A 17th century illustration of a Swiss Dragon

An illustration of the Swiss Dragon, showing it as winged and two-legged, from a Dutch edition of 'Mundus Subterraneus' (Subterranean World), by Athanasius Kircher (1602-1680), with a Dutch letterpress description. The text tells of a cooper (barrel-maker) of Lucerne, who spent six months trapped in a pit on Mont Pilatus with two dragons c.1420. Fortunately for him the dragons only consumed a liquid oozing from the walls of the pit, which he also drank. Eventually the dragons flew from the cave: the cooper grabbed the tail of the second and escaped the pit. Returning to Lucerne (where he was believed dead), he only survived two months, his body destroyed by his diet of ooze. Kircher, a German Jesuit polymath, wrote books on religion, volcanos, music, China, Egyptian hieroglyphics and an early description of the magic lantern.