News report: Aurora Borealis over Milan. It inspired Bošković. 1 copy worldwide.

[Astronomy] / [Aurora Borealis]. Vero, e sicuro ragguaglio Dell’ apparso Fuoco spaventoso in Aria Milano la notte dopo il 16. di Decembre venendo il 17. che cominciò circa le ore due dalla parte verso Settentrione, e si portò a finire vers’ Oriente. Dialogo tra Dionisio Galogastro, ed il suo Maestro l’Astronamo Lombardo Autore della Galleria delle Stelle. In Brescia, ed in Genova: per il Franchelli, s.a. [1737 or 1738]. 4to [21.4 x 16.0 cm], [2] ff. Quarter bound in modern vellum and reused liturgical leaf over card. Reused leaf spotted, otherwise binding well preserved. Internally only minor toning and edge wear, the year of the event (“il 1737”) added in contemporary manuscript on first and last pages.
 
 
Very rare (1 copy worldwide) first edition of this pamphlet reporting the unexpected appearance of a “terrifying fire” in the sky above Milan on the night of 16/17 December 1737. It is known from other observations that this unusual phenomenon was the Aurora Borealis extending further south than was typical. The event was famously witnessed in Rome by Ruđer Josip Bošković (1711-87), who wrote a dissertation on the phenomenon, which he presented in 1738 at the Seminario Romano and Collegio Romano (see Vujnovic and I. Lisac).
 
The Vero, e sicuro ragguaglio Dell’ apparso Fuoco spaventoso takes the form of a dialogue between a certain “Dionisio Galegastro” (an anagram of “Genioso d’Astrologia,” i.e., “the genius of astrology”) and “his master, the Lombard astronomer and author of the Galleria delle Stelle [a Milan almanac].”
 
The two men discuss popular fears that the celestial flames would descend and burn Milan and “indeed the whole world,” whether the lights were a result of combustion, if the phenomenon was related to comets or stars or meteorological vapors (clouds, rainbows, etc.), which planets might be involved in influencing the event, and indeed if it had anything to do with the Turks. They close with a mention that info on the phenomenon could also be found in the Galleria delle Stelle and in the rivals Milan almanacs (the Girasole and Barbarossa).
 
 
OCLC, KVK and OPAC/SBN/ICCU locate one copy of this edition: Biblioteca dell’Accademia dei Fisiocritici (Siena). Two similar pamphlets are held by the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin ([Ferrara: Filoni], K10plus 44499869 & [Milano: Montano], K10plus 444998683).
 
*IT\ICCU\SBTE\000308; V. Vujnovic and I. Lisac, “De Aurora Boreali (1737): Contemporary insight to the young Bošković's treatise,” Geofizika, vol. 30, no 2 (2013), pp. 99-118; A. Natale, Gli specchi della paura il sensazionale e il prodigioso nella letteratura di consumo (secoli XVII-XVIII), p. 219; L. Cantamessa, Astrologia, vol. 2, p. 1037, no. 4712.