Latin from Renaissance texts is a good source of vocabulary for the various branches of science, but you also get a sense of a transition in terms of thinking.
Image #1: Physica Curiosa was written in 1662 by the priest and scientist Gaspar Schott; there are a total of twelve books, the first six focussing on “all natural and supernatural monstrosities known at that time, including bizarre animals and physical abnormalities and abstract ideas of the mind” (Wikipedia). There is a parallel book by Schott entitled Technica Curiosa referred to in an earlier post when the terms for musical instruments were discussed.
There
are some interesting commentaries on Physica Curiosa, one of which, I
think, hits the nail on the head:
“By the end of the 17th century, electricity, the telescope and microscope, calculus, universal gravitation, Newton’s Laws of Motion, air pressure and calculating machines had entered the scene. And yet, as with all great shifts in cultural thinking, the transition from superstition to science was not instantaneous. Many of the era’s great thinkers attempted to reconcile previous beliefs with new discoveries. Case in point: Monsters.”
https://blog.biodiversitylibrary.org/2013/05/monsters-scientific-revolution-and.html
Of his own work Schott writes: other people have reported
the wondrous things, that I am writing down here - yet they only tell. But I
put most of it on the scales of truth and separate the true from the false, the
real from the fake, and then I try to investigate the causes of the individual
phenomena. … I do not approve of all because I know that some are doubtful, if
not false. Others are superstitious and perhaps even manifestly false.
The book is extensively illustrated and I’ve posted some
examples here since Schott gives the Latin for very peculiar creatures – and,
sadly, a few not so peculiar. Some of the physical abnormalities shown i.e. the
conjoined twins and the boy with shortened limbs and fingers does, I feel, show
that ‘overlap’ between what existed and what did not. If you’ve seen the deeply
distressing movie “The Elephant Man”, then [iii] below will touch a nerve since
the Victorians were still comparing that awful disorder to the features of an
elephant.
The one I found the most fascinating was the reference to homō
sylvestris: the forest man, and Schott accurately gives it location as
Java. Of course, they do exist but not quite the way the illustration portrays
them: homo sylvestris = man of the forest = Malay: orang utan!
[i]
mōnstrum marīnum effigiē monachī │ a sea monster with the
likeness of a monk
vir marīnus epīscopī habitū │ a sea man in the clothing of a
bishop
[ii]
mōnstrum ālātum │ a winged monster
mōnstrum cornūtum │ a horned monster
cum pede rapācis avis │ with the foot of a ravenous bird
[iii]
puer capite elephantinō │ a boy with an elephant’s head
īnfāns cornūtus ōre patulō │ a horned infant with a gaping
mouth
[iv]
homō acephalus │ a headless man
homō monoculus │ a one-eyed man
homō pedibus āversīs │ a man with feet turned round
[v]
mōnstrum triceps capite vulpis, dracōnis et aquilae │ a
three-headed monster with the head of a fox, a dragon and an eagle
[vi]
gallus mōnstr(u)ōsus │ a monstrous rooster
hūmāna effigiēs in ōvō │ a human likeness in an egg
locō capillōrum et barbae │ in the place of hair and a beard
habēns colla et rōstra ānserīna │ having the necks and beaks
of a goose
[vii]
foetus (fētus) quaternīs brā(c)chiīs et pedibus │ a foetus
with four arms and feet
īnfāns apertō ventre │ an infant with an open stomach
pūsiō digitīs diminūtīs │ a lad with diminished fingers
[viii]
homō sylvestris │ a forest man
homō villōsus │ a hairy man
[ix]
Īnfantēs duo iuxtā natēs conglūtinātī │ two infants buttocks
joined together
[x]
puella pilōsa │ a hairy girl
[xi]
īnfāns cum promuscide* │ infant with a snout
et capitibus animālium │ and the heads of animals
* promuscis: a corrupt form of proboscis, -is [3/f]: snout;
trunk of an elephant
[xii]
sūs biceps │ a two-headed pig
agnus biceps │ a two-headed lamb
vitulus biceps quat(t)uor oculīs │ a two-headed calf with four
eyes
vitulus bicorpor capitibus canīnīs │a calf with two bodies and
the heads of dogs
agnus ōre trigeminō │ a lamb with three mouths
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