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ALSACAT:

ALSACAT is my comprehensive catalog of UFO sighting reports in Alsace, the region is the North-East of France, whether they are "explained" or "unexplained".

The ALSACAT catalog is made of case files with a case number, summary, quantitative information (date, location, number of witnesses...), classifications, all sources mentioning the case with their references, a discussion of the case in order to evaluate its causes, and a history of the changes made to the file. A general index and thematic sub-catalogs give access to these Alsatian case files.

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Case of Colmar, on August 4, 1276:

Case number:

ALSACAT-1276-08-04-COLMAR-1

Summary:

In 2012, former journalist Christian Valentin, interested in the UFO question, wrote in his book on Alsatian case that page 27 of the Annals and Chronicles of the Dominicans of Colmar by Gerard and Liblin, Colmar, 1954, we can read:

"1276: The four of the nuns of August, one saw from the dormitory of the Preachers many lights running and mingled like soldiers in a fight."

Christian Valentin says without prejudging what UFOs are that the story that may be related to this matter.

Data:

Temporal data:

Date: August 4, 1276
Time: ?
Duration: ?
First known report date: 1276?
Reporting delay: Minutes, hours?

Geographical data:

Department: Haut-Rhin
City: Colmar
Place: Dormitory of the convent of the Dominicans, Dominicans square
Latitude: 48.078
Longitude: 7.356
Uncertainty radius: 70 m.

Witnesses data:

Number of alleged witnesses: ?
Number of known witnesses: ?
Number of named witnesses: ?
Witness(es) ages: ?
Witness(es) types: Dominican monks.

Ufology data:

Reporting channel: Contemporary local chronicle.
Type of location: Convent dormitory in city center.
Visibility conditions: ?
UFO observed: Yes
UFO arrival observed: ?
UFO departure observed: ?
Entities: No
Photographs: No.
Sketch(s) by witness(es): No.
Sketch(es) approved by witness(es): No.
Witness(es) feelings: ?
Witnesses interpretation: ?

Classifications:

Hynek: ?
ALSACAT: Unidentified, lack of data, fireflies?

Sources:

[Ref. cgd1:] THE DOMINICAINS OF COLMAR:

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Quarto nonas Augusti sunt de dormitorio Praedictorum lumina multa per modum pugnatium discurrentia.

The fourth of the nuns of August, from the dormitory of the Preachers many lights were seen, running and mingled like soldiers in a fight

[Ref. cvn2:] CHRISTIAN VALENTIN:

Former journalist Christian Valentin published in 2012 a very interesting book telling the story of UFO sightings, flying saucers sightings, in Alsace, from the beginning to 1980.

In this book, he tells that on page 27 of the Annals and Chronicles of the Dominicans of Colmar, by Gerard and Liblin, Colmar, 1954, we can read:

"1276: The fourth of the nones of August, from the dormitory of the Preachers many lights were seen, running and mingled like soldiers in a fight."

Christian Valentin says without prejudging what the UFOs are that this story may be related to the UFO topic.

Discussion:

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About Christian Valentin's book:

It is not at all my habit to "advertise" a book or anything, and I have no interested relationship with the author, but I wanted to say a word on the book by Christian Valentin, "Mythes et Réalités des Phénomènes Aériens Non Identifiés" (i.e. "Myths and Realities of Unidentified Aerial Phenomena" (cover on the left) , ref. [cvn2]; which, as its subtitle indicates, is about Alsatian UFO sighting reports and the saucer lore in Alsace.

I think Alsatian ufologists and, generally, people interested in the UFO question, or in the history of Alsace, my region, would probably like this book.

The 144 pages book is sober but well presented, unbiased, richly documented and illustrated. It is the first work in print specifically about UFO sightings in Alsace. (There was another one a few years ago, but it was partly made by copying - pasting without mention of the sources, portions of my website, especially the Alsatians cases I almost exhaustively documented in my catalog of UFO sightings in France in 1954, and copies from another websites; the trivial explanations I proposed or gave there being almost always stripped off!)

The author does not want to prove or disprove the possibility of extraterrestrial visitors or some other so-called "extraordinary" explanation, he rather offers a chronologically ordered review of Alsatian UFO reports, starting from the origin and stopping in 1980, based on known sources ufology, on the articles of the regional Press, and cases less known or even unreleased so far that he collected directly with the witnesses. His own comments are printed in a different color, references to the sources are always given. A very nice work in my opinion!

The author currently has a blog where he shows what libraries in Alsace have the book available, see: christian.valentin.overblog.com

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About the case:

It is obviously impossible to pronounce a sure explanation as data is scarce. For example, we are not told whether this was in the day or the night...

If it was at night, it these were tiny lights, if they were in some vegetation near the ground, it could have been a gathering of fireflies...

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Evaluation:

Unidentified, lack of data, fireflies?

Sources references:

* = Source is available to me.
? = Source I am told about but could not get so far. Help needed.

File history:

Authoring:

Main author: Patrick Gross
Contributors: None
Reviewers: None
Editor: Patrick Gross

Changes history:

Version: Create/changed by: Date: Description:
0.1 Patrick Gross August 20, 2014 Creation, [cgd1], [cvn2].
1.0 Patrick Gross August 20, 2014 First published.

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This page was last updated on August 20, 2014.