Three lights join as one
On July 15th 1385 “at London and likewise at Dover, there appeared after sunset a kind of fire in the shape of a head in the south part of the heavens, stretching out to the northern quarter, which flew away, dividing itself into three parts, and travelled in the air like a bird of the woods in flight. At length they joined as one and suddenly disappeared.”
Source: C.E. Britton, A Meteorological Chronology to A.D. 1450 (London: H.M.S.O., 1937), 149; also noted by John Malvern, a monk of Worcester, who certainly contributed to the Polychronicon (begun by Ranulph Higden, a monk of Chester), but continued the chronicle only as far as 1377.
133.
14 October 1387, Leicester and Derbyshire, England
Revolving wheel in the sky
“A certain appearance in the likeness of a fire was seen in many parts of the kingdom of England, now in one form, now in another, nearly on a single night, yet in various places, throughout the months of November and December (…) and some appeared in the form of a burning revolving wheel, others again in the form of a round barrel of flame emitting fire from above, yet others in the shape of a long fiery beam, and it thus appeared in one form or another through a great deal of the winter, especially in the counties of Leicester and Northants.”
Source: “Chronicon Henrici Knighton, vel Cnitthon, monachi Leycestrensis,” or the Chronicon of Henry Knighton (d. 1396). The book covers 1337-1396, and after Knighton’s death was continued by another scribe. See also C.E. Britton, A Meteorological Chronology to A.D. 1450 (London: H.M.S.O., 1937), 150. Note that the date might be November.
134.
1390, Bologna, Italy
Unknown creatures flying aboard a fiery object
“One tradition states that in 1390 the guardian of the Asinelli Tower saw a “ball of fire” that rotated over of the roofs, and inside were seen the faces of some devils who were trying to see outside.”
Source: “Quegli Ufo sopra le Due torri,” Il Domani di Bologna, 21 October 2006, 10.
135.
26 January 1390, Messina, Sicily, Italy
Light descending, ascending
Mongitore writes “A similar appearance was seen at two hours of the night in Messina, as you saw fall from the sky above the Cross, at the top of the dome of the Monastery of the Fathers of St. Salvadore. The monks were astonished at this view, but it was not certain how long the light was seen, so the fear was brief; as having lasted half an hour, (then it) went back up to Heaven…”
We retain this case because a “light” visible for half an hour going up in the sky is unlikely to be a meteor.
Source: Antonino Mongitore, Della Sicilia ricercata nelle cose più memorabilia (Palermo, 1742).
136.
Winter 1394, England: Another wheel-shaped object
According to Raphael Holinshed’s landmark chronicle of British history, a wheel- or barrel-shaped object appeared in several areas of England:
“A certain thing appeared in the likeness of fire in many parts of England every night. This fiery apparition, oftentimes when anybody went alone, it would go with him, and would stand still when he stood still…To some it appeared in the likeness of a turning wheel burning; to others as round in the likeness of a barrel, flashing out flames of fire at the head; to others in the likeness of a long burning lance.”
Whatever it was that caused such an impression on the people of England, it does not seem meteoritic in nature.
Source: Raphael Holinshed, Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland (London: J. Johnson, 1808) vol. II, 829. Raphael Holinshed, though not the book’s sole author, is thought to have helped inspire William Shakespeare to write at least two of his plays. Both Macbeth and King Lear were based on material contained in Holinshed’s book.
137.
2 September 1394, Forlì, Italy: Huge celestial object
At the second hour of the night, men walking in the main square of Forlì saw an enormous “asub” (celestial object) fly over very slowly. Duration: “the time of two Paternosters.” It left a smell like burning wood. Some witnesses described it as motionless in the sky for a while.
Source: F. Guarini, I Terremoti a Forlì (Croppi, Forlì, 1880), 142.
138.
1395, Languedoc, France: Aerial combat
“In the land of Languedoc, a big star and five small ones were seen in the sky. These, as it seemed, attacked and sought to fight the big one, which they followed for half an hour. Also a voice was heard in the sky, shouting. Then a man was seen, who seemed to be made of copper, holding a spear in his hand, and throwing fire. He grabbed the big star and hit it; after which, nothing more was seen.”
Source: L’Histoire de Charles VI, Roy de France, et des choses mémorables advenues durant quarante-deux années de son règne, depuis 1380 jusqu’à 1422, by Jean Juvénal des Ursins, évèque de Reims. Published by Michaud and Poujoulat in Nouvelle Collection des Mémoires pour servir à l’histoire de France depuis le XIIIe siècle jusqu’à la fin du XVIIIe, Tome II (1836).
139.
16 September 1408, Rome, Italy: Flying formation
Three “stars” were seen to fly over Rome. The incident was described by Antonio Di Pietro, canon of the Vatican, in his Diarium Romanum (Diary of Rome from 1404 to 1417), now conserved in the Vatican Archive. Di Pietro narrates that on that evening he was going to supper with friends near where the ancient Basilica of Saint Peter stands today.
“Suddenly after sunset…we saw…a beautiful star that, coming from the sky of Tarrione, headed towards Castel Sant’ Angel with two other small, splendid bright stars. And we were all very surprised by that spectacle.”
The sighting may have been of an unusual meteor train.
Sources: Antonio di Pietro, Diarium Romanum (Diary of Rome from 1404 to 1417), preserved at the Archivio Capitolare Vaticano. This Latin manuscript was found in the Library of Modena by L. A. Muratori, who inserted the text in Volume XXIV (ed. 1734) of the Rerum Italicarum Scriptores. See also Coelum astronomy magazine, No. 5-6, May-June 1977, article “Gleanings from science fiction medieval texts” by Umberto Dall’Olmo, 107. Credit: Umberto Cordier.
140.
2 July 1420, Castle Godego, Treviso, Italy
The lady in the light
In the evening a Hungarian merchant, Peter Tagliamento, was leading his herd of cattle to Bassano del Grappa. As he came to an area of thick brush, close to Castel di Godego, he realized he had lost the way. All around him were only shadows, the woods, and deep silence. In despair, Peter started praying and suddenly he saw a great light. Still trying to realize where he was and what was happening, Peter saw a young woman of great beauty, who told him how to get to the road towards Bassano, but requested that a chapel be built at that place. She planted a cross in the earth as proof of her visit.
Peter found his herd and reached the leaders of the community of Godego to fulfill the mandate he had received. At first no one believed him, but they found the cross planted in the woods. This convinced them and they decided to erect a chapel, where people came in solemn processions.
Source: Marino Gamba, Apparizioni mariane nel corso di due millenni (Udine: Ediz. Il Segno, 1999).
141.
3 March 1428, Forlì, Italy: Celestial object
Another case of a celestial object (“asub”) in Forlì: At 1:30 A.M. a fiery lamp was observed for about two hours. The city archives also mention “a very high flame in the shape of a tower, and a column of apparent fire rising in the air.”
Source: Filippo Guarini, I Terremoti a Forlì (Croppi, Forlì, 1880), 12-13 and 143.
142.
5 January 1433, Nice, France: Luminous globe
A luminous globe appears, seen several hours. “On January 5th, 1433,” writes Abbé Joseph Bonifacy, “a luminous globe appeared in the air for several hours.”
Source: G. Tarade, Soucoupes volantes et civilisations d’outre-espace (Paris: J’Ai Lu, 1969). Also Cielo e Terra, April 1972, 9. We have been unabl
e to verify the text by Bonifacy, which is only available in manuscript form.
143.
June 1444, Bibbiena, Arezzo, Italy
Unexplained golden globes of light
Over three months multiple witnesses saw globes of light, golden in color, both inside and outside a church. The story by Don Massimo, a Benedictine monk, mentions that “turning to the church he and his companions saw a globe as thick as a printing press.”
Mr. Lorenzo Piovano of Bibbiena stated that he saw more lights day and night, moving around the church and leaving a smell of remarkable sweetness. Don Massimo is careful to add that the mayor and others who ran into the church saw nothing, but they did notice the smell.
Sources: Don Massimo’s manuscript of “Miraculous facts that occurred near Bibbiena, etc.” inserted in the Moreno Frullani Collection No. 29, 56, in the Riccardiana library in Florence. Also see: http://www.mariadinazareth.it/apparizione%20bibbiena.htm
144.
29 May 1453, Constantinople: Light from the sky
“Every night [during the siege by the Turks] a fire descended from the sky, stood over the City, and enveloped her with light all night long. At first the Christians read this light as a sign of God’s wrath and the coming destruction of the city, but initial success against the Turks led to the reinterpretation that God had sided with the Christians and that they would prevail.
“Thus the sultan and his entire retinue became visibly depressed…and were considering lifting the siege…On the night before their scheduled departure the heavenly sign descended in its customary manner but did not envelop our City as it had before…[N]ow it seemed to be far away, then scattered quickly, and vanished at once. The sultan and his court were immediately filled with joy.”
Source: Makarios Melissinos, “Chronicle of the Siege of Constantinople” in George Phrantzes, Fall of the Byzantine Empire (Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts Press, 1980), 97-136.
145.
Late December 1456, Piacenza, Italy
Four unknowns
In the Annali Piacentini of Antonio da Ripalta, we read of the apparition “of four wonderful stars that proceeded directly from the east to the west and were positioned almost in the sign of a cross.”
Source: U. Dall’Olmo, “Meteors, meteor showers and meteorites in the Middle Ages,” Journal for the History of Astronomy 9, 1978.
146.
7 March 1458, Kyoto, Japan: Five stars circle the moon
Five “stars” appeared to circle the moon, changed colors three times and vanished suddenly.
Source: The Taiheiki: A Chronicle of Medieval Japan, trans. Helen Craig McCullough (North Clarendon, VT: Tuttle Publishing, 2004).
147.
October 1461, Metz, France: Many lights, seen twice
“Between Saint Remy’s day (October 1st) and All Saints’ Day (November 1st) numerous and marvelous signs like great firebrands the length of four fathoms and a foot large were seen in the air. “It lasted for half of a half quarter of an hour and was seen twice. Some people also said they had seen by night the like of a battle, and heard a great uproar and noise.”
Two significant meteor showers happen in October: the Draconids (between the 8th and 10th day of the month) and the Orionids (around the 21st). The sightings might have been caused by these events, but meteors would not account for the report of “great uproar and noise.”
Source: Jean-François Hughenin, Les Chroniques de la ville de Metz recueillies, mises en ordre et publiées pour la première fois (Metz 1838), 297.
148.
1 November 1461, Arras, France: Hovering object
Jacques Duclercq, legal adviser to Philippe III, writes: “On this day of Our Lord, All Saints Day, there appeared in the sky an object as bright as burning steel, as long and wide as half of the moon. It was stationary for fifteen minutes. Suddenly, the strange object began to spiral upwards and then it spun around and rolled over like a loose watch spring, after which it disappeared in the sky.”
Source: Mémoires de Jacques du Clercq, sur le Règne de Philippe le Bon, Duc de Bourgogne, publiés pour la première fois par le Baron de Reiffenberg, Tome III (2nd ed., Bruxelles, 1836), 189.
149.
19 February 1465, Italy: Great ship in the air
From the Notabilia Temporum of Angelo de Tummulillis: “There appeared many signs in the air in the same month, always in the morning, at daybreak. At the first hour of the 19th of this month a kind of great flaming ship appeared in the air towards the north and it appeared again on the 20th and 21st, not at the same time but later.”
Source: U. Dall’Olmo, op. cit.
150.
8 March 1468, Mount Kasuga, Japan: Dark object
In the middle of the night a dark object took off from Mount Kasuga flying west towards the bay of Osaka, with a sound like a spinning wheel. Its size was estimated as 9 by 6 feet.
Source: Brothers Magazine I, 1, no full quotation found.
151.
27 September 1477, Japan, location unknown
Object, unknown substance
A luminous object crossed the sky. A cotton-like substance fell for the next six hours.
Source: Case summary in Brothers I, 1, but no original source given.
152.
1478, Milan, Italy: Two flying objects during a war
Two unexplained flying objects are observed during a battle.
Fig. 8: Illustration from Lycosthenes
An engraving of the scene accompanies the text in Lycosthenes’ edition but there is no guarantee it was made especially for the book because images such as these were recycled from publication to publication.
Source: Lycosthenes, Prodigiorum ac ostentorum Chronicon (Basel, 1557).
153.
1479, Arabia: Pointed object in the sky
A remarkable engraving highlights this observation. Lycosthenes notes that this object, which he calls a “comet,” was seen in Arabia, “in the manner of a sharply pointed beam.” The illustration shows that whatever was observed does not to conform to our knowledge of comets.
However we should note that the illustration looks similar to drawings of the first multi-stage rockets built around the same time by Conrad Haas. We therefore doubt it was drawn in Arabia. Usually such drawings would have been provided by the printers, often taken from very different contexts.
Fig. 9: Arabian “rocket”
154.
18 October 1482, Albisola, Savona Province, Italy A dazzling object stops a battle
The facts date back to when the inhabitants of two neighboring villages, Albisola and Stella, decided to fight over territorial issues. A bloody attack took place. The sky was totally clear of clouds, when, an hour after midday, a small white cloud came from the east, so bright it seemed to collect all the rays of the sun. Dazzled by the light, the fighters heard a sweet clear voice repeating three times the word “peace,” and then everything disappeared. All were astonished, their eyes looking up at the sky, and they abandoned their weapons.
Sources: Giovanni Bernardo Poggi in the manuscript of his Memoirs. Details can be found in the magazine Maria Ausiliatrice, September 2005, and at this webpage:
http://www.mariadinazareth.it/Prodigi%20luminosi/Madonna%20della%20Pace.htm
155.
August 1487, Forlì, Italy: Floating cartwheel in the sky
“In that same year, on a morning (two hours before day) a big star seemingly appeared, coming from the mountain and going toward Ravenna. It looked quite like a butterfly flying in the air. I saw it and so did a lot of peasants who had put either wood or wheat onto their carts, and also those coming to Forlì. I was in the country and had risen to come to Forlì in the cool hours. It lasted a very short time. Some people say they had seen it when on the mountain, half an hour before.” Others saw it as a huge ‘cartwheel’ floating in the sky.
Source: Leone Cobelli, an Italian historian, in Cronache Forlivesi dalla Fondazione della Città all’anno 1498 (Bologna, 1874).<
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156.
1491, Vladimir, Russia: A Figure rises in the air
The apparition in the air of the Saint Grand Prince Alexander Nevsky. “In the year 6999 (of the old Russian calendar) in the great city of Vladimir there was an awe-inspiring apparition and frightful and terrible sign of the wrath of the Lord. Thus the Lord punishes us and leads us from sin toward repentance.
“On a certain day after morning Mass many saw the following appearance above the stone church of Our Lady and the residence of the abbot: just above the place where the remnants of the Saint prince Alexander repose, on the very dome of that church, they saw a strange sign.
“It was as if a light cloud or thin smoke spread around, white as a pure frost and bright as the sun. Then the people saw the likeness of the Holy Prince on a white horse rising up toward the sky. The people who saw it were very frightened and began to toll the bells all over the city.”
Source: A. N. Vyssotsky, “Astronomical Records in the Russian Chronicles from 1000 to 1600 A.D.” Historical Notes and Papers 22, Meddelande Fran Lunds Astronomiska Observatorium, Ser. II., 126, (Sweden, 1949), 45.
157.
13 August 1491, Milan, Italy: Summoning the Aliens
Seven “men” appeared before Philosopher Facius Cardan (Fazio Cardano) in his study. According to his son Jerome the story left by his father, a mathematically-gifted lawyer and friend of Leonardo da Vinci, read as follows:
“When I had completed the customary rites, at about the 20th hour of the day, seven men duly appeared to me clothed in silken garments resembling Greek togas, and wearing, as it were, shining shoes. The undergarments beneath their glistening and ruddy breastplates seemed to be wrought of crimson and were of extraordinary glory and beauty. Nevertheless all were not dressed in this fashion, but only two who seemed of nobler rank than the others. The taller of them who was of ruddy complexion was attended by two companions, and the second, who was fairer and of shorter stature, by three. Thus in all there were seven. They were about forty years of age, but they did not appear to be above thirty. When asked who they were, they said they were men composed, as it were, of air, and subject to birth and death. It was true that their lives were much longer than ours, and might even reach to three hundred years’ duration. Questioned on the immortality of our soul, they affirmed that nothing survived which is peculiar to the individual…
Wonders in the Sky Page 11
