Historians have recounted the story of ballooning many times, in many different ways, geared towards a variety of audiences. Most of these accounts take the long view and aim to move from 1783 to the present (or at least to the birth of modern aviation), often utilizing an international approach although occasionally concentrating on a particular country or region. On the other hand, a number of historians have explored ballooning from a more biographical approach. While occasionally this means a study of figures such as Pilâtre de Rozier, Lunardi, Tytler or Garnerin, most often the subject of these studies are the Montgolfier brothers, Etienne and Joseph. The historiography of ballooning, then, typically proposes its subject as an important invention and key precursor to modern flight, as an analysis of a particular nation's or region's involvement in this endeavour, or as an explication of some of those individuals involved in its early practice.

The version of this history here, on the other hand, neither attempts completeness nor limits itself to particular locations or people. While some chronological description appears, this narrative does not want simply to describe the flow of events. Instead, this chapter highlights certain themes in an effort to demonstrate the elements of ballooning that helped account for its popularity and suggest how and why aeronautics spread across Europe.