ATALANTA FUGIENS (1617)

by Michael Maier

Atalanta Fugiens is an alchemical treatise written by Michael Maier––an alchemist, author, physician, and counselor to King Rudolf II from 1609-1611. King Rudolf II of Prague viewed Michael Maier with such high esteem that he bestowed on him the title: Imperial Count Palatine.

Atalanta Fugiens contains 50 discourses on alchemy and its operations written by Maier. Each discourse is paired with an epigram, a poem, an artwork, and a fugue. Featured below are all 50 emblems from the treatise, which were beautifully engraved by Matthäus Merian the Elder. The rich symbolism and high artistic quality of these engravings present countless opportunities for reflection on the visual metaphors of alchemy.

If you’d like to read the accompanying written discourses here is a good resource: Atalanta Fugiens on Archive.org

EMBLEM 1:

The Wind carried him in his belly.

EMBLEM 2:

The Earth is his Nurse.

EMBLEM 3:

Go to the Woman washing clothes and do after the same manner.

EMBLEM 4:

Join the Brother & the Sister and drink to them in the Bowl of Love.

EMBLEM 5:

Put a Toad to the Woman’s breast, that she may suckle him ’till she die, and he become gross with her milk.

EMBLEM 6:

Sow your Gold in the white foliate Earth.

EMBLEM 7:

A young eaglet attempts to fly out of its own nest and falls into it again.

EMBLEM 8:

Take an egg and smite it with a fiery sword.

EMBLEM 9:

Enclose the Tree with the Old Man in the House of Dew, and eating the fruit therewith he will become young.

EMBLEM 10:

Give fire to fire, Mercury to Mercury, and you have enough.

EMBLEM 11:

Whiten Latona and tear your books.

EMBLEM 12:

The Stone which Saturn vomited up, being devoured instead of his son Jupiter, is placed on the Helicon as a monument to men.

EMBLEM 13:

The Philosopher’s flesh is dropsical and desires to be washed seven times in a river, as Naaman the leper in the Jordan.

EMBLEM 14:

This is the Dragon that devours his tail.

EMBLEM 15:

Let the work of the potter, consisting of dryness and moisture, instruct you.

PLATE 16:

One lyon hath wings and the other hath none.

EMBLEM 17:

Four orbs govern this work of fire.

PLATE 18:

Fire loves making things fiery, but unlike gold, it does not make gold.

PLATE 19:

If you kill one of the four, they will all suddenly die.

EMBLEM 20:

Nature teaches Nature how to subdue Fire.

EMBLEM 21:

Make of the man and woman a Circle, of that a Quadrangle, of this a Triangle, of the same a Circle and you will have the Stone of the Philosophers.

EMBLEM 22:

Having acquired White Lead, do the work of women, that is: cook.

EMBLEM 23:

When Pallas was born and Sol was in conjunction with Venus it rained gold at Rhodes.

EMBLEM 24:

A wolf devoured the King, and being burnt it restored him to life again.

EMBLEM 25:

The Dragon does not die unless he be slain by a Brother and a Sister, which are Sol and Luna.

EMBLEM 26:

The Tree of Life is the fruit of Human Wisdom.

EMBLEM 27:

He that endeavors to enter into the Philosopher’s Rosarium without a key, is like him who would walk without feet.

EMBLEM 28:

The King is sitting in a vaporous bath, and is freed from the Black Gall by the Physician Pharut.

EMBLEM 29:

As the Salamander lives in the fire, so also the Stone.

EMBLEM 30:

Luna is as requisite to Sol as a Hen is to a Cock.

EMBLEM 31:

The King swimming in the Sea cries out with a loud voice: He that delivers me shall have a great reward.

EMBLEM 32:

As Coral grows under water and is hardened by the air, so also is the Stone.

EMBLEM 33:

The Hermaphrodite, lying like a dead man in darkness, wants Fire.

EMBLEM 34:

He is conceived in baths, born in the Air, and being made Red he walks upon the Waters.

EMBLEM 35:

As Ceres accustomed Triptolemus and Thetis accustomed Achilles to abide Fire,  so also doth the Artist the Stone.

EMBLEM 36:

The Stone that is Mercury, is cast upon the Earth, exalted on Mountains, resides in the Air, and is nourished in the Waters.

EMBLEM 37:

Three things are significant for the Magistry: The White Fume that is Water; the Green Lion that is the Brass of Hermes; and Aqua Faetida.

EMBLEM 38:

Rebis is a Hermaphrodite produced from the two mountains of Mercury and Venus.

EMBLEM 39:

Oedipus having overcome Sphinx and killed his father Laius, married his mother.

EMBLEM 40:

Out of two Waters make One, and that will be the Water of Sanctity.

EMBLEM 41:

Adonis is killed by a Boar, to whom Venus hasting, tinges the Roses with her blood.

EMBLEM 42:

Nature, Reason, Experience, and Reading must be the Guide, Staff, Spectacles, and Lamp to him that is employed in Chemical Affairs.

EMBLEM 43:

Give ear to the Vulture’s words, which are in no wise false.

EMBLEM 44:

Typhon kills Osiris by deceit, and disperses his limbs. But the famous Isis gathers them together.

EMBLEM 45:

The Work is perfected by Sol and his Shade.

EMBLEM 46:

Two Eagles come together: One from the East and the other from the West.

EMBLEM 47:

The Wolf coming from the West and the Dog coming from the East have bitten each other.

EMBLEM 48:

The King obtains Sickness from drinking of the Waters; from the Care of the Physicians, Health.

EMBLEM 49:

The Philosophical Child acknowledges three fathers, just as Orion.

EMBLEM 50:

The Dragon kills the woman, and she kills it, and together they bathe in the blood.

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