Tier (Treves), Germany — 24 December 1299
Globes of light, and an elliptical object
The Chronicle of the Archbishops of Trier, the Gesta Trevirensium Archiepiscoporum, makes an interesting reference to an object in the sky. The term they employed, cometa, could actually refer to virtually any luminous body in the sky, not necessarily to a comet as we define it today. In fact, this particular “comet” behaved very strangely. It was just after midnight. The sky was unusually misty and a foggy frost covered the land. “Inside the darkness itself, a comet the size of the moon appeared as if hanging in the air, tinted by an ardent redness and which disappeared after an hour. And again, inbetween a small interval, two comets appeared simultaneously a short distance from one another, exhibiting the same size and color as earlier; but they disappeared immediately. A third time, after a short hour, [another] one appeared, in all respects visible in the size and color of its predecessors, and which also vanished immediately.”
Source: Gesta Trevirensium Archiepiscoporum, in E. Martene and U. Durand, Veterum Scriptorum et Monumentorum…amplissima collection, vol. IV (Paris, 1729, Col. 370). Case: W073