Wonders in the Sky (27 page)

Writer Gianfranco degli Esposti mentions that “reports relating to the period of the famous Black Plague, between 1347 and the 1350, speak of strange cigar-shaped objects slowly crossing the sky, sometimes at low altitude, dispersing in their passage a disturbing mist.”

He attributes the Black Plague to these objects because “immediately after the appearance of these shocking events, the epidemic exploded in that area.”

In Florence a huge mass of vapors appeared in the sky, coming from the north. It spread throughout the land. In the East in the same year, many animals fell from the sky. Their decomposing animal carcasses were said to make the air fetid and to cause the spread of the infamous illness that was fatal in India, Asia, and Britain. In Florence alone it killed 60,000 people.

 

Source: Gianfranco Degli Esposti, “Travi di fuoco e segni divini: paura nei cieli del Medioevo” (www.edicolaweb.net/ufost16r.htm); Lycosthenes,
Prodigiorum ac ostentorum Chronicon
(Basel, 1557).

126.

20 July 1349, Japan, exact location unknown
Two shining objects clash

Two shining objects appeared from the southeast and northwest. They had a terrible clash as they appeared to maneuver acrobatically, emitting flashes.

 

Source: Morihiro Saito,
Nihon-Tenmonshiriyou
. Chapter 8, “The Messenger from Space.”

127.

5 Feb. 1355, Suzhou (Pingjiang) Jiangsu prov., China
Enigma

Big noise in the sky, vision of a large black cloud with flames and lights, loaded with troops. Physical destruction.

 

Source: Shi Bo,
La Chine et les Extraterrestres
, op.cit., 30, citing writer Tao Zhongyi.

128.

Summer 1360, England and France
Armies and towers in the sky

“And in the summertime of this year in flat and deserted places in England and France, and often visible to many, there suddenly appeared two towers, from which two armies went out, one of which was crowned with a warlike sign, and the other was clothed in black. And a second time the warriors overcame the blacks, and returned to their tower, and the whole vanished.”

 

Source: The
Chronicon Angliae
, covering 1328 to 1388, is attributed to Thomas Walsingham (d. 1422). C. E. Britton,
Meteorological Chronology to A.D. 1450
(London: H.M.S.O., 1937), 144.

129.

1361, Yamaguti prefecture, Western Japan
Drum-like object emerges from the sea

A drum-shaped object, six meters in diameter, is said to have emerged from the sea. It flew overhead, going west. We have not traced an exact reference to this case but its abundant use in databases and on websites has influenced our decision to include it here.

130.

Circa February 1382, Paris, France
Roaming, flashing globe

Before the Maillets uprising, a fiery flashing globe was seen for a period of eight days, “roaming from door to door above the city of Paris, without there being any wind agitation nor lightning or noise of thunder, and on the contrary, the weather never ceased to be serene.”

 

Source:
Chronique du Religieux Saint Denys contenant le règne de Charles VI de 1380 à 1422
. Tome II (Paris, 1840).

131.

1384, Caravaca, Spain
Two lights watch over holy relics

Strange aerial lights were frequently associated with miracles in Medieval Spain. In 1384, while the Caravaca cross (see case 109 above) was being transported from the village of Caravaca in Murcia to the village of Lorca y Totan, two lights in the sky accompanied the cross-bearers throughout the journey. They did not disappear until the object was in place. There are several stories about the Caravaca cross, which had more than its fair share of magical adventures. There are legends about how it ‘teleported' from one place to another and how it attracted luminous phenomena on more than one occasion.

 

Source: Clara Tahoces, “Caravaca, ¡Qué Cruz!”
Más Allá
127 (September 1999).

132.