A true picture and story of two brethren borne in Genoa in Italie, 1620 [graphic] : the one called Lazaz, the other John Baptist, both at this present living, and to be seene in the Strand at London, 1637. Decemb. 6

London : by A[ugustine]. M[atthews]. for Robert Milbourne, [1637].

1 item ; 480 x 360 mm

This is a PRELIMINARY RECORD. It may contain incorrect information. Please email catalog@folger.edu for assistance.

Great Britain -- England -- London, -- publication place.

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From dealer's description: ""A PITEOUS, HIDEOUS, INFANT BLINDE" A UNIQUE COPY OF A BROADSIDE ADVERTISEMENT OF THE COLLOREDO CONJOINED TWINS [COLLOREDO CONJOINED TWINS]. A true Picture and Story of two Brethren borne in Genoa in Italie, 1620. the one called Lazaz, the other John Baptist, both at this present living, and to be seene in the Strand at London, 1637. Decemb. 6. Large Broadside (480 x 360mm). Letterpress title and a pair of Latin and English verses surrounding a central etched image labelled “Aetatis Suae / 17” [at the age of 17] (etching: 170 x 127mm) showing the conjoined twins being revealed from behind a curtain. Sheet slightly dusty, edges of the sheet very carefully (almost imperceptibly repaired). Preserved in a modern window mount. London: by A[ugustine]. M[atthews]. for Robert Milbourne, [1637]. UNRECORDED - NOT IN OCLC, ESTC or STC. Milbourne also published another broadside which includes the engraving of the twins but with the title in Latin and the two Latin poems titled Historia aenigmatica, de gemellis Genoae connatis (1637), a single copy is recorded at Harvard (STC 11728.6). The British Museum catalogue states that Milbourne entered this broadside in the Stationers’ Register in November 1637 [see below] but that “no impression of this has been found.” A very large and unique broadside advertisement for the exhibition of the teenage Colloredo twins - conjoined brothers who were displayed across Europe. The present example is the only one to preserve two English poems describing the “hideous” twins and playing into anti-Catholic fears in the period. This striking and challenging broadside raises questions about the notion of public spectacle, the treatment of abnormalities, xenophobia and religious intolerance and philosophical questions surrounding the idea of a single person comprising of two bodies. The Colloredo twins (born in Genoa, according to this broadside, in 1613) comprised of Lazarus, a seemingly able-bodied man who - when exhibited - would draw back his cloak to reveal his brother John Baptista who protruded from his brother’s abdomen. The twins, seemingly under the management of Lazarus “performed” across Europe before reaching England at the end of 1637. Sir Henry Herbert’s (the Master of the Revels) office-book contains an entry granting permission for: "A license for six months granted to Lazaras, an Italian, to shew his brother Baptista, that grows out of his navell, and carryes him at his syde. In confirmation of his Majesty’s warrant, granted unto him to make publique shewe". The entry is dated 4th November 1637, only a couple of weeks before the present broadside was entered in the Stationers’ Company Registers on 23rd November: "Master Milborn. Entred for his Copie vnder the hands of Master Baker and Master Aspley a Picture ‘of the Italian yo[u]ng man with his brother growing out of his side’ with some ‘verses’ thereunto" (Arber, Stationers’ Company Registers , 1554-1640, IV. 399; p.373) Lazarus and his brother were seemingly still in London in late 1639 when they are mentioned in a pamphlet A certaine relation of the hog-faced gentlewoman called Mistris Tannakin Skinker (London 1640): “I will only remember unto you, a very handsome young man, late (if not now) in Towne, whose picture hath been publickly set out to the common view, and himselfe to be seene for money; who from one of his sides hath a twin brother growing, which was born with him, and is living still; though having sence and feeling, yet destitute of reason and understanding: whence me thinks a disputable questions might arise, whether as they have distinct lives, so they are possessed of two soules or have but one imparted betwixt them both; but of this let the Philosophers, or rather the Divines argue and define, being, I must ingeniously confesse an argument much above my Element” (A4r) The twins also toured England, appearing in Norwich in December 1639, the Court Book of the Mayor of Norwich records: “This daie Larzeus Colloretto have leave to shewe a monster until the day after twelve, he shewing to the Court a lysence signed with his Maties owne hand” (quoted in Malcom Jones) and by 1642 they were in Scotland where John Spalding records: “...there came to Aberdeen an Italian monster of a man, about twenty-four years of age, having a birth growing from his breast upward, face to face as it were, a creature having head and long hair of the colour of a man’s, the head still drooping backwards and downwards; he had eyes, but not open; he had ears, two arms, two hands, three fingers on each hand, a body, a leg, and foot with six toes, the other leg within the flesh, inclining to the left side. It had some signs of virility, it had a kind of life and feeling, but void of all other senses; fed with man’s nourishment, and evacuated the same way as his. This great work of God was admired of by many in Aberdeen, and through the countries where he travelled; yet such was the goodness of God, that he could go and walk where he pleased, carrying this birth without any pain, yea, or unespied when his cloaths were on. When he came to town he had two servants waiting on him, who, with himself, were well clad. His portraiture was drawn up and hung at his lodging to the view of people; the one servant had a trumpet which sounded as such time as the people should come and see this monster, who flocked abundantly to his lodging. The other servant received the money frae ilk person for his sight, some less, some more: and after there was so much collected as could be gotten, he with his servants shortly left the town, and went south again.” ( The History of the Troubles and Memorable Transactions in Scotland, “A New Edition”, Aberdeen, 1840, p.273) John Evelyn in his work on medals Numismata (1697) included the Colloredo twins (“To these add Lazarus the Italian, whose Brother grew out of his side” p.277) in chapter VIII where he discusses collecting portrait prints where medals are not available when suggesting subjects that might be suitable for future use as medals. Francis Bacon also notes in his Novum Organon (London 1620) that, “a compilation, or particular history, must be made of all monsters and prodigious births of nature; of everything, in short, which is new, rare, and unusual in nature. This should be done with a rigorous selection, so as to be worthy of credit” It is clear from many of the contemporary accounts of the Colloredo twins that many people first encountered them through the use of a printed image, such as the present. Spalding describes how “His portraiture was drawn up and hung at his lodging to the view of people” and the author of A certaine relation of the hog-faced gentlewoman called Mistris Tannakin Skinker specifically notes that their, “picture hath been publickly set out to the common view”. This broadside is therefore a vital piece of evidence (from a limited pool) for the contemporary reception of the twins. In addition to the present (unique) broadside, Harvard have a version which utilises the same image but with only the Latin text. In addition to this a crude ballad with a woodcut The two inseparable brothers. Or A true and strange description of a gentleman (an Italian by birth) was also published in 1637 (ESTC records two copies at the BL (both are damaged) and one at Manchester Central Library). Later in the century a broadside was printed in Strasbourg Wahre Abbildung zweyer Zwilling (1645) with an entirely different engraving and German text. The English verses below the image begin by enforcing the “monstrous” appearance of the twins: “See heere two Brothers, Twinnes, yet one they be. One, yet two heads, three legs, foure hands hath he. Each hath a body, both but one, two-soul’d Whether or no, I dare not boldly hould. The Childe, a piteous, hideous, Infant blinde… …Is seene, but sees not, fed, but never eates, His speechlesse mouth, takes neither drinke not meates: Nor eares, nor eyes, nor feet, nor hands, can do Such offices as Nature fram’d them to” The verses continue by emphasising the “burden” which John Baptista places on his brother and how the able-bodied brother performs the roles of “consort” and “porter” but also “friend”, “mother” and nurse”. The second verse attacks the brothers as a “Latine Monster…the clearest Embleme of the Romish Babel” and enforces that this deformity is due to the Catholicism of the twins. The broadside was printed by Augustine Matthews who printed numerous plays including works by Shakespeare, Webster, Massinger and Fletcher. In the same year that he printed this broadside he also printed Milton’s Comus (STC 17937) for Humphrey Robinson This broadside was discussed (and illustrated) twenty years ago in the Walpole Society journal by Malcom Jones where he noted that it survived “uniquely in the collection of Mr Peter Jackson [see below]” “Engraved Works recorded in the ‘Stationers’ Registers, 1562-1656: A Listing and Commentary”, Walpole Society, Vol. 64 (2002), pp. 1-68. Jones also described and illustrated it in his book, The Print in Early Modern England: An Historical Oversight (New Haven & London: Yale University Press, 2010). Later Provenance: Peter Jackson (1922-2003, writer, artist and collector of ephemera related to London. “For more than 50 years he [Jackson] was a magpie pecking away in antiquarian bookshops and salerooms. Prints, maps, drawings, books, ceramics, medals, playbills and ephemera associated with London were bought, catalogued and put in files or carefully mounted and stored in cabinets in his large house in west London” (see the obituary in the Independent , 7th May 2003)." Ordered from Maggs Bros. LTD., D9644, 2023-06-20, email quote.

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