16th-century leaf two illustrations of intersexed people from Ambroise Paré's Monsters de Ambroise Paré - 1585

Paris: Chez G Boun, 1585. Unbound. Very good. This leaf (M.XXXI-M.XXXII) 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 two images on this leaf show (roughly translated from Paré's French) 1) a hermaphrodite male and female and 2) hermaphrodite twins joined together along their backs. 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.