contrived one.' This might have been a lame defence if Roger had
been brought to trial as addicted to black arts; he seems to
have trusted to the inadmissibility of hearsay evidence.

Some four centuries later there was published a book entitled
Perugia Augusta, written by one C. Crispolti of Perugia--the
date of the work in question is 1648. In it is recorded that
'one day, towards the close of the fifteenth century, whilst
many of the principal gentry had come to Perugia to honour the
wedding of Giovanni Paolo Baglioni, and some lancers were riding
down the street by his palace, Giovanni Baptisti Danti
unexpectedly and by means of a contrivance of wings that he had
constructed proportionate to the size of his body took off from
the top of a tower near by, and with a horrible hissing sound
flew successfully across the great Piazza, which was densely
crowded. But (oh, horror of an unexpected accident!) he had
scarcely flown three hundred paces on his way to a certain point
when the mainstay of the left wing gave way, and, being unable to
support himself with the right alone, he fell on a roof and was
injured in consequence. Those who saw not only this flight, but
also the wonderful construction of the framework of the wings,
said--and tradition bears them out--that he several times flew
over the waters of Lake Thrasimene to learn how he might
gradually come to earth. But, notwithstanding his great genius,
he never succeeded.'

This reads circumstantially enough, but it may be borne in mind
that the date of writing is more than half a century later than
the time of the alleged achievement--the story had had time to
round itself out. Danti, however, is mentioned by a number of