# Ulisse Aldrovandi, 144

Furthermore, in the year that Emperor Vespasian destroyed Jerusalem, not only did a star in the shape of a sword hang over the city for a long time, but armed men were also seen fighting among the clouds, as Ravisius Textor noted. Likewise, according to Job Fincel, in the year 1549, at daybreak under a clear sky in a town in Württemberg, a tall man dressed in the robes of a German prince appeared in the air. A lion and a lamb were seen at his side. The man tried in vain to grasp a certain crown, but eventually began to brandish a sword until encroaching clouds obscured the entire spectacle. An illustration of this sight is drawn from the work of Lycosthenes.

During the reign of Emperor Maurice, the figure of an unknown man dressed in a monk’s habit circled the Emperor's statue for a long time with a sword and then vanished. As Textor reports, this was taken as a prophecy that Maurice would perish by the sword. Gaspare Bugati also relates that many omens appeared during the siege of Brescia, most notably in Milan. Under the portico of Matteo Visconti, a human figure clad in shimmering armor was seen on horseback; appearing again two days later and battling another similar figure, shortly afterward both

*The Omen of the Knight*