The natural and social world is a permanent source of wonder, whether through the regularity of its order or through the irruption of the unusual. These two sides go hand in hand: the extraordinary breaks the usual land-scape of the world, whilst simultaneously confirming it. Throughout Europe’s cultural history, “monsters” were the most remarkable figures of wonder. As the etymology reveals (from the Latin monitum, which means warning), “monsters” have the role of drawing attention, of reveal-ing. Their meaning is not limited to their unusual shape, with “monsters” also configuring a sign of something unknown, or perhaps of a future event. Their peculiar physiognomy is the result of a profound change in an ani-mal species or of the combination of elements belonging to different species. As a representative form of alterity (the other as some-thing different), “monsters” particularly appeared in travel literature, as in the Odyssey, or in accounts of travellers such as Marco Polo, who ventured into distant lands, primarily in East Asia. The most emblematic cases, which filled the imagination from the earliest times to the Middle Ages, were the stories of fantastic individuals or peoples who were thought to inhabit the edges of the world, especially at the seafront of the solid earth.With the emergence of modern science, in the sixteenth century, due to the knowledge brought by navigators and explorers, “monsters” were demystified and the focus shifted to how these prodigious beings were generated, to inquiring whether they were mere anomalies or curious forms of a multifaceted nature.

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AT THE EDGES OF THE WORLD

Medieval writers and travellers considered the edge of the known world to be a privileged place of novelty, variety and even transgression of the order of nature and customs.

The confines of the East were the quintessential place where “monstrous” beings proliferated, such as: Monopods, who protected themselves from the sun by the shade of their only foot; Cynocephali, beings with a canine head and human limbs; the Blemmyes, who bore their head on their chest. The possible existence of such beings constituted a challenge to rationality and morality, which were con-sidered characteristics of the human being. Were these strange and compelling creatures other forms of humanity or simple oddities? Could they be converted to Christianity?

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WONDERS AS A MORAL AND POLITICAL INSTRUMENT

The belief in the existence of “monstrous” species declined in the Renaissance, thanks to a new scientific mentality and the voyages of the Portuguese and Spanish navigators, who did not confirm their existence. Interest in the strange and extraordinary was then focused on unique and somehow aberrant human beings, with Europe as the

main stage of their exhibi-tion and representation. In general, they were assigned a supernatural cause, being the result of a serious moral transgression, accompanied by the omen of one or more divine punishments, inclu-ding famine, plague or war. Horror was the predominant emotion associated with “monstrous” wonders.

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THE WONDROUS CREATIVITY OF NATURE

The period of the Renais-sance, which coincided largely with the discoveries, introduced a new view about “monsters.” They continued to be regarded as wonders, but they lost their fantastical aura.

Doctors and philosophers of the Renaissance sought out real “monsters”, either through direct observation or through reliable reports. The meaning of “monsters” also changed in this period. If “monsters” had previ-ously been characterised by their rarity and dispropor-tion, the distinctive feature became the dissimilarity in relation to their ancestors. The view of “monsters” changed its focus to the generating power of nature and to its ability to push the variation and proliferation of exceptions to the limit.

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THE UNRAVELLING OF NATURE’S SECRETS

At the end of the seventeenth century, and throughout the eighteenth century, Mother Nature became the regu-lating ideal not only of the natural sciences, but of all knowledge and well-regu-lated and effective action.

Now nature was uniform in its laws and general princi-ples, but infinitely varied in the specific forms it could assume. Within this context, “monsters” were under-stood as a deviation from the general order, but neverthe-less endowed with a specific type of order. In this period, which ac-companied the creation of Academies, these beings be-came object of curiosity. The compilation of accounts and the reciprocal explanation of the difference between the normal and the extraor-dinary was undertaken by their members.

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TERATOLOGY A NEW SCIENCE

In the nineteenth century, great changes occurred in the understanding of extraordinary beings. Studies on comparative anatomy indicated simila-rities in the malformations of animals from different species. Therefore, attention was shifted away from the “monstrous” to the kind of “monstrosity” that affected a particular being, human or animal.

Delay in embryonic devel-opment was proposed as the main cause of deformi-ties. The difference between beings was the subject of scientific classifications and, for the first time, their artificial production in the laboratory became possible. Together with the emer-gence of scientific teratolo-gy, Frankenstein was born. From a literary character, he became the most iconic artistic representation of “monstrosity”.

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NEW FRONTIERS. THE SENSE OF WONDER AND THE MONSTERS OF THE PRESENT AND THE FUTUREAdvances in Biology and Medicine in the 20th century raised a new sense of wonder by pushing the boundaries of the unknown further than ever before. The discovery of the three-dimensional struc-ture of DNA allowed us to find a matrix common to all living beings and better understand the prodigious capacity for variation between species and within the same species. Laboratory research animals allow us to observe changes, mutations, in what were discovered to be organizing genes underlying the embry-onic development of living be-ings. The Cyclops has changed from monster to laboratory variant that helps us under-

stand how to build a skull.In Medicine, advances in ro-botics and gene therapy, allow us to change ourselves: to cor-rect disease-causing patho-logical mutations and to bring hearing, vision and movement control to individuals who were deprived of them. In Science, targeted modifica-tions in DNA, together with new imaging technologies and artificial intelligence pave the way to deciphering the most prodigious human organ: the brain.Will technical and sci-entific progress increase the human capacity to marvel? What new monsters an-nounce themselves?

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Cover:

EnvyThe seven capital sins, 1558Pieter van der Heyden (ca.1530-ca.1572)Biblioteca Nacional de Espanha inv. 3714

AT THE EDGES OF THE WORLD

Pages 2 and 3Monopod, (beings with only one leg and foot); cyclops (beings with just one eye), conjoined twins, blemmy, (beings who have their head in their chest); and cynocephalus (beings with a canine head and human limbs); Sei Libri Della Cosmografia Vniuersale, Autore Münster, Sébastien, 1489-1552; Petri, Heinrich, fl. 1527-1578, ed. com. [Basileia] : stampato a spese di Henrigo Pietro, 1558Biblioteca Nacional de Portugal res-2094-a

Pages 4 and 5IcelandAbraham Ortelius, (1527-1598). Cartographeark:/12148/btv1b5971505pBibliothèque nationale de France GE BB 565 (2,13)

WONDERS AS A MORAL AND POLITICAL INSTRUMENT

Page 6Prodigiorum ac ostentorum chronicon… / conscriptum per Conradum Lycosthenem rubeaquensem [Chronicle of wonders and admirable things …/ compiled by Conrad Lykostenes 1518-1561 rubeaquense]; Basilaea: per Henricum Petri, 1557Biblioteca Nacional de Portugal S.A 32876 V

Page 8Monster of Krakow Pierre Boaistuau, Histoires Prodigieuses1560 Wellcome Library, London. folio 27

IMAGE INDEX Page 9Frog-Man“Opera Ambrosii Parei regis primarii et Parisiensis chirurgi. A Docto viro plerique locis recognita: et Latinitate donata, Iacobi Guillemeau… Chirurgi labore diligentia…”Parisiis,: apud Iacobum Du-Puys, sub signo Samaritanae, 1582Biblioteca Nacional de Portugal S.A 2672 A

THE WONDROUS CREATIVITY OF NATURE

Page 10Female monster without a headWork by Ambroise Paré, the king’s chief physician and Parisian surgeon: written by a learned man who was recognised in many places, translated into Latin by Jacques Guillaume, with the care and attention expected of a surgeon...Paré, Ambroise, (1510?-1590; Guillemeau, Jaques, 1550-1613?, ed. lit.; Du Puys, Jacques, fl.1540-1589 ?, Omp.Opera Ambrosii Parei regis primarii et Parisiensis chirurgi. A Docto viro plerique locis recognita: et Latinitate donata, Iacobi Guillemeau… Chirurgi labore diligentia…Parisiis,: apud Iacobum Du-Puys, sub signo Samaritanae, 1582Biblioteca Nacional de Portugal S A 2672 A.

Pages 12 and 13Two young conjoined peopleMonstrous being with four arms and four legsPierre Boaistuau (1517-1566)Histoires Prodigieuses, 1560 Wellcome Library, London. folio27, 68

THE UNRAVELLING OF NATURE’S SECRETS

Pages 14 and 15Siamese twinsDomingos Vandelli (1735-1816)Dissertatio de monstris [Dissertation on monstrous beings]Coimbra, 1776

Pages 16 and 17Doe creature bound by the abdomenChild with malformationsLes Ecarts de la nature, ou recueil des

principales monstruosités, que la nature produit dans le genre animal. Peintes d’après nature , gravées et mises au jour par les Sr et Dme Regnault,...Paris: chez l’auteur, 1775ark:/12148/btv1b8453981xBibliothèque Nationale de France - PETFOL-JF-21

TERATOLOGY. A NEW SCIENCE

Pages 18 and 19Double MonstrosityMonstrous chicken embryos artificially produced for the first time in the late 19th century. Camille Dareste, Recherches sur la production artificielle des monstruosités, ou, Essais de Tératogénie expérimentale, Paris, 1876. Biblioteca de Ciências da Vida da Universidade de Coimbra. Inv. Fisiologia do Desenvolvimento 1

Volume, shape, and number anomaliesIsidore Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, Histoire Générale et Particulière des Anomalies de L’ Organization Chez l’ Homme et les Animaux ... ou Traité de Tératologie, Paris, Vol. 3. Biblioteca de Ciências da Vida da Universidade de Coimbra Inv. B-84/1

Pages 20 and 21CyclopesWillem Vrolick (1801-1863)Tabulae ad illustrandam embryogene-sin hominis et mammalium, Amsterdam: Londonck, 1844-1849

NEW FRONTIERS. THE SENSE OF WONDER AND THE MONSTERS OF THE PRESENT AND THE FUTURE

Page 23Illuminating the brain. Sets of neurons in the brain of zebrafish larvae are coloured according to their response when presented with images that mimic water flowing in different directions. Image: Sabine Renninger

Pages 24 and 25The “happiness molecule”?To illuminate serotonin’s biological functions scientists use advanced techniques to directly control the activity of serotonin neurons in the brain. Image: Sara Matias

EXHIBITION

The Marvellous Variety of the World 17.02.2018 / 03.06.2018Monument to the Discoveries

COORDINATIONMargarida Kol de CarvalhoMaria Cecília Cameira

SCIENTIFIC CURATORSPalmira Fontes da Costa - CIUHCT / Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia da Universidade Nova de LisboaAdelino Cardoso - CHAM / Faculdade de Ciências Sociais e Humanas da Universidade Nova de Lisboa

CONSULTANTSScience Communication OfficeAna Catarina Certal André Valente Constança Roquette– Fundação Champalimaud

EXHIBITION CONCEPT AND PRODUCTIONAntónio Viana

ASSISTANT PRODUCERNuno Magalhães

SCIENTIFIC AND EDUCATIONAL MEDIATIONEducational Service - Monument to the Discoveries

GRAPHIC DESIGN OF EXHIBITIONMiguel Lopes e Rita Neves

GRAPHIC LAYOUT / GRAPHICAL MATERIALSOland - Creative Designation of Origin

AUDIOVISUAL PRODUCTIONDigital Azul

AUDIOVISUAL DESIGN GMSC – Informática e Audiovisuais, Lda.

EXECUTIVE ASSISTANCEConceição Romão

CONSTRUCTIONLogotexto - Letras por Computador, Lda

VINYLS AND WALLPAPERNuno Manuel Neves Santos

LIGHTING PLANVitor Vajão

TRANSLATIONKennisTranslations

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:Carlos FiolhaisDaniela Rodrigues AmaralJorge PaivaJudite AlvesLiliana PóvoasMaria de Fátima Resende GomesAssociação de Turismo de LisboaBiblioteca Nacional de PortugalMuseu de Anatomia Patológica – Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade de CoimbraMuseu de História Natural -Colégio MilitarMuseu Nacional de História Natural e da Ciência - Universidade de LisboaPalácio Nacional de Mafra - Biblioteca