CC Special Collections has three illustrated books about monsters published in the 17th century. The authors are Ambroise Paré (French, 1510-1590), Ulisse Aldrovandi (Italian, 1522-1605), and Fortunio Liceti (Italian, 1577-1657). We have a 1628 edition of Paré’s Oeuvres (first published in 1573), a 1642 edition of Aldrovandi’s Monstrorum Historia (the first edition, published posthumously) and a 1665 edition of Liceti’s De Monstris (first published in 1616 without illustrations).

The “monsters” in these books include people with genetic anomalies (such as conjoined twins), mythical creatures (such as centaurs), and … well … these:

and these:

and many other similar trios. I have searched in vain for an explanation of how these three books ended up with such similar illustrations.