Keywords: Monstrous Births, Portent, Omen, German Reformation, Martin Luther, Monster of Cracow Interest grew in monstrous births out of the printing press, where accounts of monstrous births were promptly reported and spread widely (Bates, 2005, p. 15). The prints also had a ready market that had already seen images of wonders such as monstrous races.… Continue reading Monstrous Births and their Uses in Sixteenth Century Germany
Keywords: Monstrous Races, Monstrous Births, Margarita Philosophia, St. Augustine of Hippo, mark of Cain The etymology of the word ‘monster’ is derived from the Latin monere, meaning to warn and were regarded to presage intending calamity (Gilmore, 2003, p. 9). During the Renaissance, monstrous births were considered warnings against sin towards the collective, as well… Continue reading The Monstrous Races in Gregor Reisch’s Margarita Philosophia
Keywords: Early Modern Monstrous Births, Signs and Portents, Prophesies, Reformation The monstrous birth resembling a demon with faces embedded in its body become known as the Monster of Cracow, after its birthplace in 1547. The image of the monstrous birth was reproduced in multiple prints. It appeared in Jacob Rüeff’s (1500-1558) De conceptu et generatione… Continue reading The Monster of Cracow: Monstrous Births as Portents during the Reformation
Keywords: Monstrous Births, Bestiality, Jews, Monstrous Races, Cynocephali A tale spread across Europe during the sixteenth century of a monstrous birth that possessed the legs and a curled tale of a canine, and the upper body of a young boy. An illustrative woodcut of the ‘dog boy’ posed like an ethnographic portrait appeared in Konrad… Continue reading Bestiality and Human-Animal Hybrids: Inter-Faith Relations and the Corruption of the Christian Body
Keywords: Monstrous Births, Portents, Papacy, Muslim Turks, Crusades Hartmann Schedel's Nuremberg Chronicle (1493) described a monstrous birth that was born with a face of a dog on their back. The artist interpreted this description based on conjoined twins as the birth was portrayed with two heads, one human and one canine, and a shared body.… Continue reading What is the meaning behind the dog-man conjoined twins in the Nuremberg Chronicle?
Dana K Rehn 