"Monstrous Hybrids, Maternal Sin, and the Concept of Species in Nicole Oresme's De causis mirabilium."

"Monstrous Hybrids, Maternal Sin, and the Concept of Species in Nicole Oresme's De causis mirabilium." in Gender and the ‘Natural’ Environment in the Middle Ages, edited by Theresa L. Tyers and Patricia Skinner, pp.248-272 (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 2023).

This essay investigates the scholastic philosopher Nicole Oresme's treatment to the phenomenon of human/animal hybrids in De causis mirabilium (1370). It demonstrates how Oresme made a claim for the superiority of scholastic natural philosophy over other forms of medieval monster discourse and emphasised the validity of the category of species as a means for understanding the natural world. It also explores the implications of Oresme's arguments for the intellectual and social histories of monstrosity in the late Middle Ages, and in particular the question of the mother's moral responsibility for the birth of a monster.