with such lightness and strong rapidity that it succeeds in
flying a journey of seven leagues in an hour. It is made in the
fashion of a bird; the wings from end to end are 25 feet in
extent. The body is composed of cork, artistically joined
together and well fastened with metal wire, covered with
parchment and feathers. The wings are made of catgut and
whalebone, and covered also with the same parchment and
feathers, and each wing is folded in three seams. In the body
of the machine are contained thirty wheels of unique work, with
two brass globes and little chains which alternately wind up a
counterpoise; with the aid of six brass vases, full of a certain
quantity of quicksilver, which run in some pulleys, the machine
is kept by the artist in due equilibrium and balance. By means,
then, of the friction between a steel wheel adequately tempered
and a very heavy and surprising piece of lodestone, the whole is
kept in a regulated forward movement, given, however, a right
state of the winds, since the machine cannot fly so much in
totally calm weather as in stormy. This prodigious machine is
directed and guided by a tail seven palmi long, which is
attached to the knees and ankles of the inventor by leather
straps; by stretching out his legs, either to the right or to
the left, he moves the machine in whichever direction he
pleases.... The machine's flight lasts only three hours, after
which the wings gradually close themselves, when the inventor,
perceiving this, goes down gently, so as to get on his own feet,
and then winds up the clockwork and gets himself ready again
upon the wings for the continuation of a new flight. He himself
told us that if by chance one of the wheels came off or if one
of the wings broke, it is certain he would inevitably fall
rapidly to the ground, and, therefore, he does not rise more