738 History of Monsters

of Gemma, it foretold another incursion of foreign enemies. Thus, in the year 1572, various riots broke out among the common people.

In the following year, 1573, on the twenty-seventh of January, another chasm shone forth like a city set ablaze. According to Gemma, perhaps because of its frequent appearance, it signified repeated invasions by foreign enemies, the ruins of cities and peoples, betrayals, conflicts, and widespread disasters. There followed various assaults and expeditions, as well as unspeakable slaughters on land and sea, which the present work does not intend to recount at this time. This last chasm can be seen in Illustration III.

# Monstrous Apparitions around the Sun, Moon, and Stars

The phenomena shown to mortals in the celestial region involving the Sun, Moon, and stars are of a truly sublime nature, for they are distinguished into three categories. Some are above the order of nature, such as eclipses that do not occur at their appointed times—the most notable of all being the one during the Passion of Our Lord and Savior, which Blessed Dionysius the Areopagite describes in a letter to a friend. Another example is the halting of the Sun mentioned in Holy Scripture, when Joshua, the leader of the Israelites who succeeded Moses, was fighting for Israel; the Sun stood still in the middle of the sky and did not hasten toward its setting for the duration of a day. Never before or since has there been so long a day, for the Lord obeyed the voice of Joshua. Similarly, there was the rising of the new star that appeared to the Eastern Kings at the birth of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

Others are natural, but are classified among monstrous and prodigious things because of their rarity. Such are the conjunctions of the three superior planets, which occur only every thirty years; or a solar or lunar eclipse where the entire diameter is obscured, which happens very rarely. Finally, there are those that hold a middle ground between the divine and the natural, such as when three or more suns or moons are seen, when various circles appear around stars and luminaries, or when these bodies appear devoid of light or disfigured by certain colors.

As we begin our discussion of this last category, we will first address the wonders surrounding the Sun. Since the Sun's face can be marred by various colors, secondary images, and different circles, we shall first treat its coloration and then proceed to the other phenomena. According to Lycosthenes, in the year of the world 3766, the Sun at Privernum was disfigured by a blood-red color at midday. Furthermore, Plutarch records in his *Life of Caesar* that after Caesar's death in the year of the world 3921 (and 42 BCE), among other portents that occurred, the Sun was beset by a gloomy color for an entire year. Because of its weak light and thin heat, there followed not only intemperate weather but even the failure of crops to ripen. Gemma reports that this also occurred in our own times, specifically on September 20, 1567, when he observed the Sun's face disfigured by a glowing, almost bloody color despite the clear sky. A similar monstrous appearance of the Sun was seen in Bohemia in the year of Our Lord 1625, as we have learned from the reports of trustworthy men.

Additionally, a monstrous deformity is observed in the Sun when it is surrounded by other solar likenesses, which happens from time to time. Indeed, according to the chroniclers, in the year of the world