History of Monsters. 51

to move, and subsequently, once that movement time has doubled, the fetus comes forth into the light. For example, if an infant were formed by the thirtieth day, doubling this time results in sixty days; when these are added to the original thirty, they make ninety days, which constitutes three months—and that is when the fetus begins to move.

However, if we double the movement time (which consists of sixty days) separately from the time of formation, we count one hundred and twenty days, from which four months emerge. When these are added to the preceding time, the fetus will come forth into the light. From this, we can conclude that a fetus formed on the thirtieth day can naturally emerge from the womb in the seventh month. Thus, we can also declare that birth in the tenth or eleventh month can be natural. Astrologers investigate the duration of the fetus in the womb according to the opinion of Ptolemy in his *Centiloquium*, where he writes that the position of the Moon at birth is the position of the falling of the seed, and the position of the Moon at the hour when the seed fell is the degree of the ascendant at the hour of birth.

Thus, we have proven that the timing of birth for humans is different from that of other animals. Furthermore, Ctesias reported that certain Indian women give birth only once in their lives, and their children turn gray immediately. We do not think this should be wondered at, as we have read in reputable authors that certain nations turn gray in their youth and grow dark as old age approaches. Regarding the number of offspring, the human condition is uncertain: for although humans are usually uniparous, sometimes they are multiparous, as women in Egypt very often give birth to twins.

Indeed, here in Bologna, we have known women who gave birth to three live infants, who did not survive long after being purified by the water of the sacred font. Trustworthy midwives have also reported to us that four children were produced in a single birth. This is supported by the legal expert Paulus in Justinian’s *Digest*, where he reveals that an honorable mother of a family gave birth to four girls in a single delivery, and that a Peloponnesian woman gave birth to four infants five separate times. Aristotle, too, does not stray from this truth in his *History of Animals*, when he records twenty offspring that a woman had brought into the light across four births. No one should wonder at this; for here in Bologna, while we were writing these things—specifically in November of the year 1640—the wife of a certain carpenter gave birth to four girls. Likewise, Fausta, a woman of the common people in Ostia, produced two boys and two girls in a single birth, if Textor’s account is true.

Furthermore, there have been many women who gave birth to five offspring. Gellius mentions five infants born at once to a Greek woman, from which Aristotle seems to grant a pregnant woman a maximum of only five fetuses. In this regard, according to the same Gellius, a certain maidservant of Emperor Augustus, after she gave birth to five children at one time, was honorably buried on the Laurentian Way by the Emperor's command, along with her offspring and an epitaph signifying the event. Ambroise Paré records a noble family called Maldemera: the wife of the Lord of Maldemera gave birth to twins in the first year of their marriage, triplets in the second, quadruplets in the third, quintuplets in the fourth, and sextuplets in the fifth. She died during this last birth, and one of these six is said to still be living as the current Lord of Maldemera. Albertus Magnus writes that there was a certain German woman who gave birth to sixty children, for she bore five at each birth, although none of them reached the age of six months. Pliny recounts far more offspring, citing Trogus, who reports that seven were conceived in the womb by an Egyptian woman.

Nor is this inconsistent with what we read in the *Annals* titled *On the Origins of Kingdoms*, where a certain prostitute in Germany, during the reign of Agamund, King of the Huns, produced seven children in a single birth. Although she killed these infants by throwing them into a lake, Agamund, passing by for the sake of hunting, observed one still twitching in the water and ordered it to be pulled out and raised. Once grown, and after Agamund had died and during the papacy of Benedict I, he was elected by the Lombards as their ruler. Furthermore, according to Schenckius, a certain Countess of Querfurt is said to have delivered nine infants at once, all of whom would undoubtedly have been killed if the father, arriving just in time, had not saved them.

What more is there to say? A certain woman even conceived eleven: for Francesco Pico della Mirandola (as reported by Paré) tells of Dorothea, an Italian woman, who produced twenty sons in two births—nine in the first, and eleven in the second. For this reason, while carrying them in her womb, she was forced to support her belly, which slumped down to her knees, with a long, wide sash, as her legs were knotted with swelling. Her image is this: