Barbaro: the Turks lit huge fires across their whole camp, 26 May 1453

Barbaro, 26 May: 'a una hora de note, turchi se fexe per tuto el suo campo una gran luminaria de fuoghi', two fires at every tent, so great that it seemed broad daylight, lasting until midnight, with shouting heard far off. Barbaro mentions no fog, no hailstorm and no light on Hagia Sophia in these days. The 'lights glimmering in the countryside behind the Turkish camp' in later retellings fit these fires, and a dome lit from below by them is a simple reading of the 'light on the dome'.