The De Monstrorum of Fortunio Liceti: A Landmark of Descriptive Teratology

Hoefer JCF . Nouvelle biographie générale. Paris, 1860: vol. 31, pp. 132–6

Baillet A. Des enfans devenus celebres par leurs etudes ou par leurs ecritis. Paris: Antoine Dezallier, 1688

Liceti G. La nobilita de' principali membri dell' huomo … Bologna, 1590

Liceti F. De annulis antiquis … Udine, 1645

Liceti F. De novis astris et cometis … Venice, 1623

Liceti F. De spontaneo viventium … Venice, 1612

Liceti F. De his qui diu vivunt sine alimento … Padua, 1612

Liceti F. De lucernis antiquorum reconditis … Venice, 1621

Liceti F. De motu sanguinis origine nervorum: cerebro leniente cordis aestum: imaginationis viribus. In: Quarto-quaesitis per epistolas claris viris responsa medico-philosophica. Udine, 1647

Liceti F. De monstrorum caussis, natura, et differentiis. Padua, 1616

The only modern edition of De monstrorum is an abbreviated text, De la nature, des causes, des différences des monstres ( Houssay F , trans.). Paris: Editions Hippocrates, 1937

Anon. A Monstrous Shape or a Shapeless Monster. A description of a female creature born in Holland, compleat in every part, save only a head like a swine, who hath travelled into many parts, and is now to be seene in London. London, 1640

Anon. La naissance d'un monstre ayant la face humaine, la teste et le reste du corps couvert d'une arm facon d'escailles … Paris: M Mondiere, 1628

Paré A. On Monsters and Marvels ( Pallister JL , trans.). Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1982

Obsequens J. Prodigiorum liber … ( Lycosthenes C , Ed.). Basel: J Oporini, 1552

Lycosthenes C. Prodigiorum ac ostentorum chronicon, quae praeter naturae ordinem … Basel: H Petri, 1557

Wilson D. Signs and Portents. Monstrous Births from the Middle Ages to the Enlightenment. London: Routledge, 1993

See, for example, Gould GM Pyle WL . Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine. New York: Sydenham, 1937

Liceti employs the teminology of Aristotle, who held that both parents contribute a generative principle, commonly translated as “semen”

Remy N. Demonolatry ( Ashwin EA , trans.). Secaucus, NJ: University Books, 1974

Boaistuau P. Histoires prodigieuses, divisees en deux tomes. Paris: Jean de Bordeaux, 1571

Liceti F. De monstrorum caussis, natura, et differentiis ( Palfyn J , trans.). Leiden: Bastiaan Schouten, 1708

Spencer R. Rachipagus conjoined twins: they really do occur! Teratology 1995; 52: 346–56

Bulwer J. Anthropometamorphosis: Man Transform'd: or The Artificial Changeling Historically Presented … London: William Hunt, 1653

For a discussion of the evolution of the classification of monsters see Fisher GJ . Diploteratology. Trans New York State Med Soc 1866: 207–96