Chapter XC: Book XI: 327

ON MAN AND MONSTERS

[327] In the first part of book xi are contained the remnants of
the sciences of human anatomy and physiology as the ancients had
known them. The second part is devoted to unnatural births, which
were regarded as having a prophetic meaning, and to monstrous
races. It is not known what were Isidore’s immediate sources for
bk. xi. Most of the natural science of the later Roman empire,
however, was drawn ultimately from Pliny. To correspond to
Isidore’s topics in this book of the _Etymologies_, comparative
anatomy and physiology are found in Pliny’s _Natural History_,
bk. xi, ch. 44 _et seq._, and chapters on monstrous races
(_Gentium mirabiles figurae_) and on unusual and unnatural births
(_prodigiosi, monstruosi partus_) are found in bk. vii.

ANALYSIS

I. Man and his parts (ch. 1).
A description of the human body.
II. The six ages of man (ch. 2).
III. Monsters.
1. Monstrous births (ch. 3, 1–11).
2. Monstrous races (ch. 3, 12–27).
3. The imaginary monsters of pagan mythology (ch. 3, 28–39).
4. Transformations (ch. 4).

EXTRACTS