I’ve already done some posts here and here about chapters in Johann Weyer’s De praestigiis daemonum dealing with lycanthropy; for the sake of completion, I’m also looking at chapter 18, which has a few more comments on the topic.
Weyer begins the chapter by citing a report by Guilielmus Brabantinus (I believe that this is William of Moerbeke). This author claimed to have been visited by a man who believed himself to have become a wolf, wandering through the wilderness and pursuing children in the woods. Weyer then brings up a few symptoms of lycanthropy (including excessive thirst).
Next come the obligatory classical sources. Weyer recaps the myth of Lycaon, before citing Avicenna’s assertion that an excess of black bile can lead people to believe themselves to have transformed into animals. He then mentions that Pliny and somebody named Edouardus (I’m unable to identify the latter author) wrote of a substance that, when eaten, can cause a person to believe that they have transformed into a bear; apparently, this fate befell a Spanish nobleman who ended up travelling through deserts and mountains in such a state.
The chapter concludes with a different sort of transformation, as Weyer cites anecdotes from Pliny the Elder concerning people inexplicably changing from female to male.
I’ve reproduced the chapter below. Once again, any errors in the transliteration are mine.
De λυκανθρωπια morbo, quo se in lupos conuerti credunt homines, & de naturali sexus humani mutatiõe. Cap.18.
Literaru monumentis tradit Guilielmus Brabantinus in sua historia, uiru prudente diaboli arte eó perductu fuisse, ut aliquibus anni teporibus no secus sciuerit, quam se rapace esse lupu, qui per loca syluestria & specus oberraret, ac maximè pueros perseque retur, et eu fæpe uelut amětě per nemora uagari inue tum fuisse: qui tande Dei gratia ad mětě redijt. Huc ea melancholia fpecie exagitatu fuisse dubiü est minimé, que Arabibus chatrab dicitur,deriuato nomine à bestiola que irrequieto motu super aquas modò huc mo do illuc absq; ordine uagatur. Latini,ut quida uolunt, tipula id insectu uocat,in palustrib. locis frequens. λυκανθρωπια, id est hominis in lupu conuersione uocant Græci, quida etia melacholia lupina appellat ex Marcello, ite insania lupina, pleriq; λυκαωνα alij κυνανθρωπος.
Eo malo correpti ex atrabilis fuligine se in lupos uel etia canes credut mutatos. Quapropter domo egrediuntur,potissimu noctu, in cunctis lupos imitati, ut canes. Hi pallent, oculig; ijs sunt cocaui& sicci, crasse imbecilliterq; uident, lingua habet siccissima, ualde sitiunt, os saliua caret.Tibie his sunt ita ulceratae ut curari nequeat, propter frequetes offensiones,et canu morsiones. Curantur hi sanguinis missione usq; ad animi deliquiu, uictu boni succi,balneis dulcibus, se ro lactis hiera ex colocynthide, Ruffi,aut Archigenis, aut lufti, theriaca, et reliquis melacholie utilib.Caput his ante accessione irrigatur oporiforis, nares opio inungitur. Quädoq; et somniferu medicamētu propi nari oportet. Hoc nature uitiuet humane metis aliena tione fabulæ apud Ouidiu subministrasse occasione, ue risimile est, de Lycaone Arcadie rege, que à Ioue in lupu cb sua sceleramutatu finxit. Interim atra bilis mor bi, lycathropiae dicti, adingit notas, quéadmodü ridicu la poetaru comēta naturales sæpe solet habere causas.
Territus ipse fugit, nactusq; siletia ruris Exululat, frustraq; loqui conatur, etc. Plerosq; etia atra bile uitiatos, se leones esse, uel dæmones, uel aues, imaginari, annotauit Auicena. Plinius et Edouardus scribut,cere bru ursi deuoratu ingignereimaginationes, quasi in ur sum quis trasmutatus sit. Id nostro hoc feculo cuidam Hispano nobili oblatu fuisse edendu traditur, qui per deserta et montes uagabatur, se in ursum esse couersum phantasia uitiata ratus. Atqui dæmone aut ulla creatura, nihil posse codere aut reuera immutare, rationibus, et ex Decretis abundè demonstratu est: et euidentissime conftat ex eorü qui hec fuerut passi ludibria, cofessione,qua lib.5.descripta,qualicüq; explicatione sum interpretatus. Cæterum que mihi fortassis hic obtrudere conabutur alij nature miracula, ipse refera. Plinius: Exfœminis,inquit,mutari in mares,no est fabulo sum. Inuenimus in Annalibus, Licinio Crasso, C.Cassio Longino Coss. Casini pueru factu ex uirgine sub pare tibus, iussug haruspicu deportati in insula deserta. Licinius Mutianus prodidit, uisum à se Argis Arescote, cui nome Arescuse fuisset: nupsisse etia,mox barba uirilitateq; prouenisse, uxoreq; duxisse.eiusde fortis er Smyrne puerum à se uisum: subditq;, Ipse in Aphrica uidi mutati in mare nuptiaru die L. Cossitiu ciue Tisdritanu. Liuius lib.4. secund.bell.Punic.tradit, Q.Fabio Maximo e M. Claudio Marcello Coss. uiru ex mu liere Spoleti factu. Hippocrates aut scribit, Phaetuse cuipia Pythei uxori corpus uirile in uniuersum hir sutur pilosum fuisse redditu, barbamq; ed emifisse, voce item aspera fuisse effectă. Ausonius adhaec, Bene uenti pueri quempiam repente uirgine factu refert.
Nec fatis antiquu, quod Campano in Beneuěto unus epheboru uirgo repentè fuit.Horu item miraculorum meminere Sabellicus & Pontanus. Sed quod abstrusa nature operatione contingit,atq; in ea metamorphosi, er quide solius sexus, continuo perdurat, nullu hic meretur locum, ubi tantummodo de fictis momentaneisq; demonum formis & præstigijs, quoad fieri potest, explicandis agitur.
Doris V. Sutherland 