In the history of mankind, there are countless strange figures like the hero of this article, and their strange accomplishments are puzzling to this day. Here we look at a self-proclaimed 16th century alchemist who, in addition to claiming to be able to create gold out of nothing, also claimed to be able to fly with "magic wings."
The name of this man was John Damian de Falcuis (aka Giovanni Falcucci), he was born in Italy in the 15th century AD, but spent almost his entire life at the court of King James IV of Scotland. There he was given the nickname "French leech", which firmly adhered to him like the same leech. It may sound offensive, but doctors in Scotland were also called leeches during that era (for their love of leech therapy).
When Falquis first came to Scotland and appeared in the village of Sterling County, he was just a beggar witch doctor who had only a small bundle of belongings with him. However, he soon showed himself to be a skillful healer, and possessing an innate charm and a well-hung tongue, he quickly won over the local residents.
At some point, Falquis realized that being a village doctor was not the most profitable career and went to Edinburgh, where he began to try to get to the court of the king.
When he miraculously succeeded, he began to skillfully describe his incredible talents to Jacob IV, describing himself not only as a great doctor, but also as a magnificent alchemist.
Falquis said that if he was given a laboratory and the necessary tools, he would be able to produce gold for the needs of the royal treasury in any quantities and would make James IV as rich as he sees himself as such in his dreams. And at the same time he will cure all his ailments.
It is easy to understand that James IV immediately took the cunning Italian into his service and immediately gave the order to equip special rooms with large alchemical furnaces for him in Sterling Castle and Holyrood Castle in Edinburgh.
When everything was built, Falquis set about creating the key element for his alchemical tasks - a substance called "quinta essentia" - a kind of fifth substance of nature, which is otherwise called ether.
In that era, alchemists called ether a certain mysterious material that permeates the entire known universe, exerting all kinds of effects on the natural world and the rules of reality. It was believed that only by extracting this substance, the alchemist would be able to possess the power that would allow him to turn lead into gold and create the Philosopher's Stone - the Holy Grail of all medieval alchemists.
Filcuis enthusiastically began the work of "mining" the ether and regularly assured the king that he was making good headway in that direction. James IV, in turn, regularly gave him large sums to continue the work and even appointed Filkis Abbot of Tongland.
Months and years passed, but the king did not receive gold from Falquis and his confidence began to fall, he stopped giving the alchemist money and he began to think about how to return the king's favor. And I came up with a very strange thing for this.
In 1507, Falquis came to James IV and told him that he had made significant progress in his research and gained the ability to fly through the air like a bird with the help of two large "magic wings". And that he can prove it by flying through the air from Sterling Castle all the way to France.
The alchemist's statement made a lot of noise in the courtyard, and when the day of the first flight came, a huge crowd of people gathered in the courtyard of Sterling Castle.
Soon Falquis appeared on the roof of the castle, dressed in a strange mechanism, which consisted of two huge wings, incomprehensibly attached to the body. Falquis stated that these wings were created from bird feathers and impregnated with a special alchemical composition. And they were supposedly created according to the projects of Leonardo da Vinci himself.
Falquis spoke very confidently, pacing the roof as he spoke, and the crowd watched him with open mouths. Then the alchemist finished and began to climb to the top of the tallest tower.
What happened next has come down to us mainly in the form of a sarcastic poem by the royal poet William Dunbar entitled "On the Fake Abbot of Tongland Who Fell into a Swamp Flying to Turkey", as well as in the form of the story of the priest John Leslie, born in 1527 (then there he was not a direct eyewitness).
According to these sources, Falquis flapped his wings while standing on top of the tower and flew. True, not up, but down, falling in disgrace into a large garbage heap and breaking his thigh bone. The alchemist immediately stated that his failure was caused by the wrong feathers, as if he took chicken instead of eagles. However, this did not help and the people ridiculed him, giving him the nickname "Bird Man of Stirling Castle". After which Falquis allegedly sank into oblivion because of the king's disfavour.
All this looks quite plausible, but there is a historical fact that Falquis lived and worked safely in Stirling Castle until 1513, and when he left there, he received a very generous reward and a large pension from the king. This makes one think that it was not at all what Dunbar's poem and Leslie's story said.
The fact is that in later times, Charles McKean, professor of the history of architecture of Scotland, studied the layout of the area in the area of Sterling Castle, came across stories about the "winged alchemist" and eventually came to the conclusion that the stories about his complete fiasco were nothing more than a carefully arranged slander from some of Falquis's lifetime enemies, including the poet William Dunbar. Dunbar was very angry with Falquis because he took his place as the court favorite and was very jealous of him for the king.
“In order to get the best possible climb on his long journey, Damian decided to fly from the west side of the highest point of the ramparts. According to Dunbar, he immediately landed in a trash heap and broke his femur, after which he was ridiculed.
However, anyone who looked at the western parapet of Stirling Castle would understand that someone, having fallen off a cliff in this place, has not the slightest chance of surviving. In addition, the royal gardens grew below.
While the exact route of Falquis' movement between the castle and the gardens remains unclear, there simply wasn't room for a large pile of rubbish. On the other hand, the 1702 city plan points to the nearest rubbish heap half a mile from the current Smith Art Gallery.
If this was the very heap in which Falquis landed, then there is only one conclusion: his wings worked. Of course, he did not reach France, but he flew a considerable distance. "
According to McKean, the device with Falquis' wings really worked and in fact it turns out that it was an amazing innovative achievement in that era, which far outstripped Otto Lilienthal's first glider flight experiments in 1891.
What really happened, we probably will never know. John Damian de Falquis was most likely a charlatan in terms of alchemy, but maybe he actually created a working glider from da Vinci's drawings.
