History of Monsters. 437

Similarly, under number III, we present an illustration of a goat with a human face. Caelius Rhodiginus records that this creature was born in the year 1547 at Sybaris, the result of a shepherd's union with a young goat. The head goatherd, driven by jealousy, later killed the sleeping shepherd with horns.

Swine should also be included in this category of cloven-hoofed animals, as they have at various times produced offspring with entirely alien heads. For example, in the year 1010, the historian Lycosthenes reports that a sow gave birth to a pig with a human face. At that time, great military upheavals were stirred up across England and Ireland. One should also consult Polydore Vergil’s history of England, where he records that during the reign of Henry I—at the time the first Bishop of Ely was appointed—many prodigies were seen, including a sow that brought forth a fetus marked with a human face.

Likewise, according to the same Lycosthenes, in the year 1018, a pregnant sow gave birth to a piglet with a human head, and in that same year a most foul plague ran rampant.

Again, according to the same author, in the year 1109, in the parish of Liège, a sow gave birth to an offspring with a human face, as can be seen in the following illustration IV. This occurred at the time when King Philip of France and Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury, departed from this life. Finally, according to the history of the same Lycosthenes, in the year 1118 in France, a piglet with a human head was born from a pregnant sow.

Furthermore, Ambroise Paré, in his history of monsters, mentions a pig—citing Lycosthenes—born in a certain village of the Eburones in the year 1110. It reportedly had a human head and human feet, both front and back, as shown in figure V; however, we have not subsequently been able to find this particular account in Lycosthenes’ work.

Ambroise Paré also recounts a more recent case of such an animal that occurred in 1564 in Brussels. There, a sow gave birth to six piglets, the first of which was monstrous. Its head, forelegs, and shoulder blades represented a human, while the rest of its body was that of a pig. Indeed, it possessed the genitalia of a female pig and, like the other piglets, it suckled from the teats. However, on the second day after its birth, the common people, incited by the horror of the monster, stabbed the fetus to death along with its mother. The illustration for this is figure VI.

Even more recent is the story of a pig with a human head born in Cyprus, recorded by Schenck, on December 12, 1569. The monster was as shown in figure VII. Its entire body was like that of a normal pig, naked and hairless, but its head bore a human likeness. From its forehead rose a crest resembling that of a turkey, which partially covered its eyes and nose. Its ears were like those of a human. It was reported that the monster was born from a sow along with four other piglets that resembled the mother.

If we turn our discussion to clawed quadrupeds, we encounter the monstrous birth of a lion with a human head, as shown in figure VIII. According to the chronicler Lycosthenes, this fetus was born to a woman in the territory of Constance in the year 1190, during the reign of Emperor Rudolf.

Indeed, in our own time, says Cornelius Gemma, a dog was born with the head of a hawk, as depicted in figure IX. It was carried around by someone to be shown to the public, and he asserted that this monster was born out of terror. For this reason, Cornelius Gemma marvels at the great power of the imagination in procreating monsters, noting that the incredible force of fantasy even extends to brute animals, as observed in the aforementioned dog. Having noted these things regarding quadrupeds, some turn their attention to serpents, reporting that sometimes infants are born with the head of a snake, and conversely, snakes with the head of a human. However, they gathered this from the book *On the Nature of Things*, where a certain serpent with a maiden’s face is mentioned; according to Bede, the Devil took the form of a serpent with a human face to deceive our first parents in the earthly Paradise.

Before we move on to the deformed shape and structure of the head, the causes