Monstrous Births and Visual Culture in Sixteenth-Century Germany
Jennifer Spinks
Religious Cultures in the Early Modern World
978 1 85196 630 1: 234x156mm: £60.00/$99.00
978 1 85196 695 0
Dramatically physically deformed children and animals were a source of fascination and fear – though seldom pity – in early modern Europe. Notorious cases include the 1495 conjoined twins of Worms, the Monk Calf of 1523 and a seven-headed baby born in Eusrigo in 1573. This study is an examination of printed representations of monstrous births in German-speaking Europe from the end of the fifteenth century and through the sixteenth century, beginning with a seminal series of broadsheets from the late 1490s by humanist Sebastian Brant, and including prints by Albrecht Dürer and Hans Burgkmair.
In the sixteenth century these births were of particular importance in German-speaking areas that were caught up in the religious conflicts of the Reformation and early Counter-Reformation. While interest flared periodically in France, the Netherlands, and Italy, the most sustained and voluminous publications emerged from German regions. During this period intellectual and theological debates, popular belief and visual culture reflected a preoccupation with phenomena that were simultaneously natural and unnatural, including showers of blood, comets and other strange apparitions in the sky, and – the topic of this study – monstrous births.
Sample pages
Readership
Religious Studies, History of Art, History of Print Culture, Social History of Medicine
Contents
Introduction: Wonders and Monsters in Early Modern Europe
1 From Monstrous Races to Monstrous Births: Sebastian Brant and the Intersection of Humanism, Print Culture and Monstrous Births around 1500
2 Visual Culture and Monstrous Births before the Reformation: Albrecht Dürer, Hans Burgkmair and Conjoined Twins
3 Reformation Visual Culture and Monstrous Births: Luther’s Monk Calf and Melanchthon’s Papal Ass
4 Wonder Books and Protestants: Jakob Rueff, Konrad Lycosthenes and Job Fincel
5 Catholic Print Culture and Monstrous Births: Johann Nas and Anti-Lutheran Polemic
6 ‘Many Heads, Mouths and Tongues’: Monstrous Births in the Later Sixteenth Century
Reviews
'Lavishly illustrated, beautifully produced and written, Spinks’s investigation ... proves how fruitful attention to the unusual can be in understanding the typical, mainstream mentalities, beliefs and culture of early modern society.'
– Bettina Bildhauer, The Times Literary Supplement (read the full review here)
'Well researched and with thoughtful use of primary sources, this book is a welcome and necessary addition to the nascent scholarship on the complex subject of monsters in the early modern period.'
– Touba Ghadessi Fleming, Renaissance Quarterly
'Jennifer Spinks has produced an interesting and highly detailed text showing how politics, religious turmoil, and print culture 'turned monstrous births into iconic figures in a world teeming with disturbing wondrous signs'.'
– Michelle Smith, Parergon
'... the diligent source analysis presented here makes this book a valuable addition to the literature on early modern print culture, monstrous births, and German culture during the Reformation.'
– Surekha Davies, Journal of Early Modern History
'Monstrous Births and Visual Culture shows the range and power of monstrous births in early modern German writing and illustration, and will be of interest to scholars of Reformation Germany and 'monster culture'.'
– William E Burns, Canadian Journal of History
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