Jeremias Nicolai, a student at Korbach "Stadtschule" from Autumn 1574 onwards, brother of Philipp Nicolai, reported that Goclenius "immediately" wrote a poem about "fiery air phenomena" ("feurige Lufterscheinungen") that were seen in the city on November 14, 1574. It was published in Marburg the same year. City historian Wolfgang Medding has conjectured that the phenomena which provided the inspiration for Goclenius' poem might have been an aurora, an assumption which is supported by historical data. Later, he treated auroras ("chasmata") in a Physics textbook of 1604.