Les Monstres à la Renaissance et à l'âge classique: métamorphoses des images, anamorphoses des discours (review)

Les Monstres à la Renaissance et à l'âge classique: métamorphoses des images, anamorphoses des discours [Monsters in the Renaissance and the Classical Age: Metamorphoses of Images, Anamorphoses of Discourses, my translation] is a virtual book-exhibition on monsters in the Renaissance and the Classical period. Presented by the Bibliothèque Interuniversitaire de Médecine et d'Odontologie (BIUM) in Paris, the site showcases books from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in that library's collections. With text and image selection by Annie Bitbol-Hespériès, graphics and Web design by Jacques Gana, and developed in collaboration with the BIUM's Department of the History of Medicine and Photographic Services, the site offers both an introduction to the history of the monstrous and a virtual voyage through a selection of the BIUM's rich collection of illustrated medical works. The site is in French.

Chapters and subheadings of Bitbol-Hespériès's virtual book include etymology, definitions, the diversity of images, monsters and the conception of nature, monsters and fables, the emergence of medical discourse, and Descartes on nature, among others. Individual sections range from eight to around thirty pages. Bitbol Hespériès's text focuses on three aspects of the history of works on the monstrous: the profusion of images of monsters in the second half of the sixteenth century; the variety of those images; and the range of authors who wrote on the topic.

The site offers a solid general overview of the principal authors, problems, and developments in medical, philosophical, and other works that dealt with real or fictional anomalies in the Renaissance and early modern period, accessible to those who are not specialists in the field. The text is image-rich, showing engravings from major works by Paré, Liceti, Boaistuau, Schenck, Riolan, Lycosthenes, Rüff, Münster, Aldrovandi, Schedel, Gesner, Belon, and others in the BIUM collections. The user can follow the development of Renaissance and early modern concepts of what constituted the "monstrous": real human anomalies (conjoined and parasitic twinning, hermaphrodism, excess limbs, etc.); fantastic melds taken from ancient texts and often embellished or reinvented in the early modern era, such as human-animal and animal-animal hybrids; unicorns and other creatures of fable; and the real but unfamiliar animals brought to European attention by increasing exploration and travel, such as the whale, the crocodile, and the rhinoceros. The elaboration of notions of the monstrous was a cross-disciplinary affair in the Renaissance and the early modern era. Images and the supporting history are taken from works of medicine, anatomy, philosophy, theology, travel narratives, and maps.

Experts in the history of the monstrous will likely find the image bank the most valuable resource on this site. Each image has a menu bar offering biographical information on the author, history and publishing information for the given work, and additional images from that work. The images can be enlarged, and resolution and clarity are excellent. The site is particularly useful for following images that, in typical early modern fashion, were reused, copied, borrowed, or plagiarized from one work to another. The site offers scholars of the monstrous a single source for comparing many images. Those delving into the history of monsters for the first time will find useful ways of orienting themselves, and a cross-disciplinary approach to works on the monstrous and the philosophical, medical, and theological contexts in which those texts developed. References to and quotes from a range of authors including Pliny, Saint Augustine, La Fontaine, and Maupassant help briefly place the history of the discourse on monsters within broader perspectives.

For scholars working in the field and those considering travel to the BIUM, the bibliography gives call numbers for books in the library's collection. The bibliography is most valuable for those early sources, many of which are at the BIUM. The list...