512 | Ulysses Aldrovandi

Furthermore, there are those who claim that having a third testicle is a particular trait of certain families. For instance, there is the illustrious family from Bergamo from which Bartolomeo Colleoni emerged—a man highly distinguished for his bravery and loyalty to the Venetians, whose equestrian statue can be seen in Venice in the square of Saints John and Paul. Many members of this family are said to have had three testicles, and clear evidence of this is found in the family’s coat of arms, which is marked with an image of three black testicles. This is the origin of the proverb common among Italians: *Coglioni di Bergamo*. This phrase is used everywhere to describe something unusual and unheard of, rather than someone stupid or obscene.

The female genitals are not excluded from such irregular constitutions either. It is clear from many observations by Schenck that some women are born "atretas," which is to say, imperforate. Moreover, Aristotle, in his *History of Animals*, calls certain animals "monstrous" even when their parts are otherwise whole, simply because they have certain passages closed off. He records that some females are born from their initial formation with the mouth of the womb fused together, just as males are sometimes born with an imperforate glans. This faulty configuration of the genitals can deceive even experienced midwives. Pineau relates that in Paris, in the year 1577, on the Rue Saint-Denis, a woman gave birth to a child during the night. Because the infant was weak, it was hastily baptized in the sacred font and given the name Joan, as it was believed to be female. However, a few days later, to everyone's great astonishment, it was observed to be a male. The cause of the error was a malformation of the genital parts: the penis was quite short and hidden at the top of a cleft, much like a clitoris, between two labia and the nymphs of a female vulva. Because the two sides of the scrotum protruded like the labia of a woman’s genitals, midwives are often misled by this deceptive malformation.

For this reason, we must reject the opinion of those who believe that females can, over time, be transformed into males. There is no logic or argument by which this can be clearly proven, especially in humans. The genital parts of each sex are so unlike one another that nothing more dissimilar could be found. Furthermore, the female genital parts are hidden deep in the lower belly and bound to the region of the loins by vessels and membranous ligaments, which could not descend without a massive relaxation. Therefore, female genital parts cannot be transformed into male ones.

Once this is understood, we can see that due to the malformation of these parts, girls are sometimes believed to turn into men when their true male sex is finally uncovered; it is not that the female genitals actually change into male ones. We have already explained this in the first chapter of this *History* and in the section on transformations. We have a clear case of this that occurred in Catalonia, as reported by trustworthy men. In a certain castle of that region, there lived a girl eighteen years of age. While playing with others, she was seized by a great pain in her genitals, so intense she felt she might die. A physician was summoned who, diligently examining those private parts, observed something hard lurking beneath the skin. He dilated the skin with a razor, and immediately a male member with a scrotum emerged. Its opening was so aligned with the opening of what was thought to be the female member that urine had passed through it conveniently. Once the wound was healed, he took a wife, with whom he lived for many years.

Realdo Colombo also noted a faulty constitution of this part when he recorded the case of a woman whose vulva did not differ in shape from others, and a portion of the neck of the womb protruded; yet, in her abdomen, neither a uterus, nor spermatic vessels, nor ovaries could be found. It is therefore no wonder that she always complained during intercourse.

But even more worthy of wonder is that Nature sometimes doubles the private parts in women. According to Julius Obsequens, as cited by Schenck, a two-headed girl was born with a double vulva, though she died, during the consulship of Gaius Laelius and Lucius Domitius. Likewise, the same Obsequens records a woman endowed with a double vulva who is said to have been born during the consulship of Gaius Claudius and Marcus Perpenna.

Countless deformities that develop in the female genitals after birth could also be recounted. Indeed, Schenck mentions many women, and even vir-