Medieval heritage: Ulisse Aldovrandi

Ulisse Aldovrandi(1522-1605) certainly is unknown both in Italy and to abroad, he has been a doctor and naturalist man, hence a scientist; we can consider him so, but not certainly trough the rationality  that we can ascertain to scientist men and women, and this judge has determined from his book Monstrorum historya, the history of monsters; a collection of medieval fantasies, that today are laughable  but then, year 1642, were worth trust from the readers; anyway this book is a catalog of engravers of Cristoforo Coriolano(1540-?) that have followed the description of Aldovrandi, that in this book has used the Medieval sources, and it is certified from the fantasy  that he used from the authors, in this book he has also took from the ancient authors, naturally others fantasies, as Plinius(a.Ch.20-73) and his Naturalis historya, anyway Plinius tells around the black men that have the inferior lip until the thorax and these peoples are high and very black; we must consider that then the blacks were very anomalous; anyway other authors is van Wesel(1514-1564) a medical man that, in conformity to that custom has described, as Aldovrandi mentioned it,  some anatomic particular as the huge ears that from the head until the legs, some resident in Ethiopia, that have four eyes; the fantasy of Aldovrandi and others authors before to him is very conspicuous , because other step says the in island of Taprobana, the name of ancient for the actual Sri Lanka these are men that have alone eyes in head; and some other Roman author as Filvius Torquatus consul, that tells that he has seen the men that have  one eyes ; but Aoldovrandi didn’t exclude the neck, because the Tartarian people has very long neck, but also the tail is considered, because saint peter has seen men with long tails; but among much fantasies something of true can occur; this is the men that have the hirsutism, this the downy on the face, that in engravers of Coriolano are very exaggerated , that Aldovrandi calls: “Homines silvestres”, this the wild men; but Aldovrandi isn’t ce4rtainly impolite, because he mentioned  a name of woman that has hirsutism in his city this is Bologna, Italy, he says: “In this city the downy  in Bologna and it is  a race, and he has married very noble Sorani marquise…”, naturally in this step is the formal respect of nobility of man, and he didn’t leave also the hirsutism of teen , because a description  of teen  is motive for curiosity. Finally this book is alone a catalog of strange descriptions that have took from Medieval and ancient sources, that Aldovrandi has considered very reliable, naturally we must consider that the science  was developed from some side instead others was again merely medieval.

Alessandro Lusana