Wonders in the Sky (35 page)

178.

15 May 1544, Nay, Béarn, France: Crashing object

An object shaped like a fiery sword (variously described as “three fireballs”) hovered above the town, then fell and crushed a house with a frightening noise.

 

Source: Pierre Boaistuau,
Histoires Prodigieuses
(1560), vol. II, 148.

179.

1546, Caranza near La Spezia, Italy: Disk changes color

A manuscript by the chronicler, Father Antonio Cesena, found in the public library at La Spezia, tells of farmers reporting “a strange disk, changing from yellow to red, with red fireballs shining beneath it”. It was seen in two separate areas including the small village of Caranza, near Passo del Bocco “from time to time.”

Cesena interpreted the sighting as a portent of the death later that year of Count Luigi Fieschi, the governor of Varese Ligure.

 

Source: Antonio Cesena,
Relatione dell'origine e sucessi della terra di Varese
(1558). The original manuscript is lost but a copy made in 1683 is still held by the Bibioteca della Società Economica di Chiavari (ms. Z VI 29).

180.

24 April 1547, Halberstadt, Saxony, Germany: Black sphere

A black ball-shaped object was seen, apparently “emerging from the middle of the moon” and flying fast towards the North.

 

Source: Simon Goulart,
Trésors d'Histoires Admirables et Mémorables de notre Temps
(1600); Jobus Fincelius,
Wunderzeiche, Warhafftige Beschreybung und gründlich verzeichnuss schröcklicher Wunderzeichen und Geschichten
. (Jhena: Rödinger, 1556); Lycosthenes, op. cit., 595.

181.

13 November 1547, Near Rome, Italy
Strange objects fly over

A rod and a cross appeared in the sky at 3 P.M., with a bird-like object above them. The weather was clear and the sky was calm. The objects were seen for three days.

The event is depicted in a German broadsheet in the Johann Jacob Wick's collection, held by the Zürich Zentralbibliothek.

 

Source: Jobus Fincelius,
Wunderzeiche, Warhafftige Beschreybung und gründlich verzeichnuss schröcklicher Wunderzeichen und Geschichten
(Jhena: Rödinger, 1556);
Erschreckliche unerhorte warhafftige Gesichten so gesehen ist zu Rhom…
(Strassburg: Jakob Frölich, 1547), ZB PAS II 12/29.

182.

15 December 1547, Hamburg, Germany
Heat-generating globe

“The sailors of Hamburg saw in the air, at midnight, a glistening globe fiery like the Sun, rolling towards the northern part. Its rays were so hot that passengers could not remain inside the ships, but were forced to hide and take cover, thinking that their vessels were about to burn.”

 

Source: Simon Goulart,
Trésors d'Histoires Admirables et Mémorables de notre Temps
(1600); Fincelius, Jobus, op. cit.; Lycosthenes, op. cit., 595.

183.

28 June 1548, Oettingen, Bavaria
Flying vehicles, red flames

The sky became darker and about twenty flying “vehicles” were seen coming and going above the houses, along with red flames. The witness says he saw the phenomenon on two occasions: on 28 June and on 26 July 1548.

 

Source: Bruno Weber,
Wunderzeichen und winkeldrucker
, 1543-1586, Urs Graf Verlag (Zürich: Dietikon, 1972), 93.

184.

19 June 1550, near Trebnitz, Saxony, Germany
Bloody rain, split sun

The people of Saxonia, near Wittemberg, beheld a strange sight, according to Boaistuau in
Histoires Prodigieuses
. A great cross appeared in the sky, surrounded by two large armies that made a lot of noise while they fought. Blood fell to the ground like rain and the sun split in two, one piece of which seemed to drop to the earth.

Boaistuau drew this story from Lycosthenes, who in turn took it from Fincelius. Lycosthenes made an error in the date and location, but we were fortunate in finding a contemporary broadsheet from 1550 that depicts and describes the phenomenon just as Fincelius wrote.

 

Source: Jobus Fincelius, op. cit.;
Ein new streydtbars / grausam / glaubhafftigs wonderzeychen / so dieses Fünfftzig (…) Junij / am himel gesehen worden ist
(Nürnberg: Stephan Hamer, 1550?), GNM Nürnbergt. HB 2795/1204.

185.

15 October 1550, Biubiu River, Chile
The Lady from the Comet

Pedro de Valdivia (1500-1554), a conquistador who went to America to seek fame and fortune, fought for Francisco Pizarro in the Battle of Salinas, and later headed the conquest of Chile in 1540, founding Santiago del Nuevo Extremo (nowadays Santiago) the following year, Concepción in 1550 and the city of Valdivia in 1552, before his death at the hands of the Araucan Indians.

Valdivia left very few written documents, but one of these, an “instruction” addressed to his representatives at the Court, dated October 15th 1550, mentions two mysterious figures that appeared to the Mapuche Indians shortly before an attack. The beings, a beautiful woman and an old man on a horse, both dressed in white, had come to warn the Indians that they would perish if they tried to retaliate. When the first visitor, the woman, had disappeared, the devil himself intervened to reiterate the message!