History of Monsters. 615

Boneless, and of an exhausted flabbiness and languor. With scorched legs and knees already withered by the heat, now hardly fit for use. These omens, Leo, were not seen in vain, but surely raised your glory to the heavens; for the eighth session recently made it clear that another council, begun in France by a Spaniard— headless, handless, and without a firm step— should be brought to the Lateran and take root. This is to bring in the Lion; this is to recall Hercules, who conquered all monsters.

ANIMAL MONSTERS

*with a Single Head and Two Bodies*

We find that monsters of this kind have been observed much more frequently in animals than in human births. We assert that whatever occurs against the common law and order of Nature in human generation can also happen in the wombs of beasts—and indeed more often, because most animals bear many young at once. Even if they were not multiparous, this could happen to them due to the abundance of seed, as they mate less frequently. Because of this, cows often give birth to monstrous offspring, which the illustrious Ulisse Aldrovandi took care to have depicted in vivid colors; today, anyone can view them with great wonder in his public Museum. Indeed, he not only included those he was able to observe himself but also documented similar monstrous births observed by faithful investigators of natural history. Among these, we have found one relevant to our topic: it was a single-headed, two-bodied calf provided with five ears, its upper legs embracing each other’s bodies, and were somewhat like those of a deer, as appears in Figure I.

A two-bodied pig with a single head was of a similar form, born in the year 1496 in Sundgau, a most fertile province of Germany, in the village of Landser, as Lycosthenes relates. It was a sow with one head, four ears, two eyes, two tongues, and eight feet; this beast was joined from the head down to the navel, with its posterior or lower parts separate, as seen in Figure II.

It was also worthwhile to sketch an image of another monstrous piglet here, since it belongs to the category of two-bodied, single-headed creatures. This monster was born in the year 1572, the day after Easter, in Metz, Lorraine, at an inn featuring the image of the Holy Spirit as its sign. It was endowed with eight feet, four ears, and a single head that was almost like a dog’s. The rear parts of the monster were distinct, like those of twins, but the front parts were joined, with two tongues in the mouth and four teeth on the sides of both the upper and lower jaws.

The distinction of sex was not clearly expressed by Nature, so no one could discern whether it was male or female; only a tiny slit was open under the tail of each body. Ambroise Paré attributes the image of this monster to the celebrated physician of Metz, Bourgeois, as shown in Figure III.

Similar monsters sometimes occur in cats and dogs, as they are animals that bear many young; therefore, due to the abundance of seed and the multitude of offspring, they bring forth two-bodied monsters. Lycosthenes mentions a single-headed, two-bodied puppy born in Basel in February 1552, in the house of Ludwig Dehitius, from a domestic cat, which among other numerous