Free Veritas (Atto Melani) by Rita Monaldi, Francesco Sorti Page B

the Fair of Naumburg subsequent to the exemplar already printed.
    Year 1709
    Vienna, 24th June 1709
    Yesterday around 9 of the clock the whole city was in great alarm and agitation. Every road was full of people, those who were not in the streets were at the windows, and were asking
     what was amiss. Hardly anyone, however, could give an account of what had occurred, people ran hither and thither, shouting and crying: the Day of Judgement is upon us. Others believed it to
     be an earthquake, while yet others swore that an entire army of Turks was at the gates of the city. Finally in the sky there appeared a great number of birds, both large and small, which, as
     it first appeared, were flying around another very large bird, and were quarrelling with it. This tumult began to descend earthwards, and everyone now saw that the cause of this chaos, which
     had been taken for a bird, was in fact a machine in the form of a ship, with a sail, which was stretched out above it and which swayed in the wind, and on board of which was a man in the
     habit of a monk, who with several pistol shots announced his arrival.
    After circulating in the sky, this Cavalier of the air revealed that his intention was to set himself down on the ground in an open space in this city, but there suddenly arose a wind,
     which not only impeded his project, but drove him towards the summit of the bell tower of St Stephen’s Cathedral, and caused the sail to entangle itself around said tower, so that the
     ship became immobilised there. This event aroused a fresh clamour among the townspeople, who ran towards the square of the bell tower, so that at least twenty people were trampled in the
     affray.
    Everyone’s eyes were fixed on the man suspended in the air, but that was certainly of no assistance to him, since he was asking for help, and to that end it was hands that were
     needed. After observing what was happening in the city for a couple of hours, since no one could assist him, he became impatient, picked up the hammer and other tools that he had with him on
     the ship and set to work hammering and striking, until the top of the Bell Tower which had blocked him became detached and fell. Thus he took flight again and, after swaying to and fro for a
     while, with great dexterity brought his Flying Ship to earth not far from the Imperial Palace. At once a company of soldiers from the garrison of this city was sent there to take the new
     arrival under their protection, for otherwise the curious townsfolk would have trampled him underfoot.
    He was taken to the inn of the Black Eagle, where he was able to rest for a few hours, after which he delivered some letters he had with him, and he recounted to the Ambassador of
     Portugal and to other Noblemen who had called to visit him in what fashion he had set off from Lisbon at six in the morning the previous day in the Flying Machine of his own invention, what
     great difficulties and adventures he had experienced with eagles, storks, birds of Paradise and other species, with which he had been forced to combat unceasingly, declaring that without the
     two shotguns and the four rifles that he had with him, and which he had had to use constantly, he would not have survived.
    When he passed close to the moon, so he recounted, he realised that he had been sighted himself, which aroused a great tumult on the Moon; and since his flight had brought him very
     close to the Lunar Planet, he was able to see and distinguish everything and, as far as his haste permitted him, he noted that on it there are mountains and valleys, lakes and rivers and
     fields, and even living creatures, and men who, so he said, have hands like men down here, but no feet, and who slide on the ground like snails, and bear on their backs a shield like that of
     tortoises, into which they can withdraw their whole body and take shelter. And since in this way they have no need of any dwelling space, he thought that it was for this reason that on