the imperial diadem, he had in his service a footman of monstrous size, as was related in the first chapter of this book. Johann Georg Schenck also records that he knew a certain Antonius Francken, a native of Guelders, who at thirty-nine years of age was of a truly prodigious height, for he exceeded seven feet.

Similarly, in the year 1549, according to the account of Lycosthenes, a boy was born in the territory of Zurich, in the district of Kyburg and the parish of Weisslingen, in the month of May. His parents, Johannes and Barbara, were a married couple of modest and ordinary height. The local parish priest baptized the boy and named him Heinrich; his subsequent growth was a wonder to everyone. By the time he had completed six years of age, he matched the height of a fifteen-year-old youth and surpassed him in thickness and bulk. He had a deep voice, enlarged genitals, and a hairy puberty, and he did not stop growing. At five years old, he carried massive loads and handled a plow like an adult man. All the citizens of Zurich knew him, and Gessner testifies to having seen him when he was five years old.

A similar birth recently occurred in the Neapolitan countryside to a couple of ordinary gardeners. The child, baptized in the sacred font as Andreas in March 1631, grew to a height of over eight palms with a proportional body within the space of a year and a half. It was said that the nourishment of two wet nurses was not enough to satisfy him.

What we have described regarding male offspring should also be understood to apply to females. We read that during the reign of Justin the Thracian, a woman was brought from Cilicia who was of admirable stature, standing a full cubit taller than any other person. Saint Augustine also mentions a woman of giant proportions seen in Rome before the city was ravaged by the Goths.

On the other hand, some are considered monstrous because of their remarkably short stature. During the reign of Valentinian, an extremely small man was seen in Egypt; and Suetonius Tranquillus testifies that Augustus once publicly exhibited a youth named Lucius, born of a respectable family, who was less than two feet tall and weighed only seventeen pounds. According to Pliny, Canopas was a favorite of Julia, the granddaughter of Augustus, and stood only two feet and a palm high. Furthermore, in recent years, according to the *Natural History* of the Jesuit Eusebius, a well-proportioned little man was seen in Spain; at seven years old he already had a beard, at ten he possessed his full strength, and he even fathered a son.

To these we must add the dwarf of the Illustrious Lord Charles de Créquy, who was forty-one years old and thirty inches tall, whom we discussed in the first chapter of this volume. The Illustrious Ferdinando Cospi—a distinguished Senator of Bologna, Marquis of Petrioli, Knight of the Holy Order of Saint Stephen (bearing the Great Cross upon his breast), Bailiff of Arezzo, current Lord of the Bedchamber to the Serene Ferdinando, Grand Duke of Tuscany, and a man of great wisdom—keeps two similar dwarfs in his home, a brother and sister. They were born to poor parents named Bivati, who were people of normal height and farmed the land in the commune of Bagnara in the Bolognese territory. He has taken care to have them educated, as he observed these pygmies to be capable of performing any duty.

The male dwarf, named Sebastian, is now twenty-six years old and barely exceeds a height of three and a half spans. His sister, the female dwarf named Angelica, is now in her twenty-third year, yet her height measures only three spans and two inches. Both are to be admired for the elegant proportion of their limbs, which perfectly suits their short stature; for this reason, we present the portraits of both for the reader to examine.