The History of Monsters. 629

which were common to the body, and consequently any injury to these parts harmed both, whereas the same could not be said of the upper parts. This monster is said to have extended its life to its twenty-eighth year, passing away while John was governing Scotland as Viceroy.

If we wander through the broad span of years, we will find many more monsters of this kind. Lycosthenes records that in the year of our salvation 1044, on the border of Normandy and Brittany during the reign of Henry III, a female was born with two heads, four arms, and other parts doubled down to the navel, while the lower parts remained single. Each head ate, but the excrement of the bowels was expelled through only a single exit. When one part of the monster died first, the other survived for nearly three years, carrying the deceased half until it finally succumbed to the weight of the mass and the stench of the corpse. Some soothsayers believed—and even committed to the records—that this monster symbolized the regions of England and Normandy, which, though divided from each other, were established under a single dominion. On this prophecy, or the interpretation of the monster, one should read Vincent in the *Speculum Naturale*. Matteo Palmieri later recorded the birth of this monster as occurring in the year of Christ 1061.

Similarly, in England in the year of our Lord 1112, according to the history of Lycosthenes, a twin boy was born, so divided from the buttocks to the upper parts that they appeared to be two complete infants who, joined at the buttocks, ended in only two feet. This monster, purified by the water of the sacred font, survived for three days; it was of such a form as is shown in Illustration I.

In the year of salvation 1234, in the mountainous regions of Bologna, a woman gave birth to a similar monster. Its upper part consisted of two infants, while the lower part was only one; however, one of these offspring died on the first day, and the other perished the following day.

Toward the end of the Greek Empire, during the reign of the last Andronicus, around the year of salvation 1293, a monstrous boy was born in Byzantium. He was joined from the feet up to the navel, but separated from there upward, so that he had two heads, two chests, and consequently a double spine, along with four arms; he expired, however, after the first day following his birth.

Furthermore, in the year 1310 from the birth of the Virgin Mother of Christ, in the Florentine territory, a monstrous boy with the appearance of two bodies is said to have been born, as the history of Lycosthenes relates. He had twin heads and four arms, but was so joined around the genital areas that he ended in only two feet; he lived for a few days. An image of him can be seen in Florence, depicted on the wall of the Hospital of Santa Maria della Scala, with an epigram of the following nature:

Here we lie in the earth, Peter and Paul, two within one body, A wondrous work of nature. To each belonged his own hands, his own mouth, and his own bladder, But the stomach’s function was shared as one. The lower parts of the body joined us both— Parts that neither could claim alone, yet both called their own. There were no feet at the sides; there were two heads, But from the middle of the body, the soles of feet emerged. A pair of feet hung downward from the middle of the body, While above, there was also a fifth hand. Indeed, we did not share one sleep or one meal, Nor were our laughter and our weeping as one. One gave his limbs to sleep, while the other laughed; One suckled while the other wept. Born in the Florentine valley of the River Arno, The pious care of our father gave us to our homeland. From there, nurtured and likewise raised from the sacred font, We both lived for twenty days. Why mention Neptune now, or the two-faced Janus