The Man in the Moone

Frontispiece for the second edition of Francis Godwin’s The Man in the Moone, published in 1657. The illustration shows an early idea for a flying machine, powered by a flock of birds and a small sail.

Pictured here is the frontispiece to Francis Godwin’s 1657 book The Man in the Moone. The story is an adventure tale about Domingo Gonsales, a Spaniard who builds a flying machine while stranded on an island. The machine is powered by a flock of large swans, held together by a wooden skeleton with a simple seat at the base for Domingo to sit. From this simple perch, Domingo flies to the Moon and back, among other travels throughout the story.

The book is an epic adventure that follows Domingo as he travels the world, but the most intriguing part of the story is his flying machine and the accompanying illustrations of it. In the above image, Domingo seems to be holding on for dear life as he flies off the island, clutching the wooden pole with both hands and squeezing his legs together. He looks terrified, and for good reason. In the illustration below, from the 1659 German edition, he’s a bit more cavalier on his perch, only holding on with one hand and leaning back in a more relaxed pose.

Frontispiece for the German edition of Francis Godwin’s The Man in the Moone, published in 1659. The illustration shows an early idea for a flying machine, powered by a flock of birds and a small sail.

The Man in the Moone is also intriguing in how Godwin deals with verticality. When Domingo is trying to escape the island of Tenerife, he uses his flying machine, but instead of flying to a different part of the island he flies straight up into the sky. He continues flying up, and 12 days later he reaches the Moon. There he finds a sort of utopia, with tall Christian people living a care-free existence. This utopia could be viewed as Heaven, and it makes sense that Godwin would place it on the Moon. Back when he wrote the story, the sky was still a largely unknown place, and as a result it was imbued with ideas of Heaven, utopia and paradise. When Domingo successfully escaped the surface of the Earth, his innate need for verticality was met, and he found paradise as a result. The story almost functions as a parable for verticality in this way. We seek to transcend the surface, and when we do, we find paradise and freedom from our earthly confinement.

Read more about other ideas for flying machines here.