Case file · Sighting
Cellini's beam of fire over Florence
In his autobiography the sculptor Benvenuto Cellini says that, riding towards Rome in January 1537, he saw a great beam of fire over Florence; next day he learned Duke Alessandro de' Medici had been murdered.
1537 CE · 43.77, 11.26 · status: account
The sceptical view
Cellini's memoirs are famously self-dramatising; a meteor linked after the fact to big news.