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In the 17th c., scientific publications were filled with "reports of monsters, strange weather, and other singularities," D+G write. 🧵 Good BHL post covering one example - Gaspar Schott's Physica Curiosa: blog.biodiversitylibrary.org/2013/05/monsters-scientific-revolution-and #histsci 🗃️ #SciArt

Often concerned with "ideal" conceptions of nature, anomalies = monsters in the eyes of 17th c. scientists. Sadly, this often meant ascribing this term to people and animals with deformities. Lots of these in Schott.

To D+G, these "monstrosities" could prompt more precise illustrations, rather than the idealized images scientists usually produced. These were "meant to hinder premature generalizations and promote exact observations of particulars..." (p. 67)

They use the example of a 1677 description and illustration of "a child which remained twenty six years in the mother's belly." Link to original article containing illustration: www.jstor.org/stable/101803