On monsters and marvels

Ambroise Paré, born in France around 1510, was chief surgeon to both Charles IX and Henri III. In one of the first attempts to explain birth defects, Paré produced On Monsters and Marvels, an illustrated encyclopedia of curiosities, of monstrous human and animal births, bizarre beasts, and natural phenomena. Janice Pallister's acclaimed English translation offers a glimpse of the natural world as seen by an extraordinary Renaissance natural philosopher.

List of Illustrations; Acknowledgments; Introduction by Janis L. Pallister; On Monsters and Marvels; Preface; 1. The Causes of Monsters; 2. An Example of the Glory of God; 3. An Example of the Wrath of God; 4. An Example of Too Great a Quantity of Seed; 5. On Women Who Carry Several Children during One Pregnancy; 6. On Hermaphrodites or Androgynes; 7. Memorable Stories about Women Who Have Degenerated into Men; 8. An Example of Lack in the Quantity of Seed; 9. An Example of Monsters That Are Created through the Imagination

10. An Example of Monsters That Are Created through the Imagination11. An Example of Monsters That Are Formed, the Mother Having Remained Seated Too Long, Having Had Her Legs Crossed, or Having Bound Her Belly Too Tight While She Was Pregnant; 12. An Example of Monsters Who Are Created, the Mother Having Received Some Blow or Fall, Being Great with Child; 13. An Example of Monsters That Are Created by Hereditary Diseases; 14. An Example of Monstroush Things Which Have Occurred in Accidental Illnesses; 15. Of Stones That Are Engendered in the Human Body

16. On Certain Monstrous Animals That Are Born Abnormally in the Bodies of Men, Women, and Small Children17. …