Gaea's Journal #1

16 febbraio 1613

Today should be 16 February, but I fear it is a different date, different year, different time. I have yet to fully grasp my current situation.

A brisk late-winter morning, I set about to La Valle¹ to pick some flowers that had recently blossomed. Mamma was busy entertaining the Baronessa of Verona and Papà was on business in Venice. Galeazzo decided today to suspend his work on the oratorio (the one which I told him five weeks ago was doomed from the start -- what maddened him to employ that libbretist?) and pack his bags to meet up with Papà. I picked a large handful of flowers. I glanced upstream along the creek. I never did manage to hike up the hills and find its source.

Some wonderful specimens went into my plant press, and with the daisies I made a wreath for Livia's hair.

It was looking to be a night for spectacular ²seeing, but the clouds rolled in the last minute and I was forced to retire to my study. My ³sound travel apparatus produced mixed results, so I decided to complete my Latin translation of last month's observations of Jupiter.

After midnight, I began reading a new novel, "To Other Worlds", written by Schulze, an Austrian novelist. It ventured out to the moon, to a crater flowing with pure water. I was about to start reading the chapter on Mars when the candle burnt out, plunging the study into darkness. I fumbled for a new candle and flint. I relit the room when suddenly I felt a feeling of utter weightlessness. Opening my eyes, I saw walls of white and metal, an absolute foreign world. To my left was my scientific expedition pack as I had left it after my trip to collect some lodestone. Directly hovering in front of me was my nautical navigation set. Someone was coming towards me. Then, I noticed I still had the novel in my hand. I flipped open the book, and all of the pages were blank.

~ Gaea Violetta de Rossi

¹La Valle - one of the areas on her family's estate.
²Seeing - qualitative term used to describe the quality of image seen through a telescope.
³Gaea is trying to discover whether sound travels faster in air or in the a solid. Note that the principle of sound waves has not been discovered in her time yet.