Wonders in the Sky (40 page)

 

Source:
Brothers
magazine, again with no reference.

205.

5 December 1577, near Tübingen, Germany
Flying black hats

“Numerous black clouds appeared around the Sun, similar to those we see during major storms; shortly thereafter, other clouds of blood and fire emerged from the Sun, and yet others yellow as saffron.

“From these clouds came luminous effects like big, high and broad hats, and the earth itself appeared yellow, bloody, and covered with high and broad hats that took various colors such as red, blue, green, and most of them black.

“Everyone can easily understand the meaning of this miracle, and know that God wants men to repent and make penance. May the all-powerful God help all men to recognize Him. Amen”.

 

Source: Pierre Boaistuau,
Histoires Prodigieuses
(2nd edition, 1594). Also described in a German broadsheet printed in early 1578:
Schröckliche Newe Zeitung / von dem Wunderzeichen / welches den kurtzverschinenen fünfften deß Christmonats / zu Alttorff inn dem Land Würtenberg ist gesehen worden
(Strassburg: Bernhard Jobin, 1578), ZB PAS II 15/1. This belongs to J.J. Wick's collection (Wickiana).

206.

21 December 1578, Geneva, Switzerland
Signs and prodigies

“Marvellous and terrifying discourse of the signs and prodigies that appeared over the city of Geneva the 21
^st
day of December 1578” is the title of a brochure published by G. Stadius, mathematician of the Duke of Savoy and noted astronomer. It describes strange phenomena, including “a comet surmounted by a small cross.”

 

Source:
Discours merveilleux et espouventable des signes et prodiges qui sont apparuz au ciel sur la ville de Genefve le XXI. jour de décembre mil V. cens LXXVIII
[par B. Du Coudre, avec réponse de G. Stadius] (Paris: J. Pinart, 1579), Bibliothèque Nationale de France, BN MP-3321.

207.

18 February 1579, Paris, France: Flying intruder

A “great and wondrous flying serpent or dragon” appeared, according to a leaflet (“
canard
”) of the time.

It was seen by many over Paris from two o'clock in the afternoon until evening.

 

Source: A leaflet at the Library of Amiens entitled
Du serpent ou dragon volant, grand et merveilleux, apparu et veu par un chacun sur la ville de Paris, le mercredi XVIII febvrier 1579, depuis deux heures après midi, jusques au soir
(1579).

208.

7 February 1580, Straits of Magellan
Red, fiery flying shield

In
Viajes al Estrecho de Magallanes
by Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa (ca. 1530-1592) we read of this navigator's travels to the Strait of Magellan in 1579 and 1581. On Thursday, February 7th 1580 at 1:00 A.M., he wrote that towards the south-southeast:

“We saw a round thing appear, red like fire, like a shield, that rose up on the air or on the wind. It became longer as it went over a mountain and, in the form of a lance high above the mount, its shape became like a half-moon between red and white in color.”

The three simple shapes accompanying the text are a circle, an oval and a half-moon.

Sarmiento de Gamboa compares the object to an “adarga.” This was a round, oval or heart-shaped shield used in the time of Don Quijote.

209.

1586, Grangemuir, Scotland: Healer abducted by fairies

A woman named Alison Pearson confessed that she had met with the “Good Neighbors,” who had given her a salve that could cure every disease. She had seen a man clad in green, who was accompanied by many men and women making merry with good cheer and music, and she was carried away by them. She was tried and put to death in 1586, although she had treated the Archbishop of Saint Andrews, who stated he had received benefit from it.

 

Source: James Grant,
The Mysteries of all Nations: Rise and Progress of Superstition, laws against and trials of witches, ancient and modern delusions
(Edinburgh: Reid & Son, 1880), 517.

210.

1586, Beauvais sous Matha near Tors, France Flying Hat-shaped object

A brown “hat” with horrible red colors was observed flying close to the steeple shortly before sunset.

Fig. 18: Agrippa d'Aubigné

The witnesses were the great French poet Théodore Agrippa d'Aubigné (1552-1630) and the Marquis de Tors.

“The Marquis, lord of that place, took his guest to a garden, shortly before sunset, and they saw a round cloud come down over the hamlet of Beauvais-sous-Matha, with a color that was horrid to see, for which one is forced to use a Latin word:
subfusca
(dark brown).

“This cloud resembled a hat with an ear in the middle, the color of the throat of an Indian rooster (…) This hat with its sinister sign came into the steeple and melted there.”

 

Source: Agrippa d'Aubigné,
Histoire Universelle
(1626), III, iv, ch. 3.

211.

12 January 1589, Saint-Denis, France
Sky phenomena

A text published in French around 1599 makes the following report:

“We have seen at night two large clouds between Paris and St. Denis, which radiated great light, and they moved towards one another, joined and then separated again, and a large number of sagettes (arrows) and spears of fire came out, which lasted a long time in combat, then after having been fighting well, they retreated, then began to travel, and passed over the City of Paris, and went straight on southwards.

“Then on Friday 13th of the month of January, we have also seen in the Sky a great Crescent and one Star above it, like a Comet, which was bright all day, and people were amazed. Christians prayed for God to save us from the menace. Amen”

 

Source: Anon.,
Signes merveilleux aparuz sur la ville & Chasteau de Bloys, en la presence du Roy: & l'assistance du peuple. Ensemble les signes & Comete aparuz pres Paris, le douziesme de Janvier, 1589 comme voyez par ce present portraict
(1599?), Bibliothèque Municipale de Blois, n° Inv.: LI 13.

212.