Anomaly and Norm

The Adaptability of Life Between Anatomy and Biology

Fortunio Liceti
De monstrorum caussis, natura et differentiis 1668

The physician and philosopher Fortunio Liceti (1577-1657) became a key figure in Teratology. Contrary to the dominant view of his time, which attributed the origin of monstra to supernatural causes or divine manifestations, Liceti, in his work, published in 1616, proposed a naturalistic explanation. He argued that anomalies were the result of deviations in the natural processes of embryonic development, caused by physical or environmental factors, such as the narrowness of the uterus, problems with the placenta or amniotic fluid, malnutrition, trauma, or fetal diseases. Liceti was thus the first to recognize that fetal diseases could lead to malformations in offspring. Even though he also included some interpretations related to animi passionibus, to the imaginatione of parents, and to malos daemones, from this moment on, anomalies were no longer considered supernatural beings but rather the result of natural phenomena that still fell within the order of nature.

Biblioteca storica di medicina e botanica Vincenzo Pinali e Giovanni Marsili