1561 celestial phenomenon over Nuremberg
An April 1561 broadsheet by Hans Glaser described a mass sighting of celestial phenomena or unidentified flying objects above Nuremberg. Ufologists have speculated that these phenomena may have been extraterrestrial spacecraft. Skeptics assert that the phenomenon was likely to have been another atmospheric phenomenon, such as a sun dog, although the print does not fit the usual classic description of the phenomena.
History
A broadsheet news article printed in April 1561 describes a mass sighting of celestial phenomena. The broadsheet, illustrated with a woodcut and text by Hans Glaser, measures by. The document is archived in the prints and drawings collection at the Zentralbibliothek Zürich in Zürich, Switzerland.According to the broadsheet, around dawn on 14 April 1561, "many men and women" of Nuremberg saw what the broadsheet describes as an aerial battle "out of the sun", followed by the appearance of a large black triangular object and exhausted combatant spheres falling to earth in clouds of smoke. The broadsheet claims that witnesses observed hundreds of spheres, cylinders, and other odd-shaped objects that moved erratically overhead. The woodcut illustration depicts objects of various shapes, including crosses, small spheres, two large crescents, a black spear, and cylindrical objects from which several small spheres emerged and darted around the sky at dawn.
The broadsheet text
The text of the broadsheet has been translated by Ilse Von Jacobi as follows:Modern interpretations and historical context
Similar Events and Writings
- The Vädersol over Stockholm in 1535, as depicted in the Vädersolstavlan.
- , also by Hans Glaser from 1554.
- The Plech Sky Spectacular, also in Germany and also in 1554.
- The 1566 celestial phenomenon over Basel.
- The 1628 Meteorite in Hatford, Oxfordshire.
- The 1665 celestial phenomenon over Stralsund.
- The Miracle of the Sun in Fátima, Portugal in 1917.
Symbolism
According to author Jason Colavito, the woodcut broadsheet became known in modern culture outside of Germany after being published in Carl Jung's 1958 book Flying Saucers: A Modern Myth of Things Seen in the Skies, a book which analyzed the archetypal meanings of UFO sightings. Jung expressed a view that the spectacle was most likely a natural phenomenon interpreted from the perspective of religious and military imagery familiar to Europeans in the 16th century. Still, the purpose of Jung's analysis focused on the symbology of the broadsheet and only judged hypotheses as asides.Jung expresses that the celestial sighting was likely not organic in origin, for example, stating "If the UFOs were living organisms, one would think of a swarm of insects rising with the sun, not to fight one another but to mate and celebrate the marriage flight." Jung proposes that the images of four globes coupled by lines suggested crossed marriage quaternities and forms the model for "the primitive cross cousin marriage". There is no evidence that this symbol has ever been used in this manner, and Jung may have been invoking more modern genealogical charts as used in kinship anthropology. He also posited that the woodcut may include an individuation symbol and that the association of sunrise suggests "the revelation of the light." This is in line with other interpretations that the woodcut is highly stylized and intended to induce religious admonition in its viewers, not depict the event objectively.
Ufology
In ufology, the broadsheet is repeatedly cited as proof of UFO encounters and evidence of visits by extraterrestrials earlier in human history. Alleged descriptions of numerous witness accounts, interpreted as "violent appearances" and "fighting" are used as reasoning to suggest that UFOs engaged in conflict in the sky, in the literal sense.Ufologist Jacques Vallée expresses skepticism over the Nuremberg celestial event and other celestial events in 16th century Europe. He reasons that the similarity between this event and other near-identical events implies that this may be a "stock myth" propagated and perhaps commissioned by religious authorities. Vallée interprets the admonitions and apocalyptic thinking in Glaser's prose as evidence that the broadsheet's purpose is that of propaganda.
Historiography
Skeptic and historian Ulrich Magin questions the supposed purpose of the woodcut art as a valid and objective report of the celestial event. For example, there are multiple discrepancies in the artwork itself that Magin interprets as invalidating. Nuremberg Castle is not present in Glaser's woodcut, despite being the defining feature of Nuremberg at that time. The Church of St. Lorenz, Nuremberg is present in the woodcut, despite the fact that the church was burnt down at the time of the celestial sighting.Magin and other skeptics, such as Wiebke Schwarte, conclude that the purpose of the text was that of popular religiously-themed reading material, more akin to tabloids than to a truthful record of the event. At a time when Nuremberg's literacy rate is estimated to be 30% in males and nearly zero in females, readers at this time may have even been aware that they were not meant to consider the validity of the broadsheet. Sun dogs and related phenomena had been known since antiquity and painted with geometric accuracy in Europe before Hans Glaser's broadsheet, such as in famous Swedish painting Vädersolstavlan. This stands in stark contrast to the woodcuts and underscores the purpose of Glaser's abstract and mass-produced interpretation.