598 Ulisse Aldrovandi

we call monsters, it should by no means be said that such a creature is our offspring. For when a creature is produced from corrupted seed, it is no longer created from our own essence, but from something foreign—just as things formed from excrement or dung are. Indeed, all such things are judged to be created from corrupted seed because Nature ordains that from uncorrupted seed, a creature is born just like the one from which the genital seed originated. For example: a horse from a horse, and a human from a human.

Furthermore, these types of offspring that differ from their parents cause no small amount of amazement in spectators when compared to the parents—a quality that monsters must necessarily possess. For this reason, Ovid (though the tale is a fable) introduced Alcidamas as being struck with wonder when he observed a dove emerging from the body of his daughter, writing these verses:

Thus, it is absolutely certain that a non-human fetus can be produced in a woman's womb; many histories recounted in the section on "Presages" testify to this. Furthermore, many learned doctors and practical experience support this view. Aristotle himself left written in his *History of Animals* that some offspring are born resembling the father, some the mother, some their relatives, and others are completely unlike any of them—the latter of which should be numbered among monstrous births. From this, we must conclude that a non-human monster can emerge from a human womb.

Moreover, Caelius Aurelianus, Marcellus, Paré, and other trustworthy modern authors have reported cases of women who gave birth to mice, owls, moles, hedgehogs, frogs, hares, cats, lobsters, caterpillars, polyps, leeches, lizards, snakes, piglets, and even elephants—sometimes alongside a human fetus, and sometimes without one. In the year of the world 3874 (and 89 years before the birth of the Virgin Mother of Christ), at the start of the Marsic War, a woman named Alcipe gave birth to an elephant, and a certain maidservant to a snake, as Lycosthenes noted.

We also recall reading of a certain respectable matron who, while pregnant, was suddenly terrified by the appearance of a dormouse and gave birth to a dormouse instead of a human child. Conrad Lycosthenes recounts the story of a woman in the region of Constance who gave birth to a lion, though this animal was said to have a human face; for that reason, it does not seem to belong in this category, since the birth did not entirely degenerate from the parents. However, the same author mentions elsewhere a noblewoman in the Aargau region of Switzerland who gave birth to a creature very similar to a lion cub. Stumpf, in his *Swiss Chronicles*, records that this birth occurred in the year 1278, though other historians suggest a different date.

Likewise, according to Johannes Georgius Schenck, in the year 1590, Margarita Herkelin, a citizen of Passau, brought into the light a monster completely unlike human nature. It was a foul animal representing the form of an evil demon rather than any other beast. As soon as it left the womb, it ran through the room at high speed; consequently, the midwives called in the neighbors for help, caught it, and killed it.

Additionally, many women are reported to have given birth to dogs. This first occurred in Brescia in 1471, and another woman in Pavia gave birth to a cat. Again, in the year 1488, as recorded by Maiolo, a married woman produced two dogs and, the following day, three more, though not all were born alive. Finally, Volaterranus testifies to having seen a papal document regarding the expiation of a woman who had given birth to a dog.

Dinothus also records in his *Adversaria* that, during the impending Sullan War, a pregnant woman brought a viper into the life-giving air instead of an infant. Lycosthenes reports this happened in the year of the world 3882 (85 BC). In that same year at Chiusi in Etruria, a mother expelled a live snake from her womb. On the orders of the soothsayers, it was thrown into a river, where it swam against the current. Therefore, it is no wonder that Lucan wrote of a snake emerging from a woman’s belly in Umbria. Regarding this monstrous birth, the poet sang: