Boston 2021, Vol. 2, S. 984–990. (original) (raw)

In 1554, a broadsheet printed in Strasbourg reported a peculiar apparition in the sky. On 11 June of the same year, a bloody or fiery (bluttigen oder fewrigen, the sources seem unclear) streak crossed the sun, then blue stars or spheres (blawe stern oder kugeln, again ambiguous) were observed, followed by two troops of armed riders with flags who fought each other in the clouds. The phenomenon lasted for about two hours and then vanished. The title of the sheet (Fig. 55, cf. Harms/Schilling, vol. VI, no. 62) refers to the event as a vision or sign (gesicht oder zeychen) that was witnessed by many people (later, the reader learns that there were two witnesses: a summoner and a priest). It is, however, not the title but the woodcut below it that first indicates the sheet's prognostic character, as it can be captured at a single glance. While the text must be read successively, the image configures the perception of the whole sheet. This pictorial cognitive frame, however, is set not only by iconographic devices but also by the tradition of interpreting natural phenomena. It is the interaction of visual information and prognostic knowledge that enables the beholder to read the extraordinary combination of the sun, stars, clouds, and riders as the representation of a heavenly sign. Yet, the image does not provide any information about the sign's meaning. For further explanation, the reader-beholder must turn to the text, in which the phenomenon is interpreted as an announcement of the Last Judgement.