pig said to have been born at Cera in the year of the world 3760, possessing the same form as seen in the illustration provided.

But what is reported here regarding the pig can also be stated about other animals. For, according to Lycosthenes, in the year of the world 3768, a sheep at Suessa gave birth to a two-headed lamb.

II. Furthermore, in the following year of the world 3769, Lycosthenes records (following Livy) that at Asculum, a two-headed lamb with five feet was born, resembling the form we provide in the accompanying illustration. Moreover, we can confirm the birth of such monsters in our own time with a more recent case that occurred in Bologna in the year 1606. A certain sheep belonging to the most illustrious Thomas Cospius gave birth to a pitch-black lamb with two heads and two tails; it even had five feet, though the fifth was attached to its back. This is known from the report shared with us by the most excellent Ovidio Montalbani. Additionally, the most excellent Giovanni Antonio Godio preserves the remains of a two-headed lamb born with only two feet at his home.

But why wander through a flock of two-headed lambs when lambs have even entered the world with three heads? Ambroise Paré relates that in the year of our Lord 1577, in the village of Blandy, three miles from Melun, a three-headed lamb was born. The middle head was thicker than the others, and when one bleated, the remaining heads bleated as well. Jean Bellanger, a surgeon of Melun, affirmed he had seen this monster and saw to it being drawn and engraved.

III. A more recent case is the one told by Job Fincelius about a lamb born with a triple mouth at Halberstadt on the eighteenth of February in the year 1555. The head of this beast was round, mimicking a triple-headed state, with a triple mouth, a double nose, and ears hanging down the back like those of a dog. But even more worthy of wonder was that in the third mouth, a large eye and a long tongue could be seen—an eye which the painter did not correctly depict. It is said to have lived only one day and made a great noise.

Far more numerous are the two-headed offspring produced by cows. It is well established that in the territory of Padua, a calf was born with two heads and only a single body, but with its hind and forelegs doubled. A certain man carried this monster around for profit, and many, as Schenck reports, affirmed that they had seen it; but