March 14, 1918] 



NATURE 



f 



'"HE LEGEND OF ALEXANDER AND HIS 

 FLYING MACHINE. 

 lY the kind assistance of Prof. H. Fehr, of 

 Geneva, and the help of M. Stuckelberg, 



rofessor of the history of art in the University 

 if B§le, we are able to give an additional photo- 



raph of the "Legend of Alexander," taken from 



le sculptured capital, in the choir of the cathedral 

 if Bale, on a Romanesque column of the twelfth 



»ntury. 

 Guided by the previous photograph, given in 



fATURE of iVugust 23 last, of the 

 »as-relief on St. Mark's, Venice, 



re are able to identify the sub- 

 set, in the words of "Love's 



ibour's Lost" — "My scutcheon 

 lin declares that I am Alis- 



ider " — and make a comparison 

 the details in their close re- 



imblance and attention to the 

 description by the Pseudo-Callis- 

 thenes in his fabulous " Life of 

 Alexander." 



In the Bale sculpture the 

 throne of Alexander, placed on 

 an ox-yoke, is seen reproduced 

 more like a car-shaped boat, but 

 the unbridled griffins {aTOfxiwv 

 arep) are there. And Alexander 

 holds the two sceptres — joy- 

 sticks, in the language of the air- 

 man — baited with cakes instead 

 of the rabbits shown at Venice, 

 >r the lumps of liver in the narra- 

 Ive of Pseudo-Callisthenes, 



rhere, we are told, the griffins 

 l^ere kept sharp-set for some time 



ifore a flight, in a manner 



lown to the lion-tamer, and so 



)llowed the tasty bait of direc- 

 lon control whichever way it 



)inted. 



The St. Mark's photograph has 



ien reduced as a lantern slide by 



le kindness of the National 

 Physical Laboratory. But when 

 the slide was shown enlarged on 

 the screen as the company was 

 once assembling for a lecture to 

 the Aeronautical Society, the R>jma 



members looked up on en- 

 trance, and looked away again without com- 

 ment. Not one seemed to recognise it as the repre- 

 sentation of a flying machine, the earliest known. 

 It may be, then, that other versions of the legend 

 are in existence in various cathedrals, but the 

 meaning has been lost, and they are not recc^- 

 nised in relation to flight in the air. 



So, too, it is possible that the capital at B^Ie 

 is regarded as representing some kind of progress 

 over the water, or under it, from the boat-like 

 shape of the car; and it was not recognised as 

 intended to take to the air, because Pseudo- 

 NO. 2524, VOL. lOl] 



Callisthenes describes the machine as capable of 

 being used as a submarine, as well as a flying 

 machine ; and this, too, is the account of yEthicus, 

 quoted by Roger Bacon in " De Secretis Operibus 

 Artis et Naturae " : — 



Possunt etiam fieri instrumenta volandi, et homo 

 sedens in medio instrument! revolvens aliquod in- 

 genium, per quod alae artificialiter compositae aerem 

 verberent, ad modum avis volantis. 



Possunt etiam fieri instrumenta ambulandi in mari 

 et in fluviis ad fundum sine periculo corporal!. Narii 



capital of the twelfth century in the choir of Bale Cathedrjl. 



Alexander magnus his usus est, ut secreta maris videret, 

 secundum quod Ethicus narrat astronomus. 



Haec auteni facta sunt antiquitus, et nostris tem- 

 poribus. Et cerium est, praeter instrumentum volandi 

 quod non vidi, nee hominem qui vidisset cognovi, sed 

 sapientem qui hoc artificium excogitavit explicite cog- 

 nosco. 



The romance of Callisthenes appears to have 

 had a great vogue in the early and middle ages, 

 and an allusion to it would be familiar to all ; so 

 an organised search should be undertaken in other 

 cathedrals and churches of similar representations, 

 not yet identified as on this one subject of flight. 



