Case file · Sighting
The Wickiana prodigy chronicle
From 1560 to 1587, Zürich canon Johann Jakob Wick collected broadsheets and reports of comets, blood rain, sky battles and monstrous births into 24 volumes.
1560 CE · 47.37, 8.54 · status: account
The account
The Wickiana preserved many illustrated news-sheets that would otherwise be lost, including the Basel sky display of 1566. It is a key source for how 16th-century Europeans read sky phenomena as divine warnings.
The sceptical view
Most of the reported 'prodigies' fit halos, auroras, comets and meteors described in religious language.