In August and September of 2016, I received a letter from an anonymous book collector who came across a text from the 18th century. Published in 1716, this book clearly has a flying saucer shaped craft depicted in it’s cover art.

Although I have been made well aware of many of the ancient and antique texts that have similar references, this one seemed new to me, and I was intrigued.

This was the original letter I received, to quote exactly:

I would prefer to remain anonymous but, that said, I can give you a little more information that makes this a riddle to be solved. Most of my skeptical friends dismissed this as a religious reference to the shield of God as quoted in Ps 84. But an associate who spoke Latin found a reference in the book that describes the sighting of a UFO in the classical saucer shape. I think this is important since there is a general dismissal of historical illustrations that are easily interpreted as some type of flying craft (Jung notwithstanding).

The issue is that the passage was shown to me many decades ago before the internet and I have no way or will to research this any further. I am an ex antiquarian collector/dealer specializing in books on occult and science. I guard my privacy very carefully so I cannot participate any further than this.

I am wondering if you could throw this out there and have some researcher dig into the volume and find the reference once again. I did see a scanned copy online with free access so I figured now was a good time to bring it up again.

After sharing some messages back and forth, I then received additional information on how this person became aware of the text:

It was after hurricane Hugo took a swipe at Charleston in the late eighties. I survived as did my shop but many were less fortunate. There were quite a few antiquarian book dealers and collectors whose collections took damage. I made a good bit of business restoring books and ephemera and often, when a book was damaged, the owner would lose interest in it. They were usually a Roast Beef collector -an old derisive term the Brits used when selling decorative bindings to wealthy patrons looking for interior decoration. They would buy roast beef (an old volume of obscure poetry) for the price of a steak.  I traded many rare volumes with bad bindings for worthless decorative books -assuming the bindings were dressed up with a good dose of mink oil and wax.

Such was the case for the volume in question. The leather had been soaked and contaminated so it to be removed. The frontispiece itself still has water damage. When I opened the volume up, I almost lost my poker face. Fortunately, the owner thought it worthless even when new and gave it to me for fifteen dollars.

I took this information, and did verify the book existed (and special thanks to them for finding me the digitized version of it linked below).

You are able to find the book, completely digitized, at: http://reader.digitale-sammlungen.de/en/fs1/object/display/bsb10840006_00001.html

You can also download it here, which I archived:  https://documents.theblackvault.com/documents/ufos/1473196977bsb10840006.pdf [309 Pages, 64MB]

Here is some additional information about the book:
Joh. Casp. Funccii liber de coloribus coeli
Author / Editor: Funcke, Johann Caspar
Publishing place: Ulmae | Year of publication: 1716 | Publishing house: Bartholomäi
Call number: 871830 Diss. 257 871830 Diss. 257

Searching the same library, for texts by the same author, I discovered that wasn’t the only depiction of a flying saucer published by this author.

In this book:

Allgemeine und Neueste Welt-Beschreibung, In welcher die vornehmste Merckwürdigkeiten, So über- auf- und unter der Erden vorkommen, behörig vorgetragen werden
Author / Editor: Funcke, Johann Caspar ; Haeckhel, Christoph B.
Publishing place: Ulm | Year of publication: (1739) | Publishing house: Bartholomäi
Call number: 13180439 Augsburg, Staats- und Stadtbibliothek — 4 Gs 927 -1 13180439 Augsburg, Staats- und Stadtbibliothek — 4 Gs 927 -1

And in this book:

Allgemeine und Neueste Welt-Beschreibung, In welcher die vornehmste Merckwürdigkeiten, So über- auf- und unter der Erden vorkommen, behörig vorgetragen werden
Author / Editor: Funcke, Johann Caspar ; Haeckhel, Christoph B.
Publishing place: Ulm | Year of publication: (1740) | Publishing house: Bartholomäi
Call number: 13180447 Augsburg, Staats- und Stadtbibliothek — 4 Gs 927 -2 13180447 Augsburg, Staats- und Stadtbibliothek — 4 Gs 927 -2

you can find the following illustration published in 1739 and 1740:

To anyone who can translate the texts, I welcome any submissions in the comments below. Post your thoughts and ideas — what do YOU think this mysterious object depicts?

About the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek – Bavarian State Library

The library in which these texts were found was the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek – Bavarian State Library. Here is some information about them, as quoted from their “About Us” page:

The post Book Published in 1716 Depicts UFO / Flying Craft on Cover Art first appeared on The Black Vault Case Files.

The post Book Published in 1716 Depicts UFO / Flying Craft on Cover Art appeared first on The Black Vault Case Files.

Creator: Department of Defense. Department of the Army. Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations. U.S. Army Audiovisual Center. (ca. 1974 – 05/15/1984) (Most Recent)

Series : Motion Picture Films from the Army Library Copy Collection, compiled 1964 – 1980, documenting the period 1950 – 1980

Record Group 111: Records of the Office of the Chief Signal Officer, 1860 – 1985

Production Date: 07/31/1952

Contact: National Archives at College Park – Motion Pictures (RD-DC-M), National Archives at College Park, 8601 Adelphi Road, College Park, MD 20740-6001
Phone: 301-837-3540, Fax: 301-837-3620
Email: mopix@nara.gov

Shot List: MS, doughnyut shaped piece of cloth suspended by a wire. MSs, CU, Gen Samford, USAF Intelligence Chief, discusses the “flying saucer” because he says it is an obligation of the Air Force to investigate anything in the air that might prove a threat to the nation. His findings are that the bulk of the 12,000 reports received are hoaxes. He credits others as being the result of aircraft or meteorological and astronomical phenomena. He reveals that there is a certain percentage of credible observations but there is not pattern or measurement for analysis. His conclusions are that they represent no threat to us. He adds that flying saucers are not the result of a secret development by any US agency. A civilian seated at the desk is addressed by off-screen interrogator as Maj Kehoe (?) and queried on the origin of his book, “Flying Saucers Are Real”. Kehoe states his belief that “flying saucers are of inter-planetary origin and cites a report of pilots who encountered the objects.

National Archives Identifier: 25738
Local Identifier: 111-LC-30875

The post Maj. Gen. John A. Samford and Maj. Donald Keyhoe’s Statement on “Flying Saucers”, Pentagon, Washington, DC, 07/31/1952 first appeared on The Black Vault Case Files.

The post Maj. Gen. John A. Samford and Maj. Donald Keyhoe’s Statement on “Flying Saucers”, Pentagon, Washington, DC, 07/31/1952 appeared first on The Black Vault Case Files.