Nuremberg 1561 — the battle 'out of the sun'

OVERVIEW

In April 1561 a broadsheet with a woodcut and text by Hans Glaser, 'letter-painter of Nuremberg', described a mass sighting of celestial phenomena above the city, then a Free Imperial City of the Holy Roman Empire. The sheet, 26.2 by 38 cm, is held in the prints and drawings collection of the Zentralbibliothek Zürich.

HISTORY

According to the broadsheet, at daybreak on 14 April 1561, 'between 4 and 5 on the small clock', 'many men and women' saw in and around the city two blood-red semicircular arcs in the middle of the sun, blood-red and black globes in lines and squares, blood-red crosses and thick reed-like rods holding more globes. These 'started to fight among themselves' for over an hour, flying in and out of the sun, until, exhausted, they 'fell from the sun down upon the earth as if they all burned' and wasted away with immense smoke; then a long, thick black spear appeared, pointing west. 'Whatever such signs mean, God alone knows,' Glaser wrote, and called on readers to repent.

REPORTED ACTIVITY

Ufologists cite the broadsheet as evidence of extraterrestrial craft. Carl Jung, who made it known outside Germany in Flying Saucers: A Modern Myth (1958), thought it most likely a natural phenomenon read through the religious and military images of the age; Jacques Vallée called it a likely 'stock myth' with a propaganda purpose. Skeptics suggest a sun dog or similar halo display, though the print does not fit the classic description; Ulrich Magin and Wiebke Schwarte read it as religious popular reading, closer to a tabloid than a record. It belongs with Glaser's own 1554 sign over Waldeck Castle and the 1566 broadsheet from Basel.

VISITING

The pin marks the old town of Nuremberg.