History of Monsters. 738

according to Gemma, it presaged another incursion of foreign enemies. And so, in the following year of 1572, various riots broke out among the common people.

In the following year of 1573, on the twenty-seventh of January, another celestial "chasm" blazed forth like a city on fire. According to Gemma, this phenomenon—perhaps due to its frequent appearance—signified frequent incursions by foreign enemies, the ruin of cities and peoples, betrayals, conflicts, and disasters everywhere. There followed various assaults and expeditions, as well as unspeakable slaughters on land and sea, which the scope of the present work does not permit us to recount here. This final chasm is depicted in Figure III.

Monstrous Apparitions of the Sun, Moon, and Stars

There is a truly sublime consideration in those things shown to mortals in the celestial region concerning the sun, moon, and stars. These phenomena are distinguished into three types. Some are beyond the order of nature, such as eclipses that do not occur at their appointed times—the most notable being the one during the Passion of our Lord and Savior, which Blessed Dionysius the Areopagite describes in a letter to his friend. Another example is the halting of the sun recorded in Holy Scripture, when, under the leadership of Joshua (who succeeded Moses), the sun stood still in the middle of the sky and did not hasten to its setting for a whole day's space; never before or since was there so long a day, for the Lord obeyed the voice of Joshua. Likewise, there was the rising of the new star that appeared to the Magi at the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Other phenomena are natural but are categorized among monstrous and prodigious things due to their rarity. Such was the conjunction of the three superior planets, which occurs only every thirty years, or a solar or lunar eclipse where the entire diameter is obscured, which happens very seldom. Finally, there are those that occupy a middle ground between the divine and the natural: for instance, when three or more suns or moons are seen, when various circles appear around the stars and luminaries, or when these bodies appear as if devoid of light or defiled by certain colors.

Therefore, as we prepare to speak of these latter types, we shall first discuss the portents related to the sun. Since the face of the sun is often marred by various colors, by other solar apparitions, or by different circles, we shall deal first with colors and then with the others. According to Lycosthenes, in Priverno, in the year of the world 3766, the sun was defiled by a blood-red color at noon. Furthermore, Plutarch relates in his *Life of Julius Caesar* that after the dictator's death, among other prodigies that occurred in the year of the world 3921 (42 BC), the sun was besieged by a murky color and gave off a pale light for an entire year. Because of this weak light and thin heat, not only was the weather intemperate, but the crops failed to ripen. Gemma reports that something similar happened in our own times, specifically on the twentieth of September in the year 1567; he observed the sun’s face marred by a glowing, almost bloody color despite a 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.

Moreover, a monstrous deformity is observed in the sun when it is surrounded by other solar likenesses, which happens from time to time. For according to the chronographers, in the year of the world