16th-century leaf with four illustrations of conjoined twins and birth defects from Ambroise Paré's Monsters de Ambroise Paré - 1585

Paris: Chez G Boun, 1585. Unbound. Very good. This leaf (M.XXIII-M.XXIIII) measures approximately 8.25" x 12.5" and came from the 1585 printing of Les Oeuvres d'Ambroise . . . Des Monstres. The images are strong. The leaf has some minor soiling and edge-wear. The four images on this leaf show (roughly translated from Paré's French) 1) two girls, joined at their backs from shoulder to hips whose parents exhibited them to the public for money throughout all the major Italian towns, 2) a forty-year old Parisian man who had a perfectly formed smaller headless body growing from his stomach, 3) a child borne with five ram's horns, a long hood-like piece of flesh growing from the top of his head, and hands like hawk talons, and 4) an egg with the face of a man, hair that resembled serpents, and three snakes growing from his chin. Paré, the French royal surgeon for many years, was the preeminent surgeon of his time and is considered one of the fathers of surgery and modern forensic pathology as well as a pioneer of surgical techniques, battlefield medicine, and prosthetic design. He additionally had a scholarly interest in natural history, especially reports of "miraculous" or "monstrous" creatures and malformed births.