History of Monsters. 721

...fell, and blood slowly dripped from its limbs. In the following year, 1554, in the month of June, as Lycosthenes writes, in the village of Blech, five miles from Nuremberg, it is reported that a bloody rod defaced the Sun, accompanied by troops of horsemen attacking each other in war, preceded by blue banners.

Again in that same year, as Fritsch recorded in his *Meteorology*, two armored men appeared in the air in the Upper Palatinate of the Rhine toward the Bohemian forest. The one of smaller stature, defeated in the contest by the other, fell at his feet; the victor seemed to threaten greater vengeance with a flaming sword until both vanished.

Similarly near Stolpen, in the southern region of the sky, battle lines of combatants charging with a great clamor were observed in the heavens. Then, the battle being over, a huge globe of flames was seen breaking out from the air and falling to the earth. Finally, in December 1556, not far from Augsburg, the inhabitants of the region saw a battle between a lion and a bear in the air.

Furthermore, at various times, the clashing of weapons has been heard in the air. Indeed, recently—specifically in the year 1621—we learned through letters that in France, namely in the city of Dax in Aquitaine, not only was the noise of weapons heard in the air, but battle lines of soldiers were also seen for the space of three hours, as if about to attack someone in war.

# The Monstrous Variety of Inanimate Fiery Phenomena, and Especially Comets

To ensure the human intellect is inclined and made ready to understand images of this kind, one must observe—following the mind of the philosophers, and most notably Aristotle in his books on *Meteorology*—that a double breath is continually carried upward from these terrestrial and aqueous bodies by the power of the Sun. Philosophers have assigned the name "vapor" to one of these, because it comes from the moist parts of the earth, and the name "exhalation" to the other, because it is thinner and emerges from the drier parts of the earth.

The first of these breaths, being heavier and more humid, occupies the lowest part of the air closest to the earth. The other, however, because it is of a hotter and drier substance, seeks a higher seat in the third region of the air. For what is hotter and drier among bodies, we call fire, residing in the first place beneath the celestial spheres. But that which possesses moisture joined with heat, and for this reason is heavier like a vapor, cannot fly to the higher seats but resides a little below the fire and is called the element of air.

The upper part is given the name of fire because it can be consumed very quickly and transformed into fire; therefore, it seems to have the greatest affinity with our exhalation. For this reason, philosophers—and especially Aristotle in his *Meteorology*—have designated it *hypocauma* [ὑπόκαυμα], meaning "combustible," from the verb *hypokaio* [ὑποκαίω], "to set on fire." From this, the matter is excellently disposed to be immediately consumed and turned into flame by any slight movement, just as happens with a recently extinguished torch which, if immediately whirled around, is known to catch fire again.

These things being so established—namely, assuming the existence of the visible matter, or *hypocauma*, and the motion of the celestial bodies—we can assert that the hotter spirit, sublimated from the drier parts of the earth and ascending to its destined place, grows hot through swift motion and finally catches fire and ignites.

Furthermore, when the aforementioned *hypocaumata* are ignited by a circular motion, many