Monster of Ravenna
The Monster of Ravenna was a possibly apocryphal late
History
The earliest account of the monster's existence is from the diarist Sebastiano di Branca Tedallini, who recorded on March 8 that news of a strange infant's birth had reached Pope Julius II in Rome. According to his account, the child was said to have been born of a nun and a friar, and was marked by a horned head, the letters YXV on its chest, and with one leg hairy and cloven-hoofed while the other leg's midsection grew a human eye.[1] On March 11, the apothecary Luca Landucci documented how word of this incident had reached Florence; having apparently received a drawing of the monster, Landucci described it to possess features such as a single horn, the wings of a bat, hermaphroditic genitalia, an eye on its right knee and a clawed left foot like an eagle's.[2][3][4] The tale was subsequently immortalized by further chroniclers of the era, including Johannes Multivallis, Jacques Rueff, Conrad Lycosthenes, Caspar Hedio, Pierre Boaistuau, Fortunio Liceti, and Ambroise Paré.[5] Landucci's physical description seems to have been considered authoritative, as later chroniclers, particularly Boaistuau, largely reproduced his account word-for-word.[6][a]
In medieval Europe, it was common practice for malformed infants, especially those with little chance of survival, to be abandoned and left to die by starvation;[7] this was done in Ravenna on the order of the Pope.[4]
Even after its reported death, however, news of the monstrous birth continued to sweep Europe, often in stories greatly embellished by the storyteller. In a popular poem given by Marcello Palonio relatively soon after its birth, the monster is implied to possess two heads.[8][9] With more time, the description of the Ravenna monster evolved, changing its number of legs from two to one and eventually syncretizing with the morality figure of Frau Welt.[4][10] Giovanni Battista Bissoni was contracted to design the illustrations for the second edition of Fortunio Liceti's account, with the Monster of Ravenna centrally displayed on the frontispiece; by this point, the creature was well-established as possessing a single clawed foot.[11]
A major element in the popularity of the "monster" was its appearance alongside similar signs and portents; the occurrence of other preternatural events was a major factor in convincing Landucci that this was not an isolated incident.[12] In 1514, with the example of Ravenna still fresh in public memory, a so-called "Monster of Bologna" was reported. This child was born with two faces, three eyes, and a woman's vulva on its forehead. She lived long enough to be baptized as "Maria" but died four days later.[13][14]
Interpretation
The horn [indicates] pride; the wings, mental frivolity and inconstancy; the lack of arms, a lack of good works; the raptor's foot, rapaciousness, usury, and every sort of avarice; the eye on the knee, a mental orientation solely toward earthly things; the double sex, sodomy. And on account of these vices, Italy is shattered by the sufferings of war, which the
King of France has not accomplished by his own power, but only as the scourge of God.— Johannes Multivallis, Eusebii Caesariensis episcopi chronicon, 1512[15]
Contemporary accounts sought to explain the "monster" and its unusual features in religious terms. The version proposed by Multivallis was fairly typical of the age; the recent
During the Protestant Reformation, monstrous births and similar incidents were cited with political intent, most notably in the example of Luther's mooncalf. In the fifth volume of the anti-Lutheran Centvrien by Johann Nas, Martin Luther is himself identified with the Monster of Ravenna.[18] Early woodcuts were produced by Protestants which depicted the child as having been born in a Florentine convent, the offspring of a nun and the Pope himself. This was followed by the more established narrative that the birth presaged the invasion of Louis XII as an agent of God's displeasure with Catholic power.[19]
The Monster of Ravenna is referenced briefly in Mateo Alemán's novel Guzmán de Alfarache, which was published at the end of the seventeenth century. After protracted criticism of his own father for being sexually and religiously immoral, Guzmán invokes the grotesque imagery of the Monster as a being which transcends the societal norms of sex.[20]
Speculation on origins
Analyzing the later account of Ambroise Paré, Walton et al. proposed a tentative diagnosis of
References
Notes
- ^ Boaistuau's account includes the description of the eye on the knee and the clawed foot, but he has combined the two into a single leg. The text is otherwise nearly identical to Landucci's.
- ^ This is based on Paré's assertion that the child had only one leg, per the later accounts of the Monster's appearance.
Citations
- ^ Niccoli 1990, p. 35.
- ^ Niccoli 1990, p. 36.
- ^ a b Daston & Park 1998, p. 177.
- ^ a b c d Leroi 2003, intro.
- ^ Huet 2004, p. 131.
- ^ Hampton 2004, pp. 179–180.
- ^ Niccoli 1990, p. 33.
- ^ Niccoli 1990, pp. 40–41.
- ^ Ashton 1890, pp. 173–174.
- ^ Niccoli 1990, pp. 37–44.
- ^ Cheng 2012, p. 212.
- ^ Daston & Park 1998, p. 178.
- ^ Bowd 1999, p. 41.
- ^ Niccoli 1990, pp. 52–53.
- ^ Daston & Park 1998, pp. 181–182.
- ^ Paré 1982, p. 6.
- ^ Niccoli 1990, p. 47.
- ^ Spinks 2009, p. 343.
- ^ Schutte 1985, p. 92.
- ^ Cruz 2010, pp. 11–12.
- ^ Walton, Fineman & Walton 1993, p. 12.
- ^ Martínez‐Frías 1994, p. 362.
Sources
Articles
- Bowd, Stephen D. (March 1999). "Pietro Bembo and the 'monster' of Bologna (1514)". Renaissance Studies. 13 (1): 40–54. JSTOR 24412789.
- Cheng, Sandra (2012). "The Cult of the Monstrous: Caricature, Physiognomy, and Monsters in Early Modern Italy". Preternature: Critical and Historical Studies on the Preternatural. 1 (2): 197–231. .
- Cruz, Anne J. (2010). "Figuring Gender in the Picaresque Novel: From 'Lazarillo' to 'Zayas'". Romance Notes. 50 (1): 7–20. S2CID 162362385.
- Martínez‐Frías, María‐Luisa (1 February 1994). "Another way to interpret the description of the Monster of Ravenna of the sixteenth century". PMID 8209905.
- Schutte, Anne Jacobson (Spring 1985). "'Such Monstrous Births': A Neglected Aspect of the Antinomian Controversy". Renaissance Quarterly. 38 (1): 85–106. PMID 11611708.
- Spinks, Jennifer (Summer 2009). "Monstrous Births and Counter-Reformation Visual Polemics: Johann Nas and the 1569 Ecclesia Militans". JSTOR 40540638.
- Walton, Michael T.; Fineman, Robert M.; Walton, Phyllis J. (1 August 1993). "Of monsters and prodigies: The interpretation of birth defects in the sixteenth century". PMID 8368257.
Books
- Ashton, John (1890). Curious creatures in zoology; with 130 illus. throughout the text. London: John C. Nimmo. .
- ISBN 0-942299-90-6.
- Hampton, Timothy (2004). "Signs of Monstrosity: The Rhetoric of Description and the Limits of Allegory in Rabelais and Montaigne". In Knoppers, Laura Lunger; Landes, Joan B. (eds.). Monstrous Bodies/Political Monstrosities in Early Modern Europe. ISBN 0-8014-4176-5.
- Huet, Marie-Hélène (2004). "Monstrous Medicine". In Knoppers, Laura Lunger; Landes, Joan B. (eds.). Monstrous Bodies/Political Monstrosities in Early Modern Europe. ISBN 0-8014-4176-5.
- ISBN 0-670-03110-0.
- Niccoli, Ottavia (1990). Prophecy and People in Renaissance Italy. Translated by Cochrane, Lydia G. ISBN 0-691-05568-8.
- ISBN 0-226-64563-0. Based on the Malgaigneedition of 1840.