#Florence pictury

[stilouniverse]

Firenze nei pittori della seconda metà dell'Ottocento

a cura della Redazione ovvero un grande macchiaiolo fiorentino: Telemaco Signorini Il Mercato Vecchio in una tela di Telemaco Signorini Ci soffermiamo su alcune opere del maggior esponente fiorentino del movimento detto dei “macchiaoli”: l’etichetta, che voleva essere denigratoria e sarcastica, venne attribuita da un giornalista della Gazzetta del popolo nel 1862, ma piacque ai componenti il…

[bestiarium]

Equus monstrosis capite humano [17th century Europe]

The description “Equus monstrosis capite humano” simply means “monstrous horse with a human head”. Which is very fitting and descriptive. I encountered this creature in Schenk von Grafenberg’s 1609 medical work “Monstrorum historia memorabilis”, which is a book about birth defects.

This weird story supposedly happened in the battle of Altinus, between Florence and Pisa. I do not know where “Altinus” is, but keep in mind that I’m not exactly fluent in Latin so I might have made a mistranslation there. From my limited knowledge of Italian history, I think this may be the battle of Cascina in 1364.

In any case, while the battle was raging, a woman gave birth to a bizarre creature. The being much resembled a common horse except for its head, which was clearly human. When the creature opened its mouth, it made wailing noises that sounded human. One soldier found the woman who had just given birth – it is unknown whether she survived the gruesome event – but decided that the newly born horse was clearly a monster and an abomination. He drew his sword and ended its life.

It seems to me that it’s fairly obvious what really happened there. A woman gave birth to an infant with a severe birth defect, presumably something that made it vaguely resemble a horse foal. This story was passed on several times and was likely exaggerated to the point of fiction, until the malformed child turned into a horse with a human head.

The image on the left depicts a similar case, which was discussed on the same page and so I assume the author taught them related. In this case, a woman gave birth to a lion cub with the head of a human girl. No date or details are given.

Source: Von Grafenberg, 1609, Monstrorum historia memorabilis: monstrosa humanorum partum miracula, stupendis conformationum formulis ab utero materno enata, viuis exemplis, observationibus & picturis, referens. Which you can read here. (image source: Von Grafenberg, 1609, Monstrorum historia memorabilis)