The UFO mystery is the great­est of all fort­ean enig­mas; how­ever, the mount­ain of data has two hidden veins of rich ore – pre-1947 and foreign language reports.

‘New’ cases that preceded Kenn­eth Arn­old’s land­mark sight­ing are reg­ul­arly unearthed in online news­paper arch­ives by researchers in groups such as the Mag­onia Ex­change. In con­trast, few of the tens of thous­ands of reports from Europe, the former USSR and Asia have been trans­lated for Engl­ish readers.

Verga has done ufo­log­ists a great serv­ice with this trans­lated coll­ect­ion of over 100 selected Ital­ian land­ing and near-land­ing reports from 1912 to the 1954 wave of sight­ings that flooded the country.