Les monstres et leur interprétation dans les Wickiana

The Wickiana collection (unpublished), often perceived as a chronicle, is in reality a book about wonders of nature, including monsters. Johann Jakob Wick (1522-1588). a pastor from Zurich, had a network of correspondents in Europe, he collected examples of monsters from many countries of Europe. So we have a great corpus and we can ask, whether monsters are perceived and explained differently in different cultural and confessional contexts. A comparison with the collection of monsters by Lycosthenes (1518-1561), in his Prodigiorum ac ostentorum chronicon (1557) may contribute to a better understanding of the fascination with monsters in the 16th century.